But need he love
his parents less? need the bond between them be broken, though he
may never set eyes on them again? God forbid. He may be settled
far away, with children, business, interests of his own; and yet he
may be doing all the while his father's will. The lessons of God
which he learnt at his mother's knee may be still a lamp to his feet
and a light to his path. Amid all the bustle and labour of
business, his father's face may still be before his eyes, his
father's voice still sound in his ears, bidding him be a worthy son
to him still; bidding him not to leave that way wherein he should
go, in which his parents trained him long, long since. He may feel
that his parents are near him in the spirit, though absent in the
flesh. Yes, though they may have passed altogether out of this
world, they may be to him present and near at hand; and he may be
kept from doing many a wrong thing and encouraged to do many a right
one, by the ennobling thought, My father would have had it so, my
mother would have had it so, had they been here on earth. And
though in this world he may never see them again, he may look
forward steadily and longingly to the day when, this life's battle
over, he shall meet again in heaven those who gave him life on
earth.
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