What the Home May Do to Save the Children and Youth
By L. A. Hoopes
Children, home, salvation — what endearing words! What words appeal to our hearts more than these? What would home be without children? and what happiness would there be to children with no prospects of a home? And what a blight there would be if salvation was not obtainable! Home — what an endearing word! How much it means! Home is the center of the universe. It is where father and mother, brothers and sisters, are all inseparably linked together by ties of love. Do you ask, What can the home do to save our children and youth? Rather, ask, What can it not do? Is there any factor that can be more potent than a Christian home should be? Every phase of its organization constitutes the home a life-saving station. Home is more than a tent, a cottage, or a mansion; more than a mere building in which one resides. Home is the place where father's and mother's presence has been revered because of so many hallowed recollections. Every nook and corner is dedicated, "Sacred to the memory of the ones who love God, and to whom the law of God is a sacred legacy." Whether at play, or work, or prayer, every room seems to have written on its doorposts "the commandments of God." Father and mother have been there, and God has been revered. "Father the high priest of the family, and mother the home missionary"! Father's word is alpha and omega to the young, trusting heart of his child. His word is consolation in the hour of grief and trouble. Father knows how to comfort and console. Every true father's heart anticipates the burden long before it reaches his child. His petitions reach the throne of grace, anticipating every real need of his child. An unseen tie links the hearts of both. And mother's place! What child has not felt the tender caresses, the loving touches, unnumbered, of mother's hands? No mortal can take mother's place. Neither time nor space will permit to tell all that mother is to the home. No one language has a vocabulary large enough to record the story. Do you ask what fathers and mothers can do for the salvation of our boys and girls? — All that anybody can do. The destiny of our children is in our hands. If we know how to win for ourselves in the conflict with sin, then we know how to win in behalf of our children. "Like parent like child" is true to life. With this truism God lays upon parents a responsibility which cannot be placed upon another. Parents must face the situation exactly as it is. The judgment alone will determine how we performed our part. Other responsibilities may sometimes be shifted to another, but this one never. When we took the step of parentage, we, by that act, said that we would be as Godward to our children. Job recognized this when he said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." He "offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. . . . Thus did Job continually." Job did not, could not, feel that his responsibility ended when his sons came to possess houses of their own. Nor can we. Every means of grace must be put into operation to save our children, and to keep them saved. This is the time. It cannot be put off to a more convenient time. What can we do? — We can pray. We must pray. We must pray for ourselves. We must pray for our children. We must pray for the children whose parents do not pray. Pray until every pure motive is put to the stretch. Then we must know that our prayers are answered. Our children must know that this is the most serious business of our lives, and that they can never get away from father's or mother's prayers. We must teach our children to pray. Prayer must be the child's stock in business. It is the great check book on the bank of heavenly blessings. Temporal food is essential, but there is something more essential. Prayer is the great battering-ram by which we demolish all the battlements of the enemy. Prayer is the electric spark that sets in motion the great dynamo of the universe, the Spirit of God. Prayer is the heart's wooing, longing for a better life. Come close to your children. Be a child with them. Enter into their joys and sorrows. Anticipate their needs and direct their young, energetic, plastic minds. Look upon every God-intrusted gift of your child as a sacred legacy, a talent upon which both parent and child must trade. See that each talent brings definite returns. By and by God's cause has a wide-open door for your child. Its demands are for boys and girls who have made a success. Far more attention must be given this question at all our meetings than has been given in the past. Is it not time that special parents' meetings should be held, where the salvation of our homes is the theme? How can we rest as long as one of our children is out of the ark15of safety? Why not make this the time when the Elijah message will be proclaimed in very deed and truth? We cannot complete this message in this generation without our children. God needs them, and we shall not rest satisfied until we see the last one saved who will be saved.