PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 kMjU^fLJ ^IL n 
 
 i'M 
 
 BV 1475 .H4190 
 Haygood, Atticus G. 1839 
 1896. 
 ^^'^■^'- Our children 
 
IngnyffBMll&Sms23B(iTda.^Styr 
 
Our Children 
 
 BY 
 
 ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD, D.D,, 
 
 President of Emorv College. 
 
 Feed my lambs."— John xxi, IB. 
 
 SKVENTII TIIOL'.SAND. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 NELSON & PHILLIPS, 
 
 805 Broadway, New York, 
 
 JOHN W. BURKE & CO., 
 
 MACON, GA. 
 
 1878. 
 
Entered acconliug: to Act of Coiiirress, in the jiar 1^76, by 
 
 ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at "Washing'ton. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 Co mg Stotber, aub llje mcmorg of mg J^at^^r, 
 
 Who did all they could to obey that Scripture which saith, "And these 
 
 words, which I command thee this day, shall be In thine heart: and 
 
 thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
 
 shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, 
 
 and when thou walkest by the way, and when 
 
 thou liest down, and when thou risest 
 
 up," this book is gratefully 
 
 dedicated by 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 Oxford, Ga., Jan. i, 1876 
 
■■. '» V ■• '• ■" 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 AN introduction to a book is as necessary as to a 
 party. By it the reader learns in advance what 
 will be his fare. But introductions, we are sorry to be- 
 lieve, are seldom read, and readers, not being properly 
 introduced, set in to read, and, failing to be entranced 
 at the outset, lay the book by and never read it at all. 
 Therefore, no matter how rich the intellectual fare may 
 be, the reader, tired too soon, never tastes it. 
 
 I have consented to write this introduction at the re- 
 quest of the author. His name itself is enough, con- 
 sidering his long, late, and successful connection with 
 our Sunday-school literature. From this relation to the 
 Church and to the children of the country, no doubt, 
 came the inspiration of the book I hereby introduce to 
 the reading public. This needed book, on account of 
 its intrinsic merit and the importance of its subject-mat- 
 ter, I recommend every one interested in the future 
 generations of our noble race to buy, read, study, prac- 
 tice, and circulate. 
 
 There are many subjects on which good books might 
 be written. But the subject on which this book treats 
 ranks them all in point of vital interest and grand re- 
 sults. An introduction to a book does well to sketch its 
 contents, but, for good reasons, I prefer to lay down a 
 grand postulate of my own, comprising in it the sub- 
 stance, if not the sum, of the book itself. It is a work 
 setting forth the philosophy of good, religious family 
 
6 Introduction. 
 
 government and education — what we might call the 
 Christian theory of childhood. That in all this there is 
 room for sound philosophy, and great need of it, all wise 
 administrators in this little realm will readily allow ; 
 therefore, this forth-coming book should be hailed as a 
 welcome contribution to the literature now most need- 
 ed. For unless our children can be rightly reared for 
 both earth and heaven, domestic life, in so far as chil- 
 dren are involved, is only an altar on which to offer up 
 souls in sacrifice to the lusts of pleasure and fashion. 
 Among the many assignable causes of the desolations of 
 sin, there is not another — not even the Leviathan of in- 
 temperance — that has opened so wide an outlet of souls 
 from God and heaven as bad, irreligious family govern- 
 ment and its consequences. Minds and hearts spoiled 
 in the nursery can rarely be mended in the sanctuary. 
 Wherefore, the rule of prevention, as given us by Solo- 
 mon — writing as the amanuensis of the Holy Spirit, and 
 not merely as a practical philosopher — is : " Train up a 
 child in the way he should go, and when he is old he 
 will not depart from it." 
 
 I believe this declaration to be absolute in its sense, 
 and feel no little shocked when I hear slack-twisted 
 parents, whose children are departing from the right 
 way, alleging that this very special text was never in- 
 tended to guarantee any thing more than a degree of 
 general good luck. Nay, verily, brethren, it intends in- 
 surance against all the evils that occur in consequence 
 of failure in right training. If it does not, it furnishes 
 no insurance at all, nor any ground of faith on which 
 parents can rest their confidence in right training. Un- 
 less there is in it divine security — unless right training 
 so changes the chances of a child's conversion from pos- 
 sibility to certainty as to amount to assurance, I cannot 
 see the divine reason for its incorporation into the law 
 
Introduction. 7 
 
 of practical godliness in the machinery of revealed re- 
 ligion. But in all these platforms for human action 
 there is always a marked specialty. Here it is con- 
 tained in the words '' in the way in which he should go." 
 There are many parents who train their children rather in 
 the way they choose for them than in the way they should 
 go. These errors in training lead to habitual divergencies 
 from the laws and principles of spiritual piety; and when 
 their personal subordination to the requirements of self- 
 denial should lead them to walk after the Spirit, and not 
 after the flesh, they are found to be obstinately insubor- 
 dinate. They are, however, walking in the way wherein 
 they were trained to go, and the reason why they cannot 
 be made to walk in the narrow path of life is because they 
 were inadvertently trained to walk in the broader way 
 of the world. The mother trained her daughter to look 
 upon her fortunes here as depending more on enslave- 
 ment to popular fashion in dress, than upon noble self- 
 denial of superfluities for the more liberal endowment 
 of Christ's treasury for his poor. The father so trained 
 his son as to make him feel that eating his bread by the 
 sweat of his face was to lower his position in life, from 
 the grade of a gentleman to that of a peasant, and the 
 outworking of these unhallowed lusts so demoralized 
 the inward springs of Christian heroism that ere he was 
 aware of it his son was a fashionable loafer, living upon 
 the prestige of his family name, without any self-earned 
 reputation, either of business merit or moral goodness. 
 And in all of these mournful issues it will be found on 
 examination that the outlet from God and moral in- 
 surance for our children was in the adoption of rules of 
 living originated in worldly policies irrespective of God's 
 word, as the only law of living from which parents can 
 learn how to train their children in the way they should 
 go. And any other training is a forfeiture of the charter. 
 
