Gold Nugget 179 - Better Than Our Fathers?

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      There is a close relationship between fathers and children.  Physically, mentally, and even morally, we are to a large degree what others have made us. … And as we have been influenced by the past, so we shall influence the future.  Our children not only receive a certain impress from their birth, but are moulded for good or evil by the teaching and example of their parents, and by the environment of their daily life. …

      Suppose you take the young.  They side with the present.  The world is all before them.  They are eager for the strife.  “Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield.”  But in any case, our judgment is liable to be affected by circumstances.  Our own state, the love of society, the spirit of the age, influence us largely.

      Are we better than our fathers?  There is no question but we ought to be.  Progress is the law.  We have the higher advantages.  The great thoughts and the great deeds of others should inspire us.  We are the “heirs of all the ages.”  In some respects we are certainly better.  As to food, clothing, habitations, means of education, political and social rights, intercourse with other nations, and so forth, there has been an immense advance.  But what availeth this, if morally and spiritually we stand, not higher, but lower than our fathers? …

      Individually we are bound to strive after a better life, and thus we can best influence society.  There may be much in our past that is bad; but it is past; and let us take hope.  If there are sins, they are forgiven.  If there are bad habits, they have been broken off.  If there are failures, they have been retrieved.  We can look on.  Stirred with a holy ambition, sustained by precious promises, animated by noble examples, we can press on to the brighter and better days to come.  Our standard should be, not the conventional standard of the Church or the day, but the perfect law of Christ.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Zechariah p. 10-11, Zechariah 1:1-6, (W. Forsyth)

See also:  Elijah, I Kings 19:4, Matthew 5:20-48

 

Gold Nugget 179

Better Than Our Fathers?

 

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