Post by benshelpmeet on Jul 14, 2005 12:14:16 GMT -5
Children are to be Educated for Christ
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ was instituted in this sinful world to seek its conversion. It was said to her eighteen hundred years ago, "preach the Gospel to every creature." Her time, talents, and resources have all been justly owed to her Lord, for this purpose. Yet, "the whole world lieth in wickedness." Few, comparatively, have heard "the name of Jesus;" "that there is any Holy Ghost;" or that there is a God that ruleth in the earth.
In this affecting moral condition of the world, the questions are to be solemnly considered by the friends of Christ "Have we not something more to do? Is there not some great duty which we have overlooked; some covenant which we have made with our Lord, yet unfulfilled?"And an answer will be found, if we look upon the children of Christian parents, who have professed to dedicate their all to God, but, to a great extent, have neglected to educate their offspring for the express purpose of serving Christ in the advancement of his kingdom. Said a Christian mother, whose heart is deeply interested in this subject, "I fear that many of us think that parental duty is limited to labors for the salvation of our children; that we have prayed for them only that they may be saved; instructed them only that they may be saved." Infinitely important, indeed, it is, that they should be saved. But if ardent desires for the glory of our Redeemer and the salvation of souls glowed in our hearts like an inextinguishable flame, our most earnest prayers from their very birth, would be, that they might not only be saved themselves, but be instrumental in saving others.
So far as the service of Christ has been contemplated, it appears to have been regarded as consisting of becoming a Christian; professing religion; taking care of one's own soul, maintaining a reputable standing in the church; wishing well to the cause of Christ; giving as much as is convenient for its advancement; and, finally, taking a pious leave of the world to go and be happy in heaven. Thus "one generation passeth away, and another cometh," to live and die in the same manner. And truly the earth might "abide for ever," and the mass of its population still lie in ruin, should all Christians continue to live thus.
There is need, then, of an appeal to CHRISTIAN PARENTS, in view of the present condition of the world. You give your prayers and a portion of your money. But, as said the Christian already quoted, "What affectionate parent does not love his children more than his money? and why should not these living treasures be given to Christ?" This "seeking our own, not the things which are Christ's," must cease, if the world is ever to be converted. We must act, and teach our children to act more faithfully, according to that Scripture, "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again." Let us be understood. We do not say, dedicate your children to the cause of Missions exclusively, or to any field of benevolence. You must leave their assignment to "the Lord of the harvest." He will appoint them to stations, public or private; to spheres of extended or limited influence, as shall "seem good in his sight." Your duty is to do all which is comprehended in the injunction, "bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" assured that the time will come when it will be said to you by the voice of Providence, respecting each, "the Lord hath need of him;" and he will be led to that station in which the Lord will he pleased to bless him. And whether it prove a retired and lowly, or a public and eminent one, be assured of this, he will find work enough assigned him, and responsibilities enough laid upon him, to keep him at the footstool, seeking grace to strengthen him, and to require the anxious and diligent employment of all his powers while life shall last.
It is, then, an interesting inquiry, Christians Parents "What QUALIFICATIONS will best prepare our children to be efficient servants of Christ?" There are many—pertaining to the HEART, the MIND, and the PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION.
First of all, piety. They must fervently love Christ and his kingdom; heartily consecrate themselves to his service; and be ready for any self-denial, sacrifice, or work to which he may call. Eminent piety it must be, "counting all things but loss for Christ."
Said one, now the wife of an American Missionary, "To make and receive visits, exchange friendly salutations, attend to one's wardrobe, cultivate a garden, read good and entertaining books, and even attend religious meetings for one's own enjoyment,—all this does not satisfy me. I want to be where every arrangement will have unreserved and constant reference to eternity. On missionary ground I expect to find new and unlooked for trials and hinderances; still, it is my choice to be there, and so far from looking upon it as a difficult task to sacrifice my home and country, I feel as if I should 'flee as a bird to her mountain.'"
A piety which thus glows and prays to live, labor and suffer for Christ, is the first and grand qualification to be sought in your child. It is necessary to act efficiently for Christ anywhere, at home or abroad; in an elevated or a lowly sphere. The Lord Jesus has no work adapted to Christians who live at the "poor dying rate" with which so many are content. It is all work for them that are "strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus," and willing and determined to be "faithful, even unto death."
2. Intellectual qualifications. It is a great mistake of some, that moderate qualifications will suffice for "the work of Christ." Shall Christians be satisfied with these, in the business of the Redeemer's kingdom, when the men of the world are not in their concerns? Be cautious of perverting dependence upon Divine aid, by trusting to warmth of heart to compensate for lack of knowledge. The injunction. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind," applies to the service as well as love of Him. Your child will need a well balanced and cultivated mind, as much as a pious heart. Let his desires to do good never be frustrated through your neglect of his intellectual education. We are not saying, send all your sons to college, and your daughters to female seminaries; but prepare them to deal with minds under the dominion of sin anywhere; having intellectual qualifications not to be despised.
