The family is responsible for
the kind of influence she exerts upon her members Look at this in its
practical light. There is a family. God has given children to the parents.
How fondly they cling to them, and look up to them for support and
direction. They inherit from their parents a predisposition to evil or to
good; they imitate them as their example, in all things, take their word as
the law of life, and follow in their footsteps as the sure path to
happiness. These parents are members of the church, and, as such, have
dedicated their children to the Lord at the altar of baptism, and there in
the presence of God and a witnessing assembly, they vowed to bring them up
in the nurture of their divine Master, and to minister in spiritual things
to their souls.
Yet in this home, no prayer is offered up, no bible instructions given, no
holy example set, no Christian government and discipline instituted, no
religious interests promoted. But on the other hand, sin is overlooked,
winked at, and the world alone sought. These children behold their parents
toil day after day to provide for their natural life; they notice the
interest they take in their health and education, and the self-denial with
which they seek to secure for them a temporal competency. And from all this
they quickly and very justly infer that their parents love their bodies and
value this world, and by the force of filial imitation they soon learn to
do the same, and with their parents, neglect their souls and kneel at the
altars of Mammon rather than bow in prayer before God.
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