But
after a while, as the child grows, the parents will not let it be so
perpetually with them. It must go to school. It must see its
parents only very seldom, perhaps it must be away from them weeks or
months. And why? Not that the parents love it less: but that it
must learn to take care of itself, to act for itself, to think for
itself, or it will never grow up to be a rational human being.
And the parting of the child from the parents does not break the
bond of love between them. It learns to love them even better.
Neither does it break the bond of obedience. The child is away from
its parents' eye. But it learns to obey them behind their back; to
do their will of its own will; to ask itself, What would my parents
wish me to do, were they here? and so learns, if it will think of
it, a more true, deep, honourable and spiritual obedience, than it
ever would if its parents were perpetually standing over it, saying,
Do this, and do that.
In after life, that child may settle far away from his father's
home. He may go up into the temptations and bustle of some great
city. He may cross to far lands beyond the sea.
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