Spurgeon on Raising Children

Spurgeon provides a wonderful illustration of the results of the proper Christian nurturing of youth. He says:

"On the mantel-shelf of my grandmother's best parlour, among other marvels, was an apple in a phial. It quite filled up the body of the bottle, and my wondering enquiry was, 'How could it have been got into its place?' By stealth I climbed a chair to see if the bottom would unscrew, or if there had been a join in the glass throughout the length of the phial. I was satisfied by careful observation that neither of these theories could be supported, and the apple remained to me an enigma and a mystery. Walking in the garden I saw a phial placed on a tree bearing within it a tiny apple, which was growing within the crystal; now I saw it all; the apple was put into the bottle while it was little, and it grew there. Just so must we catch the little men and women who swarm our streets -- we call them boys and girls -- and introduce them within the influence of the church, for alas! it is hard indeed to reach them when they have ripened in carelessness and sin."