Train your children with this principle continually before your eyes; that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered.
Precious, no doubt, are these little ones in your eyes; but if you love them, think often of their souls. No interest should weigh with you so much as their eternal interests. No part of them should be so dear to you as that part that will never die. This is the thought that should be uppermost in your mind in all you do for your children. In every step that you take about them, do not leave out that mighty question "How will this effect their souls?"
Soul love is the soul of all love. A Christian must be no slave to fashion if he would train his children for heaven. He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways merely because it is usual. He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange. What if it is? The time is short – the fashion of this world passeth away. He that has trained his child for heaven rather than for earth – for eternity rather than for time – for God rather than for man, he is the parent that will be called wise at the last.
Train your children too to a knowledge of the Bible. You cannot make your children love the Bible, I allow. None but the Holy Ghost can give us a heart to delight in the Word. But you can make your children acquainted with the Bible; and be sure they cannot be acquainted with that blessed Book to soon, or too well. A thorough knowledge of the Bible is the foundation of all clear views of religion. Any system of training that does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound. See that your children read the Bible reverently. Train them to look on it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, written by the Holy Ghost Himself. See that they read it regularly. Train them to regard it as their soul's daily food – as a thing essential to their soul's daily health. See that they read it all.
You need not shrink from bringing any doctrine before them. You need not fancy that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things which children cannot understand. Tell them of sin, its guilt, its consequences, its power, its vileness. Tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell them of the Holy Spirit. Give them the Bible, the whole Bible.
This Page Title – Sermon for Parents (part 3) The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 53 – placed on line March 2005 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |