Page:Great importance of parental instruction.pdf/16

 But contemplate an opposite case,—that of a parent, who, bereaved of his child, is tortured with the recollection of duties omitted, or carelessly performed,—duties to which that child, now no longer his, had a claim the most natural, and the most solemn that can possibly be conceived. The omission is not now to be made up. The opportunity of offering some preparatory instruction to the departing, soul is lost for ever. "Alas, and must my own offspring perish for lack of that knowledge which it was my part to communicate? Intolerable thought! Perhaps even now, that much neglected soul is bearing a just testimony before the bar of God against my unnatural indifference to her immortal interests. O cruel neglect!—O unhappy father! Have I brought into existence a human being, only for misery, and that eternal? Would to God. I had never been, or that—but what do I say? Would to God I had done my duty! He gave me opportunities of saving him, and I neglected them. His intended blessings are, by my abuse, converted into curses. What aggravated guilt! That lifeless corpse before me, now about to mingle with the sordid dust, but lately occupied my whole concern. Upon it I heaped my favours, regardless of the inhabitant within. That body, while it lived,