3. Qualifications pertaining to the physical constitution. The interests of religion have suffered enough through the breaking down of constitutions, and the premature deaths of promising young men. Do not dedicate a feeble, sickly son to the ministry because he is not sufficiently robust for some secular employment or profession. No men more need iron constitutions than ministers and missionaries. "If ye offer the lame and the sick for sacrifice, is it not evil? Offer it now to thy governor, will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?" You have a daughter whom Providence may call to the self-denials of missionary life. Do not nurse her in the lap of enervating indulgence, and allow her to follow habits and fashions injurious to health, and to become a "tender and delicate woman, that will not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground, for very delicateness and tenderness;" and who will be at the sport of a morbid sensibility, or a disordered nervous temperament. Will you be satisfied with such an offering to the King of Sion? Will it be kindness to her, who may be called to suffer much, and will want all the capacity for endurance, as well as action. which can be acquired in a most thorough physical education? No: dedicate "to Christ and the Church" your "young men that are strong," and your daughters prepared to be companions for such in labors and sufferings for Christ.
Thus far of qualifications. We come now to speak more particularly of the DUTIES OF PARENTS in training sons and daughters for the service of Christ.
1. Pray much, respecting your great work. "Who is sufficient for these things?" well may you say. But says God, "my grace is sufficient for thee." Keep near the throne of grace, with this great subject weighing upon your spirit. Half your work is to be done in your closet. If you fail there, you will fail in all you do out of it. You must have wisdom from above in training servants for the Most High. Commune with God respecting the particular case of each of your children. While you do this you will obtain views of duty which human wisdom never can attain; and feel motives which will be nowhere else rightly appreciated. In the final day, there will, doubtless, be disclosures of transactions of Christian parents with God, respecting their children, which will delightfully explain the secret of their devotedness and usefulness. There will then be known more than can be now, respecting the prayers of mothers especially. The mother of Mills had some peculiar exercises in her closet, respecting him which help to account for a remarkable usefulness. The interesting fact is stated in one of our religious journals, that "of one hundred and twenty students in one of our theological seminaries, more than one hundred had been borne by a mother's prayers, and directed by a mother's counsels, to the Savior." See what prayer can do. "Be instant in prayer."
2. Cultivate a tender sense of parental accountableness. God holds you accountable for the character of your children, so far as fidelity in the use of means is concerned. You are to "give account in the day of judgment for what you do, or neglect to do, for the right formation of your children's characters. You may so educate them, that, by the sanctifying grace of God, they will be the instruments of salvation to hundreds, yea, thousands; and through your neglect of them, hundreds, thousands, may be lost, and their blood be required at your hands. You cannot divest yourself of this responsibility. You must act under it, and meet it "in the judgment." Remember this with godly fear, and yet "encourage yourself in the Lord." If faithful in the closet, and in doing what you there acknowledge your duty, you will find sustaining grace. And the thought will be delightful, as well as solemn, "I am permitted to train these immortals to glorify God in the salvation of souls."
3. Have a devoted spirit yourself. Your soul must be in health, and prosper; must burn with love to Christ and his kingdom; and all your instructions be enforced by a godly example, if you would lead your children to live devotedly. The father of a large family, most of them pious, was asked, "What means have you employed with your children?" "I have endeavored so to live," said he, "as to show them that it was my own grand purpose to go to heaven, and to take them along with me."
4. Give religious instruction EARLY. Watch opportunities for this, in every stage of childhood. Early impressions will last through life, when later ones fade away. Said an American Missionary, "I recollect particularly, that once my mother came and stood by me as I sat in the door, and tenderly talked to me of God and my soul's concerns; and her tears dropped upon my head. That made me a Missionary." Cecil says," I had a pious mother, who dropped things in my way. I could never rid myself of them. I was a professed infidel, but then I liked to be an infidel in company rather than alone. I was wretched by myself. Parental influence thus cleaves to a man; it harasses him; it throws itself continually in his way." John Newton never could divest himself of the impressions of his mother's instructions.
5. Seek the early conversion of your children. Regard every day of their continuance out of Christ as an increase of their danger and guilt. "A mother," says a Missionary, "who had brought up a large family, all of whom had become hopefully pious, was asked what means she had used for their conversion. She replied, 'I have felt that if not converted before seven or eight years of age, they would probably be lost; and when they have approached that age, have been in agony lest they should pass it impenitent; and have gone to the Lord with my anguish. He has not turned away my prayers nor his mercy from me.'" Pray for this: "Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord; lift up thy hands towards him, for the life of thy young children." Hope for the early bestowment of divine grace from such promises as this: "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, and as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel" (Isa 44:3-5). The history of some families is a delightful fulfillment of this promise. Young hearts are the best in which to lay, deep and broad, the foundations of usefulness. There is is no hope that your child will do anything for Christ till you can see him at the foot of the cross, repenting, believing, devoting himself.