8 Introduction. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the only order ever issued from 
 the fountain of all moral authority, on the subject of ed- 
 ucation, was in these words : — 
 
 "And these words, which I command thee this day, 
 shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt teach them dili- 
 gently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when 
 thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by 
 the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou 
 risest up." 
 
 How strikingly simple, and yet how specially minute, 
 this divine order is ! These four conditions in domes- 
 tic life leave no unfilled space. And I doubtless say 
 no more than is true when I say, Solomon's training up 
 of children in the way they should go, was in this way. 
 
 The Spirit of inspiration has but one way in carrying 
 cut any one of the specified duties of revealed religion. 
 The two conditions in domestic life, called lying down 
 and rising up, cannot mean any thing else than family 
 worship. And no one pretending to religion would ever 
 presume to say he had trained his children in the way in 
 which they should go, if he had trained them, by exam- 
 ple, to live and raise up children without morning and 
 evening prayer. This original order for family religion 
 and family instruction is more especially specified by 
 the prophet Isaiah, both as to age and manner, when he 
 asks: *'Whom shall he teach knowledge.? and whom 
 shall he make to understand doctrine ? them that are 
 weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breast." 
 
 This doubtless means that this work is to be begun 
 from infancy. Hence he says, '* For precept must be 
 upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, 
 line upon line ; here a little and there a little." This is 
 exactly what was commanded by Moses in another 
 form. 
 
 This instruction must be repeated until these pupils 
 
Introduction. 9 
 
 understand doctrine. This is exactly what Lois and 
 Eunice did to Timothy. They drilled him in this 
 way, until from childhood he knew the Holy Script- 
 ures, which were able to " make him wise unto salva- 
 tion, through faith which was in Christ Jesus." 
 
 Thus they made Timothy understand doctrine. And 
 if it was possible with him, it is possible with all chil- 
 dren under like circumstances. The business of all 
 Christian parents is in this way to make ready a people 
 prepared for the Lord. Timothy was so made ready 
 and prepared for the Lord, and that, too, by his grand- 
 mother and mother, while it is likely that his father was 
 even opposed to it, as he was a Greek. Let Christian 
 mothers, who unfortunately may have irreligious hus- 
 bands, take encouragement. The charm of a pious 
 mother is often too mighty for the evil influence of an 
 ungodly father's example. 
 
 But we are doing what we can to bring about a better 
 state of things. I have said that children spoiled in 
 the nursery can seldom be mended in the sanctuary. 
 And it is equally true of them, that if they are well- 
 molded in the nursery, and well-finished in the Sunday- 
 school, it is hard to spoil them afterward. But it can 
 be done by "evil communications." Keep children 
 under the same influences that gave them their first re- 
 ligious impulses. If they are sent off to school or col- 
 lege for education, send them where their faith will be 
 best nurtured. 
 
 The author of the book I hereby introduce, the Rev. 
 Dr. Haygood, although young, has had more than five 
 years of official relation to the wants and interests of chil- 
 dren, having been, at two successive General Confer- 
 ences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected 
 Sunday-school Secretary and editor of Sunday-school 
 books and periodicals. 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 From a well-stored mind and an anxious heart he of- 
 fers, in this work, his observations and experience upon 
 the best interests of our children for time and eternity, 
 upon the obligations and duties of parents, and upon the 
 opportunities and work of Sunday-school teachers. The 
 principles — drawn as they are from the word of God — 
 that are set forth in this volume are like the mariner's 
 chart and compass — all important to safe navigation 
 along the perilous coast of life. 
 
 We copy from the Bible — " be not faithless, but be- 
 lieving; " and sing, as we used to do, of Bible sailors: — 
 
 *' The Bible is my chart and compass too, 
 Whose needle points forever true." 
 
 L. Pierce. 
 Sunshine, January 19, 1876. 
 
OOni^TENTS, 
 
 PART I.— THE FAMILY. 
 
 OlUPTEB PaQR 
 
 I. Childhood 13 
 
 II. Childhood and Religion 25 
 
 III. Prevention of Sin an Invaluable Mercy 34 
 
 IV. The Enlightening and Quickening Spirit 45 
 
 V. On Mere Ability to Talk Religion 56 
 
 VI. " Feed My Lambs " 66 
 
 VII. The Family — Its Basis in Marriage 78 
 
 VIII. The Family — The Basis of Church and State. . . 92 
 
 IX. The Family — A School of Religion 99 
 
 , X. The Duty of Teaching God's Word to our Chil- 
 dren no 
 
 XI. Training as Well as Teaching 123 
 
 XII. What Human Parenthood Should Signify 137 
 
 XIII. Home Influences 151 
 
 XIV. The Christian Home 162 
 
 XV. The Family Altar 175 
 
 XVL Eli AND His Sons 189 
 
 KVII. IcHABOD 203 
 
 PART II.— THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 
 
 I. The Magnitude of the Movement 213 
 
 II. The Sunday-school Auxiliary 222 
 
 III. The Chief Function of the Sunday-school 231 
 
12 Contents. 
 
 Chapter Pioi 
 
 IV. Who Should be in the Sunday-school 242 
 
 V. Hunting Plans 251 
 
 VI. The Power of the Right Spirit 265 
 
 VII. A Light IN a Dark Place 277 
 
 VIII. Stoves as a Means of Grace 293 
 
 IX. Building Dikes 308 
 
 X. Hikts on Sunday-school Work. 330 
 

 OUR OHILDREIf! 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHILDHOOD. 
 
 THE significance of the birth and childhood of 
 a human being the world has been slow to 
 learn. Lycurgus, iron-hearted lawgiver of Lacedae- 
 mon, understood but one thing of a male infant — it 
 might make a soldier. The old Spartan theory 
 made the State every thing, the individual nothing. 
 The individual citizen was nothing, except as his 
 welfare or ruin affected the general interests. Hence 
 that heartless code which required that delicate 
 or deformed children should be ''exposed" — aban- 
 doned to wild beasts, or in some other fashion be 
 put out of the Avay. " The great aim of the govern- 
 ment," says Bojesen, "was to form, by means of 
 education, a race of citizens whose bodily strength 
 and powers of endurance, united to moral vigor and 
 public spirit, would be a security for their perform- 
 ing efficiently the duties which it required. From 
 
14 Our Children. 
 
 their infancy children, especially boys, were looked 
 upon as the property of the State. As soon as they 
 were born they were examined by the elders of their 
 father's phyle^ for the purpose of ascertaining that 
 they had no bodily infirmity or deformity, which 
 might render it necessary to expose them. They 
 were then left with their parents till their seventh 
 year, when the State undertook their education, in 
 order to accustom them to strict military discipline, 
 and qualify them for the army." 
 
