Home and the School
53
I repeat, it is the lack of love and piety, and the neglect of proper
discipline at home, that creates so much difficulty in schools and col-
leges. There is a fearful state of coldness and apathy among professed
Christians. They are unfeeling, uncharitable, unforgiving. These evil
traits, first indulged at home, exert their baleful influence in all the
associations of daily life. If the spirit of kindness and courtesy were
cherished by parents and children, it would be seen also in the in-
tercourse between teacher and pupil. Christ should be an honored
guest in the family circle, and His presence is no less needed in the
class room. Would that the converting power of God might soften and
subdue the hearts of parents and children, teachers and students, and
transform them into the likeness of Christ.
Fathers and mothers should carefully and prayerfully study the
characters of their children. They should seek to repress and restrain
those traits that are too prominent, and to encourage others which
may be deficient, thus securing harmonious development. This is no
light matter. The father may not consider it a great sin to neglect the
training of his children; but thus does God regard it. Christian parents
need a thorough conversion upon this subject. Guilt is accumulating
upon them, and the consequences of their actions reach down from
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their own children to children’s children. The ill-balanced mind, the
hasty temper, the fretfulness, envy, or jealousy, bear witness to parental
neglect. These evil traits of character bring great unhappiness to their
possessors. How many fail to receive from companions and friends the
love which they might have, if they were more amiable. How many
create trouble wherever they go, and in whatever they are engaged!
Children have claims which their parents should acknowledge and
respect. They have a right to such an education and training as will
make them useful, respected, and beloved members of society here,
and give them a moral fitness for the society of the pure and holy
hereafter. The young should be taught that both their present and their
future well-being depend to a great degree on the habits they form in
childhood and youth. They should be early accustomed to submis-
sion, self-denial, and a regard for others’ happiness. They should be
taught to subdue the hasty temper, to withhold the passionate word,
to manifest unvarying kindness, courtesy, and self-control. Fathers
and mothers should make it their life-study that their children may
become as nearly perfect in character as human effort, combined with