p. 211 | The Father's Duty

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · May 13, 1875

The Father's Duty.

WE estimate a mother's importance in her family as high as any one ; and yet we do not believe that she monopolizes all the qualities needed in the great work of training up human beings. Her familiarity with her children places her, in some respects, at a disadvantage for the exercise of wholesome authority. The wise father will not indeed take the reins of the family government from his wife, but he will make his children feel that her gentle sway is sustained by a firm and steady hand ; that behind their mother's tender heart stands a cool judgment, and a will stronger even than their own, and that they cannot impose upon the one nor resist the other. But if he would be truly the father of his family, he must not be a stranger to them. It will answer no purpose for him to come in once in a while to meet some great emergency and awe down rebellion by hard authority. He must be the companion, the friend of his children. Strong natural love must be the basis of all beneficial discipline. To preserve an affection for and retain companionship with the young is a sure way for a man to remain always young himself.

But this is also, we had nearly said equally necessary for the father himself. Nothing keeps the heart so fresh and young, saves it from bitterness and corrosion through the cares and conflicts and disappointments of life, as daily enjoyment of a happy home. A man of business, or a scholar, who thus allows himself time for relaxation, and for the play of the domestic affections, will in the course of years have accomplished more, with less wear of mind and body, than one who has been all the time on the stretch, seeking "to catch the nearest way" to wealth or any object of personal or public good.—Sel.