Exodus 2:9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages… What are the wages of fidelity in the important work of the Christian education of children? 1. In the first place, then, a part of the reward of fidelity in religiously educating your children consists in the pleasure of the work. It is an innocent, an interesting, and an honourable occupation. 2. There enters into the reward of religiously educating children, the pleasure which arises from doing good to society. 3. There is high honour in cooperating with God, and great happiness in conforming to the intentions of His providence. 4. The good of his children is what every parent purposes to himself, as the object, perhaps, of his fondest desire, as the motive to all his parental conduct. And herein is a large part of the wages of fidelity in religiously educating them, that thereby their great good in this life will be most effectually promoted. It is a perilous and unhappy world into which you introduce them. And yet the misfortune is, that in education respect is more generally had to its pleasures than its sorrows, to its honours than its snares. The great question concerning your offspring is, where in it shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of satisfaction? Look around you. See in what path they shall be most likely to find peace. Examine the claims of wealth, of honour, of rank, of power, of pleasure. Turn to religion. Institute a comparison between her claims and theirs. Inquire which of them has most efficacy to quell the passions, which are the parents of evil; to soothe the sorrows, which are the offspring of our condition; to open sources of happiness at which the weary spirit may always be refreshed; and to take the barbs from the arrows of death? Such a comparison will assuredly produce a result in favour of a Christian education. 5. The faithful parent has a recompense for his care in the religious education of his children, in the greater security of his own happiness. It is through the child that the heart of a parent is most vulnerable. The hour comes when your children shall stand around you, and you will perceive that you are leaving them without you in this evil world. What can mitigate this anguish of death? What but to be able to say of them, when you cast on them your final look, "I am going unto my Father, and their Father; and to my God, and their God." They will honour me in their lives when I shall be gone. The Almighty is their Friend and He will protect them. 6. But not in this life is the reward of the faithful in any case complete. By far the largest part of the "wages," which God, in His mercy, has promised to any of their good works, is reserved to be given them in the great day of the final consummation. (Bp. Dehon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. |
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