'iu IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. ^/ W V^''.'^^ .\v :\ \ ^\^ >>^. ;\ % ^'^^ <^ >> 33 WEST MAIN STREET WECSTER, N.Y. 145B0 (716) 872-4S0J CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMK Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Is O^ 1981 Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attem-ited to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D n D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur □ Covers damaged/ Couverture endommjgea □ Covers re Couvertu Covers restored and/or laminated/ re restaurde et/ou pe'iliculde □ Cover til.e missing/ Le titre de couverture manque □ Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ ere de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Pla:iches et/ou illustrations en couleur n Bound with other material/ Relie avec d'autres documents □ Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serret* peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intdrieure Blank leaves added during restoration me.y appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lo/-sque cela etait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t§ film^es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppldmentaires; L'Institut a microfilm^ le rneilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographiqud, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage sont indiquds ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages/ □ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes Pages restored and/oi Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloiired, stained or foxe< Pages d^colorees, tachet^es ou piqu^es Pages detached/ Pages ddtachees Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of prir Quality in^gale de I'iinpression Includes supplementary materi< Comprend du m.at^riel supplementaire I j Pages damaged/ I I Pages restored and/or laminated/ I 1 Pages discolonred, stained or foxed/ I I Pages detached/ r77| Showthrough/ I I Quality of print varies/ I I Includes supplementary material/ Only edition available/ Seute Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by fjrrata slips, tissues etc., have been refilmed to snsure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film^es d nouveau de facon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. Th=s item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux ae reduction indiqud ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X ■^■iHMl H^^i^ ^^^^^ m^tm^m ^MH^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X ails du idifier une iage The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. L'exemplalrj film6 fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque natlonale du Canada Les images suivantes ont 6td reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de ia condition et de la n^metd de I'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. Ail other Oi'iginal copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- TIMUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"}, whichever applies. Les exemplaires originaux dont la cnuverture en papier est imprim^e snnt filmds en commen9ant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illust>-ation, soit par le socond plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commenipant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illuEtration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une fielle empreinte. Jn des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols -^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Thosf too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmf>d beginning in the upper left hand corner, left tc right and top lo bottom, as many framer as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s i des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour §tre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche & droite, et de haut en bas, en prena/it le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diiigrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. rata > elure, J 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 -r^-. ». b T. ^'\ ' \ % %^ f stt^ ' * ' % • f * f ^ *",l *'' '*,. * 4 THE LAMBS IN THE FOLD. Hf t^ '^-. #" " * ♦- I* »•* - -f ^ i •-r i ^^^e % $♦, -iff *» iaj«?* , 6.* .. *f '^ f-*- t *f '^. ''#.# 4^' •W--. »* 4(% 'S ■^ ,~^4 •^J Tjt-S.^' •« * 'f„ »- i-i # * •,* if- 1-*,^ i * r t- W^.ii *# *■ ■m^ f #■^41* -'^^^ t*% i>* «f % » *■ '^ ^;f- * M THE *.. LAMBS IN THE FOLD- Wi- 'i^ . f *# m, "«, ^-■>&^ -*♦ THE RELATION OF CHILDREN P-' /^. ^T* TO THE CHURCH — 'if-** 4 -*% ■'^ THEIR PROPER CHRISTIAN NURTURE. ^ ^ St *t BY REV. JOHN THOMPSON DD **■■ SARNIA. ^^- % > ■ i% 'FEED MY LAMBSr «*^ -# MONTREAL: WILLIAM DRYSDALE & CO, PUBLISHERS. 1893. ■m* # •#»-_■ Entered according f.o Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-three, by William Drysuale & Co., in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. m *. ^ *■ -»,*% '«": '^ PREFACE. The following chapters do not profess to be a full and formal discussion of the themes embraced, but rather a practical exhibition and enforcement of certain great lines of duty. And yet, the whole subject of " The Relation of Children and of Families to the Church " : " The Culture and Training of the Young": " Home-Life and Family Religion," etc., is carefully discussed, and what we deem to be Scriptural positions on these important points are laid down. From long acquaintance with certain tendencies of thought, and currents of modern Christian life, it is our deep conviction that there is much unscriptural teaching and serious danger ahead, and that the earnest attention of fathers and mothers, of Sabbath school teachers and trainers of the young, must be directed afresh to these subjects. The Church is in- danger of drifting away from her moorings on this whole question, and even many who are right in tJieory are wrong in their practice. And every error in the # VI PREFACE. things of God is dangerous, and especially here, where the spiritual interests of the young are concerned. On the subject of Christian culture and the growth in grace of the young, there is much misunderstanding and confusion. \Vc have broken up organic relations and individualized, taking what is true, only in certain instances and under certain conditions, to be the normal type of Christian experience and life in all instances and under every condition, and much practical error is the consequence, even on the part of those who ought to know better. It was not because we imj.gined that we had anything new to say, or any startling disclosure to make, that has led us to write. And yet, had we not supposed that we had something of importance to say, and something, moreover, that the Church needs to hear at this particular time, we would not have written at all. For most certainly it was not the mere desire of authorship that has led us to give this volume to the public. We have all along felt we were dealing only with plain, Scriptural truths ; insisting on what the Church has always professed, in theory, to believe ; giving little children and the young the place in the Church that Christ gave them ; and have simply claimed for them the culture and training that He designed them to have. But, probably, in this age of new theologies higher \ ■ PREFACE. VU criticisms, and novel methods, nothing could be a greater novelty or a more urgent necessity than an old truth neu'ly stated, and, enforced by old consider- ations, set in new lights. This is all we have attempted to do, and, in fact, it was all that was necessary to be done. We believe most earnestly in Evolution^ — the bringing of the new things out of the old ; new and fresh duties from old principles ; never breaking away from, but maintaining the con- nection with, all the past. Within the last few years, the mind of the Church has been turned very specially to the care of the young, and the proper religious teaching of children. And all who have them in charge are eager to hear the subject discussed, but, on such occasions, there is often much said, from which we most emphatically dissent. We have many earnest, fiery speeches at conven- tions, from men more accustomed to talk than to think. They tell us about the conversion of children, and furnish specimens : they discuss the proper age for conversions : we are told in our annual Church reports of the number who have ''■joined the Church '* from the Sabbath school, and the inference is drawn that all the others are outside of the Church; and, occasionally, the broad statement is made that they are the slaves of the devil, and on the broad road to Vlll PREFACE. f I destruction. But not one word is ever heard of the glorious possibility, and blessed fact, of the growth in grace of children from the womb, or that by covenant promise the faith of the parents will be that of the children, and that the Christian home is the great School of Christ. The great question now is : " How to get up a revival." But there is a prior question to this : " How to bring up the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." That man does a great work for Christ who is instrumental in converting a sinner from the error of his ways. This is talked about by everybody. But how much greater the work — though you never hear it spoken of — so to teach and train a child, that it never needs to be converted. It is a blessed thing to reclaim a sinner and set his feet on the way of peace. But it is more blessed to keep the young in the way of life. Many a mother who has claimed her home for the Lord, who has trained her children for Him, till they have gone forth to occupy conspicuous places in the Church, is never heard of, and her name is never mentioned at a convention. She has been content to minister to the Church in her hoicse, and is not classed among the Christian workers. But the Lord knows and approves of her work as most honouring to Him, and she will not lose her reward. PREFACE, IX The groat need of the Church to-day is a revival of Home religion, and tlie turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. The volume is specially intended for Christian parents, Sabbath school teachers, elders, and, as a minister of some years and experience, we may include our younger brethren. And if any of the Fathers in the ministry may look into its pages in a spare hour, let us hope that what they read will meet their approval, and serve to give a fresh setting to an old truth, with which they have long been familiar. CONTENTS. Preface ... Under Both Dispensations we have only One Church The Children of the Church The f\imilies of the Church The Care ?.k1 Nurture of the Church The Claims and Expectations of the Church Variety of Christian Life and Experience . Family Life • '■•■•. Family Religion The Home : Womrn's Work in the Church Home-Life of Our Lord The Practical Uses of the Ikptism of Infants Growth in the Divine Life Pace V I • 45 69 • 99 • '47 i6i iSi 201 2^S 245 ^•wn.^" M||>p»^Wllii||p H j 1 i ■ ■■^^T ■ UNDER BOTH DISPENSATIONS WE HAVE ONLY ONE CHURCH. B T I 11 ! And I will establish my covenant between ine and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. — Gen. xvii., 7. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness. —Acts vii., 38. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and h<^irs accord- ing to the promise. — Gal. iii., 29. That the blessing of Al)raham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. —Gal. iii., 14. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. — Eph. ii., 20. ^. I i I TWO DISPENSATIONS— ONE CHURCH. THERE HAS BEEN ONLY ONE CHURCH. That children were embraced in the covenant that God made with Abraham is admitted by all ; but some hold that this was not a Church covenant, as it embraced only temporal blessings, and chiefly the promise of the land of Canaan. It is said the old dispensation was outward and ceremonial, whereas the new is inward and spiritual. Natural birth and an outward profession constituted membership in the former ; spiritual birth and faith are the on'y condi- tions of the latter. But this is not true. When a proselyte entered the Jewish Church he made a profession of the true religion and a promise of obedience, and any parent who did what he professed to do, was as truly saved as any professing Christian now. The Hebrew pro- mised to take God as his God ; he promised obedience to his law.s, and to exercise faith in the Divine pro- mises ; and what does the Christian parent more to- day? So that both dispensations are identical in !r; .: i n ONE CHURCH. nature, however they may differ in regard to externals. The visible Church has always consisted of the pro- fessors of the faith together with their children, and these have been her members under both disj^en- sations. The covenant made with Abraham was the covenant of grace, and the same on which the Church rests to-day. The blessings promised were spiritual rather than national, for the Jews did not exist as a nation for centuries after this. It is called an ever- lasting covenant, and not a mere temporary arrange- ment that was to pass away as the nationality of the Jews has passed away for ever. In that covenant God promised to be a God to Abraham and to his seed ; what more is He to us than our God ? That covenant embraced more than temporal blessings, for it was, as Paul declares, confirmed of God in Christ. