Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/227



1. shown that those plants of Paradise, Christian children, cannot grow up like a forest, but need tending, we must now see on whom this care should fall. It is indeed the most natural duty of parents to see that the lives for which they are responsible shall be rational, virtuous, and pious. God Himself bears witness that this was Abraham’s custom, when He says: “For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment” (Gen. xviii. 19). He demands it from parents in general, with this command: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deut. vi. 7). By the Apostle also He says: “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord” (Ephes. vi. 4).

2. But, since human occupations as well as human beings have multiplied, it is rare to find men who have either sufficient knowledge or sufficient leisure to instruct their children. The wise habit has therefore arisen of giving