What a mission this, to superintend the character and shape the destiny of
such a being! Such is the plastic power you exert upon it, that upon your
guidance will hinge its weal or its woe; and yours, therefore, will be the
lasting benefit or the lasting shame. What you are now doing for your
children is incorporated with their very being, and will be as imperishable
as their undying souls. As the stewards of God, your provision for them
will be "either a savor of life unto life or a savor of death unto death."
We have seen that God has given to you the ability and means of making them
subservient to his glory; and hence from you he will require them as
entrusted talents. If you have been unfaithful to them, your punishment
will be in proportion to the wretchedness entailed upon your children. If,
instead of the bread from heaven, you feed their souls with the husks of
life, and lead them on by the opiates of bastard joys; if, "when they ask
of you bread, you give them a stone, or for a fish, you give them a
serpent," will it not be "more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day
of judgment than for you?"
Thus, therefore, you see, christian parents, how your responsibility is
measured, by the magnitude of those interests committed to your care, by
the kind of influence you exert over them, and by the enormity of that
guilt and wo which are consequent upon your unfaithfulness.
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