"For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband:else were your children unclean; but now are they holy." (i Cor. 7:14.)

Children of God-fathers and mothers of families, here is the charta of your parental relationship:"They are holy,"-the children are holy.

The word "sanctify" in the Bible is not nearly so limited in its meaning as the word "saint" or "holy" and the same is true in modern English. We speak of the conveniences of life, of trial, of temptation from Satan, being sanctified to us, but we could not apply the word "holy" to them. The word "αγιoς" ("saint," or "holy,") just means "that which is set apart for God," and is very rarely used in a subordinate sense. It is usually applied thus:" The Holy Spirit"-"the Holy One of God"-"the holy angels"-"the holy place"-"the holy city,"-"the saints"-"a holy kiss"-"Be ye holy, for I am holy" etc. Separated unto God is just its force:your children are holy! This word is such as to embrace all our offspring; it is a word of encouragement, and an appeal to faith.

Awake, brethren! awake! let Faith do her work. Your God has told you your children are set apart to Him. How set apart?-aye, that is the word; take it to your Father. Israel was set apart, but Israel is not;-Jerusalem was set apart, but Jerusalem is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles;-the temple was set apart, but not one stone is left upon another;-the churches on earth were set apart, but what are they now but ripe for judgment?- Christendom was set apart for the bright display to it of grace and truth, heaven's light itself shining down from the person of the Lamb; but what is it now ? And how many a child of Christian parents, thus set apart for God, to be trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, has instead proved a solemn warning to the neglect of godly nurture with parental authority according to the Lord! Brethren, God has appealed to you. He has given, as it were, a blank check for faith to fill up. Your children are holy. Will you say, "They are holy, so I may leave all care about them as to praying for them and instructing them " ? This is the flesh, brethren, not faith. Nay, rather, go to your Father, and without guile tell Him the lesson Himself has taught you,-taught in your souls by the Holy Spirit. Tell Him that all things are dung and dross save Jesus Christ.

Let us look a little at the exhortation to you in Scripture. In Eph. 6:4 it IS written, "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Observe the word " NURTURE (paideia). This word occurs in five other places in the New Testament in the original :-

2 Tim. 3:16. All Scripture . . . is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Heb. 12:5. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.

7. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons ;

8. But if ye are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers. , 2:Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous.
Observe well these five passages, as showing what we are to understand by the word "NURTURE." In modern English, the word "nurture" seems to suggest the idea of nourishment, and, therefore, to presuppose life. The communicating nutriment to that which has inward life to enable it to be nourished thereby is just what suggests itself to the mind by the phrase, " bring up in the nurture."
Nurture, in short, is an inward application and appropriation. If we spoke of a child which had been well cared for in youth-well fed, and well disciplined, when needs be, even with the rod,-we could not apply the word "nurture" to the punishments inflicted, without the strange incongruity of the expression grating upon the ear. For there is a gentle, tender care ministering in love to the profit of the child, involved in the word "nurture." But the word "DISCIPLINE"is far otherwise, suggesting at once the thought of applications from without, the bending and conforming by the hand of another to a given standard. Let any one supply, in all six of the quoted passages, first the word"nurture"and then the word "discipline" and they will at once feel that the latter is the Holy Ghost's meaning of the word, judging from His common use of the same. The meaning is, that parents are to take the truth of God as their guide and standard, and discipline according to it. This would lead them to endeavor to fashion their little ones to truth, candor, humility, subjection, self-denial, patience, perseverance, kindness, love, etc., etc. And in confirmation, as it were, of this discipline from without, we have in the word which immediately follows, "admonition," voυθεσια, putting in mind), that which has to do with the inner man.

The force of the exhortation is this; " Provoke not your children to wrath," yet bring them up in the discipline and knowledge of the Lord,

Very similar to this is that which is written in Col. 3:2, " Fathers, provoke not your children, lest they be discouraged."

Study, then, the character of your God, and to it strive to fashion your tender charge; study the grace of your Savior, and Him, in all the fullness of His grace and truth, try to impress upon their minds. Do not deceive your own selves that the children have grace when they have it not, so deceiving their souls, or doing what you can thereto. And do not hold your responsibility in the flesh, but remember that though God's authorized evangelists to your little circles, you are still parents- fathers and mothers; accredit yourselves to them as letters of Christ, known and read of all men, seeking not theirs, but themselves, in all you do or say. And, above all, pray without ceasing.