Thus train him--a child--and what
then--what result may you anticipate? Why, the royal preacher says that
when he is old--of course, then, during youth, manhood, into old age,
_through life_ he means, as long as he lives he will not--what? He will
_not depart_ from it, he will neither go back, nor go zig-zag, but
_forward_, in that way in which he ought to walk, as a moral and
accountable being of God, and a member of society, bound to do all the
good he can. And thus he will come under the conditions of a just or
honest man, of whom another Scripture says, "His path is as the shining
light, which shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day." The
_perfect_ day! But when is that? Why in it may mean the day when God
will openly acknowledge all the really good as his sons and daughters.
But I love to take it in more enlarged sense--I take the perfect day to
be when the good will be as perfect as they can be; but as that will not
be to the end of eternity, those who are trained up in the way they
_should_ go, will probably continue to walk in it till the absolutely
perfect day comes which will never come, for the good are going to grow
better and better as long as _eternity_ lasts. So much for setting out
right with your _children_, parents!--bringing them up right--and this
involves, among other things, teaching them to "open the gate for
themselves" and similar sorts of things.
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