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day, and he saw it and was glad. Paul also tells us that Abraham had the Gospel preached to him. The covenant then being the same, the Church resting on this covenant has always been the same. The Church in the days of Abraham ; the Church in the time of Moses ; the Church during our Lord's life on earth ; and the Church of God in our own day, is the One Church founded on the same covenant made with Abraham, and which is the Church's charter still. f^R m ONE CHURCH. This same church, founded on the same covenant, has always been administered through iJie same Mediator. The Saviour now, was the Angel of the covenant then, whose blood was shed from the founda- tion of the world. Sinners were saved then in the same way as they are saved now, and by the same Saviour. Since God and man have had dealings with each other, there has been only one Mediator between God and Man, the man Christ Jesus, and in every age men have come to the Father by Him. The Church is represented as an Olive tree, (Rom. xi., 16-21), and though some branches have been lopped off, and others grafted in, the identity of the tree has not been destroyed. As the Apostle argues, the same root and trunk continue, the same olive tree under the care of the same husbandman. The removal of the Jews because of their unbelief and the bringing in of the Gentiles, are just the lopping off of one branch to make room for another on the same stem, and by-and-bye both will grow together again on the same trunk and from the same root. The propJiecies and promises made to the Church are the same, and cover her whole history from the beginning till the consummation of all things. Only one Church is embraced which was to arise and shine, and Gentiles come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising. The Old Testament Church ?p ONE CHURCH. l|ii vas to be enlarged but not abrogated. " Then shalt thou sec and flow together and be enlarged because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee." This one Church was to be built on a founda- tion composed of both Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. All the Gentiles are fellow-heirs of the same body, and are partakers of Christ by the Gospel. Abraham's seed are Christ's children, and Christ's children are Abra- ham's seed. They who are of faith the same are the children of Abraham, Gal. iii.,29. God promised that in Abraham's seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed ; and this was the promise unto which " Our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come." Hence it is said, the blessing of Abraham is come upon us. The commonweaWi of Israel ivas the Church. It is called the church in the wilderness. Acts vii., 38. The Hebrews were chosen from among the other nations not {or political but religious purposes. They were to be the depositaries of the truth, to whom were committed the oracles of God. To them as God's covenant people pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises, Rom. ix., 4. The pious Hebrews are described as those who hoped in Christ before his advent, Eph. 1., 12. Nothing ONE CHURCH. more spiritual can be affirmed of the Church now ! Surely that was a spiritual church whose members are said: (i) To have believed on Christ; (2) To have sought a heavenly country ; (3) Were justified by faith ; (4) Of whom the world was not worthy ; (5) For whom God had prepared a city ; (6) Who are now set down at the right hand of God. All this was said of the members of the Old Covenant, and what more can be said of the Church now ? God pointed Abraham to the stars, and asked if he could count them — " So shall thy seed be for multitude." He asked him to look at the sand lying by the sea-shore, and again said — " So shall thy seed be for multitude." Now, what seed is meant ? His descent by blood, or by faith} The natural J etVy ox the spiritual} Israel after the Jiesh, or IsrSioX after the spirit} Sure it must mean the latter, for the Jews have never been a numerous nation ; how few in numbers when compared to China, India, Russia, or Britain ! Of what value would the covenant be if it were only Abraham's natural descent, for there have been many nations more numerous and powerful with- out any covenant ? But they who believe in Christ are the children of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise. Abraham is the father v f the faithful, and his spiritual children are to be as the sand for multitude, — "A g;eat multitude which no man can number." d r» ,i .11 I 11 i 8 OA/-E CHURCH. The saints of old worshipped the same God as we do now, and came to Him through the same way of life ; and all through the spiritual history of the world there has been the same dependence on the same Holy Spirit, while God's true children have had the same experience of his grace ; they sang the same songs of praise, and presented the same peti- tions. And how can that be a different Church which is bound to the Church now by so many spiritual ties that meant the same then as now. — Ore God and Father of all, one Mediator and Saviour, one Spirit of Life, one inward grace and experience, one hope and home in all ages. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is our covenant God ; and our Saviour to-day was the Saviour of all his Saints who lived before His Advent. If any further proof were needed to show that the Christian Church was a continuation of the patri- archal or Abrahamic, we have such proof in the fact that tJie Apostles never attempted to set up any neiv organisation, but built on a foundation already laid. All admit that the New Testament era opened fully out on the day of Pentecost. But we find the first Christian Church existing before that day, and con- vened by authority to exercise one of the highest functions belonging to any church, viz., to choose an Apostle in the place of Judas. These 120 disciples ONE CHURCH. 9 formed the membership of the first Christian Church, and we find them all assembled again on the day of Pentecost, all of one accord in one pi' je. To this membership the 3,000 were added. But neither the apostles, nor yet the 120 disciples, ever received water baptism, but were accepted without it, and why? Because they had already been received into the Church, and their membership recognized by circum- cision, and they had never lost their standing by rejection of Christ, but passed over from the member- ship of the Old, into the New Testament Church, fully recognized by the rite which had the same signification that baptism was to have now. When, four days before his death, Christ pronounced the sentence of excommunication on the people for their apostacy, it did not affect those who were in good standing when Christ was crucified, and who carried their membership from the one Church to the other. And around this nucleus the New Testament Church was gathered, and was composed of members, some of whom had been received by cirauucision under the former dispensation, and others by baptism under the new ; yet all now stood on equal terms in the same Church. But it may be asked, " Why, then, were those Jews baptized who afterwards believed the Gospel, when they, too, had already received the rite of circumcision, 10 O^E CHUKCU. ■ t if this meant the same as baptism ? When we receive excommunicated members back again into the Church, we do not re-baptize them. But the cases are not parallel. The unbelieving Jews had been cut off undc a former dispensation, and during the time of their separation and exclusion from the Church of God, baptism had been instituted in the place of circumcision as the initiatory rite into the Christian Church. And now, when on repentance and faith they seek admission, they submit and receive the new rite that recognizes their membership, i.e., it was during the time of their excommunication baptism was instituted, and now when they enter the Church they must enter as other Gentiles through Christian baptism. Hence the members gathered in on the day of Pentecost were added to a Church already existing and composed of the 120 nr^jmbers whose standing had been recognized long before, and which had never been lost, and seeing they were never outside of this one Church it was not necessary they should undergo the rite of reception now. In short, there has been only one Church on earth existing under different dispensations. The God of Abraham is the covenant God of his people still, and all that Christ has done for the salvation of men was done as much for those who were under the first covenant (Heb. ix. 1$) as for us. There has been i,: 111 CXE CHVRCir. IT only one covenant or promise unto which the true Israel have constantly looked. This is the turning point of the whole question. As the blade, and ear, and corn, are in the jarlier germ ; as the twig grows into a tree ; or as the boy grows into the man, and when he has reached man's estate is not a different person from what he was when a boy, so tho Church is one at different periods of her growth and history. Infants were members of this Church once — they have never been removed — therefore, they arc members still, for the mere lapse of time works no change on the characteristics and spiritual features of a Church that liveth and abideth forever : all the rights of her members are conserved. INFANT CHURCH RELATIONS. In the original constitution which God gave his Church, infant children were included among its members, as any one may see by a reference to the facts of the case. And this membership of children has never been withdrawn : there is no law of repeal anywhere to be found in subsequent legislation, or any change in this direction so much as hinted at : the rights then granted have never been abrogated. Therefore, infants have a right to membership still ; and if to membership then surely to baptism, as the sign and seal of the covenant which secures this right. ? 12 ONE CIIURCfL \% By divine appointment children had a place given them among the professed people of God, and this arrangement, which embraced children among her members, has never been changed ; those privileges, then given, have never since been withheld ; nor has the duty of parents in presenting their children to the Lord been denied. The seed of the righteous are still entitled to a place in the visible kingdom. Once the covenant embraced both bel'leving parents and their seed, and the seal of the covenant was applied to both. If, therefore, such a change as the exclusion of one half of the membership of the Church had been effected, we might naturally have supposed that some mention would have been made of the fact. But we look in vain for any such indication. Instead of this, we find numerous intimations showing that the same order was to continue. Such a radical change as this would imply would have been noticed by both friend and foe. The Jews were proud of their covenant relations, and would have offered strenuous opposition to anj-- seeming encroachment on their religious privileges. But we find not one word of complaint against the exclusion of infants from the membership of the Church ; because such exclusion has never taken place, and children are members of the Church still. Let them who say this right has been withdrawn point out to us the \ i IBB ONE CHURCH. 13 say the abolishing act ! It is not to be found in all the Bible, for the covenant which embraced infants was ex- pressly called an everlasting covenant. And what was once a law in the Church, and has never been repealed, nnust be a law still. John Owen says, " God never had a Church on the earth without children being a part of it." When proselytes were circumcised on a profession of faith, and received among the people of God, their children were received at the same time, and recognized as members in the visible Church, So in the New Testament, when parents were baptized their children were baptized with them. In every case where the head is known to have had a family, the house/ioid was received and baptized ; i.e., the Apostles nevc baptized the head of a home without baptizing all its inmates, and receiving the whole family into the Church, And I do not care to argue whether any children were present in these households or not. It is the 'brm of expression that is the determining point. A household generally contains children, and this term could never have been used if it had not been customary for baptism to go by households, and that the head of a home carried the religion of the family with him, and when he believed, he believed with all his house. We might draw a parallel between the two ordi- w^ u OATE CHURCH. nances as administered under the two dispensations. ** When he was circumcised and his family." " When he was baptized and his family." The one followed as naturally as the other according to the tenor of the covenant. " You and your seed." " You and your children." Households were received into Christian fellowship ill the New Testament Church, as in the Old, on the faith of the head. And it is worthy of notice that the Syriac version, one of the oldest and very best versions ever made, translates the passage. Acts xvi., 1 6, " When she was baptized and her children.'' And the Coptic, another old version, gives the same rendering. We maintain that the Lord, in the New Testament Church, has made it both the duty and privilege of Christian parents to consecrate their children to Him through the ordinance of baptism, as believing parents consecrated their children in the Old Testament Church through the ordinance of circumcision. Our Lord's command in Matt, xxviii, 19, contains these three elements: (i) Disciple the nations, (2) Baptise them, (3) Teach them. And the Apostles, acting under inspired authority, would continue to disciple the nations as had always been done from the beginning of the Church's history; and to include the children along with their parents in the member- ship of the Church, more especially as no hint of ONE CHURCH. 