A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 3: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of FriendsClarkson, Thomas
Religion
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 3: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Clarkson, Thomas
Society of Friends
On that part of it, which is moral or religious, I may observe, that the
remedy is in the parents themselves. The first thing to be recommended
is an universal vigilance over the disposition and manners of children,
so that no censurable appearance, whether in temper or in conduct, may
be allowed to pass without suitable notice or reproof, or that the bud,
which promises to be corruptive of morals, should no sooner make its
appearance, than it should be cut off. In cases of so much importance,
as where the happiness both of parents and children is concerned, the
former should be peculiarly circumspect. They should not talk about
things, but insist upon them, on all proper occasions. They should not
point out, but redress. They should not lop off the branches, but lay
the axe to the root. And surely youth is the best season for such
wholesome interference. It is, in the first place, the season in which
a remedy is practicable; for we are assured, "if we train up a child in
the way he should go, that, when he is old, he will not depart from it."
It is, secondly, the season in which it is most practicable; for can we
hope to bend the tree so easily to our form, as the sapling from whence
it came? and, thirdly, it is the season in which it is practicable only,
for will not a small irregularity grow, if uncontrolled, to a greater?
Will not one irregularity also, if not properly checked, give birth to
others? And may not these be so incorporated into the inner man in a
course of time, that it may be as difficult for parents to eradicate
them, as for the Ethiopian to change his colour, or the leopard his
spots? But surely the Quakers ought to know the impropriety of undue
indulgences in their families, as well as any other people? Is not the
early subjugation of the will a doctrine more particularly adopted by
them as a society? Without such a subjugation do they not conceive the
mind to be in an unfit state to receive the admonitions of the pure
principle, and of course to make a true proficiency in religion? Do they
not consider themselves also as a highly professing people, and do they
not know that the world expects more from them than from others? But how
can their children ever perpetuate this extraordinary character after
them, or shew that their parents possessed it, unless they are brought
up in a peculiarly guarded manner? In addition to these observations it
may be recommended, that parents should be careful to give their
children what may be called a literal instruction in Christianity, in
contradistinction to pure theism, or to those doctrines which they
conceive may come from the teachings of the Holy Spirit, so that they
may have a more intimate knowledge of all their principles, as a
Christian body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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