The above objection, however, assumes this ground; and, therefore, it is
not valid. It is often said that the children of ministers and pious
parents are usually more wicked than other children. This is false. The
opposite is true. We admit, some have bad children; but it is the fault of
the parents; not because God does not fulfill His covenant promises to His
people. His people, in these instances, do not meet the conditions upon
which His promises are made absolute.
We must not suppose that because a divine promise exists detached from
expressed conditions, it will be fulfilled without the use of means. There
is a manifest compatibility between the absolute promises of God and the
use of the means in our power for their fulfillment. The promise to Paul in
the ship in which he was conveyed to Rome, that none of the passengers
should perish, was not incompatible with Paul's declaration, "except these
persons abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." Neither were the efforts of
the mother of Moses to save him, incompatible with the absolute promise of
God that "this babe shall be saved, and be the deliverer of Israel." What
she did to preserve his life was accompanied with an active, confiding
faith in the divine promise concerning him. And thus should faith in God's
promises stimulate Christian parents to zealous activity in the use of all
those means which secure their fulfillment.
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