“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”—Proverbs 22:6).
Interpretation.—The word here rendered “train up” may signify to “initiate,” “dedicate,” or “imbue,” and that “at the mouth (or entrance) of his path.” The “counsel” is to begin very early to fit the child for the line of life it is desired he should take; and a religious parent will think not only of this world but of the next. The promise is that, as a rule (such is the tendency of early impressions), when he is grown up he will not (at least permanently) depart from it.
Illustrations.—The power of good education and its proper result are declared elsewhere by God in regard to Abraham: “I know him, that he will command his children after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord” (Gen. 18:19). Samuel, early dedicated to God, continued steadfast to his life’s end. Joseph retained the savor of a pious bringing-up through life. Timothy, instructed as a child in divine truth, was, as an adult, converted to the faith of Christ (2 Tim. 3:15). Solomon would seem to have returned to the good and the right way in his old age. The prodigal son is represented as coming to himself through the recollection of his home privileges.
Application.—It may be intended to teach here that a monotonous discipline rigorously enforced upon all children alike, without regard to temperament or character, is not the best way of bringing them up. The parental rule should adapt itself to individual circumstances; the parental eye should detect the way of life for which each child is naturally most fitted. Above all things, the aim from the very first should be to win and educate the child for God; to preoccupy its heart-soil with good principles ere the seed of bad ones be sown. For all experience teaches that, if not trained in the way they should go, children will follow their own way, and be trained in that wherein they should not go. For a father to leave religion an open question to his son is to abdicate his own functions. He might, with even more kindness, expose the child to perish in his infancy. Crime and punishment rebounding upon the parent are the Nemesis of such neglect. Neglected children, grown up, will make their voice heard and their weight felt. But the honest endeavor made with constant prayer to teach by word and example and more, to teach from the first the baptized little one as God’s own child for Him in the Church’s ways, will not fail of its reward. Home is the first and best school; and, as the home, so will the child be, as a rule, and its remembrance in after years be blessed or cursed.
Pearson, C. R. (1881). Counsels of the Wise King; or, Proverbs of Solomon Applied to Daily Life (Vol. 2, p. 50). W. Skeffington & Son. (Public Domain)
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