The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1860-03-01
No. :S.
Responsibility Of Parents.


Time was, when setting on thy leaf, ay
Could shake thee to the root; and time has been
When teHpests could not"
If to pilot a ship across the ocean be 4
work of great responsibility, requiring
prudence and judgment, as well as knowl.
edge and experience, much moro is it to
such work t. guide an immortal spirit
through the tumultuous sea of youthful
passion and childish impetuosity, and to
secure Tor 1t safe passage through the
dangers and perils OF manhood and old
age y ship on the ocean may founder
and 60 to the bottom, and no one, per-
haps, suffer a single pain, or breathe
single sigh; but an immortal soul, wrecked
upon the shores Of time, may spend an
eternity III signs and grOans, but they
cannot undo the past, or rectify a single
mistake.
What the pilot is to the ship, the pa
rent is to the child. The one conducts the
frail 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
qulcksands Of childhood and youth, and
then leaves it to the mercy of a treacher-
Gus world, to drift upon the tide of cir
cumstances, or to follow the bent of its
inclinations, given to it by parental train
ing and discipline Though the parent
cannot insure successful issue, vet he is
III great degree responsible for the future
career and fate Of his child for it is ex-
pressly commanded, Train up child in
the way he should 90, and when he is old,
he will not depart from it." If, then, tho
words Of the wise man are true, and if the
children do depart from the way they
should 20 ; or rather, are never taught to
walk in it, and 90 down to destruction
and to eternal death, whose fault is it, if
1t Is not the parents
Parents cannot be too deeply impressed
with the weight of responsibility whish
presses upon them, or of the Importance
of the early religious training of the i'm
mortal spirit entrusted to their care. Next
to their own salvation, there is no subject
of so great Importance, or that should COM
mand 50 much Of their attention, their
time, their labor, as the spiritual and in
tellectUal education of their children. Ii
Is their duty TO train them up for heaven
to fit them for usefulness in this world.
and for the enjoyment of the felicity
of the redeemed This obligation is laid
upon them; and it is in their power. in a
measure, 30 to do, else the injunction of
the apostle had never been given them to
bring M their children in the nurture aud
admonItlon Of the Lord. Yet how many
there are in every community, children
even Of protesting Christians, who, thro'
the negligence of their parents, or the
force Of their evil example or the want of
timely and 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 ac-
quaintances 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
their own children is tending to the same
result to profigacy and ruin.