seek the kingdom of heaven. But this is reversing the order of procedure as
prescribed by the Master; it is running counter to His will, and,
consequently, wasting His goods.

But the greatest trust committed to parents is, the souls of their
children; and hence their most responsible duty, as the stewards of God, is
to attend to their salvation. You should "give them the bread of life in
due season." It will be of no avail for you to inquire, "What shall they
eat, and what shall they drink, and wherewithal shall they be clothed;" if
you neglect this their highest interest and your greatest trust? "What
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" It is not the wealth, nor the
magnificence of life which will make your home happy; these are but the
outward and fleeting ornaments of the world, and are too often the gaudy
drapery in which demon guilt and misery are clothed.

"The cobwebbed cottage, with its ragged wall
Of mouldering mud, is royalty to me,"

if souls are there "fed upon the sincere milk of the word," and "trained up
in the ways of the Lord." The training of the soul for heaven is both the
duty and the glory of our homes. What if parents lay up affluence here for
their children, and secure for them all that the world calls interest,
while they permit their souls to famish, and do nothing for their
redemption! Will not such parents be denounced in the day of judgment as
unjust and unfaithful stewards? And yet alas! how many such Christian
parents there are who prostitute this highest interest of home either at
the altar of mammon or of fashion! The precious time and talents with which
God has entrusted them, they squander away in things of folly and of sin,
leaving their children to grow up in spiritual ignorance and wickedness,
while they resort to balls and theaters and masquerades, in pursuit of