 There was a savage sort of consistency in all this ; 
 for the man was lost in the citizen — the family 
 merged in the State. Hence, if a boy-baby could 
 not make a soldier there was no use of him, and the 
 best interests of the State required that he be put 
 out of the way. Sparta was, perhaps, among the 
 first of the ancient nations that undertook a sys- 
 tem of compulsory education. She made that edu- 
 cation as godless as might be, under a constitution 
 that knew nothing but the State and the worth of 
 the citizen as a producer or a fighter. 
 
 How inconceivable to us a code of laws and a 
 state of society which counted it a virtue to expose 
 to death weak or deformed children ! What would 
 we say if some member of our national Congress 
 should propose to enact a code, like that of Lycui 
 gus, for the doing away with deformed and sickly 
 children, as the best means of improving the popu- 
 lation of the country? 
 
Childhood, 1 5 
 
 It is the word of God that proclaims the dignity 
 of the individual man ; that tells us that the man is 
 more than the citizen ; that teaches us that the 
 State is nothing except as it fosters and develops 
 the happiness and character of the individual man. 
 And it is from the word of God that we learn the 
 true significance of childhood. 
 
 How far removed from the code of Sparta is the 
 law given to Israel : '' And these words, which I 
 command thee this day, shall be in thine heart : 
 and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy chil- 
 dren, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in 
 thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and 
 when thou liest down, and when thou risest up ! " 
 If we would see the difference, contrast the Spartan 
 elders inspecting a new-born babe to see if it would 
 make a citizen and a scene recorded by the evan- 
 gelists : " And they brought young children to him, 
 that he should touch them ; and his disciples re- 
 buked those that brought them. But when Jesus 
 saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, 
 Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for- 
 bid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God. 
 Verily I say unto you. Whosoever shall not receive 
 the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not 
 enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, 
 put his hands upon them, and blessed them." 
 
 In vain will we search antiquity for any such 
 views of childhood as underlie the injunctions of 
 
i6 Our Children. 
 
 St. Paul: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: 
 for this is right. . . . And, ye fathers, provoke not 
 your children to wrath : but bring them up in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 
 Indeed, the Abrahamic covenant, with its solemn 
 rite of circumcision, recognized the dedicated child 
 in his individual relations to God. And the Script- 
 ures can show us the true dignity and worth of 
 individual man, they can declare to us the true sig- 
 nificance of childhood, because they reveal to us 
 the fatherhood of God. Jesus Christ has " shown 
 us the Father;" and he alone teaches us the true 
 worth of a human being — the true mystery and 
 meaning of human birth and childhood. 
 
 We raise here this fundamental question: Why 
 is this world peopled as it is? Why are men born, 
 and not directly created ? We cannot suppose that 
 the Creator was shut up to this one method of 
 peopling the earth. Adam and Eve were not born ; 
 "out of the dust of the ground" God could have 
 created millions as easily as two. Angels are not 
 born ; fatherhood, motherhood, childhood, brother- 
 hood are unknown terms and relations among them. 
 There is no kinship among the angels. Surely God 
 might, had he so chosen, have peopled our world 
 with millions by a direct exertion of creative power. 
 So he peopled heaven — and, as it seems, before the 
 creation of man — with myriads of intelligent beings. 
 Why are not men so created — millions of adult in- 
 
Childhood. \J 
 
 dividuals, isolated and unrelated? But God created 
 one pair — the man and the woman, the father and 
 the mother of the human race. Wherefore? Such 
 questions may not be fully answered, ''For who 
 hath known the mind of the Lord?" 
 
 But some things are plain enough to the eye of 
 faith. We know that this method of peopling the 
 world by generation and birth is, for all the ends 
 of the creation of our race, the very best method 
 that could have been adopted. Elsewise, some 
 other had been found out. We know also that the 
 Divine plans are adjusted to each other with infal- 
 lible precision, and this, too, not merely for the first 
 day of creation, with the then existing state of 
 things, but for all days that were to come after, and 
 in view of all possible contingencies. Nothing that 
 transpired after the creation of angels or men took 
 the all-wise God by surprise. The great schemes 
 of providence and redemption were not suddenly 
 improvised to meet and countervail an unexpected 
 success on the part of the great enemy of God and 
 man. The plans of God in creation, providence, 
 and redemption, are now, and always have been, in 
 perfect harmony. The creation of the entire uni- 
 verse, with all that it contains, was begun and fin- 
 ished in the clear foresight of all possible contingen- 
 cies — that of the fall and the redemption of our race 
 included. Dr. Bledsoe has well said in his *' Theod. 
 
 icy:" "The plan of redemption was not an after^ 
 2 
 
1 8 Our Children. 
 
 thought, designed to remedy an evil which the eye 
 of omniscience had not foreseen ; it was formed in 
 the counsels of Infinite Wisdom long before the 
 foundations of the world. The atonement was 
 made for man, it is true ; but, in a still higher sense, 
 man was made for the atonement. All things were 
 made for Christ." 
 
 We will not be drawn aside into metaphysical 
 discussions of such questions as. Why did God cre- 
 ate beings that he foresaw would sin ? We may 
 well exclaim with the psalmist, " Such knowledge is 
 too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain 
 unto it." It does not in the least solve our per- 
 plexities to doubt or deny the Bible doctrine of 
 the subject. The facts exist — man has been created 
 and he has sinned. Moreover, his children are in- 
 volved in his sin. The question may, perhaps, never 
 in this world be fully answered, but one thing we 
 know — and it is the knowledge that comes through 
 faith — God created the world, and man, and the 
 universe, as he did, because it was best to do so. 
 
 The difficulties that environ this subject are not 
 peculiar to the Bible history of man and of the or- 
 igin of sin ; they inhere in the facts themselves. 
 Sir William Hamilton says truly: "No difficulty 
 emerges in theology, which lavi net previously 
 emerged in philosophy." We may, in blind pas-- 
 sion and unbelief, reject the Bible doctrine, but the 
 facts remain — man has been created, he has been 
 
Childhood. 19 
 
 created capable of propagating his race, he has sinned, 
 ^.nd his posterity are involved in his fall. 
 
 At this point we may quote profitably a para- 
 graph from Bishop Marvin's *' Work of Christ : " — 
 
 "With respect to our depraved condition, as it 
 results from our connection with the first trans- 
 gressors, and the spiritual impotency for good there- 
 from resulting, I have several things to say. 
 
 ** First. Our Creator has provided a second Adam, 
 whose representative relation to us places us on a 
 footing as advantageous as if we had never been in- 
 volved in the fall. 
 
 '' Secondly. The gracious influences of the cross so 
 far countervail our deprav ed propensities as to make 
 repentance and salvation possible to every man. 
 
 " Thirdly. I cannot suppose that the human fami- 
 ly would have been permitted to multiply under the 
 fatal influences of the fall, but for the counteracting 
 agencies of the redemption." 
 
 As it seems to us, it is too plain for doubt, that 
 God's plans provide for the present and eternal sal- 
 vation of every individual of the race that he cre- 
 ated, with the clear foresight of its fall, and that he 
 created, nevertheless, because he had provided for 
 its redemption. But these plans involved — man be- 
 ing what he is — in the very necessities of our nature, 
 human co-operation, as a condition of ultimate and 
 complete success. 
 
 The argument and the facts of our history lead 
 
20 Our Children. 
 
 inevitably to this conclusion : human birth and 
 childhood, and the discipline which these states and 
 relations involve, furnish, of all others the best pos- 
 sible conditions for the salvation of our race. We 
 should study the significance of birth and infancy 
 and childhood — as well as all other great themes 
 and questions that concern our race — in the light of 
 their relation to the eternal salvation of man : that 
 is, in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 
 Christ '' all things consist." There can be no theod- 
 icy where the God-man and his work are left out. 
 
 Now fallen angels make demons. Grown-up men, 
 with fully developed passions, set on fire by sin, and 
 without the restraint and discipline which, by the 
 conditions of helplessness and dependence incident 
 to infancy and childhood, come through parental 
 care and government, Avould make moral monsters, 
 frightful to contemplate, and, so far as we may judge, 
 incapable of redemption. 
 
 Consider, for a moment, the condition of a new- 
 born babe. What seeming contradictions are here! 
 What possibilities are wrapped up in that tiny 
 frame and undeveloped mind ! That little hand 
 may some day wield the scepter of an empire ; it is 
 now nerveless and impotent. That tongue may 
 some day move multitudes by its eloquence; it is 
 now voiceless. That mind may some day master 
 great problems — learning much of God, his word, 
 and his works ; it is now ignorant of the simplest 
 
Childhood. 21 
 
 truths. Weak and pitiful thing, for a whole year it 
 cannot walk alone, or lisp the name of its mother. 
 It is the most helpless of all young things, and for 
 a longer period. For many years it depends for its 
 daily support upon parental care. Few children 
 under twelve years and dependent on their own ex- 
 ertions could maintain their existence. In the life 
 of a mere animal a few months may terminate its 
 dependent relations. And this to the young crea- 
 ture brings no loss or danger ; it has little to learn ; 
 instinct supplies the lack of education. The lower 
 down we go in the scale of being, the less is this de- 
 pendence until at last it seems to cease altogether. 
 If we search among the oyster beds, we shall find no 
 traceable parental care or infantile dependence — 
 only little points of life adhering to the rocks and 
 fed by the waves. 
 
 But it is very different when God sets about mak- 
 ing a.man. It was very different at the beginning: 
 "And God created great whales, and every living 
 creature that moveth, which the waters brought 
 forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged 
 fowl after his kind. . . . And God made the beast 
 of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their 
 kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth 
 after his kind : and God saw that it was good." 
 And " good " they were, '* after their kind." These 
 things he simply " created." Not so did he " make 
 man." " And God said, Let us make man in oui 
 
22 Our Children. 
 
 image, after our likeness. ... So God created man 
 in his own image, in the image of God created he 
 him ; male and female created he them." 
 
 The mere creatures never had God's image. Man 
 had it and by sin lost it. And now, in the great 
 schemes of providence and redemption, God seeks 
 to restore to man his lost glory. When a man — 
 capable of God, though fallen, and entering upon an 
 immortal existence — is to be brought up, many 
 years of utter helplessness, of weakness and conse- 
 quent dependence, are required. 
 
 The common law reckons us minors, and incapa- 
 ble of performing the full functions of independent 
 citizenship, till we have lived twenty- one years. 
 Why is this? Why are our children so long in 
 reaching maturity? Why are they so long depend- 
 ent upon our care and toil? Our answer is: that 
 human parents, during this long period of helpless 
 dependence, may have the best of all conceivable 
 opportunities for beginning and perfecting that 
 training: in obedience and faith and love which is 
 so essential to their salvation from sin.'^ 
 
 * Sometime after this chapter was written we found the following 
 remarks in Dr. John Harris's " Patriarchy," which we beg to quote a* 
 confirmatory of our general argument : — 
 
 " Why can man have been invested subordinately with the prerog- 
 ative of multiplying his own image, but in order that he might trans- 
 form his offspring into the likeness of his Creator? . . . Striking 
 and unique is that arrangement by which the human offspring are re- 
 tained for so long a period in a state of susceptibility and of depend- 
 
