July 31

"A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."—Proverbs 29:15.

How important the situation, and how great the responsibility, of the parental character! The Bible insists much on the various duties of parents and children; and if these counsels were attended to, how much more happy and peaceful would many families be! In this passage we have two things.

AN AFFECTING CASE. "A child left to himself," that is,

Without suitable instruction. Instruction to the mind is what food is to the body: "That the soul be without knowledge is not good." How many parents are concerned to give their children a good education, but feel no anxiety that they should be acquainted with Him whom to know is life eternal! Give them knowledge suited to their age and capacities; acquaint them with their sin, their danger, their duty, and their need of a Saviour.

Without fervent prayer. This is a duty too much neglected by many professing parents; pray with them around the family altar, and for them in your secret devotions. Pray for the blessing of God on the means you adopt for their good.

Without a good example. How many undo by their example what they effected by their instructions! The parents' example is a living lesson. How is the child to learn the beauties of holiness, when he beholds in his parents the deformity of vice?

Without proper restraint. Instruction must be followed with prayer, illustrated by example, then enforced with authority. The happy medium must be followed, between too great severity on the one hand, and too great laxity on the other. What punishment Eli brought on himself and his house, "because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not!"

A PAINFUL CONSEQUENCE. "Bringeth his mother to shame," and his father too sometimes. This is the case with regard to the conduct of the child — he may choose the society of the gay, licentious, and dissipated, and run into every excess of riot. There is the shame of conscious weakness in the indulgence of the child, sometimes the shame of poverty and reproach; and not unfrequently the vices of the child plunge the parent into the greatest distress.