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Keeping the Children

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 4, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 40.

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Keeping the Children

By C. M. S.

C. M. S.
SOME one will be the confidant of our children. It is largely for the parent to decide who that shall be. It is not difficult to win the confidence of a child. That is shown every day in the success of those evilly inclined who lead young feet into the traps and pitfalls of sin.
The child whose confidence has been completely won by a Christian parent carries about with it the strongest possible shield against those who would lead it astray. The basis of that confidence must be the absolute faith of the child in the truth of every statement which the parent makes. There must be no juggling with the child's trust, no juggling with the truth, no misstatement to tease or confuse the child for fun. Such fun is obtained at a terrible cost to both parent and child. If the child is put in a place where he must question the truth of one statement, he will soon come to question them all, and the outsider will then have the advantage of the parent, for the child has, perhaps, not yet learned that the outsider is a deceiver, and that his statements are likely to be untrue.
The parent who has, through such a course, lost the confidence of his child has weakened that child's ability to discern the untrue, as well as having failed to give the child the shield that only a parent can give.
Every day we see in the public prints the record of some child mistreated, ruined, or killed because some person with an evil heart had won its confidence to work out a wicked purpose. Of course, in many cases children become the victims of the vicious by direct attack which they have no power to resist; but in very many cases they are enticed into company or into places where that same wicked purpose is worked out immediately or gradually as the evil-disposed person may choose.
The following paragraph, made up of headlines from the daily press, is but a sample of the terrible and continuous work that is going on in the world:— “Young girl murdered, mutilated body found in a pit near her home, no clew as to the murderer.” “Body of young boy found under pile of bushes, after lad had been missing several days.” “Abducted and murdered; mutilated body of eight-year-old boy found by his father; was stolen by a tramp.” “Young girls leave home; had displayed interest in the performances of a hypnotist; left after Sunday-school; found later under compromising circumstances.” “Held for killing boy; little body found under sacks of oats; mother supposed he had run away, as he had done so before.” “Runaway girl arrested; offended at mother's reprimand for waywardness.” “Girl murder victim; body found in lake, and man companion missing; all evidences point to murder.” “Boy stabs his father; was attacked by parent in the home of the youth's fiancée.” “Dozen saw her attacked; men rushed to aid of little girl, but were too late; she was enticed to the city park by a stranger.” “Girl dies in priest's home; the abbé and his sacristan placed under arrest.” “Boy bandits oathbound; ‘Jesse James Gang’ swore to be true to the black flag; candidates placed hands on skull as they took solemn pledge to obey captain's commands.”
Day after day these evil records are piling up, and we shall not see less of them while time lasts. Every evil device the enemy of souls can employ will be employed to ruin our children, covertly as well as openly. The above are but the most open and glaring accomplishments. Only the records of heaven will show what is being done insidiously to turn our children into paths that will make the truths of God distasteful to them.
The time has come when all Christian parents should seek to break down every barrier of distrust between them and their children, and to erect a strong bulwark of trust and implicit confidence around the little ones that will strengthen them and protect them in these evil times. It can not be done by stern dictation and reprimand. It must be preceded by a deep, earnest heart work and direct counsel from God in answer to prayer. The terrible work brought to view above reveals, perhaps in every case, a lack of that loving, trusting confidence and companionship which should exist between the Christian parent and the child. With that as an evidence of what is being done openly, we can realize something of what is being done secretly by the evil one himself for the capture of the children.
The time has come when the following prophecy should be working out in every Seventh-day Adventist family: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Mal. 4:5, 6. Let us take up this work in the fear of God, and for the love of those whom he has entrusted to our keeping and guidance.