Parental Instruction: The Foundation of Godliness

The fear of Yahweh stands as the first commandment, and obedience to parents as the second—inseparable in their authority. God Himself ordains the family as His constitutive institution, granting parents rank immediately beneath His own throne. The Almighty established the family through immutable laws: the covenant of one man with one woman, parental provision for children, and children's care for aging parents. Where these laws are violated, nature itself enforces consequences—transgression carries within it the seeds of its own punishment.

William Arnot observed that when France abandoned the fear of God, filial obedience inevitably collapsed thereafter. The two commandments are bound together; to sever one is to imperil the other.

A mother's love operates with mysterious, almost sacred power. Thomas Binney recounted a young man who received his mother's money as a sacred trust—impressed with her image, her purity, her piety. He would not squander it upon frivolous pleasures, for it bore his mother's spiritual imprint. Such restraint reflects the poetic religion of the heart, the altar of domestic affection that shapes conscience itself.

Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle, testified that though he lost his mother at six years old, her influence persisted throughout his life—a guardian angel's voice speaking pure words, never departing from his heart. Parental instruction, received in youth and honored in maturity, becomes the enduring scaffold upon which a life of godliness is built.