"Line upon
line and precept upon precept" will be given to no purpose. Hence the
necessity of enforcing our precepts by Christian deportment. Speak in an
angry tone before your child; and what will it avail for you to admonish
him against anger? Many parents express surprise that all they can say to
their children does no good; they remain stubborn, self-willed and
recreant.
But if these parents will look at what they have done as well as said, they
will perhaps be less surprised. They may find a solution of the problem in
their own capricious disposition, turbulent passions and ungodly walk. The
child will soon discard a parent's precepts when they are not enforced by a
parent's example. Hence that parent who ruins his own soul can do but
little for the soul of his child. The blasphemer and sabbath-breaker is
unfit to correct his child, for swearing and sabbath-breaking. He alone who
doeth the truth can teach his children truth. He only who has good habits
can teach his children good habits. "Who loves," says William Jay, "to take
his meat from a leprous hand?" A drunkard will make a poor preacher of
sobriety. A proud, passionate father is a wretched recommender of humility
and meekness to his children. What those who are under his care, see, will
more than counteract what they hear; and all his efforts will be rejected
with the question, "Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?"
Hence parents should say to their children, "Be ye followers of me, even as
I also am of Christ.
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