15 a change had ever been given. Had the command been, " Go and circumcise them," etc., there would not have been a shadow of doubt on the subject as to who were to be the proper subjects of circumcision, as it had always been parents and children. But in what sense is the case changed when baptism is substituted for circumcision ? The Jews would never imagine that the New Testament Church was to be narrower and more exclusive than the Old had been. And when they heard Peter urge them to come forward and be baptized, for the promise was to them and to their children, who would dream of denying the right to infants? And when it was seen that baptism had come in the place of circumcision, the very instinct of the Jewish parent would prompt him to bring his child for baptism, as he had been accustomed to do for circumcision, and we find that everything in the inspired record agrees with this supposition. If children could be, and were, discipled through the rilo of circumcision, why should they not be discipled through the right of baptism ? No one dreamt that the command to circumcise was meant to exclude children, for the practice of the Church for two thousand years would determine this point. And yet the requirements for circumcision were the same as for baptism ; for he who was circumcised was a debtor to do the whole law. But the command to I *! '1 f^ 16 OA'/-: CHURCH. I:-; ||! t If I disciple and circumcise did not exclude children. How then can it be shown that the command to disciple and baptize necessarily excludes them ? The fact is that noiv^ under the New Testament, as then^ under the Old, children are embrac' d within the visible kingdom. Before He was Himself conscious of it, the child Jesus was, by the express wish and act of His paren*;s, shut in by holy rites within the visible Church of God ; and when He came to mature years He lovingly took the place their faith had given Him, and grew up zvithin the house of God, and not luithout, as, alas ! so many of our young people do. The House of God was a joy to Him, and never on any Sabbath was His place seen to be empty. How thoroughly He could appropriate David's words, " How amiable are Thy tabernacles .... My soul longeth for the courts of the Lord .... One day in Thy house is better than a thousand." It is, surely, a most impressive thought that Christianity is thus seen bending over the cradle of the infant, and claiming it for the Good Shepherd. And how comforting and helpful to the faith and love of the parents, that, when feeling their responsibility and helplessness most, they can commit their charge to Him, and plead the covenant mercies he has promised to bestow ! The parent's heart is filled with OXE CHUKCII. 17 gratitude to Him who allows his sacred name to be named over them so early, and enables them to cast their greatest care upon Him. Christ's care and love for little children were wonaerful : " Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." What words of comfort from the lips of Christ! His act in pressing them to His heart and fondling them on His knee was intend. ' -^ mean all that the strongest faith takes out of it. Wliile His reason for His act is the most inspiring of all—" For of such is the kingdom of heaven." As he took up one after another, his right hand, disengaged, was laid upon the little head of each, and He (giving the full force of the original) fervently blesses them. Who then can doubt the nature of the relation which the Good Shepherd meant should ever exist between Himself and the lambs of His flock .? To disfran- chise them is to wrong the Saviour in His own house and rob Him of half His charge-OF sucil is the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. ill r is I I I THR CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. — Mark x. 14-16. 1.0, children are an heritage of the Lord. — Ps. cxxvii. 3. Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in nowise enter iherein. — Luke xviii. 17. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. — Luke i. 15. From a little child thou hast known the holy scriptures^ which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. — 2 Tim. iii. 15. .'V thp: children of the church. m not, for up in his . 14-16. little child s mother's which are s in Christ One of the topics of discussion at a recent Sabbath school convention was, " How to retain the older scholars in the school and attach them peimanently to the Church," The theme ihus suggested is one of profound practical importance, and touches a weak point in our modern Church life. It is, however, only another way of stating. How best to promote the growtJi in grace of our children, and the gradual maturing of their Christian character, carrying out the Apostle's command, and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This is a question that appeals very directly to all Christian people, and especially to those who are engaged in the practical work of the Church. It is a question of unspeakable moment to the young them- selves which we seek to press upon their earnest consideration, and we would ask them to ponder the significance of the relation they sustain, and the nature of Christian nurture under which they are placed. " ni ■1 1 t (' 1 '• •)0 CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. THE NATUKK OK CHRISTIAN NURTURE. The settling of this question settles also the relation which the children sustain to the Church, and to Christ her Head. As to the nature of Christian nurture, Paul's teaching is very explicit. He says, " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Teach them that they are Jioly to the Lord ; that they belong to Him ; and as members of His Church, not living for future conversion, but growing up Christian.^, and never knowing themselves to be anythi.ig else. The Head of the Church makes no provision for our growing up in sin, and living for future adoption into the number of His people. There is no specific arrangement, nor binding necessity for our breaking loose from those tender, loving bonds He throws around us in our infancy, and turning our backs on Him who claims us as His own. A very common opinion is, that, till such time as we get a 7ietv heart later in life, we are of the devil. And yet is not the testimony of Scripture explicit that from our childhood Christ claims our love and obedience? There can be no doubt that the normal standard of Christian life and growth is to be Christ's in our infancy, as John the Baptist was, who was consecrated to the Lord from his mother's womb ; to be His in our boyhood, as Timothy was, who knew the Scriptures from a little child ; and to be His in our whole life, as Cini.DKEX OF THE CnUKCH. 23 Samuel, Simeon, Eunice, and the great majority of all Christ's people, who have grown up, not as aliens, but subjects of His grace, in harmony with the purpose of our Lord, and the true nature of Christian culture. We would put the question to all earnest children of God and ask them which they would have preferred, viz.: — to grow up in a life of sin and spend their best days in alienation from the Saviour, and then, in the evening, to find their way into the fold ? Or, to grow up from childhood in the nurture of the Lord, subjects of His grace all their days, never knowing separation from His love, cen in infancy lambs of His flock, having throughout life only the experiences of God's children ? There can only be one answer as to which of these two modes of growth is preferable and most in accordance with the Scripture plan ; nor can there be any question as to which of the two is Christian nurture. Nowhere is Christian character more beautiful, and never are the fruits of our faith riper, than, when they have matured through the long day of life under the sunshine of our Father's love. It is a blessed thing to feel that the superstructure of all our experiences in grace have had their foundation principles laid in a sanctified childhood ; that the blossoms and fruit of our mature Christian life — mellow and ripe — have their roots in the grace bestowed in our early years. f 24 CIULDKEX Of THE CHURCH. I I W. ■ft I I And as the buds and blossoms of spring give promise of the clustering fruits of autumn, so our baptized childhood should b^ the earnest of the ingathering of those sheaves on the great harvest-day amid the joy of heaven. And this oneness of Christian life and character from childhood onward is the special promise of God to the faith of I lis people, and one of the provisions of His covenant of grace. For this end He has given the children a place in His Church, and He has laid special obligations upon her con- cerning them. " Feed my lambs ; bring them up in the nurture of the Lord ; trai:i them in the way they should go." He who said, " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," would never gather a flock without lambs, or make provision for gathering the flock away from the lambs. He who said, " Feed my sheep," said also " Feed my lauibsl'' and heavy must be the condemnation where this solemn duty is neglected. " It is no us'^ ^ our 'o-ying to be good till you have got a new heart," SLid a Sabbath-school teacher to a bright little girl in her class. But a child cannot, and need not, understand this technical language, and can have no conscious experience corresponding to it. And the only inference that a child could draw is — " that it is no use trying to be good till some- if?' CUir.DREX OF THE ClfCKCH. 25 thing has happened, and been understood, above her present aj^^e." Why then should she try ? The inten- tion of such a teacher may be well meaning, but it is both mistaken and cruel, and such teaching accounts for many of the sad failures we see. Why not rather seek to encourage the child to right feeling, and to learn to love her Heavenly Father, as she has learned to love her earthly ? And may not the Spirit bless such teaching to the forming of right principles in the heart of a child as in that of an adult ? m OUR AIM AND EXPECTATION. If this be the place given to children — lambs of the flock — and such the arrangements of Christ for their Christian nurture, why then should the growth of our children in Christian knowledge and experi- ence be not only our aim, and earnest expectation that these happy results will surely follow ; but also our realized joy that cui children are found walking in the truth and putting on one feature of discipleship after another? And why are these expec- tations, that have such Scripture warrant, so often disappointed ? The Church would do well to ponder the question, " How is it that so many who ought to be in the Church, are to-day swelling the ranks of sin ? " Is it not an inspiring thought that the seal of the Spirit can be, and often has been, laid upon the ■h ( ' 'C-- H »'■; ^>\i '\% "W 20 CHILDREN OF TJ/E CHURCH. :\ ■m life of a little child, as we are expressly told it was laid in the case of John the Baptist ; and there was nothing special in his case that makes it impossible to be the privilege of children generally. An eminent minister of New York was telling the Rev. L. W. Bacon the story of his religious expe- rience. Shortly after, Mr. Bacon met the venerable father of his eminent friend. " Your son has been telling me the story of his religious life." " Oh no, he hasn't," replied the good old man : " he can't remember that story. Only his mother and myself can tell it. It goes back to his cradle." And so is it in the case of thousands upon thousands ; the story of their religious life " goes back to their cradle," and they have been sanctified to the Lord from their mother's womb. Laying aside for a moment the consideration of the divine side, viz., the purpose, relation and deal- ings of Christ, let us look at the human, and even then we affirm that a very young child can know the Saviour and learn to love Him. Has God's Spirit nothing to do in the hearts of children, no presidency or power of grace there ? is this the only sphere from which He is excluded ? The thought is monstrous ! True, a child's knowledge of Christ and its experi- ences must be a chihts knowledge, very germinal and imperfect, but not the less real on that account. CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. 27 Even adults are not saved because their faith is strong and their experiences very mature, but because Christ is rich in mercy, and His grace has availed for them. And so we think of the safety of a lamb chiefly because it is in the bosom of the Good Shep- herd, who has His everlasting arms around it. We ask, is this the place and character liiat the Church usually gives her childien ? And do Christian parents regard them as members of the visible Church, and as such, holy to the Lord ? And is their growth in grace the expectation commonly formed of them ? And does their trcatmciit of them correspond to this character attaching to them ? Or, are they not rather looked upon as of the world growing up for future conversion ? Do not the conception and treatment of Christian parents in numberless instances practi- cally place their children outside of God's covenant mercies ? And have they not rather, by these false methods and mistaken judgments, often trampled out the first embers of faith smouldering in their hearts? Have tliey been on the alert to welcome the first indications of pious feeling? Have they not rather by false tests, and by throwing a gloom over religious life and duty, discouraged and alienated the young,, and put obstacles in the way of their progress Christ- ward ? It can never be a delightful thought to those who are in covenant relation with the Saviour to ^1 28 CUII.DREX OF THE CHi'RCH. \ ':: ^r-l think of their children as separated from them ! Themselves in the life-boat, but their little ones sink- ing in the sea, with the prospect of only one here and there being saved ! No, the promise, that is to us and to our children, puts both within the covenant, and it is our privilege as it ought to be our unspeakable joy, to regard our children as the Lord's heritage, and never to regard them as anything else than His, till they, by an after wicked life, persisted in, force us to change our judgment of them. I regard my children as belonging to the Lord now, and I will never believe anything else of them till I cannot help it There are those who put tlieir children outside of the Church and of God's covenant mercies, and who class them all as children of the devil. And the more earnest these parents are, the more will they ponder the question, '* Will God in the exercise of His sovereign grace ever convert my child and bring him into the fold, or will he remain a child of the devil for ever ? God's wrath and curse are upon its httle soul to-day, will they abide till the day of final doom ?" To think thus of my child would han^^ the weight of death around my heart, and compel me to live in the most terrible of all uncertainties ! But we have not so learned Christ, who has taught us to regard our children as the lambs of His flock, as in His church and among His people ; and as such, holy to the CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. Lord, growing up in His nurture and for His King- dom ; and nothing short of an abandoned after-life can rob us of this hope and joy. And O what a multitude of sins it would cover, if parents and the trainers of the young, would deepen these precious truths in the hearts and lives of the children of the Church ! THE CHRISTIAN HOME. VVe must guard against that extreme individualism which is so prominent a feature of modern religious life, to the ignoring of those organic laws which bind all society together. The State, the Church, the con- gregation, the family, are all founded on organic conditions. In the home the child lies within the moral agency of the parents for years, and never wholly escapes it. The connection is so close as to lead us to believe that the faith and Christian life of the parent will become those of the child ; and that 'f we live a Christian life before them, and fill our v, le with a Christian atmosphere, the law of the ip.rit of life will include our children along with our- selves.