The spirit of this injunction requires _all_ parents to train up their children in that way in which they may be of the greatest service to Christ; and not only to be willing--that would be but a small measure of Christian feeling--but earnestly and constantly to pray, that they may be employed in that part of his vineyard, and in that kind of work, where they can be instrumental of the most good, even though it be on some distant shore, teaching the alphabet to the ignorant and degraded. But is this the spirit which prevails in the churches? I have seen it stated that, of twenty or more young men in a theological institution, who were at the same time agitating the question of their duty to become missionaries, _all but two were discouraged by their parents, and these two were the sons of widows_. Many other facts of a similar kind might be added, if it were best to name them. Many parents give their children to the Lord when young, and talk of locating them on the shores of Japan, or New Guinea; but the very manner of educating them--in softness, delicacy and helplessness--shows at once the inefficacy of such a profession. Many parents are quite ready to consecrate their children before they become pious. "O, if the Saviour would only convert my child, I would readily yield him to go to any part of the world, and to perform any service for which he might be fitted." The child becomes a Christian, and proposes to go to the heathen. The parents cling, dissuade, and throw every consideration in the way to keep him at home. At the judgment day, if I mistake not, we shall see a great deal of our conduct in a different light from what we do now.