"
If such is the influence of example, we must admit the necessity of a true
Christian example in the family. It is necessary because it is the
condition of the efficacy of home-precepts. "During the minority of reason,
imitation is the regent of the soul, and they who are least swayed by
argument are most governed by example." We learn from example before we can
speak. Hence if we would have our children walk in the way of God's
commandments, we must go before them; we must take the lead; we must
exemplify in our action what we incorporate in our oral instructions; our
light must shine not only upon, but before them; they must see our good
works as well as hear our good precepts. Said a man once to J.A. James, "I
owe everything under God, to the eminent and consistent piety of my father.
So thoroughly consistent was he, that I could find nothing in the smallest
degree at variance with his character as a professor of religion. This kept
its hold upon me." It was the means of his conversion to God.
Thus children readily discern any discrepancy between a parent's teaching
and example. If we are professors of religion, and they see us
worldly-minded, grasping after riches, pleasures and honors; the dupes of
ungodly fashion, manifesting a malicious spirit, indolent, prayerless, and
indifferent to their spiritual welfare, what do they infer but that we are
hypocrites, and will our precepts then do them any good? No.
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