"Children are the past and the present and the future all blended into one. They are consummately precious. Every time a child is born, the world is renewed in innocence.
"There is nothing in the scriptures, there is nothing in what we publish, there is nothing in what we believe or teach that gives license to parents or anyone else to neglect or abuse or molest our own or anyone else's children.
"There is in the scriptures, there is in what we publish, there is in what we believe, there is in what we teach — counsel, commandments, even warnings, that we are to protect, to love, to care for and teach the children to walk in the ways of truth.'
"Nothing compares with a father who is responsible and in turn teaches his children responsibly. Nothing compares with a mother who is present with them to comfort them and give them assurance.
"All too often, a parent is left alone to raise children. The Lord has a way of strengthening that parent to meet alone what should be the responsibility of two parents. For either parent to deliberately abandon their children is a very grievous mistake.
"Those who come into the church come as children spiritually. They need someone, some friend, to lift them up.
"Assessing the value (of worldly honors) the one thing I treasure more than any of them — more than all of them put together — the thing of most value to me is how our sons and daughters and their husbands and wives treat their children and how, in turn, our grandchildren treat their little ones."
