Left to Himself | AdventAI

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Mar 18, 1875

Left to Himself.

IN this world it is needful not only to put things right, but to keep them right. Anything left to itself soon goes to ruin. Very often to do nothing is to do mischief. The sluggard's garden was overgrown with thorns and nettles, not because he had sown them there, but because he had neglected to root them out. "The stone wall thereof was broken down," not because he had thrown it down, but because he had allowed it to fall. Prov. 24:31. It is astonishing how soon a house gets out of repair and becomes a ruin if it be shut up and neglected. The tiles drop off one by one, the timbers give way, the windows fall in, the floors decay, and in the course of a few years, a house left quite to itself is in a state of dilapidation.

It is just so, too, with human beings. The seeds of evil are already sown in the child's heart, as the weeds were in the sluggard's garden. They will spring up of themselves, and it is for us to root them up, or they will cover all the soil. The mother who lets them grow unchecked in the heart of her little one, will bring the child to ruin, and herself to shame. Prov. 10:1; 17:25; 19:18.

A few months ago there was a sad case of this kind before one of the London police courts. A poor woman applied to the magistrates for protection against her own son. Her husband, a small tradesman, had died some years before, leaving her with one child. She loved the little one with all the love of a widow for her firstborn—her only child. She could not bear to check or thwart him in anything he wished. He grew up an obstinate, self-willed boy. His poor mother would not believe the complaints the neighbors all made of him. Love blinded her to his faults, and she would willingly have worked herself to death, if she could, thereby have given him pleasure. His evil habits grew upon him, and bad companions led him farther astray. The poor woman now perceived the mistake she had made. But she could not find it in her heart to punish him, and she continued to supply him with money from her own hard earnings, which he spent in sin and folly. She wept over him, and entreated him to alter his course. But she wanted firmness to use the needful severity. His course was still downward. When the unhappy woman was unable to provide him with the means for self-indulgence, he began to plunder the little shop which she kept. She was at last reduced to actual poverty, and her son became not only the companion of thieves, but was himself imprisoned for theft. Her poor lodging was, little by little, stripped of its few articles of furniture, which he pawned or sold to raise money. As he grew more hardened and reckless she suffered such violence and cruelty at his hands, that she was compelled to seek protection from him; and the bitterest grief of all was, to know that her own mistaken fondness had been the cause of his ruin, and her own. Too late she learned the truth of the scripture warning, "The rod and reproof give wisdom; but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." Prov. 29:15, 17. See Prov. 13:24; 20:7; 23:13, 14; Gen. 18:19; 1 Sam. 3:13; 1 Kings 1:6; 1 Tim. 3:4, 12; Titus 1:6.

I was crossing the churchyard of ——, when I observed a coffin, borne by four men, approaching the door of the church. A single mourner followed. Her loud sobs and solitary appearance deeply affected me, and I paused by the side of one of the old elm trees. Several of the villagers uncovered their heads and respectfully bowed as the weeping female passed. An old man of threescore years and ten was amongst the group, and from him I soon found that the mourner was a mother—a widowed mother—and that she was following her only son to his premature grave. "He was as fine a lad as ever lived, sir," said the old man; his mother was left a widow when he was only a few years old. She was one of the kindest creatures ever born. She was too kind to him. She never would cross him in anything. He always had his own way, and it proved his ruin. She plentifully supplied him with money, and he had ready access to the decanter. Before he was twenty, he had some of the worst Sabbath-breaking companions in the place. Many and many a night has his poor mother sat up till midnight, when he has been carried home from the public house by his drunken comrades. Lately, he treated her more cruelly, but like a mother she bore it, as none but a mother could. He would bear no restraint. Last week, poor fellow, after drinking very hard, he had, for the third time, an attack of delirium tremens, and he died in an awful state. Ah, sir, I have seen many broken-hearted parents lay their ungodly children in this churchyard. I always say with Solomon to young fathers and mothers, 'Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.' I am an old man now, and have observed during my long life that those children who have been pampered at home, and always allowed to have their own way, have generally turned out to be bad, ungrateful children, and in many, many cases, have filled, like this poor widow's son, a drunkard's grave." "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

The responsibility of educating your children is one you cannot escape. It is a task imposed upon you by Divine Providence, and you may look to Him with confidence for guidance and aid. In short, you must educate your child, whether you choose it or not; for every action, every word and look, the very tone of your voice, and the round of ordinary daily events, which form the moral atmosphere in which he breathes, will influence him far more than the occasional lessons which he receives, however excellent. "As the mother, so her daughter." Ezek. 16:44. The Bible lays down four great rules, involving the four great elements of the successful religious training of children: prayer, instruction, example, and restraint. And it is doubted if a solitary case can be found where all these have been united, where the child has not followed in the footsteps of the pious parent, while, on the other hand, if but only one of the four has been neglected, it may have been the ruin of the child. Read 2 Cor. 3:5.—Norwich Tract.