Parental Responsibility.
By Albert Stone
THERE is a solemn trust committed to heads of families, and all who have the care of children in these last days. The prevailing apathy on this subject is an alarming feature of the present time. If Christian parents are drowsy on this subject, they should awake to a sense of their duty. There are weighty reasons to conclude that the salvation of your children may hang on your action. Parental defection is displeasing to God. Deeply interesting and important instruction is found on this subject in the Bible history of Abraham and Eli. Trace these cases respectively to their final issue. See in the former the strong incentives to fidelity, and in the latter, the terrible consequences of unfaithfulness. And let none make up their minds that similar results will not follow similar action on the part of others. Faithfulness in domestic life is a duty we owe to God, as well as to our families. So it is simply a question of obedience. Will you obey God, and prove yourself a Christian? A practical answer to this question is being given in every household. It is not what we profess, but what we do, that makes up our character in the sight of God. Let us not deceive ourselves with vain hopes. If we ourselves are really walking in the narrow way that leads to life, we shall covet earnestly to have our children with us, and shall be likely to use all the means we can consistently to have them with us. Our blessed Lord has expressly declared, If ye were the children of Abraham, ye would do the works of Abraham. John 8 : 39. That it is a duty from which none can by any means be excused, to use every proper means to effect the salvation of our children and our households, is obvious to all reasonable minds. Our Heavenly Father has, in a most remarkable manner, opened the way for the comparatively easy performance of this great duty, in the ardent love and affection which intuitively dwells in the breast of every parent for his offspring. It is in this endowment that the great kindness of our Heavenly Father appears in a very remarkable manner. In this the parent is made the almoner of God's gracious providence to the children. See the mother bending over the sick cradle of her infant. What assiduous care, what tears, what midnight watchings, unceasing labors, what forgetfulness of self! How sensibly wounded is her heart! This is God's providential care, which he has graciously thrown around the years of infancy, childhood, and youth. This is one of the most noble endowments of man in his fallen state. This noble, instinctive principle must not cease when physical wants are supplied, nor confine itself to them. It must go farther. It must train those loved ones in the way they should go. It must teach them of God, of Heaven, and of eternal life. It must agonize for their final salvation, and put forth corresponding efforts. It must manifest itself in a way of instruction, correction and reproof, in a way of example, and of importunate and unceasing prayer to God, that these means may prove effectual. There must also be confidence in the efficacy of these divinely appointed means, that when legitimately used, they will not be used in vain. Do not procrastinate this work. With many it has already been put off too long. Soon it will be too late. The harvest will be past and the summer ended. The Lord is coming. The wheat and the tares will soon be separated and assigned their respective positions in the Judgment. The seven last plagues will soon sweep over the earth, leaving it desolate and uninhabited. The saints will soon be crowned with victory and glory. Let us work while the day lasts.