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Counsels for the Church
God and your God-fearing parents into your counsel, young friends.
Pray over the matter.
“Should parents,” you ask, “select a companion without regard to
the mind or feelings of son or daughter?” I put the question to you as
it should be: Should a son or daughter select a companion without first
consulting the parents, when such a step must materially affect the
happiness of parents if they have any affection for their children? And
should that child, notwithstanding the counsel and entreaties of his
parents, persist in following his own course? I answer decidedly: No;
not if he never marries. The fifth commandment forbids such a course.
“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the
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land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Here is a commandment
with a promise which the Lord will surely fulfill to those who obey.
Wise parents will never select companions for their children without
respect to their wishes.
Fathers and mothers should feel that a duty devolves upon them
to guide the affections of the youth, that they may be placed upon
those who will be suitable companions. They should feel it a duty, by
their own teaching and example, with the assisting grace of God, to so
mold the character of the children from their earliest years that they
will be pure and noble and will be attracted to the good and true. Like
attracts like; like appreciates like. Let the love for truth and purity and
goodness be early implanted in the soul, and the youth will seek the
society of those who possess these characteristics.
Cautions to Those Contemplating Marriage
The youth trust altogether too much to impulse. They should not
give themselves away too easily, nor be captivated too readily by the
winning exterior of the lover. Courtship as carried on in this age is a
scheme of deception and hypocrisy, with which the enemy of souls
has far more to do than the Lord. Good common sense is needed here
if anywhere; but the fact is, it has little to do in the matter.
Imagination, lovesick sentimentalism, should be guarded against
as would be the leprosy. Very many of the young men and women in
this age of the world are lacking in virtue; therefore great caution is
needed.