July 11, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." — Joel 1:3 · KJV

In this simple way, by God's grace, a living testimony for the truth is always to be kept alive in the land: the beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant, to their heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty; we are to begin at the family hearth. He is a poor preacher who does not begin his ministry at home. The nations abroad are to be sought by every means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched; but home has a prior claim, and woe to those who reverse the order of the Lord's arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday-school teachers or other friendly helpers — these may assist us, but cannot free us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this matter. Mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their children about the wondrous works of the Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty — who so fit to look to a child's well-being as those who are the authors of his very being? To neglect the instruction of our children is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots, error is quietly advancing in our land, and one of the most effective means of resisting its inroads is left almost neglected — namely, the instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter! It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, all the more because it has often proved an accepted work, for God has saved children through their parents' prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this book comes honor the Lord and receive His smile.