The Children for Christ by Andrew Murray

confession of its sinfulness, and the sins of which it is the index and the
symptom.
I have heard parents plead very earnestly with God for the conversion
of their grown-up children, when I secretly feared that they could not
be heard. I saw no sign of confession of parental sin. There are parents
whose worldliness, whose lack of living faith, whose “self-indulgence
and neglect in the education of their children, have simply sown the
seeds of which they are now reaping the fruit in the departure of their
children from God; and yet they wonder why their children are not
more religious. They sometimes pray earnestly for them, and try to
have the faith, perhaps think they have it, that their children will be
saved. They may be deceiving themselves. True faith sanctifies. It
searches the heart. It confesses the sin of unbelief, and all the sin in
which that has its root and strength. It casts itself weeping and helpless
at the feet of Jesus. There, and there alone, bowing in its weakness,
resting on his strength, it obtains the blessing He loves to bestow.
Fathers, who have sons you would fain bring to Jesus to be saved, come
and hear the lessons the Lord would teach you. Let these children first
bring you to Jesus in confession, and prayer, and trust; your faith can
then bring them in truth. And in yourself and in them you will
experience what the all-prevailing power and truth is of the word: ‘If
thou canst! all things are possible to him that believes.’
Blessed Son of God! look in mercy upon a parent who now comes to You
with a child still unconverted and under the power of the Evil One. O
Lord Jesus! have compassion on us and help us! Let the child be
delivered from Satan’s power; oh, make Him a child of God.
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