"Blessed are they that fear God, and walk in His
Commandments; thou shalt eat of the labor of thine hands; therefore
thou shalt be happy, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be
as a fruitful vine in thine house, and thy children shall be as the
young scions of laden olive trees about thy table. Behold, thus shall
the man be blessed, that feareth the Lord," etc. Where are such
parents? Where are they that ask after good works? Here none wishes to
come. Why? God has commanded it; the devil, flesh and blood pull away
from it; it makes no show, therefore it counts for nothing. Here this
husband runs to St. James, that wife vows a pilgrimage to Our Lady; no
one vows that he will properly govern and teach himself and his child
to the honor of God; he leaves behind those whom God has commanded him
to keep in body and soul, and would serve God in some other place,
which has not been commanded him. Such perversity no bishop forbids, no
preacher corrects; nay, for covetousness' sake they confirm it and
daily only invent more pilgrimages, elevations of saints,
indulgence-fairs. God have pity on such blindness.

VI. On the other hand, parents cannot earn eternal punishment in any
way more easily than by neglecting their own children in their own
home, and not teaching them the things which have been spoken of above.
Of what help is it, that they kill themselves with fasting, praying,
making pilgrimages, and do all manner of good works? God will, after
all, not ask them about these things at their death and in the day of
judgment, but will require of them the children whom He entrusted to
them. This is shown by that word of Christ, Luke xxiii, "Ye daughters
of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your
children. The days are coming, in which they shall say: Blessed are the
wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck." Why shall
they lament, except because all their condemnation comes from their own
children? If they had not had children, perhaps they might have been
saved. Truly, these words ought to open the eyes of parents, that they
may have regard to the souls of their children, so that the poor
children be not deceived by their false, fleshly love, as if they had
rightly honored their parents when they are not angry with them, or are
obedient in worldly matters, by which their self-will is strengthened;
although the Commandment places the parents in honor for the very
purpose that the