* In the matter of religion the heads of a home carry their children with them. (This I hope to show in the next chapter). And in any change of religion the children are involved with their parents. Hence the * See on this point lUishnell's "Christian Nurture." '1 1 I t \ -n r ii li 1" Tiff J '■'ft m ^0 CUILDKEiY OF THE CHURCH. if 4 V j ii I it i 1 form of language, " He rejoiced in God ivitli all his house.'' The hojne is the church of childhood, and no school of training can take the place of that great university of nature, the Christian home, where the mother is the chief professor, whose lessons and influ- ence go deeper than any they will meet afterwards. In this school grace may dawn in the hearts of the young, in other and milder forms of experience than in those cases of conscious conversion from a life of sin ; and the former case is as much dependent upon, and a manifestation of the Spirit's working as the latter, and is the normal growth of Christian life and character. We do not affirm that every child that is so trained will grow up in grace ; but simply that this is the true ideal and aim of Christian culture, and that if the conditions were fulfilled, the failures would be far fewer than many suppose. Many godly parents have wayward children, just because many godly parents are foolish, and manifest many weak traits of character. They work under false ideas, by v/rong methods, and exhibit a harsh, forbidding manner sufficient to account for all the failures we deplore. Where we make our home and our churches schools of early Christian nurture ; pray and work, teach and expect our children to grow as plants in the house of the Lord, not one in ten will fall away, nor yet be able to remember a time when they became Christian, I I m CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. 31 for they liave nev-er been anything else. They hav'; grown into their Christian Hfe as they grew into their maturity. As a matter of fact, children have been so trained : this, indeed, is the normal condition, and not exceptional, l^axter tells us, that, at one period of his life, he was greatly distressed because he could not recollect a time when any special, gracious change had taken place in him. He had been taught to expect a crisis, and a great decisive struggle, resulting in his conversion. And because this never came he imagined something must be wrong ; " Till I learned to know," to use his own words, " that education is as properly a means of grace as preaching." And he tells us he lived to thank God that he had learned to love and obey God so early, and had been led into the richer experiences of the Divine life, as he had been led into his physical and mental stature, by the uniform law of growth and gradual development. Spurgeon says, that of all he has admitted into the Church in childhood, he has not found one, who, in after life disgraced the Christian profession. And the uniform experience of every pastor is, that his own young people who have been trained in his Sabbath-school and Bible-class, are the most mature and helpful Christians, and those who will give him the least trouble, or cause the least anxiety. I ■■ m \\i ■I A l. II .,i 11^ fc ■if 1 '^ ^ III 1 II 1 1 III lit! I I i m CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. NORMAL (JKOWTII. It has been said that " The value, if not the possi- bility, of true Christian feeling, inwrought by the Holy Spirit, and developed gradually from childhood by Christian nurture, ana concurrently with our intellectual growth, is too often lost sight of even among good people. The Christian life is generally so developed, so gradually moulded, as sometimes to preclude distinct statements of any time when our eyes were opened." The light from the Saviour's face came upon the soul as the morning comes — so gradually that no man can mark the moment when the first beams burst forth, yet so efficiently that none can doubt its presence. From a little germ beneath the soil our flowers and fruit bloom and ripen through the long summer day, slowly, yet surely, with the sacred progress which Nature manifests. And so is it with the plants which our Father has planted in His own garden amid the sunshine and glory of His day of grace. The life of a young disciple often ripens in a way that prevents us from mapping out the manner or order of its progress in the soul, but none, not even we ourselves, can doubt its reality. None of us can remember the day we were born, or when a new existence began that is to continue for- ever ; far less can anyone describe the experience of the beginning of those years through which we have CllILDREX OF THE CHURCH. 33 lived. Nor can the great majority tell the day they were born of the Spirit, or describe the beginning of Y\{z in the soul ; and yet it may be no less real in the one case than in the other. This fact is with many unduly ignored, and alto- gether underrated as a practical question, to the injury of Christ's people, and especially the most tender and humble of His flock. Require of every disciple an exposition of the manner of his spiritual awakening as a proof that he is Christ's, and you discourage many of His best people, and unnecessarily and dangerously imbue others with misconceptions con- cerning the whole subject. By this mechanical regu- lation, which Christ Himself never imposed, and by a false ideal of what some call Christian experience, we too often put without the fold the lambs of the flock ; we put them so far without, that immense numbers of them are lost, past all recovery, on the dark mountains of sin. Have you ever seen the unveiling of a statue, on some public occasion, before a great multitude? When, at the given signal, the nicely adjusted cover- ing was dropped, it seemed as if it had sprung into being at that very moment. But all know, and none better than the sculptor, how long and how painfully he has laboured to shape its beauty out of the rude mass at the beginning. So is it with the image of w I D \ ul ■p^ ill :'A Cl/rrj)REN OF IIIE CHURCH. Christ within us. Most are trained from their infancy into the Christian life, so that when the disclosure comes, it is not the revelation of something that has newly taken place, but more like the unveiling of a statue on some public square, a revelation of something that has been there for a length of time. To some it seems as if it had sprung into being then and there, while in reality it has been the work of the chisel and the mallet for months and years, under the fashioning power of the Spirit of God. The disclo- sure was sudden, but the foundation and workman- ship were not. " A child that is of a devout and loving nature, brought up at the knee of a devout and loving mother, is early inclined to God, and it is so trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that it never knows and never ought to know, the time when it did not think of God as its Heavenly Father, and of belonging to Christ." A child brought up in this way grows year by year, and step by step, and becomes an earnest Christian, and no one, not even himself, can tell precisely when the change came. Our Christian character to-day is the outcome and result of all that has gone before, and we have been shaped and moulded by all the influences, ten thou- sand in number, that have touched us. Unnumbered drops have fallen on the ground, you cannot tell where ; but, as the result, the fields are green. You i: I I CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. 35 see them, and rejoice in the fact. So it is with our hearts beneath the dew of heaven. ** The wind bloweth," etc. When I was being licensed by the Presbytery of Toronto to preach the Gospel, an incident which I may relate occurred that illustrates this part of our subject. I had been examined on the usual subjects, Latin, Greek, Theology, etc., and now the subject of personal religion was announced, and this was en- trusted to an elder who had hitherto taken no part in the examinations. And he, like an earnest, devout man, wishing to go to the root of the matter at once, asked me, " Do you think you have ever been converted ? " To this I replied, that, according to his understand- ing of the matter, I did not think I ever had been. This answer seemed for a moment to bar my way in the good man's judgment, till a member of the court came to my relief, and framed a question which I could answer easily ; but I am sure the elder had grave doubts about me. I never put the question " Have you been converted ? " to my young people who have grown up within the Church, been reli- giously trained, and have all along been giving evidences that they were growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. When such seek full communion with the Church, i look over their whole past life, with all ics attendant circumstances, and if H %: % I % iii r n Twr H ■■I . f 'ii ^ 36 CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. convinced of the sincerity of their desire to obey Christ, and of their interest in Him, though that interest may be imperfectly spoken, I would never dream of troubling them with a question that does not apply to them. Our Master would not break the bruised reed, but tenderly nou.ished into greater strength the beginnings of faith, and so must we. By their fruits ye shall know them ; for the Spirit, by the fruits which He produces, makes His presence manifest wherever He resides. T BAPTIZED CHILDREN ARE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH TO BE TRAINED FOR CHRIST. The great majority of believers are regenerated in infancy, and what is often regarded ^s their after conversion is only the blossoming out into fuller manifestation of a life received from above, long before. The church membership of children is put in clear, forcible terms by Dr. Atwater who says : — " They should be taught to feel, act and live as becomes those who are the Lord's ; not merely that it is wrong and perilous to be and do otherwise, which is true of all, whc.ncr within or without the Church, but that such a course is inconsistent with their posi- tion as members of the visible Church, placed in it by the merc)' o{ God, and bound to His service by vows made for them by their parents, whose duty 'ft i I CIIIL INE/V OF THE CHURCH. 37 and privilege it was thus to act for them, and give them a place among the people of God until they became competent- in their own persons, and of their own choice to act, cither to retain or renounce it." Dr. J. W. Alexander says " Children born within the pale of the visible Church, and dedicated to God in baptism, are to be taught to hate sin, to fear God, to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they arrive at years of discretion, it behoves every one of them to consider the duty of ratifying the vows made in their name by a personal avowal of allegiance to Christ. The case of such is, therefore, widely dif- ferent from that of the world without." Hence the propriety of the position laid down in " The Directory for Public Worship," which says, " Children born within the pale of the visible Church, and dedicated to the Lord in baptism, when they come to years of discretion, if they be free from scandal, appear sober and steady, and have sufficient knowledge to discern the Lord's body, ought to be informed that it is their duty and privilege to come to the table of the Lord." And the Supper is not offered, as a medal is given, for superior merit, but as a means of grace to help the feeble and timid on their way. ■ - How many of our young people really understand their true relation to Christ and His people, as being t:i ^i ^1^] t is ■PfF 38 CHILDREN 01' TIL CIIUKCIL I % members of His Church from birth ? Does the Church herself ordinarily regard these little ones and all the young people growing up under her care as members or as ivorldlings ? The theory which is expressed in our symbolic books is Scriptural, but our present practice is very inconsistent, and our official language quite misleading. We speak of the young and treat them as being of the world, and when they apply for sealing ordinances it is called ''joining the Chiirchl' instead of assuming their full responsibilities and advancing in their privilege. There is a little book by Rev. Alexander Balloch Grosart, called " Joining the Churcl>." It is dedicated to Rev. Andrew Bonar, and is intended as a guide to the minister m his dealings with intending young communicants. In his opening remarks he says " I suppose the appli- cant to have called upon the minister and to have expressed a wish to 'join the Church' " And at his first visit the applicant is made to say " You will re- member, sir, that I wish to 'join the CJuircJi! " This language is most misleading, and a Free Church minister ought to have known better than to use it in this connection, A man does not join his country when he comes of age and casts his first vote, nor, again, do our young people join the Church when they come for the first time to the table of the Lord. They are members of the Church by birthright, and cmi.nKEX OF THE c//r.