Editorial January 30, 1960 Issue

PARENTS' RESPONSIBILITY TO CHILDREN

Ralph E. Wagers

As is well known, much more is involved in being a parent than merely having a child. Which brings up the question, What is the relationship between juvenile delinquency and adult delinquency? One is delinquent when he fails in his duty, whether he be a juvenile or an adult. Delinquency implies violation of duty, failure, omission. A wise proverb reads, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6).

The second of the Ten Commandments has to do with idolatry. It forbids the making of or the bowing down to graven images. From it one may conclude that children are not to be idolized but entrusted to God's care. Parents' relationship to God has much to do with the well-being of their children. A conclusion that might be drawn is that as one fulfills his responsibility to God, his children will fulfill the provision of the fifth commandment (Ex. 20:12), "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

As part of her answer to the question, "What are the demands of the Science of Soul?" Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The first demand of this Science is, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 467). By accepting the reality of matter, one breaks the First Commandment by denying the allness of Spirit.

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