The Duties of Parents or How Should a Child be Trained by J C Ryle
The Introduction”
“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
“I suppose that most professing Christians are acquainted with the text at the head of this page. The sound of it is probably familiar to your ears, like an old tune. It is likely you have heard it, or read it, or talked of it, or quoted it, many a time. Is it not so?
But, after all, how little is the substance of this text regarded! The doctrine it contains appears scarcely known, the duty
it puts before us seems fearfully seldom practiced. Reader, do I speak the truth?
It cannot be said that the subject is a new one. The world is old, and we have the experience of nearly six thousand years to help us. We live in days when there is a mighty zeal for education in every quarter. We hear of new schools rising on all sides. We are told of new systems, and new books for the young of every sort and description. And still for all this, the vast majority of children are manifestly not trained in the way they should go, for when they grow up to man’s estate, they do not walk with God.
Now how shall we account for this state of things? The plain truth is, the Lord’s commandment in our text is not regarded; and therefore the Lord’s promise in our text is not fulfilled.
Reader, these things may well give rise to great searchings of heart. Suffer then a word of exhortation from a minister, about the right training of children. Believe me, the subject is one that should come home to every conscience, and make everyone ask of himself the question, “Am I in this matter doing what I can?”
It is a subject that concerns almost all. There is hardly a household that it does not touch. Parents, nurses, teachers,
godfathers, godmothers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters – all have an interest in it. Few can be found, I think, who might not influence some parent in the management of his family, or affect the training of some child by suggestion or advice. All of us, I suspect can do something here, either directly or indirectly, and I wish to stir up all to bear this in remembrance.
It is a subject, too, on which all concerned are in great danger of coming short of their duty. This is pre-eminently a point in which men can see the faults of their neighbors more clearly than their own. They will often bring up their children in the very path which they have denounced to their friends as unsafe. They will see motes in other men’s families, and overlook beams in their own. They will be quick-sighted as eagles in detecting mistakes abroad, and yet
blind as bats to fatal errors which are daily going on at home. They will be wise about their brother’s house but foolish about their own flesh and blood. Here, if anywhere, we have need to bear in mind.
Come now, and let me place before you a few hints about right training. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost bless them, and make them words in season to you all. Reject them not because they are blunt and simple; despise them not because they contain nothing new. Be very sure, if you would train children for heaven, they are hints that ought not to be lightly set aside.
The Chapter titles are:
* Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child
* Train with all tenderness, affection, and patience
* Much depends upon you
* Guard the soul
* Train your child to a knowledge of the Bible
* Train them to pray
* Train them to go to church
* Train them in faith
* Train them in obedience
* Train them in telling the truth
* Train them to redeem the time
* Train them without over-indulging them
* Remember how God trains His children
* The influence of your example
* The power of sin
* The promises of Scripture
* Train them praying for a blessing on all you do
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