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Do the Neighbors Feed Your Children

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 25, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 4.

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Do the Neighbors Feed Your Children

By David Paulson, M. D.

DAVID PAULSON, M. D.
Most parents gather their children about the family board two or three times a day for their regular meals. They do not depend upon their children’s being fed by accident or given food by kindly disposed neighbors.
But children “can not live by bread alone.” They have spiritual natures that require regular, systematic, and do properly prepared food just as certainly as their physical natures need it. There are many Christian parents, however, who so far overlook this certain necessity that they are willing to depend upon Sabbath-school teachers and other kindly disposed persons to give occasionally spiritual meat to their children, who frequently do not receive even these few morsels.
The Lord expects every father to be the priest and chaplain of his own home, and to feel as responsible for the spiritual as he does for the physical nourishment of his children. The devil assists the average parent to manufacture plausible excuses for neglecting this solemn duty.
This is the first and foremost excuse: “If I am kind and good to my children, there is no need of regular family worship, or in any other definite way to teach the gospel to my children.” But that same man does not think he is going to extremes when he expects his cook not only to be good and kind to his children but also to prepare food for them. A strong Christian character does not come by accident. It is the result of definite, earnest, persistent effort, cooperating with divine grace. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent taketh it by force.” Matt. 11:12.
This is generally the second excuse: “There are so many parents who have forced religion upon their children and brought them up to observe strictly all the forms of religion, and they have turned out badly. I don’t propose to make any such mistake with my children.”
To show how lame that excuse is, and how easily the devil can fool us in spiritual matters, it is only necessary to look for one moment on the same truth from the physical side. That same father may know several parents in his neighborhood who feed their children such tasteless, insipid, and unwholesome food that it fairly nauseates them, and it is they are scrawny and anemic, stunted, perhaps broken out all over with boils, etc. But our friend does not accept that as a good reason why he should neglecting so to furnish his own children with appetizing, nourishing food. Why should he do any less spiritually?
The hour of worship can be made not only pleasant and enjoyable but also intensely interesting. If the father takes half the time and thought for the preparation of this spiritual food for his children that the mother takes to prepare their breakfast, he will be astonished how eagerly the children will look forward to the hour of worship.
The next best excuse is that in these busy times it is so inconvenient; in fact, it seems to be next to impossible to get time morning and evening to gather the entire family together for a little quiet devotional service. The emptiness of this excuse is of course immediately shown from the simple fact that this entire family with astonishing regularity do gather two or three times daily to have their bodies fed.
As an inspiring example of how a busy man can succeed in getting time for regular devotional service without wrecking his business we have only to think of Daniel the statesman. He was prime minister of one of the greatest nations that the sun ever shone upon. He discharged his official duties so faithfully that his bitterest enemies could not discover a flaw in his work. But three times a day Daniel closed his office, and went down to his house for a prayer-meeting.
Even if it were true, which it is not, that some business affairs would have to be sacrificed in order to maintain regular, enlivening, spirit-filled family worship, the best answer to the question, “Does it pay?” is the startling Scriptural declaration, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36. But the thousand and one snarls and tangles that the devil is permitted to inflict upon a prayerless home requires much more time during the day to untangle than would have been consumed in a short, simple, and interesting devotional service.
We now come to the weakest excuse of all: “I am so busy building up God’s work, and I have so many cares and responsibilities connected with the Lord’s cause which I dare not neglect, that I have no time for regular, systematic spiritual work in my own home.”
Absurd as this excuse is, unfortunately it is by no means uncommon, and it is one reason for much of the weak, beggarly spiritual work that some are inflicting upon their fellow men.
When Christ sent forth his disciples to be witnesses unto him in Judea, Samaria, and then unto the uttermost parts of the earth, he told them to begin at Jerusalem. That is always the place to begin. One of the most pathetic statements in all the Bible is found in Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse six, and it is equally true of many modern shepherds who are such wretched failures: “They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.”
Lot was a shrewd and successful business man, and yet by no means entirely devoid of spiritual sense and aspirations. 2 Peter 2:7, 8. But he was too busy to give his children spiritual instruction, and as a consequence he left most of them in Sodom and he left all of his business there.
The world around us has become another Sodom. Luke 17:28-30. And unfortunately too many of those who know or should know this are actually belonging to Lot’s church. They are the same kind of business men and they have the same kind of religion.
Wherever Abraham pitched his tent he built an altar, and offered sacrifice upon it every morning and evening. If you are a child of Abraham, the sweet incense of prayer is ascending from your home morning and night, and in return upon your family is descending, as the dew of heaven, divine mercies and blessings.
Hinsdale, Ill.