that such authority runs counter to the spirit and requisitions of the gospel.  But this is asserted in the broad face of God’s Word.  The promptings of such sentimentalism are to permit children to do as they please, and to bring them up under the influence of domestic libertinism.  Honor thy father and thy mother, is a command which explodes such a gaudy theory; and he who does not obey it, brutalizes human nature, dishonors God, subverts the principles of constitutional society, throws off allegiance to the prerogatives of a divinely constituted superior, and overthrows both church and state.  Hence the severe penalties attached, in the Mosaic law, to disobedience of parental authority.  “He that curseth his father or mother, shall surely be put to death.”  “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”  And hence also that affectionate obedience which Joseph yielded to his aged father, and that profound veneration with which he kneeled before him to receive his dying blessing.

2.  Filial obedience is the correlative of parental authority.  If parents have authority, children must yield obedience to it.  This is not only necessary to home-government, but also to the proper formation of the character of the child.  It must be trained up under law and authority to prepare it for citizenship in the state.  This must be the obedience of confidence and love.  It does not imply the subordination of the slave.

As the father’s authority is not that of the despot, so the obedience of the child is not that of the servile, trembling subject.  It is not unnatural,—­no infringement upon the rights and liberties of the child.  His subordination to the parent is the law of his liberty.  He is not free without it.  The home in which filial obedience is not yielded to parental authority is “a marvel of permitted chaos,” and will soon become desolate, a scene of anarchy and strife.  The members live in a state of lawlessness, destitute of reciprocated affection,—­the parent unhonored, the father and mother despised and cursed, and the child untrained, uncared for, lawless, and unfit for the state or the church.

If, therefore, God has constituted governmental relations in the Christian home, and invested the parent with authority over his children, who will deny the coordinate obligations of the child to yield reverence, submission and gratitude to the parent?  “Children, obey your parents in all thing’s; for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”

This is called the first commandment with promise.  It is one of promise both to the parent and the child.  Children are bound to obey their parents in all things, that is, in all things lawful and in accordance with the revealed will of God.  The child is not bound to obey the parent’s command to sin,—­to lie, steal, or neglect the means of grace; because these are express violations of God’s law; and in such instances the authority of God supersedes that of the parent.  Obey God rather than man.