Let not, however, the negligent and willfully-ignorant parent conclude
that the spotless robe of the perfect Savior will be thrown as a shield
over his deficiencies and deformity. Let not those who have blindly and
carelessly entered on parental duties, without endeavoring to ascertain
the will of God and the requirements of his law, expect that the
blessing of obedient and sanctified children will crown their days. Let
not those who suffer their children to grow up around them like weeds,
without religious culture or pruning, who demand no obedience, who
command no reverence, who offer no earnest, ceaseless prayer, let them
not suppose that the blessing of the God who spoke from Horeb will come
upon their families. "He is in one mind and who can turn him." Not an
iota has he abated from his law since that fearful day. Not less sinful
in his eyes is disobedience to parents now, than when he commanded the
rebellious son to be "stoned with stones until he died." Yet, how far
below His standard are the ideas even of many Christian parents? "How
different," says Wilberforce, "nay, in many respects, how contradictory,
would be the two systems of mere morals, of which the one should be
formed from the commonly-received maxims of the Christian world, and the
other from the study of the Holy Scriptures;" and we are never more
forcibly impressed with this difference than when we see it exemplified
in this solemn subject.
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