What the Home May Do to Save the Children and Youth
By L. A. Hoopes
CHILDREN! Home! Salvation! What words appeal to our hearts more than these? What would home be without children? And what happiness would there be to children with no prospects of a home? And what a blight there would be if salvation were not obtainable! God does not picture the eternal reward with homeless children, or with childless homes, for God’s plan of salvation is for both parents and children. The one is the complement of the other. Our heavenly Father’s ideal should be the watchword for all our actions. Home! What an endearing word! How much it means! Home is the center of the family’s interest. It is where father and mother, brothers and sisters, are inseparably linked together by ties of love. Do you ask, What can the home do to save our children and youth? Rather, ask, What can it not do? Is there any factor that can be more potent than a Christian home? Every phase of its organization constitutes the home a life-saving station. Home is more than a tent, a cottage, or a mansion—more than a mere building in which one resides. Home is the place where father’s and mother’s presence has been revered because of so many hallowed recollections. Every nook and corner is “sacred to the memory of the ones who love God, and to whom the law of God is a sacred legacy.” Whether we are at play, work, or prayer, every room seems to have written on its doorposts “the commandments of God.” “Father the high priest of the family, and mother the home missionary!” Father’s word is alpha and omega to the young, trusting heart of his child. His word is consolation in the hour of grief and trouble. Father knows how to comfort and console. Every true father’s heart sees the trouble long before it reaches his child. His petitions reach the throne of grace, anticipating every real need of his child. An unseen tie links the hearts of both. And mother’s place! What child has not felt the tender caresses, the unnumbered loving touches, of mother’s hands? No mortal can take her place. Neither time nor space will permit a recital of all that mother is to the home. No language has a vocabulary large enough to record the story. Do you ask what fathers and mothers can do for the salvation of the boys and girls?—All that anybody can do. The destiny of our children is in our hands. If we know how to win for ourselves, in the conflict with sin, then we know how to win in behalf of our children. “Like parent, like child,” is true to life. With this truism, God lays upon parents a responsibility which cannot be placed upon another. Parents must face the situation exactly as it is. The judgment alone will determine how we have performed our part. Other responsibilities may sometimes be shifted to another; this one, never. Job recognized this when he said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” He “offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. . . . Thus did Job continually.” Job did not, could not, feel that his responsibility ended when his sons came to possess homes of their own. Nor can we. Every means of grace must be put into operation to save our children, and keep them saved. This is the time. It cannot be put off to a more convenient time. What can we do? We can pray. We must pray. We must pray for ourselves. We must pray for our children. We must pray for the children whose parents do not pray. We must know the power of prevailing prayer. Our children must know that this is the most serious business of our lives, and that they can never get away from father’s and mother’s prayers. We must teach our children to pray. Prayer is the great check book on the bank of heavenly blessings. Temporal food is essential, but there is something more essential. Prayer is the great battering-ram by which we demolish all the battlements of the enemy. Prayer is the electric spark that sets in motion the great dynamo of the universe, the Spirit of God. Prayer is the heart’s wooing, longing for a better life. We must come close to our children. Be a child with them. Enter into their joys and sorrows. Anticipate their needs and direct their young, energetic, plastic minds. Look upon every God-intrusted gift of your child as a sacred legacy, a talent upon which both parent and child must trade. See that each talent brings definite returns. By and by God’s cause will have a wide-open door for your child. Its demands are for boys and girls who have made a success. Far more attention must be given this question at all our meetings than has been given it heretofore. Is it not time that special parents’ meetings should be held, where the salvation of our homes is the theme? Why not make this the time when the Elijah message will be proclaimed in very deed and truth? We cannot complete this message in this generation without our children. God needs them, and we should not rest satisfied until we see every one saved who will be saved.