Each omission has the power of reproducing itself in other and more
frequent omissions. In this way Christian homes insensibly become
unfaithful to their high vocation, and degenerate finally into complete
apathy and estrangement from God. That indulgence which the misguided
sympathy of too many parents prompts to, and which does away with all
parental restraint, is the cause of children coming under the curse of evil
habits. In this way parents often contribute to the temporal and eternal
ruin of their offspring. This indulgence is no evidence of tender love, but
of parental infatuation. It shows a blind and unholy love,--a love which
owns no law, which is governed by no sense of duty, and which excludes all
discipline; and hence unlike the love of God, who "chastiseth every one
whom He loveth and receiveth."
The force and influence of home-habits will teach us the importance of
establishing such only as receive the sanction of God. Habits, as we have
seen, are much more easily formed than broken. When once established they
enslave us to them, and subject our character to their iron despotism. They
become the channel through which our life flows. The stream of our
existence first forms the channel, and then the channel rules, guides and
controls the current of the stream. The deeper the channel is wrought, the
greater is its moulding and controlling influence over the stream.
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