Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 10:1
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.
A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “A wise son maketh a glad father.” This first sentence seems not to have been casually set first…Lord Bacon thinks that the gladness and heaviness which are in fathers and mothers, according as their children prove good or bad, are so accurately distinguished by Solomon, that he represents a wise and well-governed son to be chiefly a comfort to the father, who knows the value of wisdom better perhaps than the mother―which account the Hebrews also give of this matter; and therefore, he rejoices more at his son’s good judgment; which he not only better understands, but has taken perhaps so much care about his education, that the good fruits of it give him a greater joy than they can do to the mother.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Prize fathers as you may, and will, and should—yet there is a tender touch that comes home to every man’s heart when he thinks of his mother!
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): I never knew a mother. I have been an orphan, almost from the first opening of my eyes―the keenest longing of my heart is that I had a mother…Oh, how sweet it must be to a son in his manhood strength to be the ‘gladness’ of his mother. “A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” A son who breaks his mother’s heart—can this earth have any more irksome load to bear!
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Though mothers bear much, still they blush on account of the wicked actions of their children.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It is the mother who feels most keenly the folly of her child. See the record of Esau in Genesis 26:34,35 and Genesis 27:46.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Besides that natural affection planted in mothers towards their children, as they are theirs, the very pains, hard labour, and travail they were at in bringing them forth, increaseth their affections towards them, and that in a greater degree than fathers bear; and, therefore, the eminency of affection is attributed unto that of the mother towards her child, and put upon this, that it is “the son of her womb,” Isaiah 49:15. And then the performing of that office and work of nursing them themselves, which yet it is done with much trouble and disquietment, doth in experience yet more endear those their children unto them.
THOMAS COKE: She is more grieved and discomforted at the calamity of the son; both because the affection of a mother is more soft and tender―and, perhaps, because she may be conscious to herself that by too much indulgence she hath tainted and corrupted his tender years.
HENRY VENN (1724-1797): We pity orphans who have neither father nor mother to care for them. A child indulged is more to be pitied. It has no parent. It is its own master, peevish, froward, headstrong, blind―not only miserable itself, but worthless, and a plague to all who in future will be connected with it. What bad sons, husbands, masters, fathers, daughters, wives, and mothers, are the offspring of fond indulgence, shewn to little masters and misses almost from the cradle!
C. H. SPURGEON: The moulding of the character of the next generation, remember, begins with the mother’s influence.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The father occasionally gives instruction; but he is not always in the family, many of those occupations which are necessary for the family support being carried on abroad. The mother―she is constantly within doors, and to her the regulation of the family belongs; therefore she has, and gives laws.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): She is particularly mentioned, because the law of God equally enjoins reverence and obedience to both parents, and because children are too apt to slight the directions and instructions of a mother; whereas they carry equal authority, and have in them the nature of a law, as those of a father.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is the duty of mothers, as well as fathers, to teach their children…When they are young and tender they are most under the mother’s eye, and she has then an opportunity of moulding and fashioning their minds well, which she ought not to let slip.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): My mother―almost her whole employment was the care of my education…At not more than three years of age, she herself taught me English. When I was four years old I could read with propriety in any common book. She stored my memory, which was then very retentive, with many valuable pieces, chapters, and portions of Scripture, catechism, hymns and poems.
C. H. SPURGEON: I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such a influence over the young heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians of England.
C. H. SPURGEON: See how a woman’s life projects itself and either casts a ray of brightness over her children’s characters, or a cloud of shame over their entire being.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The names of mothers of good and bad kings are mentioned in Kings and Chronicles, as partakers in their credit or reproach.
C. H. SPURGEON: What some of us owe to our mothers, we shall never be able to tell. If we had to write down the choicest mercies that God has bestowed upon us, we would have to first mention the mother who prayed for us and taught us to trust in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing upon the sweet way in which she spoke to us about the Saviour. But a mother, trained in the school of Satan, and who has become a mistress in the art of sin is a terrible source of evil to her children. May God have mercy upon any of you mothers who have sons growing up to follow the evil example which you are setting them! Mothers, by the love you bear your children—and there is no stronger love, I think, on earth—if you will not think of your own soul’s best interests, I do pray you, for your children’s sake, consider your ways and seek the Lord with the purpose in your heart that your children may, if possible, live in the Presence of God.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Any teaching that leads men and women to think of the marriage bond as the sign of bondage, and the sacrifice of all independence, to construe wifehood and motherhood as drudgery and interference with woman’s higher destiny…threatens the very foundations of society.
C. H. SPURGEON: Those who think that a mother detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true―she is doing the best possible service for her Lord! Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple!
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eve, that is to say, the Mother of All, Genesis 3:20. He did not style her wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman.
