Worldly Influences
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for the growth of grace and for the truth revealed in the word of God
to be established in the heart. If children are with those whose conver-
sation is upon unimportant, earthly things, their minds will come to
the same level. If they hear the principles of religion slurred and our
faith belittled, if sly objections to the truth are dropped in their hearing,
these things will fasten in their minds and mold their characters. If
their minds are filled with stories, be they true or fictitious, there is no
room for the useful information and scientific knowledge which should
occupy them. What havoc has this love for light reading wrought with
the mind! How it has destroyed the principles of sincerity and true
godliness, which lie at the foundation of a symmetrical character. It
is like a slow poison taken into the system, which will sooner or later
reveal its bitter effects. When a wrong impression is left upon the
mind in youth, a mark is made, not on sand, but on enduring rock.
The associations of your children are of a character to draw them
away from every influence that would interfere with, or break up, their
health-destroying habits. They are impatient if they cannot have their
own way. The advice of Christians is distasteful to them. They are
traveling the road to ruin, and any influence which seeks to lead them in
an opposite direction stirs the worst impulses of their hearts. They are
creatures of circumstances. The formation of these early ties which are
unfavorable to religious impressions has had a powerful, controlling
influence over them at every subsequent step. Let the youth be placed
in the most favorable circumstances possible; for the company they
keep, the principles they adopt, the habits they form, will settle the
question of their usefulness here, and of their future, eternal interests,
with a certainty that is infallible. The parents should not concede to
the inclinations of their children, but should follow the plain path of
duty which God has marked out, restraining them in kindness, denying
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with firmness and determination, yet with love, their wrong desires,
and with earnest, prayerful, persevering effort leading their steps away
from the world upward to heaven. Children should not be left to drift
into whatever way they are inclined, and to go into avenues which are
open on every side, leading away from the right path. None are in so
great danger as those who apprehend no danger and are impatient of
caution and counsel.
It is because I see your danger, my sister, that I write you now as I
do. While there may be many to flatter you and enjoy your hospitality