To the instructions there uttered, the mighty ones of every
age,--the founders of empires, statesmen, law-givers, philanthropists,
patriots, and wise men, have sought for their noblest conceptions, and
their most beneficent regulations, and it would be impossible to
estimate the influence of those instructions upon all the after history
of the world. But if the Almighty there revealed himself as the God of
kingdoms, the all-wise and infinitely good Ruler of men in a national
capacity, not less did He make himself known as the God of the family,
and his will there made known regulating the mutual relations of parents
and children, has been at once the foundation and bulwark of all that
has been excellent or trustworthy in family government from that day to
this.
It is impossible, in the brief space allotted to us, that we should
begin to give any adequate view of the subject which here opens before
us, or follow out fully a single one of the many trains of thought to
which it gives rise.
At Horeb, Jehovah, amid fire and smoke, and in that voice which so
filled with terror all that heard, first inculcated the duty of filial
piety on all the future generations of men. Filial piety! how much it
implies. It stands at the head of the duties enjoined from man to man.
It comes next in order to those which man owes to his Maker. It
inculcates on the part of children toward their parents feelings akin to
those which he has required toward Himself, and far surpassing any which
he demands toward any other human being.
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