Children and saints hold Thee, O Lord; the rest rebel against Thee.
Children and saints are the boundary between the kingdom of being and the shadow of non-being.
Guardians call themselves parents, and cast Thy children from a high cliff into the abyss.
Guardians imagine that they are parents, and so they govern Thy children as their own property. Truly, they do not govern, but bend and break.
The children are another's, O guardians, whom you have claimed as your own; and you will answer for theft and robbery.
Neither the life that is in you is yours, nor the life for which you served as a channel. All is another's, except the evil in you; and you will answer for theft and robbery.
You will answer for theft, because you called another's your own; and for robbery, because you maimed and demolished what was another's.
There is no parent on earth. The Parent is in Heaven. On earth there are only guardians. Those who call themselves parents on earth are thieves and robbers.
On earth there are only guardians; and this is an exceedingly great honor.
The most precious treasure that God has is given into your care. And this is an exceedingly great honor.
More blessed is he who was never born, and to whom nothing was ever entrusted for care, than you, if your guardianship is a stumbling-block and a deadening of souls.
Why do you rejoice over children, if you do not intend to keep vigil over them as over the angels of heaven? Why do you wail for them, when they leave you early and flee to the angels? You rejoiced over what was another's, and for another's you wail.
Do not care only for the securing of your children's bodies, for even the foxes do this with their cubs. But care for God in your children. God, so cared for, will take care of all the rest. And what you gather for your children with toil, He will gather for them without toil, quickly and easily.
Do not drive God out of your children, for you will drive away their peace, and happiness, and health, and prosperity.
And if you leave them the whole earth, forsaken by God, you have left it to the famished, who will devour everything and die of hunger.
Do not secure for your children a piece of bread, but a piece of soul and conscience. And your children will be secure, and you blessed in two worlds.
Care for another's property better than for your own, and your reward will be immeasurable.
The King's children are given into your care. Truly, the King will not give a small reward to those who keep His princes safe for Him, and do not erase the name of the Parent from their memory.
Through the children the King gazes at you in wonder, and awaits your answers. If the answers be death-bearing, the King will withdraw from your children, and you will be caring for corpses.
Children and saints hold Thee, O my Lord; the rest rebel against Thee. Children and saints are Thy testing of the world.
Take heed, my soul; take heed, and do not err.