06 - A Short Address to Parents and Masters

CHAP. VI. A Short Address to Parents and Masters.

EVERY head of a family hath an authority and influence, which, if rightly improved, may considerably promote the progress of religion among the inferior orders of the community.

All parents, however obscure and needy, are bound, by the command of Scripture, to bring up their children in the knowledge of the Lord: and every master of a family hath in charge, not his own soul only, but the careful inspection of all his servants. He is to them a head and guardian: and he ought, like Abraham, to teach his household to keep the way of the Lord. To him, and to every parent, belongs the charge given to Israel, recorded in Deut. vi. 6. " These words which I command thee, saith the Lord, shall be in thy heart; thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way: and thou shalt diligently teach them to thy house­hold."

Education and instruction are two im­portant duties incumbent on the heads of every family; giving all diligence that their children and servants be taught to read the Scriptures, and be instructed in the princi­ples of religion. Both of these duties are mutually connected, are of much importance to the welfare of society, and are essential to the spiritual interests of individuals.

Unless your children are taught to read the word of God in their own language, every other mean of communicating religious knowledge will be of little avail; and that little, of short duration. When they grow up in life, their minds will remain unfurnish­ed; their leisure evening hours will hang heavy on their hands; and their usual relax­ation from the tediousness which ignorance begets, will be sought in the fatal joys of intemperance and the wretched abodes of vice.

Every observer of mankind may perceive, that these are the dismal effects of neglected education in youth; and that this neglect is becoming too general among the families of the common people. Too many parents, in the inferior stations of life, foolishly suppose, that if they can procure food and rai­ment for their children, they have sufficient­ly discharged their duty; that teaching these children to read, is unnecessary labour, or unprofitable expense; and that their early days are far more usefully employed in earn­ing a little pittance, than in learning to read the Scriptures.

Cruel parents! is it thus you care for the souls of your offspring? is it thus you pre­pare them for acting an honourable part in life? and is it thus you fortify them against the dangerous temptations of an ensnaring world? Have you forgot your engagements at the baptism of your children; and your vowing before heaven and earth, that you would educate them in the fear of the Lord, and make them acquainted with what his word reveals and requires? How false have you proved to these vows! and how regard­less of your solemn obligations! Your chil­dren are uneducated; and are likely to re­main unprincipled through life: they will soon be beyond the reach of your instruc­tion, under the dominion of others, and engaged in the service of their masters; may it not be feared, that there they will act a wretched part, until their intemperance; dis­honesty, and fraud, are detected, and they themselves loaded with infamy and disgrace? To you, their parents, will be greatly owing their vices, and their miseries. You taught them not, in early days, to dread the paths of the destroyer: you implanted not in their forming minds the seeds of religious know­ledge; nay, you cruelly unfitted them for acquiring that knowledge, by withholding from them the blessing of education. Ex­cuse not this conduct, by pleading your own ignorance; for that ignorance is both wilful and criminal. Say not, that your little in­come could not defray the charges of their education. In every city, nay, in almost every village, a wise government, or a generous public, have provided means for the free education of indigent children; in such schools, though the higher branches of education are most reasonably excluded, yet so much is introduced, as may enable even the poorest, to peruse the word of God with distinctness; to carry on the common com­merce of life; and to correspond with their parents, though far separated from their habitation.

How inexcusable are those parents, who keep back their sons and daughters from being educated, when the means are pro­vided, and the education generously offered without reward! Nor less criminal are those parents, who, though able to defray the charges of procuring necessary learning for their children, do withhold such education, that they may squander the profits of their labours in drunkenness and profligacy: the enormity of this guilt is great beyond the power of description; and the infatuated parents, upon whom it is chargeable, are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

Ye benevolent masters, into whose ser­vice such ignorant youth have entered, con­sider yourselves as bound, by every tie of humanity and religion, to remedy this awful evil, and to obtain necessary education for these neglected children. Driven by poverty from the dwelling of their careless parents, they have been led for shelter to your abode, and seem to supplicate your bounty for provision to their starving minds. Act the part of a parent; alleviate their miseries; pity their ignorance; provide the means of their education; allow them lei­sure hours for their improvement; excite their emulation; encourage them to excel, and reward their progress in knowledge. Thus be a father to the fatherless; and, in due time, they may repay your parental attention with the esteem, fidelity, and obe­dience of children. The other duty earnestly recommended to heads of families, is the religious instruc­tion of their children and servants. Your enabling them to read, is laying a foundation for their comfort and usefulness through the whole of life. But it will also be of essential service, if you can aid them in forming just sentiments of the religion they profess; in understanding its doctrines and duties; in tracing their mutual connec­tion; and in perceiving the purifying influence which every part of religious truth should have on the temper and conduct. For fulfilling this duty, by a method easy to yourselves, and advantageous to your fa­mily, let me recommend to your attention the catechisms of our church. They con­tain a valuable and comprehensive summary of the Protestant religion. In them the sublime doctrines of Christianity, its glo­rious privileges, and its pure precepts, are stated with accuracy, are arranged in order, and expressed in language as plain as the subject will admit. Cause your children and servants to learn these catechisms: ex­plain their meaning; and allot proper sea­sons for examining their progress in the knowledge of Christian principles. No season can be more suitable for this profitable employment, and none can surely be more convenient for persons in your cir­cumstances, than the evening of the Lord’s day: you are not then fatigued with labour, nor encumbered by the interruptions of worldly business. That sacred day is ap­propriated for the purposes of obtaining and imparting heavenly knowledge; its precious hours must not be squandered in the circle of friends, nor in the walks of public resort, nor in business, nor in recreations; these are allowed in six succeeding days of each revolving week; one day of seven, is the day of God; he claims it for his own; he separates it for himself; and wills not that its hallowed joys should be molested or abridged. He commands his people to keep it holy, as a day of peculiar inter­course with heaven; and to seek their de­light in those spiritual duties which become the followers of a risen Saviour. Every man, therefore, who bears the Christian name, ought to venerate the Sabbath. But heads of families, in busy or inferior stations, may particularly prize this day of sacred rest; and ought carefully to guard against the misimprovement of its valuable hours. The duties of the closet must neither be omitted, nor superficially performed: the duties of the sanctuary, if attended with re­verence, will yield sublimest satisfaction: yet let not these exclude the delightful exercises of family instruction and devotion. If these are omitted: if the members of your families, are not attended to, they will increase, by their bad example, that general profanation of the Sabbath which you so justly lament. Suffer, therefore, the word of exhortation. On every returning even­ing of that hallowed day, convene your children, domestics and servants; recom­mend religion to their attention and esteem; inquire into their conduct, and devotions, during the former part of the day; remind them of what they heard in the house of God; examine if they have committed to memory what you formerly appointed; com­mend the diligent; encourage to farther im­provement; and close this profitable duty with suitable counsels, and with the delightful solemnities of family-worship. Perhaps you murmur at this directory for the devo­tions of a Sabbath evening; and deem it too rigid for this refined age, and so heavy a burden, that neither you nor your children are able to bear it: but all the duties now enjoined, are agreeable to Scripture; have been the practice of the saints in every age; are conducive to the comfort of domestic life; and, through the power of promised grace, may be performed by all, with ease, and pleasure, and advantage.