It seems supposed by some, that religion cannot enter a child's mind: that it demands maturity of years to "repent and believe the Gospel." A Christian child, therefore, seems often regarded as a prodigy; and grace in a young soul is a dispensation of divine mercy too unusual to be expected in the use of common means. "Parents," said a mother, "labor and pray prospectively for the conversion of their children." We have seen parents weeping over deceased children, of four, five, six, seven years, who seemed to feel no solicitude whether they had died in a safe spiritual state nor self-reproach for neglect to labor for their conversion. It is an interesting fact, and a serious one in its bearing upon parental neglect, that children under the age of four years have been known to feel deep convictions of sin against God, and of their ruined state; and to sorrow for sin, believe on Christ, fix their affections on God, and to exhibit all the evidences of grace seen in persons of adult years. The late Mrs. Huntington, writing to her son, says her biographer, "speaks of having a distinct remembrance of a solemn consultation in her mind, when about three years old, whether it was best to be a Christian then or not, and of having come to the decision that it was not." The biographies of Janeway, and numerous others, forbid the idea that religion in a young heart is a miracle, and show that parents have reason to be anxious lest their young children die without hope, as, well as to be encouraged to seek their early conversion.
We should be cautious of unreasonable distrust of apparent conversions of children. Watch over the little disciple affectionately, faithfully. His tender years plead for more careful and tender protection. Give him not occasion to say, "I have been neglected, because supposed too young to be a Christian." True, parents and pastors have been often disappointed in children seemingly converted. But the day of judgment may reveal that there have been more cases of undetected deception and hypocrisy in adults, than disappointments respecting children supposed pious. Childhood is more guileless than manhood; sooner, perhaps always, throws off the mask, if it be but the mask, of religion; and is again open to conviction–perhaps becomes converted. Manhood, more cautious, deceitful, adventurous in false profession, wears the mask, shuts out conviction, cries, "peace and safety," and goes on decently, solemnly, formally, down to hell.
Desire the early conversion of your children, that they may have the longest possible time in this world to serve Christ. If "the dew of our youth" be devoted to God, advancing years are sure to be marked with proportionate maturity of Christian character and fitness for more efficient labors for Christ.
6. Maintain familiar Christian intercourse with your children. Converse with them as freely and affectionately on religious subjects as on others. If you are a warmhearted and prosperous Christian, you will do this, naturally and easily. Let religious intimacy be interwoven with your whole family habits. You will thus know how to counsel, caution, reprove, encourage; what advances they make; what the "reason of the hope that is in them;" for what particular department of service for Christ they are fitted. And if they die early, or before you, then you will have the consolation of having watched and known the progress of their preparation to "depart and be with Christ."
7. Place and keep before the mind of your child, as the great object for which he should live, the glory of God and the salvation of men. We do much to give direction to the mind, and form the character of the man, by placing an object, for life, before him. Men of the world know and act on this principle. So should the Christian. The object above-named is the only one worthy of an immortal and renewed soul, and prepares the way for the noblest elevation of character: it will raise him above living to himself and constrain him to fidelity in his Lord's service. Teach him to lay at the foot of the cross, attainments, eminence, influence, honor, wealth—all things; and to live in the desire, "Father, glorify thy name."
8. Choose instructors for your children with great care. Know to whose influence you commit the son or daughter of your vows. You have a great and sacred object to accomplish. The teachers of your children must be such as will aid you in that object. Correct moral character in a teacher is not enough. This is often allied with most dangerous religious opinions. Your child should be placed under the care of a self-dedicated teacher, who will feel in relation to his charge, "I am to aid this parent in training a servant for Christ." In your choice of a school, or seminary of learning, never be governed merely by its reputation as literary, fashionable, popular; irrespective of the possibility that its atmosphere may have no vitality from decided religious influence—may even be poisoned by erroneous religious views in the instructors. Respecting sending a daughter to a Catholic convent for education said a judicious pastor to a parishioner, "If you do not wish your daughter to be burned, you must not put her into the fire." [Editors note: How much more does this apply today to the public school system with its sex education, evolutionism, and ridicule of God.] A widow was offered the education of one of her sons at a university where prevailed the influence of Unitarianism. She declined the offer, trusting in God to enable her to accomplish it in a safer situation. Her firmness and faith were rewarded with success. A young lady was placed under the care of a teacher who was not pious. When her mind was deeply interested and anxious on religious subjects; the idea, "what will my teacher think of me," and the dread of her indifference, perhaps contempt influenced her decision, and she grieved away the Spirit of God. Christian parent, your prayers, your best efforts may all be frustrated by the influence of a teacher who has no religion.