Closing Remarks...from Jonathan Edwards

I thought it would be nice to give an exhortation from Edwards in light of this rather lengthy series of posts on discipline and love. I find it a frightful thing that there are many who give their kids the best of this world but neglect, even deter, their children’s need for Christ. Parents must remember that although they give their children the world but neglect their souls, what will it profit? There are many who contribute to their own children’s damnation, by neglecting their education, by setting them bad examples, and bringing them up in sinful ways. They take some care of their bodies, but take little care of their poor souls; they provide for them bread to eat, but deny them the bread of life, that their famishing souls stand in need of. And are there no such parents here who have thus treated their children? If their children be not gone to hell, no thanks to them; it is not because they have not done what has tended to their destruction. Seeing therefore you have had no more regard to others’ salvation, and have promoted their damnation, how justly might God leave you to perish yourself! (“The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners”)