Our Responsibility and Duty to our Children.
By B. F. Snook
THAT there is a very great responsibility upon parents in reference to their children, none can deny. God has given us our children to be a comfort and blessing to us, and requires that we should train them up for his glory, that they may have a home at last with all the sanctified in his kingdom. Our children will be saved or lost. They may be saved, or they may be destroyed. Do we love them? So we profess. How can we show that love for them? By allowing them to be perverse and disobedient? By commanding them to do certain duties, and then permitting them to do as they please about doing them? No: though that is the way many love their children now-a-days. The patriarch Abraham is an example to us in this, as well as in other duties. He was faithful to God in raising up his children in the path of duty. The Lord knew the fidelity of his heart in this, and it is said of him, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Gen. xviii, 19. God required this duty of Abraham. Without doing it he could not be saved. If he did his duty, and his children remained disobedient, he was clear. But he had the promise of grace and strength to enable him to succeed, provided he acted his part as he was required. Christ said to the Jews, "If ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham." John viii, 39. This is true of all who are his children. They which be of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Gal. iii, 7. Brethren, are we of faith? Then are we Abraham's children, and must do his works. We must keep the commandments of God ourselves as he did, and command our children in the way of the Lord. But before commanding them thus, we should be careful to teach them the way that God has pointed out as his way. See Deut vi, 6, 7. "And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." How important it is for us and for our children that we diligently teach them the law of God, and early imbue their tender hearts with love to him, and a strong desire to please and reverence him. With such knowledge and principles in their hearts, it would be an easy matter to bring up our children according to the apostolic requisition: "And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Eph. vi, 4. If we would but conform to the Lord's ways, our children might all be pleasant, good, and agreeable. They might be quiet and mindful in our meetings, and a great delight to us. But oh! how often we have seen with pain the face of a brother or sister blush with shame, on account of the rude and bad conduct of their children, both at home and abroad! Such persons feel very uncomfortable when the minister sees how unruly their children are, and blush in their presence. They should feel and realize that a greater than the minister sees their unholy children. They should feel that God sees them, and is displeased with them, for the conduct of their children. Dear brethren, do you think that you can take such children into the kingdom of God? Never. You might just as well think of taking so many wild-cats. Do you think that you can enter that happy place, when at the same time your children are lost, and when their last words were, If our parents had done165their duty we might have been saved? Certainly not. God will say to you, Where are your children? And you will have to respond, They are lost—lost through my neglect of duty. God will require their blood at your hands. Dear brethren, we must have a burden for our children, and labor for their salvation. The apostle says, The promise is to you and to your children. Oh! then, let us be diligent to attain that promise, and help our children to attain the same. How good will it be to us, in a little while, to sit down in the kingdom with our whole families, with all the saints who will come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, who shall be glorified with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and thus live together forever and ever.