"Do Not Sin Against The Child!"

Father and mother, if I am damned--

it is by copying the example you placed before me!
(Archibald Brown, "Do Not Sin Against the Child!" 1870)

"Do not sin against the child!" 
Genesis 42:22

One way of sinning against a child 

is by bad example. The characters 

of the parents are carefully watched 

and imitated by their children.

You profess, dear friend, to be 

a Christian, and your child knows 

you are a member of this church. 

He has seen you partake 

of the LORD'S supper--

and then, when you have gone 

home, he has in a moment 

detected the discrepancy 

between your behavior at church--

and your daily life at home. 

The angry temper--

the selfish spirit--

the worldly conversation--

all these have been so many 

sins against the child! 

By some evil example seen by them 

in early life, an impression may be 

made upon their souls, the effects 

of which will remain to their dying day--

and beyond!

Oh, how dreadful the thought, that 

by our own hypocritical lives we may 

be sinning against the little darlings 

we often feel we could die for. 

GOD forbid, that at the last great day, 

any of our children should turn to us 

with blanched cheek and say,

 "Father and mother, if I am damned--

it is by copying the example you 

placed before me!"

You may also sin against the child by 

neglecting the means of its salvation. 

Do you have to confess before 

the LORD, that the eternal 

interests of your children find 

but a small space in your PRAYERS? 

O do not sin so against the child--

he is worth praying for!

What are you DOING to try and bring 

them to JESUS? Do you ever, with 

the tear in your eye, tell them 

of the love of JESUS? 

Have you ever tried to show 

them their need of a SAVIOR, 

and pointed them to HIM who said, 

"Let the little children to come to ME?"
(Matthew 19:14)

These are solemn questions, 
for I say to you dear parents in all love 
and from the very depths of my heart, 
"If you neglect the means for bringing 
your little ones to CHRIST, 
you are sinning against the child--
and his blood will be required of you!" 
"If you do not teach them--
the devil will."

O friends, it is a crying shame, that 
in our prayer meetings there are to be 
found men who pray as if they were 
dying to see the world converted--
and yet never pray for their own children! 

It is a sad, sad fact that there 
are many who seem wondrously 
in earnest about the conversion 
of strangers--
who yet let their own children 
go to Hell without a warning 
or entreaty! 

   
~  ~  ~  ~

You may want to read the whole of Archibald Brown's helpful sermon, 
"Do Not Sin Against the Child!"