The second lesson we are here taught is—the lesson of duty to our parents.
When we think of Jesus hanging on the cross and bearing all the dreadful pains of crucifixion, it seems to us that he must have been so fully occupied with his own terrible sufferings as to have had no thought or feeling for any one but himself. But it was not so. He did not forget his duty to his mother even then. He saw her standing by his cross weeping. Joseph, her husband, was no doubt dead. She would have no one now to take care of her. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was standing near his mother. Jesus looked at his mother, and told her to consider John as her own son. Then he looked at John, and turning his eye to the weeping Mary, he told John to treat her as his own mother. And from that time John took the mother of Jesus to his own home and took care of her, as if she had been his own mother. How thoughtful and tender this was in Jesus! How much it was like the loving Saviour! And how touchingly we may learn from this crucifixion scene the lesson of our duty to our parents, and especially to our mothers! No child can ever fully repay a faithful, loving mother for all that she has done. Let us try to follow the example which Jesus set us from the cross about our duty to our parents.
Let us look at some examples of those who have learned and practised this lesson.
“The Polish Prince.” Here is a story of a Polish prince who had a very good father. This young man was in the habit of carrying the picture of his father in his bosom. And when he was tempted to do anything that was wrong, he would take out this picture and look at it, saying, “Let me do nothing that would grieve my good father.”
“Ashamed to Tell Mother.” Some boys were playing one day after school. Among them was a little fellow whom his companions were trying to tempt to do something wrong. “I can’t do it,” said he, “because I should be ashamed to tell mother of it.”
“Well, but you needn’t tell her; and she won’t know anything about it.”
“But I should know all about it myself, and I’d feel mighty mean if I wouldn’t tell mother!”
The boys laughed at him and said: “The idea of a boy running and telling his mother every little thing! What a pity you weren’t a girl!”
“You may laugh about it as much as you please,” said the noble little fellow, “but I’ve made up my mind never, as long as I live, to do anything I would be ashamed to tell my mother.” That boy was a hero. He was doing just what Jesus would have done in his place. Many a boy would have been saved from ruin if he had only acted in this way.