Childhood, 23 
 
 O, when will we learn the profound and awful 
 iis^nificance of human birth and childhood ! the 
 solemn and tremendous responsibilities of human 
 parenthood ! Shame on the man called father, or the 
 woman called mother, who can look in the face of a 
 new-born baby and not be awed and thrilled with a 
 sense of responsibilities which take hold on eter- 
 nity ! Its destiny is practically in their hands. 
 None can take their place — none can do their work. 
 They hold a key that others may not touch. None 
 can get so close to the child. And whether they 
 care or do not care — try or do not try — they leave 
 their impress upon its character and destiny. It 
 may be lost in spite of their care ; it may be saved 
 in spite of their sinful negligence ; but they do — try- 
 ing or not trying to do — something in shaping the 
 child's character and destiny which others cannot 
 do. We say it most reverently, and >et without 
 
 ence on parental care. The poet of ancient skepticism sang of this 
 long period of infantine dependence as a state of supposed inferiority 
 to the young of the brute creation. The Theban fable pictured men 
 as starting full formed from the dragon's teeth which Cadmus had 
 sown. Our first parents actually commenced life with this fullness of 
 power. The animal speedily attains maturity, and becomes independ- 
 ent of parental care. There was, then, no inherent necessity why 
 the young of the human parent should remain so many years a babe ; 
 a child and immature. Had the period of its dependence, however, 
 been only as long as the brood remains with the parent bird, the en- 
 dearing names of father and mother would have been empty sounds ; 
 little opportunity would have been afforded to them for the formation 
 of its character; and one of the most pleasing illustrations of prcv»- 
 dential appointments would have been lost." 
 
24 Our Children. 
 
 h^esitation, the parents, for a long time, stand in the 
 place of God to their child. They ought to be, they 
 are if they are faithful, God's true and only vicars 
 upon the earth. 
 
 The cross of Christ alone solves the hard questions 
 which startle and perplex when we think upon man's 
 creation — his sin and fall. The cross puts almost 
 divine dignity upon fatherhood and motherhood. 
 The cross makes the infant of a day an heir of eter- 
 nity and an object of absorbing interest to the in- 
 telligences of both worlds. Would God that we 
 knew what an opportunity for bringing our children 
 to their Saviour their helpless infancy and depend- 
 ent childhood give us! Their helplessness is com- 
 plete, but it is not abject, for they are redeemed by 
 the blood of Christ, and their dependence creates 
 our opportunity for teaching them to know and love 
 him. 
 
 How sublime a thing is such helplessness of in- 
 fancy, such dependence of childhood ! And how 
 sacred is fatherhood and motherhood ! Would God 
 that we understood these things aright ! Then, in- 
 deed, would " the hearts of the fathers be turned to 
 their children." 
 
 When will we learn that to feed and clothe them 
 simply, to give them education enough to push their 
 way through the conflicts of threescore and ten 
 years — to furnish them for this life only — that these 
 are the least of all our duties to them ! 
 
Childhood and Religion. 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND RELIGION. 
 
 X ^ /"HEN is a child personally responsible? How 
 ^ » old must a child be before it is capable of re- 
 ligion ? We cannot answer in precise terms. The 
 word of God does not propose or answer such ques- 
 tions. They are questions that should scarcely be 
 asked at all, for they presuppose something mechan- 
 ical and arbitrary about religion. The law of the 
 land may require civil or military duty between cer- 
 tain ages — as eighteen and forty-five. 
 
 There is nothing unseemly in making fixed and ar- 
 bitraiy limits here. But suppose the Church should 
 say: We will receive to the communion no child 
 under twelve years of age ? We feel that this would 
 be arbitrary, and, therefore, out of harmony with the 
 true spirit of religion. Would it help the matter to 
 say ten or fourteen years instead of twelve? We 
 know that it would not. There can be no such ar- 
 bitrary *' metes and bounds " in religion. Procrus- 
 tean measures can have no place here. 
 
 But there are many vague notions and obstinate 
 prejudices on this subject. How often do parents 
 hesitate when their little children offer themselves 
 for Church membership ? Sometimes they say : " 1 
 
26 Our Children. 
 
 am afraid he is not old enough — let him wait till he 
 knows what he is about." Some say : " They ought 
 not to be biased — let them wait till they can decide 
 for themselves in matters of religion." * 
 
 Attending an Annual Conference in Virginia once, 
 a worthy brother, who was a local preacher, sought 
 an interview and asked our counsel. He was troub- 
 led about the case of his little boy, who had asked 
 permission to join the Church. 
 
 The following is very nearly what passsed be- 
 tween us : — 
 
 " Why do you hesitate, brother? " 
 
 *' O, he is not old enough ! " 
 
 *' How old is he ? " 
 
 " He is ten years old." 
 
 ^* How do you know he is not old enough?" 
 
 " He don't know enough to join the Church." 
 
 *' Don't know what, brother ? " 
 
 *' Why, he don't understand things ; the rules of 
 the Church and the doctrines." 
 
 " Do you understand them, brother?" 
 
 * The following story of Coleridge is in point. A friend visiting him 
 expressed the opinion that it was "very unfair to influence a child's 
 mind by inculcating opinions before it should come to years of dis- 
 cretion, so as to be able to choose for itself." In reply to this ab- 
 surd notion Coleridge says: " I showed him my garden, and told him 
 it was my botanical garden." " How so ? " said he ; "it is covered 
 with weeds." "O," I replied, '■'■that is because it has not yet come 
 to years of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken 
 the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the 
 soil toward roses and strawberries." 
 
Childhood and Religion. 27 
 
 Well, not as well as I ought." 
 
 " Does what you knozv measure your fitness for 
 Church membership? " 
 
 Our friend seemed greatly perplexed, but he 
 thought not. Then we asked him about his boy 
 again : " Let us see what your boy does know. 
 Does he know that he is a sinner? " 
 
 " O, yes : " 
 
 " Does he know that he needs a Saviour, and that 
 Jesus Christ is his Saviour?" 
 
 " I am sure of it," answered the local preacher. 
 
 ** Then advise and encourage him to join the 
 Church." 
 
 He promised to do so. 
 
 The age of the boy, as it seemed to us, had noth- 
 ing to do with the question of his joining the Church. 
 And as little, perhaps, had his technical knowledge 
 of doctrine and discipline. 
 
