169 LECTURE IX. GENESIS Xviii. 19. "FOR I KNOW HIM, THAT HE WILL COMMAND HIS CHILDREN AND HIS HOUSEHOLD AFTER HIM, AND THEY SHALL KEEP THE WAY OF THE LORD." THE inspired historian having recorded the instance of Sarah's incredulity, with which the last lecture concluded, thus continues the narrative: "And the men rose up from thence, and looked towards Sodom; and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said,” even the angel Jehovah, who was one of the three, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." How remarkable is the reason here alleged by the Almighty for communicating his intentions to the faithful patriarch! “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Abraham's family religion, therefore, his determination to honour God himself, and to see that his children and servants also honoured the Lord, is given as the reason for his being made acquainted with the intentions of the Most High. My brethren, let me urge you seriously to inquire, whether you have ever sufficiently considered the obligations of this great duty for which the patriarch was so highly honoured? Are you equally your zealous for the Lord God of Hosts in families and in your households? In what manner are you educating, or permitting others to educate, your children? Are you satisfied if their advancement in that species of learning which the world has agreed to denominate good education, be proportionable to your expectations, although the one great business of life, the very purpose for which they have been sent into existence, has been neglected? Are you contented if your boys have learnt a certain number of languages, and your girls a certain number of accomplishments, although they may scarcely know whether they possess an immortal soul, or in what manner that soul is to be prepared for the neverending futurity? Do you sufficiently bear in mind, that your children are lent to you by God, to be trained by you for God: I say, lent to you, for who shall tell how speedily these precious loans shall be resumed, how quickly they shall be summoned into a world, where all the accomplishments for which you now are willing to sacrifice every other acquisition, will be utterly useless; a world whose unnumbered myriads speak but one language, and sing but one song, which is for ever new, and will be for ever delightful, when all that is now thought worthy of acquirement shall have passed away and been forgotten? How often, even in Christian parents, do we find the most lamentable inconsistency in these things, the most fearful forgetfulness of these great truths; how often do we see Christian parents priding themselves the most upon those very qualifications in their children, which will one day only lead them the deeper into all the temptations and follies of an ungodly world; looking with gratification chiefly upon their progress in those fashionable accomplishments, which will merely render them the readier victims to the three great enemies of our souls, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." How few are there who possess sufficient faith, and sufficient courage and resolution, really to educate their children for God! To resolve and to act upon that resolution, that every species of knowledge, every acquirement should, we will not say be disregarded, for we are no advocates for that contracted state of mind, and habit of thought, which a contracted education is too apt to induce; but while every species of knowledge, and every useful acquirement should be cultivated, and highly cultivated, still to resolve that all should be kept in complete and entire subserviency to the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, and to the acquirement of Christian motives, and Christian principles. To this great work, to this blessed end, all your prayers, your efforts, your advice, your example should be perpetually tending. From their earliest infancy, and you may begin much ear |