Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-11-02
Responsibility Of Parents.

Time was, when settling on thy leaf, fly
Could shske thee to thy root; and time has been
When tempest could not"
II to pilot ship across the ocean be
work Of great responsibility, requiring pru-
denee and Judgment, as well as knowledge
and experience-much more is it such a
work to guide an immortals spirit through
the tumultuous sea of youthful passion
and childish impetuosity, and to secure for
it safe passage through the dangers and
perils of manhood and old age. A ship on
the ocean may founder and 90 to the bot
tom, and no one, perhaps, suffer a single
pain, or breathe single sigh !; but an i'm
mortal soul, wrecked upon the shores of
time, may spend an eternity in signs and
groans, but they cannot undo the past, or
reetify single mistake. -
isss What. a pilot is to, the ship, the parent
is to, the child. The one conducts the fraiI
bark far out to sea, beyond the reach of
special dangers, and then surrenders his
charge into other hands. The other guides
deathless spirit through the perils and
quicksands of childhood and youth, and
then leaves it to the mercy of treacher-
GUS world, to drift upon the tide of cir
cumstances, or to follow the bent of its in
cllnations, given to it by parental training
and discipline. Though the parent can
not insure successful issue, yet he is in
great degree responsible for the future ca
reer and the fate of his child for it is ex-
pressly commanded, "Train mp child in
the way he should 90, and when he is old,
he will not depart FROM it." Ii, then, these
words of the wise man are true, and if
children do depart from the way they
should go, or rather are never taught TO
walk in it, and 60 down to destruction and
to eternal death, whose fault is it, if it 10
not the parents
Parents cannot be too deeply impressed
with the weight Of responsibility which
presses upon them, or of the importance
of the early religious training of the i'm
mortal spirits entrusted to their care. Next
. to their own salyatian, there is no subject
of so great importance, or that should
command SO much Of their attention, their
time, and their labor, as the spiritual and
intellectual education of their children. 1t
is their duty to train them up for heaven
| to fit them for usefulness in this world,
and for the enjoyment of the rest and fe-
licity of the redeemed. This obligation is
laid upon them; and it is in their power,
| In measure, so to do, else the Injunction
of the apostle had never been given them
to bring up their children in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. Yet how
many there are in every community, chill
dren even of protesting Christians, who,
through the negligence of their parents,
or the force of their evil example, or the
want of timely or judicious instruction,
have grown up in ignorance; to become
vicious, profigate, and wicked men; a
cause of grief to their parents, and source
of moral contagion to the wide circle of
acquaintance in which they move. Many
parents there are who see these evils, and
charge them to their proper source, who
at the same time are little conscious that
! the course which they are pursuing with
i their own children is tending to the same
nlts-profigacy and rum.
4 tiss ,'sSsaT - -ssf& American Guardian.