 Very significant here, as elsewhere, is the silence 
 of the Scriptures. There is nothing in the Bible 
 that intimates that a child's age can, in any sense, 
 become a condition of acceptance with God through 
 Jesus Christ. Nor is there a word which would jus- 
 tify the Church in saying a child must be so old- 
 say ten or twelve — before he can come to the com- 
 munion. But, practically, the Church has seemed 
 to make mere age one of the conditions precedent 
 to admission to her fellowship. No particular age, 
 as ten or twelve, has been agreed upon, and yet 
 
28 Our Children. 
 
 there is often doubt and hesitation when children of 
 this age and under offer themselves for member- 
 ship. There is no settled opinion, no formulated 
 doctrine on the subject, but what is, perhaps, more 
 injurious, a deep-seated prejudice, a wide-spread sen- 
 timent, unfavorable to the reception of young chil- 
 dren into the Church. Once or twice we have known 
 a pastor to take the little ones by the hand — as if 
 to soothe and satisfy them — as they came forward 
 with grown-up sinners, and then leave their names 
 off the register ! Cruel wrong is this. And it is the 
 assumption, often very thoughtlessly, of an awful 
 responsibility. 
 
 Of late years the Church has made great and nota- 
 ble progress toward a right sentiment concerning 
 the religious capabilities of children. We have 
 heard a preacher say that he greatly desired to join 
 the Church when he was eight years old. He had 
 a deep sense of sin and of his need of a Saviour. 
 But he saw that he was not w^anted — he was dis- 
 couraged — he was not reckoned old enough. He 
 did not join the Church till he was fifteen — till his 
 '* feet had well-nigh slipped." We heard him say 
 once : '' I shudder now when I remember the slip- 
 pery places along which I walked and see how near- 
 ly I was lost ! " Great was the grace that saved 
 him. Alas ! for the thousands that between eight 
 and fifteen do slip and fall to rise no more ! 
 
 What is at the bottom of this sentiment that chil- 
 
Childhood and Religion, 29 
 
 dren should be so old before they join the Church ? 
 Is it not a lingering, half-conscious feeling or notion 
 that knowledge and the doing of some meritorious 
 thing are, somehow, a sort of condition of justifica- 
 tion ? But neither children nor men are justifie(^ on 
 account of their knowing and their doing, but their 
 believing. The condition of entering into spiritual 
 life is not knowledge, but faith. It is nowhere said, 
 He that knoweth such and such things — that under- 
 standeth such and such doctrines and rules of the 
 Church, but ''//<: that believeth hath everlasting life'' 
 The jailer of Philippi, deeply convicted of sin, " fell 
 down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, 
 and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " 
 What answer did they give ? Little enough did he 
 know of doctrines and rules. There was not an arti- 
 cle of religion he could repeat, explain, or prove. 
 Our little Sunday-school children would have shamed 
 his knowledge. The apostles said : ^' Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
 house." 
 
 Some people talk of the '' proper requirements 
 for Church membership," as if they thought there 
 could be nothing after conversion and joining the 
 Church ! As if one of the chief functions and duties 
 of the Church were not those of a true "■ nursing- 
 mother," to feed the infant disciples with '' the sincere 
 milk of the word," that they '' may grow thereby," 
 and to train them up in the " knowledge and love 
 
30 Our Children. 
 
 of God ! *' To the jailer of Philippi Faul and Silas 
 did, indeed, speak '' the word of the Lord ; and 
 to all that were in his house." What he then 
 needed to know — chiefly, no doubt, his need of a 
 Saviour and the fullness of salvation through Jesus 
 Christ — that they preached. But their first word was 
 *' Believe." " Justification by faith " is the doctrine 
 of Christ and of the apostles ; it is the corner-stone ; 
 nay, it is the very soul of Protestantism. And yet 
 we talk of a child's '' knowing what he is about," and 
 " understanding the doctrines and the rules ! " By 
 all means let the child and man know what he is 
 about ; let him understand the doctrines and the 
 rules. But there is deadly danger in introducing 
 these knowledge tests and measures when our chil- 
 dren stand knocking at the door of the Church. 
 Such tests, if applied all round, would rule out some 
 of the saintliest men and women who bless and 
 grace the Church. He is not necessarily the fittest 
 for Church membership who knows most about the 
 Church — about rules and doctrines. In these mat- 
 ters the scribes and Pharisees, who heard and re- 
 jected our Lord's message, were well instructed. 
 
 This much seems clear: a child is old enough to 
 come under religious influence — old enough to act 
 upon religious principles — in a word, capable of re- 
 ligion as soon as it is old enough to know right 
 from wrong. How soon may this be? 
 
 There are obviously great differences in the men- 
 
Childhood and Religion. 3 1 
 
 tal and spiritual development of children. But 
 most children, as we judge, know right from wrong, 
 and respond in their consciences to the claims of 
 God's word far sooner than many persons suppose. 
 On this subject a passage from the " Church Mes- 
 senger" is judicious and to the point : — 
 
 " Surely we ought not to doubt that as soon as a 
 child is old enough to be a willful sinner, it is old 
 enough to be a voluntary Christian. As soon as it 
 is sufficiently old to choose the wrong, it is old 
 enough to choose the right. If a child of seven 
 years knows what it is to commit a sin, it knows 
 what it is to be sorry for it, and to confess its sins 
 to Jesus. No conscience is more tender than a lit- 
 tle child's. No heart is more easily touched. As 
 soon as a child can love its mother it can learn to 
 love Jesus. As soon as it trusts its mother enough 
 to swallow the unknown draught of medicine, it can 
 trust Christ. As soon as it begins to obey a father's 
 commands, it can obey its heavenly Father's com- 
 mandments. Now these three things, love, trust, 
 and obedience, are the very essence of religion. 
 The love of Christ is the marrow and pith of true 
 piety, Remember, too, that God's Spirit offers his 
 supernatural aid in producing and confirming the 
 converting work in our children's hearts." 
 
