IT is not an uncommon thing to hear people say that they have no love for children. Many more people are ready to declare boys an unmitigated nuisance, a necessary evil, perhaps, for the world in general, but creatures for which they have no use. In many families children are unwelcome. All sorts of expedients are adopted to prevent the advent of children into the family circle, even to murder of the innocent lives. Before birth an enmity is indulged toward children, and it is the first thing they have to meet when born. It may be assuaged to some extent by the appearance of the little helpless creature, but often it is allowed to remain in the form of cold-hearted indifference, if not in open hostility.
God accepts the responsibility of fatherhood to every creature born into the world, even when in the eyes of the law they have no right to be. In His book all their members are written. Under His eye the embryotic being is formed, and He intends that all, since they are thrust out upon the stage of human action without their consent or knowledge, shall share the full measure of parental love and protection. To deprive any child of these is a sin against God. It is most unfortunate to the welfare of society that an innate enmity should be fostered toward children by parents before their offspring comes into the world. While a great many parents will not know of what we speak, we speak of what we know when we say that a vast number of the children born in the world in these days come as unwelcome guests into the families which they invade. In such cases it will be a rare thing if the child ever gains the measure of love to which he is entitled, and the result will be a mutual estrangement between parents and child.
What wonder, then, that in recording the character of the times in which we live, the apostle should foresee and declare that children should be "disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy," and that there would be an absence of even natural affection!
To insure a successful life it is essential to start right. But the child that is received ungraciously as he enters life, does not have a fair start, and it will not be strange if he turns out an Ishmaelite whose hand is against every man.
But while it is true that the prevailing pride and wickedness of this age are separating far apart the parents and their offspring, it is also true that the God who has foretold this state of things has also said that by the outpouring of His Spirit at the same time He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest He come and smite the earth with a curse.
Now is the time for Christian fathers and mothers to think of their children, and to seek their eternal welfare as never before. It always requires a much stronger effort to move in a right direction when the tide runs in the wrong direction. So now, when the hearts of many parents and children are sadly estranged, and a wide gulf is separating them, it will require an especial effort on the part of wise parents to stem the current and save their children. In my younger experience I can well remember having met a few parents who were, as I then thought, too solicitous for their children. They took, as I thought, too much pains to watch every feature of their lives. But time has shown me the wisdom of that course in every case where the watchcare was exercised with love. Children whose paths are carefully guarded by parents who are jealous for their lasting welfare, may be led at times by associates who are not thus blest, to chafe under the restraints. But let the godly parent persevere.
The time is coming when the children will call you blessed for doing what may now be sometimes a painful duty.
It is true that children have rights. They have a right to receive a careful training. This they can not have while they are allowed to have their own way. So the rights of children do not embrace the right to their own wills and ways. That is generally the wrongs of children and not the rights. But there are rights which justice ascribes to children. The principle of justice should never be violated to the injury of the smallest or weakest living creature. The parent who will trample underfoot the rights of his little children because he has the advantage of them in power or authority, is no better than a coward and a tyrant. How many children are compelled to submit to unjust punishment to satiate a parent's anger, when every principle of justice is violated by the punishment!
God will surely render for these things. He hears the sob of outraged fairness and the harsh tones of unreasonable command and fiendish scolding under which many a child heart is being turned to adamant.
Ah, here we have the root of the great overtopping evils of an age that is fast approaching the record of Sodom! It is probably too late to hope for a reform all along the line before Jesus comes. But it is not too late to let our influence for good be felt, first in our own family circle, and then, if it be felt there, it will extend in blessings to others around us.
In many respects the world needs reforming, but in none so sadly as in the neglect of parental child training. G. C. TENNEY.