Mark you broad and rapid stream!
Brilliant though its surface seem,
Mingling in its depths below
Poisonous currents surely flow.
Christian parents, pause to think
On that treacherous river’s brink,
Ere you launch your tiny bark
On those waters deep and dark.
Yours the path of Jesus here,
Seek it for your children dear;
Though you cannot life impart,
Cannot bow the stubborn heart.
Do not help to weave a chain
You would gladly break again;
Shall not He who for you died,
Food and raiment still provide?
He who has your children given,
He can bless for earth and heaven;
Seek then first His holy will;
Seek His pleasure to fulfill.
Constant still in faith and prayer
That this blessing they may share;
And when by the Spirit’s power
Comes the gladly welcomed hour,
When the lips you love so well,
Of a Saviour’s grace shall tell,
They will have no cause to say
That you turned their feet astray.
Rather, from their earliest youth,
Taught and nurtured in the truth,
May their light unhindered shine
To the praise of grace divine.
Gems From My Reading