God in his providence has intimately connected parents and children.  In a sense, parents are the authors of their being; they are their guardians; they are bound to provide for them, educate them, teach them the knowledge of God, and use all proper means for their present and eternal welfare.  In all these respects, they are required to do more for their children than for the children of others, unless the latter are adopted by them, or come under their guardianship.  It is doubtless my duty and my privilege to seek more directly and more assiduously the salvation of my children than the salvation of the children of others.  This seems to be according to the will of God, and according to the family constitution.  And, moreover, it is most reasonable and right.

And if parents have a just apprehension of their responsibilities, they cannot rest satisfied without laboring for the salvation of their offspring, and laboring assiduously and perseveringly for its attainment.  And among other things which they will do—­they will pray.  The Christian parent who does not pray for his children, is not entitled to the name of Christian.  There is no such Christian parent, and we doubt if there can be.

But it is obvious that the spirit of Salome, at least in the selfishness of that spirit, may sometimes be even the governing principle of the parent in his prayers for the salvation of his child.  Knowing, as he must know, something of the value of his child’s soul, and the eternal misery of it if finally lost, how natural to desire his conversion as the only means of escape from a doom so awful!  And we admit that the parent is justified, and his parental affinities require him to make all possible efforts to bring that soul to repentance.  And he should pray and wrestle with God, as fervently, as importunately, as perseveringly as the object sought is important and desirable.

But, then, here is a point never to be overlooked, and yet is it not often overlooked? viz., that the grand governing motive of the parent in seeking the salvation of his child should be the glory of God—­not simply the honor of that soul, as an heir of a rich inheritance—­not simply the exemption of his child from misery—­nor yet his joy, as a participator in joys and glories which mortal eye has not yet seen, nor human heart yet conceived.  The glory of God! the glory of Jesus! that is the all in all—­the paramount motive, which is to guide, govern parents, and all others in their desires and labors for the salvation of children and friends!

I do not mean to intimate that parents can ever, or ought ever to take pleasure in the contemplated ruin of their children.  God takes no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.  But it is not enough for the parent simply to wish his child saved.  That desire may be selfish, and only selfish.  And that prayer which terminates there, may be as selfish as was the desire of Salome that her sons might occupy the chief places of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  The parent may, indeed, wish, and ought to wish, that his child may be saved, and for that he should labor and toil—­but in a way which will illustrate the marvels of redeeming mercy, and which shall be in consonance with the established principles of the Gospel.