\'cif. ;'.o their peril is in breakitij^ away from, and not in seekinpf closer union. Let no Presbyterian ever be so false to his principles as to speak of joining the Church with reference to the young. Such language fails to make manifest and emphasize the Church member- ship o{ children.* Some say this makes our Church membership rest on natural descent and not on the work of the Spirit. But if God has given the child that relation and standing, and promised to bless them to the child's en- lightenment ; if He has said that lie both can and will own parental instruction to th child's growth in grace, it is derogatory to God's wisdom and goodness to doubt this. If God says that the child's coiuicction with the visible Church will be to him the school of Christ, where he will be taught saving truth, and grow up a member of the Church invisible, why should any one doubt this, and act as if God would not keep His promise? We greatly dishonour God when we doubt His word, and we injure ourselves and our children when we change the plans of His grace. HOW THE CHURCH MUST INCREASE. There are those who, by periodical revivals, gather in her members, and their actions imply that only in • A call is said to be signed by so many members and adherents ; this language is open to the same objection. .US ■Ik; fi I' i^ mm 40 CHILDREN OF THE CHURCIL i •' ill. this way, by conquests from the world, can she grow. But while admitting this as one way, we must not seek to live by conquest only, but by internal growth ; and the lon^fer the Church is established the more prominent will this feature become. Hitherto we have too much forgotten this latter and normal mode of growth, and expected only the former. Our piety is fiery and spasmodic. We think of the Church as besieged, and occasionally making sallies upon the enemy. We try \.o get up revivals. AH true revivals come down. We expect the Church to grow \>y conquest, and overlook the Tp.ct that its chief increase is from ijitJiin and hy growth. We think nothing is being done unless we have stir, excitement, multiplied instrumentalities, and elaborate machinery. We seek to be pious and devoted on certain great occasions, and forget that the chief fund of increase is in the bosom of the Church herself, and that the longer she is established conversions from the world will become less and less frequent, and growth yn grace more and mqre realized and rejoiced in. When children are trained up in the way they should go, they swell the ranks of the Church as her chief element of increase. Not till religion comes into the home will it thoroughly permeate the life. This principle is so evident and Scriptural, that in the Confessions of the four great historic Churches — Sreek, Latin, Lutheran, and Re- CHILDREN OF THE CHUKCH. 41 formed — the children of Christians are spoken of as members of the visible Church with their parent — " AD who profess the true religion togetlier zvith their childre:i. Steady growth in all the elements of Christian life and progress; additions at every communion from the older scholars in the Sabbath school and Bible classes; t'le Lord adding daily such as shall be saved ; fruitful results from the ordinary means of grace, nothing unusual or special, but all life and spiritual movement, and the young daily learning to walk in the truth and living to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things — let no congregation grow weary with such evident visitations of the Spirit as these, or long for any other proof of a revival. This is the way the Church grows, firmly knit together in the bonds of love. We heard once of a complaint being made against a certain congregation that it had never had a revival of religion for forty years. While others, it was said, had enjoyed an outpouring of the Spirit every winter, this particular congregation had remained unvisited. Yet the objector went on to say: "We must admit that the attendance keeps large, and the number of its communicants has con- tinually and steadily mcreased ; all the people seem devout, sincere, and active in the work of the Lord. Few congregations have shown the same liberality, or It I (I % a k '11 1 1 ! i> i m^ 1^ I 42 CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. % taken a more active part in every good work ; their contributions to missions have exceeded all others, they have kept thoroughly organized, and everyone seems to be at his post, and to be doing his work faithfully. There have been no special conversions, and yet the young people and children of the Church have, naturally, and very generally, stepped into the place of their fathers. There has always been a wonderful degree of moral force about the congrega- tion, that has leavened the con.munity." Such was the testimony borne in regard to it, and yet in the face of all this, it was said this congregation had not been blessed by a revival of religion. But, surely, this is the kind of revival we work and pray for, and long to see — a continued, gracious outpouring of God's Spirit on every meeting and through all the agencies. A revival that keeps every one at his post and doing his work earnestly : this is, indeed, the true type of Christian advancement. Such a congregation as this is a model for all others, and one after our own heart. What an honour to be the minister of such a congre- gation as this ; not a passing by, but an abiding ; not a temporary shower, but a ceaseless out-pouring ; God's Spirit so obviously owning the work as to keep the ranks filled ; the people zealous, liberal, devout, with the lambs of the flock abiding in the fold, and drinking the sincere milk of the Word. What other CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. 43 or clearer proof than this does the Church need of God's gracious presence, and the Spirit's reviving power? Instead of regarding such congregations as unvisited, or deprived of quickening grace, because there has been nothing spasmodic or unusual, we find in all this the proof that the revival has been continu- ous, and we take such congregations as the true type of Church life- and spiritual growth. Such a condi- tion of things should never be deprecated, as it is the normal growth of the Church. O that the Spirit may- be poured out on each service, and continue His loving kindness to us, that we may grow as trees planted by the rivers of water ! SPIRITUAL LIFE AND PROGRESS. It is our common regret that so many of our young people grow up and fail to take their places at the table of the Lord, or even in the Church, a course contrary to what we might expect naturally to follow religious home training. Many of the young count themselves out, and take the place and assume the character of strangers to the covenant of promise. This sad tendency is helped in part by a wrong mode of representation Lhat I cannot help thinking is very hurtful, and it is used by many who ought to know better. They speak, as I have said, of the young as "joining the Church," and represent it as an introduc- Hon to, instead of an advancement in, their spiritual life, ^A\ ■ ji - .J: .,1 i Ir )■ 1 44 CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH \ W 11., iff %. and taking the place that of right belongs to them as children of the Church. Our children, and the young people of our Christian homes, ought to be taught and made to feel that they are members of the visible Church of Christ by birthright, and have been recognized by baptism. From their childhood they have been under the laws of His house, and their peril is in breaking away and not in seeking closer union. As this is the place Christ has given Ihem, and such their corresponding responsibilities, why is it that we do not more frequently see the young of our Sabbath schools and Bible-classes pass into the full membership of the Church ? It is, I am persuaded due largely to false ideas and false teaching on this subject, and the young are treated as being outside covenant relations, and in no sense different from the heathen. But to put forth such a view is to pour contempt on one of our fundamental positions. It is just here where all churches fail in their mission, and lose their hold on the young. It should be the anxious care and constant aim of the Church that the blessing of Christ may come upon her young, that our sons may be as plants, grown up in their youth, and our daughters as cornerstones, polished after the simili- tude of a palace ; and nothing less than progress in spiritual life should satisfy those who are sowing the good seed of the kingdom. Hi LI m THK FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. w^ I ■iMPIH mniii h I t|i Come thou and aU thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. — Gen. vii., I. For I know him that he will command his children and his house- hold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. — Gen. xviii., 19. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. — Mai. iv., 6. I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. — Jer. xxxi., i. Else were your children unclean, but now are tliey holy.— I Cor. vii., 14. ,, r^ I* I THE FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. No man liveth to himself ; we are so placed together in life that we necessarily affect one another. If we fall, others are pulled down with us, and if we rise, we help to lift up those with whom we are associated. More especially is this the case in the family^ where the head of the home can do so much either to make or mar it ; the sins of the fathers being visited on their children to the third and fourth generation, while their faith follows thousands of them that love God and keep His commandments. The sin and neglect of the parents carry the children away from God, and forfeit their standing and privileges before Him ; while the faith of the parents brings the children near to God. THE REPRESENTATIVE PRINCIPLE. This is one of the commonplaces in theology. God has, in His all-wise and merciful arrangements, made the standing of the child in civil, social, and sacred things, to depend upon that of the parent. •'Wf'fil A r ! - \ ■i' * I; 48 FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. I H' I,: i f! 16 R- ^'» „ r 1 ii 1 Every covenant which God has made with man has included the cliild with the parent, and it has been the divine purpose to deal with \\\g family rather than with individuals ; e.g.^ in the Covenant of Works with Adam, when life was promised on condition of obedience, Adam represented his posterity. *' The covenant being made with Adam, not only for him- self, but for his posterity all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him^ and fell with him in his first transgression." So also in the Covenant of Grace through a Redeemer^ Christ represented His people, and acted for them ; and the same principle of representation runs through every subsequent renewal and unfolding of that cove- nant. In the covenant of protection made with Noah,, his posterity are included, *' And God spake unto Noah and his sons saying, And I, behold I establish my covenant with you, and \v\\X\ your seed after you^'' etc., Gen. ix. 9-17. Of this covenant the bow in the cloud was the sign and seal to him and his posterity that God would never again destroy the earth with a flood. It is the same principle of parents representing their children that is contained in the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham, " And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to tJiy seed after thee''' * #'! FAMILIES OF THE CIIUA'CII. 49 Gen. xvii., 7. And in the renewal of the same cove- nant with Israel through Moses, even the little chil- dren are included ; it is still the same principle of ''you and your seedy " Ye stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders and your officers, with all the men of lsva.c\, your little oties, your wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of wood unto the drawer of water, that thou shouldst enter into the covenant with the Lord thy God, and into the oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day, that He may establish thee to-day for a people unto Himself, and that He may be unto thee a God, as He hath said unto thee and as He hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to ^saac and to Jacob." Deut. xxix., 10-13. And in the opening sermon of the New Testament dispensation, when the Church was remodelled — not instituted — the same gracious principle is proclaimed, " The promise is to you and to your children." Acts ii., 39. "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. xix. 14. While on the ground of this established principle and permanent relationship the solemn injunction of the Master to His Church is, '' Feed my lambs." 1 » k \\ % \ 1 Ml Hii 50 FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. I I fB 'I ' PARENTS AND CHILDRExV. The former represent and include the latter. In the Old Testament the terms were, '''yon and your seed'' ; and in the New Testament, wliich is tlie same church visited, comforted and purified, the terms are, ^^ you and your children^ And this principle is the key-note of the Bible on this subject. In all His gracious deal- ings God has included children and brought them along with their parents within the scope of His pro- mise. When His people of old stood before the mount to enter into covenant with Him, theii' little ones were there also to be included, and to enjoy the privi- leges with their parents. When God gave laws to His people, they were in the most solemn manner commanded to teach them diligently to their children. When the new dispensation was introduced and the Church took its New Testament form, the same principle was announced : " Of such is the kingdom of heaven ;" the same great truth is declared : it is still '^ you and your children^ When the head of a home was circumcised on a profession of faith and received among the professed people of God, their children were received at the same time and counted members. So when parents were baptized their houseJiolds were baptized with them, in every instance where children were known to exist. And wherever gospel duties are enjoined, and the worship of the 4i FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. 