The Children for Christ by Andrew Murray

had been imparted to the son in his likeness. The child’s sin was the
fruit of the father’s.
This first picture of family life God gives us in His Word, what a somber
light it casts on our homes! How often parents can trace in the sins and
evil tempers of their children their own shortcomings and
transgressions! How the remembrance that their children have
inherited their evil natures from themselves ought to humble them,
make them very patient and gentle, as well as very earnest and wise, in
dealing with the offenders, and lead them to seek what alone can cure
and conquer this evil power — the grace and the life that comes from
above! Let parents not be afraid of realizing fully that God visits the
sins of the fathers on the children; it will urge and encourage them to
believe that He will no less remember the mercy to the fathers, and
make the children partakers of that too.
Let us note further how in that first child’s sin we have the root and type
of all children’s sins. The family had been destined of God to be the
image of the bliss of heaven, the mirror of the life of love that reigns
there. Sin enters, and the first family, instead of being the emblem and
the gate of heaven, becomes the type and the portal of hell. Instead of
the love and help and happiness for which God had appointed our
social relation, envy and anger and hatred and murder render it a scene
of terrible desolation.
The root of all sin is selfishness — separating first from God and then
from man. How early in the little ones in the nursery does it manifest
itself! How continually does it come up in the intercourse with
companions in school or play! How often it rises even against the
parent, and refuses the love or obedience that is due! Let believing
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