Cleanliness an Aid to Purity
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ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” [
1 Corinthians
6:19, 20
.]
Parents are under obligation to God to make their surroundings
such as will correspond to the truth they profess. They can then give
correct lessons to their children, and the children will learn to associate
the home below with the home above. The family here must, as far as
possible, be a model of the one in heaven. Then temptations to indulge
in what is low and groveling will lose much of their force. Children
should be taught that they are only probationers here, and educated
to become inhabitants of the mansions which Christ is preparing for
those who love him and keep his commandments. This is the highest
duty which parents have to perform.
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Parents should in a special sense regard themselves as agents of
God to instruct their children, as did Abraham, to keep the way of the
Lord. They need to search the Scriptures diligently, to know what is
the way of the Lord, that they may teach it to their household. Micah
says, “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” [
Micah 6:8
.] In order to
be teachers, parents must be learners, gathering light constantly from
the oracles of God, and by precept and example bringing this precious
light into the education of their children. Teach them that principle
should govern their eating, their drinking, and their dressing. Teach
them from their very babyhood that God’s law is the rule of the house,
and that it must be obeyed in all the relations of life; that a disregard of
moral law will exist wherever there is a willful disregard of physical
law.
The Christian life is one of constant self-denial and self-control.
These are the lessons to be taught to the children from their infancy.
Teach them that they must practice temperance, purity in thought and
heart and act; that they belong to God, because they have been bought
with a price, even the precious blood of his dear Son.
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