51 true God enforced, children arc always included. They are always spoken of, and spoken to, as belong- ing to the Church, and so far as outward relationship and visible membership are concerned, as being Christians. Paul addresses his letter to the saints which arc at Ephesus, and among those saints he includes children. " Children obey your parents in the Lord : for this is right. Honour thy father and mother ; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth," etc. — Eph. vi. 1-3. It is still ''you and your c/ii/drefi." Our children are subjects of the British natiiMi as much as we are, protected in common with ourselves by the whole power of the law. They arc growing up to assume the whole responsibilities, and to enjo\' all the privileges of their citizenship, though as yet they are only minors. So a^'e the children of believ- ing parents members of the commonwealth of Israel through God's covenant incorporating them into His visible kingdom, with a view to their religious train- ing for His spiritual and eternal kingdom ; that when they grow up they may assume all the responsibilities and rejoice in all the privileges of loyal subjects to the grace of Christ their King, related not merely to the external Church, but members of the Church in- visible, having their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. So in the Christian home the head il li ^1 Wf 52 FAMILIES OF THE CIIURCII. carries the members with it, and a parent's faith changes the character and relationship of that home ; brings the family under Christian training and in- fluence ; gives it new hopes and new joys ; and covers it with the promises of salvation. From being a Jewish or a pagan household, the parent's faith in Christ changed it into a Christian home. THE HOUSEHOLD COVENANT. We have evidence of this tri'ih in the answer which Paul gave to the question, so earnestly asked of him by the jailor : " What must I do to be saved ? Be- lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." All readily acquiesce in the first part of the answer, viz., that personal faith in a personal Saviour would save the soul. But when it is further affirmed that his , ith would save his hotise as well as himself ; that it would bring \\\s family i\\ong with him into covenant relations with the Saviour, then some doubt the doctrine, while others deny it utterly. Yet this is the affirmation that Paul makes, that the father's faith would save botli Jiimself and J lis house. When the apostle declared that the house would be saved by the faith of its Jiead, he did not mean to say — nor is this what he did say — that the jailor's faith would save his family in the same way as himself I FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. 53 Neither is it a proper undcrstandirif^ of this passage to say that all he meant was, that the same way of salvation was open to his family that was open to him ; and that if they believed they would be saved as he would be saved ; that their faith would save them, as his faith had saved him. To take this view is to miss the force of the apostle's statement It is not a satisfactory explanation to say that all that was meant was that salvation was open to his family on the very same terms that it was open to its head, " The same way open to them as to him." — Alford. This would declare nothing as being peculiar, or of special benefit, to them. If this were all, then were these children not one whit advantaged by the faith and Christian life of the father ; for in this sense sal- vation was open to all the Philippians, and, indeed, to the whole human race. But when Paul says, the faith of the father will save the Jiousehold, it is of the Household Covenant the apostle speaks, according to the original promise, " / ivill be a God to thee, and to ■thy seed after thee ; that covenant, according to whose terms my faith makes God to be not only my God, but also the God of my home and of my family. The faith of the jailor would bring his household dAou^ with himself into covenant relations with God ; it would give it a new character ; from being a pagan, it would now become a Christian home ; it would Hi % H ■ \ ^^- wr. ^ 54 MILIES OF THE CHURCH. r. W ■I ■'i \ % '■ I i confer on all the children the advantages and privileges of a household of faith ; it would cover it with a new light and glory ; it would breathe around it a new atmosphere, and confer new duties ; it would bring tne home within the range of the Church of Christ according to the Abrahamic Covenant, and secure for the children the nurture and admonition oi the Lord, In short, it ivould save the house, so that the children would grow up uixler Christian influences, which God has promised to bless to the salvation of our children. Hence all the other members were at once baptized on the faith of the father, and along with him. It was to be in the new dispensation, as in the old, the father's faith carried the children with him, and they were to be baptized and incorporated into the Church, as formerly the children of p'oselytes to the Jewish faith had always been. It was so on tiie ground of this same covenant relation between parents and children — the head and its members — that Lydia's household was baptized. The Lord opened her heart ; she believed and was baptiz'^d and received into the Church. And on the ground of her professed faith, which gave her a right to bring her child t-en to the Lord, they were baptized and received into the Christian Church along with their mother. God receives His people as households, " For the promise is to you, and to your children." \ FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. 55 When Zacchreus, at the call of the Master, came down to receive the Lord at his house, the Jioiiie was made a partaker of his salvation, and of all his new- born privileges. That day salvation came to /lis house ; not merely to himself, but to his children. His receiving the Lord gave his home new relations, new privileges, new duties and new responsibilities ; it became clothed in a new character, and was brought within the scope of the divine promises. His chil- dren would henceforth be committed to his way of life, and be made partakers of the father's hopes and joys. He would now bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they might be made partakers of a like precious faith with himself, and be recognized by God as the seed of the righteous. God blesses the children for the father's sake : " Thee have I seen righteous, go thou and thy whole house into the ark." Not the righteous alone, but the seed of the righteous are to be blessed. The ark in which the parent is to be saved is meant for the family. Every Christian parent ought to live as if the ark and its salvation were meant by God for both themselves and their children. There is room in the ark for your child as well as for yourself, and you must train your families to live as those who have been separated from the world and are in the ark of safety. •■if: II ti',, .5 §h » ^1 mm 16 FAMILIES OF THE CIIURCIL Did not the pascal lamb, like God's own lamb, aim at the deliverance of families ? Not persons but houses were sprinkled and saved. He smites the Egyptians and passed over the houses of Israel. Christ's blood to-day is to be sprinkled on our homes — it is still "a lamb for a house." And let it not be forgotten that each father sprinkled it on his ov/n house, and thus saved both himself and his family, while the child of the Egyptian was involved in the unbelief of the father, and perished with him. God's promise is definite, let the parent's faith take hold of it, and like Abraham, not stagger at the pro- mise through unbelief, confident that what God has l)romiscd he is able to perform. " Thou and thy seed." " Ye and your children." " Thou and thy house." " Thou and thy son." " As for me and my house," etc., such is the link binding father and child together in the divine arrangement. THE FAMILY — THE UNIT OF CHURCH LIFE. In this representative principle which we have been illustrating, there is nothing peculiar to the Church. The relation and standing of the child along with its parents are only what is common in every other sphere. In the most vital instances the standing of the parent is the standing of the child, and the act of the parents is the act of the child. If the parent becomes FAMILIES OF THE CIIURCIL 57 a British subject, so do his children ; if he cross the Hnes and take the oath of allegiance, his children become subjects of the United Stales. Even without the household covenant of God's gracious dealings the parents must naturally, and of necessity, carry their children with them in the course which they pursue, whether that course be good or bad. If I am a pagan, then my children are brought up pagans ; if a Mohammedan, then they grow up Mohammedans ; if a Mormon, then my children arc 'committed to that gross system ; there is no help for them ; and if a Roman Catholic, they are trained as Roman Catholics ; whatever branch of the Protestant faith I profess, my children are trained in the same. If I am an earnest and loving disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, my first care — as in the case of Lydia — will be for those who are dependent upon me that thv?y too may grow up in the fear of the Lord, and the promise is — a promise I take home to my heart — thai ve shall all be bound together as a faniilv in the bundle of life. In all these instances it is still '^You and your children'^ How then can any par^ 'it neglect this great salvation, when he sees his family so seriously involved in the consequences of his life and conduct, committed, in fact, to his course ? Some say this makes membership in the Church come as a matter of course, and not of grace. We ■| i; I /ft ■ f f -4 4 ? ,K [1 :, r I l 58 FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. are told the cases are not parallel between the Church and the world, and membership in the Church and citi - zenship in an earthly kin "I I f ;» r lit eluding infant members, was, as it had always been. If any change is to be effected, now is the time to make it. Jewish parents had all along been accus- tomed to regard their children as being with them in the Church ; they did so that morning on the day of Pentecost. Will any intimation of a change be given before the day closes, or any new regulations that .shall from this time forth exclude children ? Will Peter in his first sermon say anything that will make parents feel that their children will be in a worse position now than before, or even in any different position ? Or will his words be a sweet assurance to them that their children will continue to occupy the same place, and enjoy the same privileges in the Church ? " For the promise is unto you and your children^ Acts ii., 39. " You a7id your seed'' had been the terms of the covenant all along ; Peter, now in his first sermon, says they are to be the terms of the covenant still. "'You and your children' together in the Church now as you have always been." As Jews, their chil- dren had been always associated with them in the same privileges and blessings in the Church, and if they had to be deprived of these now, it is strange that the old covenant relation should be spoken of in this way. True, the language of the Apostle does not enjoin the baptism of infants, or even refer 1( FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. 61 directly to baptism. But it overthrows the notion that the children of believers are in a less favored position now, than they were under the old dispensa- tion. If his words have any meaning, they do mean that the covenant of God with His people is to remain unchanged in this respect, and still to include infants with their parents. " You and your cJiildrenl' were the explicit terms of both. Besides, the New Testa- ment Church is distinguished from the Old by its extension of privilege and not by its curtailment. And it would be passing strange if the faith of the parent in Christ would have the effect of cutting the child off from his Church, and leaving it outside and in a worse position than in a Church of more circum- scribed privileges. There is only one way in which the Jews could understand Peter's language, viz., that children would continue to hold, along with their parents, the same membership in the New Testament Church that they had done under the Old. And could you conceive of Peter, this holy man of God, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, using such language at the beginning of the Gospel, employing the very ex- pression that would of necessity convey this idea, when he knew that, now, children were to have no relation to the Church whatever ? If they were to be cast out, surely some explanation of the fact was ■' ' - iii ( 1 • 1 62 FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. ' ■ » ■ll ■.in necessary. For two thousand years, "j'oii and your seed'' meant both together in the Church of God ; but now, ^'yoH and your seed'' means parents and children are to be separated from each other in that same Church ! Who can beUeve such a thing? Surely Peter's words at the commencement of the New Testament dispensation would be misleading if the status of children was not to be the same then as it had always been. If any change of relation had been contemplated, the Church would have been made aware of it. But there is no notice of a change, no complaint from any quarter, which would have been made if children had to be deprived of a privilege they had enjoyed all along in the Church. But instead of this, Peter declares that now, as formerly, the promise would still include both ''^ you and your seed!' " Were this idea of the import of infant baptism intelligently and faithfully carried out in the practical government of families and churches, we believe the amount of baptized apostacy would be greatly dimin- ished ; that piety among parents and children would not only be more widely diffused, but more complete, elevated and symmetrical, as a vital force penetrating all the relations of life ; that the spectacle of devout men, fearing God with all their house would be as frequent as it is delightful ; that the Church would be ensured perpetually, and increase not merely by <* ' ... ' ( f ■-, FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. 