"His sons made
themselves vile, and he restrained them not." It was the defect also of
David's discipline, and the fruit of this defect caused him to cry out in
bitter anguish, "Oh Absalom, my son, my son, would to God I had died for
thee!"
That parent who cannot restrain his children, does not bear rule in his
house, and as a consequence, cannot bless his household. That parental
tenderness which withholds the proper restraints of discipline from an
erring child, is most cruel and ruinous. It is winking at his wayward
temper, his licentious passions and growing habits of vice. And these, in
their terrible maturity, will recoil upon the deluded parent, "biting like
a serpent and stinging like an adder." Nothing is more ruinous to a child
and disastrous to the hopes and happiness of home, than such relaxation of
discipline. "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." How
many mothers have bitterly experienced this, and wept bitter tears over the
memory of their degraded and wretched offspring! It is ruinous to the
parent. He will both curse and despise thee. Your unlawful indulgence,
therefore, is infanticide. Your cruel embraces are hugging your child to
death. The sentiment of love should never crush the reason and violate the
laws of love. Do you permit your sick to die rather than to inflict the
pain of giving them the medicine to cure? This would be madness.
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