 We heard a father, on one occasion, relate the 
 following incident concerning his child, a boy, at 
 the time, not quite five years old : — 
 
32 Our Children. 
 
 "Comlnoj in from the street," he said, "my little 
 boy met me at the door. He was very muddy. I 
 had noticed that the gutter in front of the house 
 was nearly full of dirty water, that had been thrown 
 on the street by some fire-engines that had been 
 practicing close by. I asked, ' How did you get so 
 muddy, Johnny?' He hesitated, colored slightly, 
 and answered slowly and doubtfully, ' Mother sent 
 me to Mr. Butler's and I fell in the ditch.' I doubt- 
 ed whether he had told me the truth, but making it 
 a rule never to teach my children to lie by accusing 
 them when they may be innocent, I only said, ' You 
 must be more particular next time.' There the 
 matter dropped. After tea that evening, four or 
 five hours having passed since our interview at the 
 door, I went into a room to say my prayers. It was 
 perfectly dark, but presently I heard the little boy 
 gently open the door and say, * Pa-pa.' I called 
 him, and he came and crouched down by my chair. 
 After my own prayer was ended — no one having 
 intimated to the child a suspicion of his truthful- 
 ness — I began to pray in a low voice, ' O good 
 Lord, bless my dear little boy. Make him good, 
 and help him to tell the truth always.' As I 
 said the words, slowly and solemnly, I felt the 
 little boy quiver by my side. He began to sob, 
 and in a moment jumped up and threw his arms 
 about my neck. 'O, pa-pa,' he sobbed, ' I zui/l tel- 
 you the truth about getting my clothes muddy 
 
Childhood and Religion. 33 
 
 I was playing in the ditch, and mother told me 
 not to/" 
 
 Now, what shall we say of this and of the thou- 
 sands of similar cases that parents have observed? 
 It is conscience — conscience quickened by the truth 
 and by the Spirit of God. When Radford Crockett, 
 who helped to murder an old man near Atlanta, 
 Georgia, about twenty years ago, after making good 
 his escape, came voluntarily and gave himself up to 
 die, offering no defense, and only begging, as he 
 sobbed out the words — while strong men in the 
 crowded court-room wept and sobbed with him — 
 the judge to give him all the time the law allowed 
 that he might get ready for death, we all talked 
 about the power of conscience, and faithful minis- 
 ters followed him to his cell and preached unto him 
 Jesus and the resurrection. And it was the same 
 power that worked in the heart of the child, less 
 than five years old, who had told, perhaps, his first 
 falsehood — conscience. The child, as well as the 
 man, needed a Saviour and was capable of religion. 
 The child's father did preach Jesus to his penitent 
 
 little one. And he was right. 
 3 
 
34 Our Ciiildrp:n. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PREVENTION OF SIN AN INVALUABLE MERCY. 
 
 T T /"E fall into many mistakes on this whole sub- 
 ^ ^ ject of the religion of childhood. 
 In the first place, we have a vague notion that 
 there is no need of pressing the matter upon a 
 child's attention — that there is plenty of time — that 
 a child has not much to do with religion any way — 
 that religion is a subject that chiefly concerns grown 
 people — that a child is in no danger by delay in em- 
 bracing Christ — that it will be as well, if not better, 
 for the little ones to wait awhile. And some persons 
 — surely on account of ignorance or inattention, and 
 not, we trust, indifference — seem to attach very 
 little importance to such efforts as children make 
 to be religious. Sometimes we have heard the in- 
 terest of a protracted meeting discounted by reflec- 
 tions upon the number of children that knelt for 
 prayer, or offered themselves for membership in the 
 Church. Surely such persons have not read, or 
 considered, what our Lord Jesus has said : ''At the 
 same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, 
 Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? 
 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and se*- 
 him in the midst of them, and said. Verily I say 
 
Prevention of Sin an Invaluable Mercy, 3 5 
 
 unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as 
 little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
 t)f heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble him- 
 self as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one 
 such little child in my name receiveth me. But 
 whoso shall offend one of these little ones which 
 believe in me, it were better for him that a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were 
 drowned in the depth of the sea." 
 
 Critics may differ as much as they please about 
 the exegesis of these weighty words, but their spirit is 
 unmistakable, and v/e cannot read them aright with- 
 out feeling that we commit a great sin, and expose 
 ourselves to a great condemnation, when we hinder 
 a little child that would come to Jesus. But it is 
 mournfully true that sometimes we imitate the bad 
 example of the unbelieving disciples who " rebuked " 
 those who ^' brought young children to him, that he 
 should touch them." Let us read and ponder the 
 record that the evangelist has made at this place : 
 ** But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, 
 and said unto them. Suffer the little children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 How mischievous are our misty notions and blind 
 prejudices ! We ought to press the subject of re< 
 ligion upon the attention of our children. There 
 is not plenty of time.' Children have much to 
 
36 ' Our Children. 
 
 do with religion — as much as grown people have. 
 Children are in great danger who delay embracing 
 Christ. It is not, by any means, as well for a 
 child to wait awhile ; for he suffers, if not the 
 loss of his soul, nevertheless an incalculable loss, 
 by waiting. 
 
 The child is now capable of sin, and by that tok- 
 en we know that he is capable of religion also. He 
 now needs Christ, and, therefore, Christ is now able 
 and willing to save him. For '' the Son of man is 
 come to seek and to save that which is lost." Chil- 
 dren are born with depraved natures ; they must 
 have new hearts to become children of God in 
 Christ Jesus. They must be pardoned and regener- 
 ated.^ Sin is one in its essential character in grown 
 people and in children. There is but one way as 
 there is but one Saviour. To become " heirs of 
 God " they must be made *' children of God.'^ To 
 become " children of God " they must be " created 
 anew in Christ Jesus" — must be " transformed by 
 the renewing of their mind." They must be " born 
 again" — "born of the Spirit," ''born, not of blood, 
 nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
 but of God." And the sooner the better for the 
 child, for the good of men, and for the glory of God. 
 
 * //07a God saves infants concerns us little. We know they aie 
 saved, although it ha. pleased him to tell us little about the mode of 
 their salvation ; assured, however, that they are so saved as to enter 
 heaven with the Christly, and not with the Adamic.nature — Go or Si in/. 
 
