Duties of parents.
They are here summarily expressed, first in a negative and then in a positive form.
I. THERE MUST BE INSTRUCTION. "Train up a child in the way he should go." Parents must not suffer them to grow up without instruction, as Rousseau suggested, because not to teach religion is to teach impiety and infidelity; not to teach truth is to teach error.
1. In what principles?
2. In what manner?
II. THERE MUST BE DISCIPLINE.
1. Children soon manifest a corrupt and selfish nature, for folly is bound up in their hearts; therefore they need correction (Hebrews 12:9).
2. Parents must isolate them by their personal authority from evil or evil companions or temptations to evil.
3. Parents must use discipline with due discretion; they must not "provoke their children to wrath, lest they be discouraged"
III. ENCOURAGEMENTS OR MOTIVES TO THE FAITHFUL DISCHARGE OF PARENTAL DUTY.
1. The promise: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:3).
2. We shall have the interests of eternity secured early in life.
3. We shall thus restrain them from many follies and sinful habits which would otherwise be the burden and curse of their after life.
4. We shall be promoting our own happiness and comfort in old age.
5. We shall be shaping the destinies of future generations.—T.C.