Parental Desire, Duty, & Encouragement

Next Part Parental Desire, Duty, & Encouragement 2

This, the first of Mr. James's printed works, was preached on the occasion of his son's baptism.

"I will be a God unto you, and to your children after you."

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

"And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before You!"

How discordant have been the voices with which the religious world has answered the momentous question, "What is truth?" Unhappily for the peace of the church, the various sects of which it is composed, in replying to this enquiry, seem to have tried how jarring they could render the sacred tones of religion, by repeating those sentiments in which they differ—rather than how harmonious, by dwelling on those points in which they agree. It would be well to consider, how many notes there are which we could all strike in unison—and among many of this kind, one is, the importance of the rising generation; or, which is indeed the true meaning of that expression, of the instruction and government of youth. In whatever point of view we contemplate this subject, it appears supremely grand and interesting.

Our children, according as their future character shall be, must eventually live either in endless happiness--or eternal woe; and therefore a regard for their welfare should rouse our attention to their improvement. They are the blossoms of either our earthly comfort--or distress; therefore a concern for our own peace should induce us to train them up in the way they should go. They are to be the actors in the great drama of human life, when we shall have closed our parts, and have made our exits; therefore benevolence to the world should make us cautious what characters we send to act upon its stage. If the Redeemer shall have a church upon earth, after the present generation of believers--our children are to compose that church; therefore zeal for the divine glory should engage our most serious application to this part of Christian duty.

If these considerations impress your mind, listen with solemn and candid attention to the DIRECTIONS with which they are followed.

The text presents us with the example of a father pouring out to God the warmest wishes of his heart on behalf of his child. That father is the venerable Abraham. God had just declared to the patriarch his intention of giving him a son by Sarah his wife. The news was at first received with joyful astonishment, and adoring gratitude, but a fear soon arose in his bosom, which damped all his pleasure—What is now to become of Ishmael? Must he die to make room for the child of promise? Or what would be still worse, must he become another Cain, and go out from the presence of the Lord?

We notice here, that much of our present distress arises from hastiness and impatience of spirit. We are for rushing to the end at once, and will not wait until God has opened his own designs, and illustrated his own meaning. We look at detached parts of the embroidery of Providence, and distress ourselves because we discover a little shade. Whereas, if we would but permit Jehovah to go on unfolding the whole piece, we would soon discover that there was no ground of complaint. If Abraham had waited but a few moments longer, his pleasure would not have experienced this admixture; but nature struggles, the affections of the father are troubled for his son, and he exclaims, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" We may, therefore, judge, that this petition expressed a desire, both for the natural and spiritual life of Ishmael. It seemed to say, "Oh let this my son live and share the blessings of the covenant, with him who is to be born of Sarah."

Having thus explained the import of this prayer, I shall consider—

What blessings a Christian parent should desire from God on behalf of his children.

What means must be used by him in order to obtain them.

What encouragement the word of God affords him, that the means will be connected with the end.

I. What BLESSINGS should a Christian parent seek from God on behalf of his children?

Is it forbidden to desire the continuance of their natural life? Certainly not; provided that desire be entirely under the control of submission to the will of God. To shudder at the thought of seeing the blooming countenance of life exchanged for the pallid face of death, is the operation of that principle which God himself has planted in the parent's heart—it is the irresistible impulse of nature—and we are not required by Jehovah to tear up with indiscriminate violence every natural feeling of the human bosom; but only to weed out the bad ones, and so to check and direct the growth of the rest, that they may not attain a wild and noxious growth which would overtop the judgment, or cast a cold destructive shadow upon religion itself. What but this strong desire in the bosom of the parent for the life of the child, is it that prompts to all those unwearied exertions which are necessary for its preservation? But for such a principle as this, how many would allow the 'kindling lamp of life' to expire through neglect, or would extinguish it with violence, rather than endure all the solicitude and fatigue which are necessary to cherish the vital spark, and fan it to a flame!

Nor is it forbidden to ask those things for our children which would contribute so much to their temporal comfort; provided, that desire be also in entire submission to the will of Jehovah. Industry is part of religion—indolence one of the vices which it brands with indelible infamy. "He that provides not for his own household has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." Now what is it that keeps the hive of society from swarming with workers? What is it that braces the arm of industry, and makes it willing to ply at the oar of labor? What is it that enables you to refrain from discontent, as you wipe away from your brow the memorial of a cursed earth? Is it not your children? Is it not a kind concern to provide for their future needs, or to help them to provide better for themselves.

Who, when he looks over that valley of tears, into which his child has entered, and through which he must pass, and contemplates squalid poverty, dire disease, frantic madness, the iron hand of oppression, the eye of envy rolling in its socket, seeking whom it may devour, the forked tongue of slander, all like dreadful bandits, infesting his path, and waiting to assault him; who, I say, can help spreading over him the shield of such a prayer as this?—'Oh! that Ishmael might live before you!' and have accomplished in his experience your own words, "He Himself will deliver you from the hunter's net, from the destructive plague. He will cover you with His feathers; you will take refuge under His wings. His faithfulness will be a protective shield. You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in darkness, or the pestilence that ravages at noon. Though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, the pestilence will not reach you." (Psalms 91:3-7)

Still, however, these things are but secondary objects of desire with him who contemplates, in its true light, the character and destiny of that being which with rapture he calls his child. By the aid of revelation he penetrates the disguise which the helplessness and unconsciousness of infancy seem to have thrown around the noblest part of his nature, and discovers through all this--the grandeur and the dignity of IMMORTALITY. He sees a spark of being which shall go on kindling, until it has witnessed the extinction of the sun itself--blazed out into eternal existence. He sees in his countenance, that face which is to shine with the glory of God, like the sun in the skies--or to be clouded with the infamy and horror of the divine curse. He hears a voice which is to be forever hymning the praises of its Creator--or to be forever venting blasphemies against its Judge. In short, he contemplates a being born for eternity; one who will be forever towering from height to height of glory in heaven--or sinking from gulf to gulf of despair in hell.

He reflects that his child is born with the latent seeds of corruption in his nature, which await only the advancing spring of life to vegetate, to strike root, to spring up under the fatal warmth of temptation, and bear the bitter fruits of rebellion against God. He sees, in imagination, the world, the flesh and the devil, gathering round the very cradle of his infant, fixing their murderous eyes upon his immortal soul and going out to prepare for his ruin.

Amidst the throbbing anguish which such reflections produce in the heart of a believing parent, one thought cheers him, that his child has entered upon a world where a Savior, wise, powerful and gracious, waits to offer his grace and guidance, as the "Captain of Salvation," to conduct him, through all the successive stages of human life, to the possession and enjoyment of everlasting bliss.

With such reflections as these in his bosom, the truth of which he can no more doubt, than he can of his own existence, what can, or what ought a Christian parent to desire for his child, as the grand ultimatum of all his concern and solicitude, short of everlasting bliss? It is in this sense that he uses the prayer of Abraham, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you." If he possesses an immortal soul—if that soul is in danger of being forever undone—if there be a possibility of his being made eternally and inconceivably happy—to desire anything for him less than grace here and glory hereafter is cruelty of the blackest kind.

The salvation of the soul being thus pointed out as the object which should constitute the first wish of every parent's heart on behalf of his child, I shall now mention–

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