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118
True Education
time no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude. Parents and chil-
dren assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite holy angels into
the home. The services should be brief and full of life, adapted
to the occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the
Bible reading and learn and often repeat God’s law. It will add to
the interest of the children if sometimes they are permitted to select
the reading. Question them about it, and let them ask questions.
Mention anything that will serve to illustrate its meaning. When the
service is not too lengthy, let the little ones take part in prayer and
join in song, even if it is only a single verse.
To make such a service what it should be, thought should be
given to preparation. And parents should take time daily for Bible
study with their children. No doubt it will require effort and planning
and some sacrifice to accomplish this, but the effort will be richly
repaid.
In order to interest our children in the Bible, we ourselves must
be interested in it. To awaken in them a love for its study, we must
love it. Our instruction to them will have only the weight of influence
given it by our own example and spirit.
God called Abraham to be a teacher of His word, and chose him
to be the father of a great nation, because He saw that Abraham
would instruct his children and his household in the principles of
His law. And that which gave power to Abraham’s teaching was
the influence of his own life. His great household consisted of more
than a thousand people, many of them heads of families, and not a
few who were newly converted from heathenism. Such a household
required a firm hand at the helm. No weak, vacillating methods
would suffice.
Of Abraham God said, “I know him, that he will command his
children and his household after him.”
Genesis 18:19
, KJV. Yet
his authority was exercised with such wisdom and tenderness that
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hearts were won. Abraham’s influence extended beyond his own
household. Wherever he pitched his tent, he set up beside it an altar
for sacrifice and worship. When the tent was removed, the altar
remained, and many a roving Canaanite, whose knowledge of God
had been gained from the life of Abraham His servant, tarried at that
altar to offer sacrifice to Jehovah.