Edith Austin’s Enquiry or An Earnest Search For Truth ch. 10 p. 128 (1898)
We cannot obey the commands of God by proxy, father, if we could we might hire someone else to obey them in our place, and we attend to the affairs of the world. Besides we have already two divinely authorized institutions for the instruction of persons in the things of God; one is the parental government, the other the church of Christ. Christ himself built the church and declared “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” hence it is called in the Scriptures, “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Now, for us to uphold, patronize, or intrust our children to the instructions of another institution, set up by men for the same purpose, would be to ignore those already instituted by divine authority, which could appear more like presumption than loyalty to Christ and his blessed word. |
