FATHERS AND MOTHERS LISTEN TO ME

Father's and Mother's, listen to me;
Who is to blame for delinquency--
You or your untrained girl or boy
Who turned to crime in search of joy

Do you delight in obeying God
And train with reproof and rod?
Or does he grow from babe to youth,
Devoid of the knowledge of Christian truth?

Do you take your children to Sunday School
To learn of God and the Golden Rule?
Or are they sent to the picture show
Where most of the delinquent children go?

They learn of crime and sinful lust,
But not of Christ who they ought to trust.
They learn to lie and steal and kill
But not to love you and to God's will.

Who is to blame -- you or the child,
If he turns to crime and becomes defiled?
Who should go to the prison cell,
The rope or the chair, and a burning hell?

God is your judge in Heaven above.
He bids you repent, in His grace and love;
To turn from your carless wicked way,
And start to study His Word and pray.

Forsake the world and the social whirl.
And go to church with your boy and girl.
O' parents, pause and listen to me,
For you are the cause of delinquency!

Dwight C Ritchie