Pruning

William Blake, the brilliant English poet and painter, squandered his greatness because he abandoned biblical faith for the radical dreams of the French Revolution exalting freedom, equality, and total self-expression while rejecting all discipline. True to his convictions, when he moved to the country he even refused to prune his grapevines, insisting that vines, like men, must grow without restraint. The result was predictable: the vines overran his garden and produced no grapes, yet Blake blamed anything but his own foolishness. Modern radicals, liberals, and hippies admire him because he expressed their spirit freedom without responsibility, liberty without law. Child psychologists have pushed similar ideas, and instead of angels they have produced rebels and hippies, for impulses without discipline lead only to chaos. As Proverbs teaches, “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Prov. 29:15). Blake was at least consistent what he denied to vines he denied to children and society but we should know better: prune the vines, but not the children, and you harvest nothing but anarchy and filth. Discipline is unavoidable; if we refuse to administer it, God surely will.