Calvin on Parents’ Duty to Teach their Children

From John Calvin’s sermon on 1 Timothy 5:7-12, here is a great quote on the important parental duty of teaching God’s truth to our children:

When God has given a man children, it is not only that he should have charge to give them bread to eat, but good instruction is the main thing. And this is what we should bestow most pains in. But we see nowadays the exact opposite. It is true that fathers still have some care to bring up their children, but not all. For how many drunkards do we see, who will go and spend in one day at the tavern all that they have gotten in half the week, who waste and devour everything? And their poor children must die for hunger in the meantime. ... But yet the most part take care to nourish their children, but where is instruction? …few men think upon it, to dedicate their children to God, to see that they live well, and that God is honored by them, and that they serve their neighbors. How many are there who see to this? It is true that they will seek fast enough to advance their children, to bring them to credit, to make them rich. But they always lack the most important thing, and the cart is set before the horse.