ous
parents are usually more wicked than other children. This is false. The
opposite is true. We admit, some have bad children; but it is the fault of
the parents; not because God does not fulfill His covenant promises to His
people. His people, in these instances, do not meet the conditions upon
which His promises are made absolute.

We must not suppose that because a divine promise exists detached from
expressed conditions, it will be fulfilled without the use of means. There
is a manifest compatibility between the absolute promises of God and the
use of the means in our power for their fulfillment. The promise to Paul in
the ship in which he was conveyed to Rome, that none of the passengers
should perish, was not incompatible with Paul's declaration, "except these
persons abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." Neither were the efforts of
the mother of Moses to save him, incompatible with the absolute promise of
God that "this babe shall be saved, and be the deliverer of Israel." What
she did to preserve his life was accompanied with an active, confiding
faith in the divine promise concerning him. And thus should faith in God's
promises stimulate Christian parents to zealous activity in the use of all
those means which secure their fulfillment.

The Christian home should ever keep in lively remembrance the solemn
promises made by her to God. In marriage, in holy baptism, she has made
vows unto God, and he says to her, pay thy vows. "When thou shalt vow a vow
unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it; for the Lord thy
God will surely require it of thee." These parental promises made to God
regard themselves and their children; and their faithful fulfillment brings
them within the glorious promise which God gave to Abraham; for, says Paul,
"If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise:" Gal. iii., 29.

Christian parents: the promises of God shine forth as brilliantly now as
over they did upon the pages of sacred history. They are as bright for you
as they were for Abraham and Joshua, when they trembled in sublime
eloquence upon the lips of God. Let them, therefore, be not in vain. The
promises are unto you, and to your children. And you in turn have promised
God that you would bless your household, and be faithful to your children.
Hold, fast to these promises without wavering. Hang all your hopes upon
them. Cling to them with the wrestling spirit of Jacob. And remember