By J.R. Miller
Many sermons are preached and books written on the responsibility of parents for their children--for their education and training, for their mental, moral, spiritual, and material outfitting for life. Parents are exhorted to live for their children. They are reminded that they may hurt their children's lives and mar their future, and by their unfaithfulness foredoom them to failure.
No doubt this phase of responsibility is very important. There is a lame man going about the streets these days, walking on crutches--an old man now, who has always walked on crutches, and whose life has been one of pitiful suffering, and burdensomeness both to himself and others--because more than sixty years ago a mother stumbled with her baby in her arms. There are people, many of them, going through life maimed or hurt in some way, in body, mind, or spirit, through the stumbling or fault of their parents! Society is bearing the burdens continually--of the wrong doings, the crimes, the unfaithfulness, the neglect, the false teaching--of past generations. We have a share in making the success of the lives of those who will come after us. We may be the cause of the failure of our children. We may rob them of the goodly inheritance which we ought to transmit to them. We may blot their fair names--by acts of shame which we commit, and foredoom them to reproach. We may give them a heritage of dishonor, instead of a heritage of honor. Much may be said of the responsibility of parents for the success and the blessing of their children.
But there is another responsibility--that of children for their parents. Bible incident is always good framework, for it is more than illustration. The Lord said of Abraham, "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him." That was God's plan for Abraham's life. Then the Lord told how this greatness should be achieved, how this universal blessing of the nations should come about: "For I have known him"--that is, I have chosen him, called him, and blessed him, "to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment."
Thus far it is Abraham's part and responsibility. He himself could not, personally, with his own life, touch all nations of future ages, to bless them; but he could command his children, and train them in the way of the Lord--and thus transmit through them the blessing to all the nations of the future. If Abraham had failed in his part as a father, failed in his teaching, failed in his example--the fault would have been his, and his the responsibility for the failure of God's purpose of blessing for the nations.
There is something almost startling in the truth, that God needs and depends upon our faithfulness in carrying on His work in this world, and in blessing, helping, and saving others. We say, "Surely God does not need me in doing anything He desires to have done. He is omnipotent, and can do whatever He pleases, and never need wait for me." That is true in a sense; certainly nothing is impossible to God. Yet in His work among men in this world, God chooses to use human instruments. The old violin maker said that God could not make man's best work without best men to help Him--could not make Stradivari's violins without Stradivari; and that if his hand should slacken--he would rob God, leaving a blank where there should have been good violins.
God needed and depended on Abraham's faithfulness in the training of his household, in order to send a blessing to the nations. Had Abraham failed, there would have been a blank instead of a blessing, and the responsibility would have been his.
But the responsibility did not end with Abraham. He should train his children to do justice and judgment, "to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He had spoken of him." That is, in order that the promised blessings might be realized, Abraham's children and descendants must keep the way of the Lord. They were responsible for the final success of their father's life. After all his faithfulness the good work of Abraham would come to nothing--unless they kept the way of the Lord, living out His teachings.
Each generation in turn would be responsible for guarding and passing on the heritage of promise and blessing received from its predecessors. The reach of Abraham's covenant, was to remotest ages. A break in fidelity anywhere along the centuries, would be a marring of the covenant blessing. The Divine purpose could be fulfilled, only by unbroken faithfulness through the generations. Abraham's children were responsible for the final and complete carrying out of their father's mission in the world.
The same is true in every household. The legacy which a parent transmits to a child--is a legacy of unfinished work. It is something to guard, to use, to augment, to pass on to the next generation. It is not merely something to live upon, to enjoy, to consume, to do with as we will. It is a sacred trust, to impair which would be a sin, a wrong to the honor of him who gave it in charge, and to those for whom it is to be kept.
Many a child wrecks and destroys all the good that in a long lifetime, a godly parent has wrought in the world. A man by industry, diligence, economy, and honesty--gathers a fortune. Every dollar of it represents toil and self-denial. At his death it passes into the hands of his children. They are responsible for the continuance of the good life, the thrift, and the prosperity of their father. He only began a career which it is theirs to carry forward into still larger success. The money which comes into their hands is not theirs to use in any selfish way; it is a sacred trust for which they are responsible.
A man by true living, wins for himself a name of honor among men. His conduct is exemplary. He conducts his business affairs on principles of truth, integrity, and uprightness. He is broad minded and liberal. His hand dispenses kindness and charity. He becomes a blessing to a whole community. His influence reaches far, and the fragrance of his good name breathes everywhere. Then his work ends, and he dies, leaving his goodly heritage of honor to his children. They are responsible for the perpetuation of the life which he has begun. He has started blessings in the world which it is theirs to continue. They cannot, without disloyalty to their father, lower the tone of the noble living which marked his course. They cannot, without dishonoring him, deviate from the lofty principles which characterized his career. The heritage of his good name is theirs to preserve unsullied. They are responsible for the continuance in the community of the good work and the wholesome influence which he started. If they fail to maintain in their own life the beauty, the truth, the worth, the purity, the unselfishness, and the usefulness of their father, they are not true to the sacred trust which he has committed to them.
The lesson has wide application. Children hold the inheritance they receive from their father to be guarded and then transmitted. They should make their life worthy of him, so that, if he were to come back any day to the old walks, they would not be ashamed to meet him. They are builders on the walls whose foundation he laid in sacrifice and toil; and they must build reverently and with conscientious care, that the work he began may not be marred--but may be carried upward in graceful beauty.
It is an interesting thought that in God's great plan--each one of us has but his own little portion to do. No one finishes anything. Work comes unfinished into our hands from those who have gone before us. They did their part on it, and we in turn are to do our part, and then give way to others who will do their fragment. If we fail in diligence or in faithfulness--we mar the work of God, and leave a blank where our part should have been done. This truth shows us how serious life is--and what a blemish unfit work leaves in God's universe. If, however, we are true to our duty, conscientious, doing always our best, doing that which is given to us to do, we shall assure the success of those who have gone before us, and shall receive the reward of those who are faithful.
