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To the eyes of a young, light-hearted girl the future appears dressed in roseate hues. What you eagerly hope and desire for yourself, what your parents and your confessor earnestly desire for you, is temporal and spiritual welfare, every blessing and happiness. But will these wishes be fulfilled, will the sun of prosperity always shine on you, will the fatherly blessing of God accompany you through your whole life? What happiness would be yours could these questions be answered with certainty in the affirmative, could you receive a warrant, a pledge, that such indeed shall be your lot! Rest assured that this happiness may be yours to enjoy, for God has given you a sure earnest of blessing to come, in the fourth commandment, which runs thus: “Honor thy father and thy mother that thou mayest live a long time, and it may be well with thee in the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee.” In these words you see how clearly and definitely God has pledged His word. And how has He kept His promise: And how does He continue to keep it?
God is infinitely faithful and true. He can never fail to perform what He has promised. Our fellow creatures too often do not intend their promises to be taken seriously, or they forget them almost as soon as they are uttered, or else they are unable to carry them out, but in regard to God we have nothing of this kind to dread.
Numerous and striking are the instances which might be adduced to prove how abundantly the promise given in the fourth commandment has been fulfilled. Remember Sem and Japheth, the dutiful sons of Noe, who received the blessing of God by the mouth of their father. Remember Tobias, who was so exemplary a son that his parents called him the staff of their old age, the light of their eyes, the comfort of their life. How rich was his reward! He lived ninety-nine years in the fear of the Lord, and saw his children’s children to the fifth generation. Remember Joseph, who was so good a son and the darling of his father. In how special and marvelous a manner did Providence watch over him, and how innumerable were the blessings showered down upon him! His children and grandchildren rejoiced his heart, and when he had reached the ripe old age of one hundred and ten years, his life was closed by a calm and peaceful death. It was well with him and he lived long on the earth.
Since all these facts combine to prove that God has indeed fulfilled His promise, we can not doubt that He will continue to fulfil it in the course of events in our own lives. Anyone who has learned to take even a comparatively superficial view of men and things will perceive children who, like Tobias and Joseph, have been specially guided and blessed throughout their whole careers. We find daughters who, when they are grown up, are esteemed and valued by all who know them. They may perhaps not be very rich, but they enjoy all the more contentment and peace of mind. Such daughters as these ever fail to experience the guidance and blessing of God in their choice of a vocation which is to decide the happiness of their whole after-life. Such daughters, moreover, are often privileged to become spouses of Jesus Christ, and to spend their days in a cloister, where they enjoy a foretaste of paradise. Others again are fortunate enough to be married to good and kind husbands. They are happy in their children and grandchildren, who pay them love, obedience, and respect like that which they themselves formerly showed to their own parents. Over and over again have I heard it remarked about daughters such as I have just described that it was no wonder they got on well-they were good and dutiful children to their parents.
Let me relate a few particulars concerning just such a daughter, with whom I happen to be intimately acquainted, as she is a relative of mine. She was an only daughter. I know with what unselfish devotion she nursed her father and mother in their last illnesses, refusing attractive offers of marriage even when she was close upon thirty years of age, solely because she would not relinquish her affectionate care of her aged and beloved father. Almighty God has richly rewarded her. For the last fifteen years she has been most happily married, and, as she herself told me, never for one single instant has she had reason to regret the step she took, never for a moment has she found the wedded state to be anything but happy. Her four girls and two boys are all very good and amiable, strong in body and highly gifted intellectually, the delight of their parents, and give bright promise for the future. Thus are fulfilled the words of Holy Scripture: “The father’s blessing establisheth the houses of the children.”
Thus do dutiful children enjoy the blessing and protection of God here on earth. And what will be their portion in eternity! When after a long and happy life, these obedient children, these good daughters, who have so faithfully kept the fourth commandment, come to die, they may, when reviewing the past perceive many a dark spot, many faults and omissions, even perhaps many grave errors. But the thought that they always honored their father and mother, never caused them vexation, but ever tried to please them, will be as a bright star amid the gloom, giving them comfort and inspiring them with confidence
And now they stand before the eternal Judge. He surveys them with a benignant eye, for He perceives in them a likeness to Himself. Did not He, too, when on earth, honor His parents? No further testimony is needed, yet He summons the rejoicing father and mother, addressing them in some such words as these: “Can you affirm that these your children always behaved honorably to you? With beaming countenances they make reply: “We can, O Lord Jesus Christ! Our dear children were indeed not without faults and foibles, but they faithfully kept the fourth commandment; they in very deed loved, honored and obeyed us; they tended us with affectionate devotion in our old age and did not forsake us after our deaths, but, by means of their prayers, procured for us a more speedy admission to the abode of everlasting felicity. Therefore do Thou, O Lord, be to them a merciful Judge.”
Then will the just Judge turn to those children and say: “I know that so it was, and what you did to your parents, you did to Me. Therefore come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But who can describe the infinite glory and blessedness of the heavenly kingdom!
My daughter, see that you honor your father and mother, so that you may one day be made a partaker of that blessedness. For this reason I would say to you:
O love as long as thou canst love,
O love as long as life doth last;
The hour comes, the hour comes,
When at the grave thy tears flow fast.
Love your father and your mother, in order that you may have no cause for self-reproach when you stand beside their graves, but may experience the fulfillment of the fourth commandment to be at once an earnest of blessing here upon earth and of endless happiness in heaven.