This has been called "the education of
circumstances." Much of character depends upon position and the
circumstances in which we are placed. This is seen in the difference
between those children who have enjoyed the true christian home, and those
who have not. Hence the first thing parents should consider in the moral
training of their children is, the home in which they are to be trained.
This home should afford them circumstances the most favorable to their
moral culture.
2. They should remove all temptation. Evil propensities are called forth by
temptation; and a child loses the power to resist in proportion to the
frequency of the temptation. Hence the exposure of our children to
temptation but educates and strengthens their propensities to evil. On the
other hand, if we remove temptation, these propensities will not be called
into activity, and will lose their tenacity. Never allow your children to
tamper with sin in any form; teach them how to resist temptation; inspire
them with an abhorrence and a dread of all evil. In this way you prepare
them for the reception and reproduction of moral truth.
3. Another means of moral education is example. This has been styled the
"education of example." This has more power than precept. The efficiency of
this means is based upon the natural disposition of the child to imitate.
Children take their parents as the standard of all that is good, and will,
therefore, follow them in evil as well as in good.
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