63 '■ » external conquest and aggregation, but by internal growth, in the multiplication of those happy families of which we can say : ' liehold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. There, the Lord hath commanded II is blessing, even life for evermore.' Such a cheering faith is warranted by the promises of God, which are none the less true, though our unbelief fails to realize them," {Princeton Revieiv.) EVILS OF A CONTRARY IJELIEK. Christian parents too often fail to take a clear and strong hold of the covenant of God made with them and their children, God's precious covenant — -the sure mercies of David — on which we profess to rest when offering our children to God in baptism, dwindles, too frequently, into a mere ceremonial observance ; the performing of a mere rite ; it may be the giving of a name to the child ; or at best an irksome duty. After consecrating our dear little ones to the Lord, calling them by His name, and commit- ting them to His holy care, we still take for granted they are not His, and act on this supposition. We do not expect they will grow up in grace, but, as un- converted, they will grow up in sin, as children of the devil, till such time as they may chance to come under conviction and be b igh ■s^X of INSTITUTE \. 1 ih! I m^ t 1 M'fi 1 1 11 f . i* " 1 64 FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. them as aliens, we treat tliem as aliens, and in this way we lead them to believe themselves to be aliens, and they soon learn to accept the place and character we give them through our unbelief. By our false treatment of them we put them outside of the king- dom, and make their return all but an impossibility. There is nothing more unscriptural, and, consequentl)^ nothing more hurtful to the Christian growth of our children than to teach them that they are not of the Church, but of the world. And nothing tends more powerfully to make them what we call them, than their disfranchisement from tli {"amily of God. If these are the unhallowed influences under which our families arc growing up, when they come to maturity, the more serious of them will stand aloof, waiting, as it were, for God to enlist them ; waiting for some mysterious call, some miraculous unfolding, some undefined influence to come upon them, some super- natural invitation given them to come in and take their place ; instead of feeling — and acting on the feeling — that all along they have been under law to Christ, included as members in his visible Church, and held to Him by the tenderest and holiest of all ties ; and that all their life long every blessed con- sideration unites to urge them to give themselves up to Christ at once, and know that they belong to Him as the Seed of the Righteous. H FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. 65 THE HOME, THE NURSERY 01- THE CHURCH. We must magnify \.\\c faffiily in our ministry, and emphasize what is in great danger of being forgotten at the ptesei.t time. We have dwelt on individual responsibility so long, the relation, duties, power and capacity of the unit, till we begin to feel that the individual is the exclusive unit of society and of the Church of God. But the Lord makes much of the family and of home life. He binds together parents and children in holy, tender bonds, so that the head saves the members. And thus, under the divine arrangement, one Christian generation produces another ; faith is the root of faith, and the Church of the future is carried in the bowels of the Church of to-day. His offers of mercy run thus : " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved a?id thy house." A strong Church is made up of well- ordered families, where Christian fathers and mothers bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; where the home of the week has its counterpart in the home of the Sabbath. Such a home is the Church's true nursery, where the young men and maidens are glad when it is said to them : " Let us go into the house of the Lord." A home where the atmosphere is pure, where the plants grow under the fostering care of a bright and blessed influ- ence, where the purity and peace of Christian nurture Ml t.'J ' f^ ii \x 1, i' I'- ' ili GO FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH. il come in as the benediction of heaven on the oponing^ minds of the j'oung, and is to them the type and prophecy of an eternal Sabbatli, and of our home above. What is the prevailing tone and sentiment of your home? Tell me this, and I will tell you the future of your children. Is the atmosphere surrounding it clear and healthy, or murky and full of miasma? Is the tone frivolous, mean, worldly, low ? Is there a sad lack of savour and sweetness — the something better and higher? Or is your home warm, loving, true; refreshing and winsome as a May morning? Do father and mother show the children they are living for God ? Then the future of your children is manifest, for blessed is that home that is in such a case. A WORD TO THE HEADS OF THE HOME. It is well to remember that it is in the recurring duties of each day where you exert your power, and breathe a fragrance around the life of your children, that will influence them all their days. It is not so much the discharge of technical duties either, as the spirit you manifest — your own life lived before them — that tells on the training and destiny of your home. Your children will copy your example, rather than obey your precept. Don't forget that for some years you stand in God's it FAMILIES OF THE CHURCH, G7 stead to them, and can do much cither to mar or make them. And no one can take the place, or do the work of a parent, or relieve you of your home duties. Sabbath-schools are only Jiclps, not substi- tutes. Home training! what may it not accomplish under God for your child ? What fruits may it not produce? But if you are not faithful to your solemn charge, what evils may not result from your neglect ? And see what care you bestow on other things of far less consequence than the godly upbringing of your offspring! How much time and pains you spend on training a vine to climb upward on the proper supports ! What interest you take in your favourite plants, shrubs, or the flowers in your conser- vatory ! How diligently and constantly you watch them, water them, prune them, protect them at nights against frosts ! What a large share of your care and even affection they enlist ! But with how much greater zeal and loving earnest- ness should you watch over and train the olive plants in the nursery of your own home, that they may become the trees of righteousness, and grow up goodly cedars in the garden of God ! Great must be the blame attaching to those parents whose neglect of duty is the occasion of their children's ruin. Keep constantly before them the scriptural model of Chris- tian nurture, viz., that children are not only capable \i % < '. M ('*. 'I M 5 ? .ir4i; 'il 1 11 I ilii! 68 Families of the church. of, but often are subjects of grace from their mother's womb; and their life-long steps have daily brought them nearer to the mountain of the Lord's house — a true growth in practical godliness. Teach your children these blessed truths in the bright days of their childhood. Tell them in the morning of life, that Christ requires them to be His, that the true place for the lambs is the fold of the Shepherd's love. Treat them as belonging to Christ, speak of, and to them as bearing this character ; make clear to their understanding and heart their place, their responsi- bilties, and duties to their Saviour, and this will be one of the most efficient means to make them what you long to have them to become. And your encouragements are great, for the Lord loves to hear, and is so ready to grant the requests of father and mother when pleading with Him for those whom He pressed to His bosom, and claimed to be His own. — Mark v. 22, 35, Matt. xv. 21. '1 k. 1 1 ¥ t. (■'JIT THE CARE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. ;J| , I- ' 11 i n i ^^^^ % > W ^i'li Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligenlly, lest thou forget the thinj^'s which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy sons, and th" sons' sons. — Deut. iv. 9. And that they may teach their children. — Deut, iv. 10. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath ; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. — Eph. vi. 4. Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages. — Ex. ii. 9. And al! thy children shall be taught of the Lord ; and great shall be the peace of thy children. — Ps. liv. 13. THE CARE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. If we are to judi^e of the importance of early Christian training from the frequency with which it is enforced in the Bible, and the very earnest way it is spoken of, we must conclude that the subject is pro- foundly important, and involves consequences of transcendent interest, not only to the young them- selves, or the Church of which they are members, but also to society at large. Both the Church and the world are concerned in the nurture of the young in the paths of virtue. Upon this question turn, directly and immediately, the character and welfare of society. Its strength and safety must be built on this founda- tion. The atmosphere which we daily breathe will be pure and healthful, or tainted with the miasma of sin, according as the children are trained in sin or in the way they should go. As a prominent subject of divine teaching, the dis- cussion of this theme is always timely. VVe would therefore speak a few words of hope and cheer, of It }! 72 CARE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. t* % P counsel and warning, that all teachers and trainers of the young may be encouraged in their works of faith and labours of love. There is the more need of calling attention to this matter at the present time, for many instructors — parents in their homes, and teachers in the Sabbath school — have false notions of Christian nurture, of their own responsibilities, the far-reaching consequences and enduring character of their work. And if any are led to take hold with a firmer hand, or a truer purpose in their heart, with more dependence on the Great Teacher, our labour will not have been in vain. WE MUST BEGIN EARLY. With great wisdom it is said, ''Train tip a CHILD." Begin early and preoccupy '^he soil and sow it with the precious seed of the Word. Gather the children into the fold as the lambs of the flock, that they may be safe within these sacred enclosures. Teach them their plr>.ce and privilege and duty, show them that Christ's claim is very tender and precious, and seek to draw out their affections toward Him. A very little child can understand the love of Christ through the love of its own mother, and, gathered in His bosom, they can learn to iove Him. To every rejecting, devout mmd, there is not a more interesting object of contempntion than a littk h CAKE AXD NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. 73 child, whose frail bark has just begun to cross the mighty deeps of life's stormy sea. There is not a more critical period of life into which are gathered the very germs that determine the whole growth of the future. Even in that sleeping, unconscious, help- less babe, there are slumbering the elements of a greatness that partakes of the infinite, and a being has begun that knows no ending. That little child shall live when the heavens have grown old and weary, either in the light of our Father's face, or else estranged forever from the sweetness and glory of His home. And this alternative depends largely on the early training and nurture of that child. When we see the buds of spring open, we can tell what they will become. The acorn can on!}- grow into an oak. Your seeds and plants can only blossom into the flowers of the year — very beautiful, but of short duration. And yet how anxious you are regarding them ? You watch them with interest, you water them, you weed them, you train them, you prune and support them if necessary. Many a mother takes great pains with her house plants, while her children are utterly neglected to grow up in wild confusion. Many a father has his thoughts on his business, in his office, or on some subject of study from morning to night, while his son is running uncared for on the streets. "If 1 had my life to live ^!f I Ll 1 tl » 74 C^/?