418
Child Guidance
The delicate and susceptible minds of the youth obtain their esti-
mate of the labors of God’s servants by the way their parents treat the
matter. Many heads of families make the service a subject of criticism
at home, approving a few things and condemning others. Thus the
message of God to men is criticized and questioned and made a subject
of levity. What impressions are thus made upon the young by these
careless, irreverent remarks, the books of heaven alone will reveal. The
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children see and understand these things very much quicker than par-
ents are apt to think. Their moral senses receive a wrong bias that time
will never fully change. The parents mourn over the hardness of heart
in their children and the difficulty in arousing their moral sensibility to
answer to the claims of God. But the books of heavenly record trace
with unerring pen the true cause. The parents were unconverted. They
were not in harmony with Heaven or with Heaven’s work. Their low,
common ideas of the sacredness of the ministry and of the sanctuary
of God were woven into the education of their children.
It is a question whether anyone who has for years been under
this blighting influence of home instruction will ever have a sensitive
reverence and high regard for God’s ministry and the agencies He has
appointed for the salvation of souls. These things should be spoken of
with reverence, with propriety of language, and with fine susceptibility,
that you may reveal to all you associate with that you regard the
message from God’s servants as a message to you from God Himself
Practice Reverence Till It Becomes Habitual—Reverence is
greatly needed in the youth of this age. I am alarmed as I see children
and youth of religious parents so heedless of the order and propriety
that should be observed in the house of God. While God’s servants
are presenting the words of life to the people, some will be reading,
others whispering and laughing. Their eyes are sinning by diverting
the attention of those around them. This habit, if allowed to remain
unchecked, will grow and influence others.
Children and youth should never feel that it is something to be
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proud of to be indifferent and careless in meetings where God is
worshiped. God sees every irreverent thought or action, and it is
registered in the books of heaven. He says, “I know thy works.”
Nothing is hid from His all-searching eye. If you have formed in any
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Testimonies For The Church 5:497, 498
.