I. Faithfulness.Always when we try to do good to others we are thrown back upon ourselves; we are reminded that high work must have fit instruments, and that our influence is likely to be as our character is. This is peculiarly the case as between us and our children. They know us much better than others; are much nearer to us, see us more clearly. They will know inevitably whether we mean all we say, desire all we pray for, and are all we profess. We must love Christ dearly ourselves if we are to show His loveliness to them. This sincerity on our part ought to take as one of its forms a firm, steady family rule, an exercise of wise parental authority. Be ruler in your own house, not by checks and shocks, by pull and strain, by collision of wills and trial of strengths; but gently, as the moon draws the tides up the shores, or as the sun lifts the ocean exhalations into the rain-clouds of the sky.
II. Tenderness.Here is ground where one almost fears to tread. Think of the great interests at stake; of the principles now being formed; of the habits that will result from them; of the characters you are moulding; of the gladness or the grief, the light or the dark, that will be in future homes the result of what you are doing now in yours; and of the issues to be revealed in the eternal world: and walk tenderly, as you would among flowers in early spring.
III. Such feelings will lead to prayer.In prayer for our children we are putting ourselves in the line of God's laws. We work as He works. Our nurture of our children is soon over. His nurture never ends. They are children in His hands all their days, and we do well to cast them on their Father's care, on the tenderness of His nurture and wisdom of His admonition.
IV. Hopefulness.We ought to cherish a feeling of cheerful confidence in God as to the result of our endeavours for our children's good. Surety if there is a field in all the world where we may look with confidence to the springing of the seed sown in faith, that field is the Christian family. If promises are fulfilled anywhere, they will be fulfilled there.
A. Raleigh, From Dawn to the Perfect Day,p. 34.
References: Isaiah 8:18. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xx., No. 1194.Isaiah 8:19. Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 318. Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 8:20. W. J. Friel. Penny Pulpit,No. 468. Isaiah 8:20. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 172, Isaiah 9:1-7. F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament,p. 254.Isaiah 9:1-8. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 333.