/^' ^/.VZ? NURTURE OF THE CIIURCIL over again," said a wealthy merchant, " my relations to my sons would be very different from what they have been. Probably I would make less money, but they and I would not be such strangers to each other." We watch and care for things that cannot grow beyond our expectation, but chc child is uncared for whose future is in our hands, and who may become, according as we are faithful or remiss, either an adoring angel before the throne, or an outcast from that holy presence. The possibilities that are wrapped up in the breast of that little child are unspeakable. Yet a little, and reason shall light up that countenance, and irradiate that dull, sleepy eye ! Yet a little, a d passion shall sweep across that unconscious bosom ! Yet a little, and its likes and dislikes, its enmity or fond affection, its upward or downward tendencies will reveal themselves. There \s sublimity in the thought of a child's expanding powers, the little vessel pre- paring to weigh anchor and cross the miglify deeps of life ! Shall it be s\ afted into /he realr/is of bliss — the harbour of all safety? Or, losing its moorings, will it be cast adrift on the hazardous sea of vice, and go down a wreck amid the wild surges ? Children often play amid pitfalls hidden by flowers, and there is danger when the sky may be all sunshine ; and hence the need of greater watchfulness, of tender, loving care, and the true nurture of the )'oung. And U ij|i C^A'£ AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH, 75 God has made the relation between parent and child to be so close — the child lying within the sphere of the moral life of the parents — that no other being is so dependent, so easily led or influenced. The mind of a child is as plastic as clay, ready to be moulded into any shape; sensitive like the photographer's plate, ready to take any impression ; pliant and unsuspecting, waiting to be drawn out toward good or evil. Who, then, can over-estimate the influence for good or evil that every parent has over the life and destiny of each child ? %h^]N IMPRESSION.S LASTING. The imprfcss//>//s made in childhood, and the in- structions then imparted, the habits formed in youth, and principles then adopted, gnnv into the very tex- ture and constitution of the tuture man or woman, ai//) become marked with all the rigidity and enduring nature of an original instinct. Childhood is the period of training, and every child will be trained in either one way or another from the period of earliest infancy. You can change the direction of a stream, if you touch it at its source : of a tree, \{ you bend the twig : of a nuin, if you mould the child. It has become a proverb,. '\Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined^ And that bend will be seen when it has attained its full stature and then it will defy the power of man to change it. ■lii-' 76 CAKE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. Ill • ' * t You sometimes hear the question put — " How can Roman Catholics possibly believe all the absurdities that their creed contains?" "How can intelligent men assent to those miserable legends and old wives' fables ? " One reason is that they begin early, and train their children in the dogmas of their faith. They understand the influence and enduring nature of youthful impressions, and apply this principle to their advantage. Rome wisely brings her influence to bear upon the young, and is most solicitous to secure the teaching of her own children that she may train them in the rites and practices of her faith ; and in this respect she sets the whole Christian world a noble example of zeal and earnestness which may well shame many self-satisfied, lazy, indifferent Pro- testants slumbering in the thick folds of their orthodoxy. The true subjects of the Church's training are children. If she is to do her work and fulfil her great mission she must begin early, and pour religious light and influence into the young mind and around the opening affections of the heart, and she will learn the truth of the saying, " 7Vie Child is father of the Matt." In the great majority of cases, as the child is, so shall the man be : the temperament and character of the one are carried forward into the other. And far more likely now than at any future period will im- CARE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. 77 pressions be made, and principles imparted, that will determine the life. As the soft, moistened clay by the water's edge, which takes and retains any foot- mark from every passer by ; so is the soft, impressible nature of our children to every outward influence that meets them. Now is the time to work, before the habits of vice have been formed, and evil rooted in the heart. In childhood you can far more easily engage the affections, and lead them by pure motives, than when their hearts have become hardened and bronzed in guilt. There is no creature so much at the mercy of another as a child with his parents. There is nothing so much under their power as their own children. During the first years of life the parents are in the place of God to them. There is no one so wise, so good, or so great as father and mother to the children who love them, and they will go to them for the explanation of all mysteries, the solving of all questions, the allaying of all fears, and the a.ssuaging of all their sorrows. Parents, betray not your trust. You can either train up children in the way they should go, or poison the fountain of their early life from which a bitter stream will ever flow. '•ri t 78 CARE AND NURTURE OF TlfE CHURCH. M \ > I i"|: ! is THERE MUST BE BOTH TEACHING AND TRAINING. True Christian nurture always involves these two elements — viz., teaching and training. It is highly desirable not only to have a right object in view, but also correct methods by which the end may be gained. Erroneous principles are adopted on this point, if we may judge from the common practices in the bringing up of the young. Teachers in our schools regard their work as consisting wholly in the mere imparting of information, giving their pupils a knowledge of the subjects of study — grammar, arithmetic, history, English, etc., etc. And the teachers in our Sabbath- schools, and parents in their homes, follow the same plan, and are content with teaching bare Bible facts, or the mere repetitions of verses, hymns, or the questions of the Catechism. They labour wholly in the region of the intellect, and, in consequence, their work often becomes mechanical, with no sympathy or religious impulse in it. But if a teacher is to accom- plish anything, his work must be living work, with heart and soul in it, and all his labours must be inspired by love. Let no one put his hand to this work without being prepared to offer the strongest emotions and richest services of both mind and heart. Parents and teachers of the young must not regard their work as merely intellectual and appealing to ''. t C/1A£ AA'D NUR'IUKL OF 7 HE CliUKCJL 79 tlie understanding alone, through the bare facts of doctrine or technical les >n. To aim of every instructor must be to mould the heart as well as to enlighten the mind. His work is pre-eminently moral and spiritual work, ahd it must be kept in mind that the young have souls capable of knowing God. and a mere increase of knowledge without the moulding of the life is not sufficient to fill up all that is meant by Christian nurture. Too limited a meaning is given to the expression — religious education. With man)' the prominent idea is teaching, and we would not say a word to detract from its value ; but mere teaching is not enough. There must be training, and these two functions are quite distinct. Education usually calls up in our mind a vision of books and lessons, of masters and study. And no doubt knowledge is an important part of education, and that man does good service who either points out the knowledge that is most valuable, or determines the best methods of securing it. So, also, in religious education the imparting of Gospel truth is fundamental. But even Gospel truth is only a means to an end, to secure the culture of the heart in righ'-ousness. To tCi-^Ji is to communicate knowledge : to train is to establish habits of mind and heart,, till these become a part of the life — eas>', natural, and necessary. The , 'tl '-!■ n ! ' i i s,.- j I i ■i^. ^. .9U.. ^^.^ \aV IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) I- 1.0 ^ta ill am I.I 1^ m iJA !.25 ILL 11.6 % "1 ■^ ^7). m V ' ^/^ ^-^^ Photographic Sciences Corporation ^N^ ^ O^ '91) 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEbSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 ^. ^^^, 4i^ S 7W i! i; I" * n t h 80 C/i/v'i? AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. essence of teaching is making another to kitoiu, but the essence of training is leading another to do : teaching fills the mind, and training shapes the character: teaching brings a child into new spheres of information, and training shapes his habits of life. These two must go hand in hand in the bringing up of the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And as a matter of fact the training has begun long before the teaching. To teach a child duty is to show him what is right ; to train him up in duty is to lead him to do what is right ; constraining to the right side, not by outward authority, but by establish- ing moral tastes and habits in the soul. In the open- ing years of childhood we do not so much inculcate doctrines as seek to make the young know right from wrong, and lead them to hate evil and love what is good. We do not speak to them of conversion — the new heart, the need of faith in the atonement. But we tell them of Christ and his love for little children ; that he took the little children in his arms and blessed them, because they were so dear to him. Above ail, you set an embodiment of the Gospel before them in your own life. Mere children cannot understand the technicalities of doctrine, or of adult Christian experi- ence, but they can understand you when you tell them that God loves them, and that the Saviour came , to take care of them and keep them as His own. >. t^a* I CARE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. 81 They can be trained to feel and to know the differ- ence bet\veen a right and a wrong act. From parents and teachers far more is demanded than mere teaching — the imparting of knowledge. Our work must be viewed rather on the moral and spiritual side. As the minds of the young expand, and the affections of thoi«- hearts begin to open out, it must be our aim to surround them with all gracious influences, and to drop into the fresh soil the seeds rf truth, to take root and grow, and result in a rich har- vest v)f precious fruit. But we cannot train our children unless they see the goodness and sweetness of our life, the trust and obedience of our heart, and the life of faith lived before them. ^n short, the Gospel must t)c embodied before them in concrete form, and then through methods that are often silent as the spheres of heaven, through ways that are im- perceptible, yet all-powerful, the young may be led to a knowledge of God's love and grow up in His grace. We must be earnest, simple, and sincere ourselves, and then our life will be an element of grace, and surround them with the warm, genial atmosphere of love, which will be to them as the sunshine to the opening buds of spring. It is just here, where so many of us fail. We profess enough, even to the borders of ostentation. We bustle, and command, and punish, and make noise enough. Our lives are '^■- < si 4 m \\i "fir i,t I V t ? i:!' tif r . 1 -K^^ iJ 1 8> C^//'^ ^A'Z? NURTURE OF THE L/IURCH. decided and richly coloured, but, like autumn leaves, they have no fragrance. We make everything harsh and technical, with no sweet, balmy influences to woo their hearts, and lead the young to the Saviour. We may be orthodox in our creed, sincere in our pro- fession, strong in our faith, and earnest in our pur- pose, and yet lack those particular features and elements of character which are captivating to the young. The people thronged Jesus, because there was a spell about him that drew them, and many of them were won over by the force of its beauty. A harsh, severe, cold manner chills ; and through the false medium of our lives the young get gloomy, dis- torted views of religion, and are repelled. A life like his, and filled with the Spirit of the Gospel, is the great agency. For a child can understand a life when it cannot comprehend a doctrine. THE END IN VIEW. The aim of all Christian education is so clearly stated in the Word of God, that we often wonder why so many hr.ve mistaken notions in regard to it. Children are to be trained up in *' the way they should goy Not in the way they wish to go : not in the way that many, alas \ do go : but in the way they should go, and in which, if parents were more faithful, the great majority zvould go. Paul's language on this jarly [nder to it. Xioitld way wuld the this CARE AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. 83 subject is very explicit. He says : " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The great aim of all religious training, never to be lost sight of for one day, or during a single lesson, is to wake up in the hearts of the young a sense of the Saviour's claim upon them, and lead them to him, that from their infancy he may guide their feet in the way of peace. In all our instruction, whether in the home or in the Sabbath-school, we must never look at any lower mark, or set before us any lower motive, so that our teaching and training may gather around this central purpose. ' There is a false impression on this subject that has worked much evil in the Church, and, if not speedily corrected, will work much more. The notion is gene- rally entertained that the object of family training, or of Sabbath-school instruction, is merely to impart so much knowledge of the Bible, to explain abstract points of doctrine, leaving it to have an after effect. We do not expect present fruit, for the spiritual life of the young is something future. We have sown the seed, but must wait for a future day for results, for their conversion cannot be till they have reached the years of maturity, or at least advanced so far as to enable God to give them a new heart. This belief forms the public policy of certain Churches, who have revival times, when men and \i;\ ■1. ,M i;i w^ i ■ ]\ it li: 84 CA/?E AND NURTURE OF THE CHURCH. V^ % ' ■' '■ .1 it i i 01 k-..- women are converted and join the church, and begin a Christian life. And none but converted adults ever join ; all the children and young are of the devil — • unconverted and unsaved ! In these Churches the young can be taught, only for future conversion. And will any one explain how it is that so few conversions ever happen under the ordinary services, but generally