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parents should in any wise control. Long before they have reached
manhood or womanhood, they think themselves competent to make
their own choice, without the aid of their parents. A few years of
married life are usually sufficient to show them their error, but often
too late to prevent its baleful results. For the same lack of wisdom and
self-control that dictated the hasty choice is permitted to aggravate the
evil, until the marriage relation becomes a galling yoke. Many have
thus wrecked their happiness in this life, and their hope of the life to
come.
If there is any subject which should be carefully considered, and
in which the counsel of older and more experienced persons should be
sought, it is the subject of marriage; if ever the Bible was needed as
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a counselor, if ever divine guidance should be sought in prayer, it is
before taking a step that binds persons together for life.
Parents should never lose sight of their own responsibility for the
future happiness of their children. Isaac’s deference to his father’s
judgment was the result of the training that had taught him to love
a life of obedience. While Abraham required his children to respect
parental authority, his daily life testified that that authority was not
a selfish or arbitrary control, but was founded in love, and had their
welfare and happiness in view.
Fathers and mothers should feel a sacred duty devolving 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, so to
mould 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.
Let parents seek, in their own character and in their home life, to
exemplify the love and beneficence of the heavenly Father. Let the
home be full of sunshine. This will be worth far more to your children
than lands or money. Let the home love be kept alive in their hearts,
that they may look back upon the home of their childhood as a place
of peace and happiness next to heaven. The members of the family do
not all have the same stamp of character, and there will be frequent