Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

in the church.
Every son and daughter should be called to account if absent from home
at night. Parents should know what company their children are in and at
whose house they spend their evenings.
Human philosophy has not discovered more than God knows or devised
a wiser plan of dealing with children than that given by our Lord. Who can
better understand all the needs of children than their Creator? Who can feel a
deeper interest in their welfare than He who bought them with His own
blood? If the word of God were carefully studied and faithfully obeyed, there
would be less soul anguish over the perverse conduct of wicked children.
Children have claims which their parents should acknowledge and
respect. They have a right to such an education and training as will make
them useful, respected, and beloved members of society here, and give them
a moral fitness for the society of the pure and holy hereafter. The young
should be taught that both their present and their future well-being depend to
a great degree on the habits they form in childhood and youth.
Men and women professing to revere the Bible and follow its teachings
fail in many respects to perform its requirements. In the training of children
they follow their own perverse natures rather than the revealed will of God.
This neglect of duty involves the loss of thousands of souls. The Bible lays
down rules for the correct discipline of children. Were these requirements of
God heeded by parents, we should today see a different class of youth
coming upon the stage of action. But parents who profess to be Bible readers
and Bible followers are going directly contrary to its teachings. We hear the
cry of sorrow and anguish from fathers and mothers who bewail the conduct
of their children, little realizing that they are bringing this sorrow and
anguish upon themselves, and ruining their children, by their mistaken
affection. They do not realize their God-given responsibilities to train their
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