Prevention of Sin an Invaluable Mercy. 37 
 
 It is, indeed, a blessed and glorious work of grace 
 when some great sinner of " the giants, of the sons 
 of Anak," is brought to the feet of Jesus; but in 
 every view of the case it would be better that the 
 little sins of children should never develop into the 
 great sins of desperate and hardened sinners. The 
 story of the prodigal, redeemed from the wretched- 
 ness of an outcast swineherd to the blessedness of 
 sonship and home, is enough to move the heart of 
 a demon ; but it had been better and more beauti- 
 ful, and more pleasing to God, that the son should 
 never have become a reprobate.* 
 
 " Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? 
 God forbid ! " 
 
 The child whose sound conversion is delayed — by 
 his own willfulness, or by the mistakes or indiffer- 
 ence or unbelief of friends — even though he may 
 afterward be regenerated and be saved, suffers an 
 incalculable loss by the delay. To keep men out of 
 hell is not the chief end or glory of the salvation 
 that Jesus Christ has brought into the world, but 
 rather to save tliem from sin, and to make them un- 
 fit for such a place as hell and for such companion- 
 ship as that of the lost. 
 
 Saul of Tarsus was a great sinner, and, by the 
 grace of God, he became a great saint ; but his sins 
 
 * The elder brother does not show what the younger ought to have 
 been. His self-satisfied Pharisaism was itself a "going away" from 
 God and from true "holiness." 
 
38 Our Children. 
 
 did not help to make him a saint. He had been a 
 greater saint had he not been so great a sinner. Per- 
 secution of the saints made no contribution to the 
 development of his piety. True, he burst forth into 
 irrepressible and grateful songs whenever he thought 
 of the infinite mercy that was showed to him. Truly 
 and thankfully did he say: ''This is a faithful say- 
 ing and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am 
 chief." But if he had embraced Christ before that 
 day of blood and darkness, when he "stood by" to 
 sanction the murder of '' His first martyr, St. Ste- 
 phen " — to have been saved from the commission of 
 such a sin would have tuned his heart to songs as 
 grateful as those which celebrate his pardon. Do 
 we not think too little of this — the blessedness of 
 being saved from the commission of great sins ? 
 We do not discount the riches of Divine grace — the 
 power of God's spirit in changing the heart of Saul 
 of Tarsus, but we must think it had been unspeak- 
 ably better for the great apostle never to have 
 blasphemed the name of Jesus, never to have '' per- 
 secuted " his saints, " even unto strange cities." 
 
 David felt this when God's preventing grace, 
 through the instrumentality of wise and gentle Abi- 
 gail, held back his hand from slaying the churlish 
 Nabal. '' And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the 
 Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet 
 me : and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou 
 
Prevention of Sin an InvahLable Merey. 39 
 
 which hast kept me this day from coming to shed 
 blood, and from avenging myself with mine own 
 hand." Abigail was that day, indeed, the good 
 angel of the hunted outlaw and anointed king. 
 And such always are those wise children of God, 
 whose "blessed advice" and blessed influence save 
 us, by grace divine, from putting forth our rash 
 hands to sin. 
 
 It is always better not to sin. Nothing in earth 
 or heaven can make it better for a child to become 
 a great sinner. Always and every-where sin is an 
 infinite evil. Its prevention should inspire our loft- 
 iest zeal and command our deepest gratitude. Once 
 more we say, Paul had been a greater saint had he 
 not been so great a sinner. This may be gainsaid 
 and misunderstood, but it is to us a truth — deeply 
 and inexpugnably fixed in mind, and heart, and 
 conscience. And we believe that God's word, and 
 sound reason, and universal observation and experi- 
 ence, prove, illustrate, and confirm the opinion to 
 be the truth. 
 
 The soul that is early saved from sin — if it only 
 be fed and nurtured aright — must grow up into a 
 fairer and more symmetrical character than the soul 
 that continues long in rebellion, and that bears, per- 
 haps always, the scars of its old wounds. There is 
 a volume of meaning in the title of one of Dr. 
 South's sermons: *' The Prevention of Sin an In- 
 valuable Mercy." One paragraph we may quote : — • 
 
40 Our Children. 
 
 Every commission of sin introduces into trie soul a certain 
 degree of hardness, and an aptness to continue in that sin. It 
 is a known maxim, that it is much more difficult to throw out 
 than to let in. Every degree of entrance is a degree of posses- 
 sion. Sin talcen into the soul is like a liquor poured into a 
 vessel ; so much of it as it fills it also seasons. The touch and 
 tincture go together. So that, although the body of the liquor 
 should be poured out again, yet still it leaves that tang behind 
 it which makes the vessel fitter for that than any other. In 
 like manner every act of sin strangely transforms and works 
 over the soul to its own likeness : sin in this being to the soul 
 like fire to combustible matter ; it assimilates before it destroys 
 it. . . . And every commission of sin imprints upon the soul a 
 further disposition and proneness to sins : as the second, third, 
 and fourth degrees of heat are more easily introduced than the 
 first. Every one is both a preparative and a step to the next. 
 Drinking both quenches the present thirst and provokes it for 
 the future. When the soul is beaten frohi its first station, and 
 the mounds and outworks of virtue are once broken down, it 
 becomes quite another thing from what it was before. In one 
 single eating of the forbidden fruit, when the act is over, yet 
 the relish remains ; and the remembrance of the first rrpast is 
 an easy allurement to the second. One visit is enough to be- 
 gin an acquaintance ; and this point is gained by it, that when 
 the visitant comes again he is no more a stranger. 
 
 Who that knows himself, or that is an observer of 
 others, can doubt that the Jiabit of shi, acquired 
 previous to conversion, itself constitutes a danger ? 
 Apostasy generally takes place in the line of the old 
 habits that in the days of sin, dug themselves deep 
 channels through mind and heart and life. When 
 a river, turned from its course, breaks out of its 
 new channel, it returns to the old. Illustrations of 
 
Prevention of Sin an Invaluable Mercy. 41 
 
 this truth will come trooping into the recollections 
 of every experienced and observant pastor. It is a 
 sort of military axiom that " the strength of a forti- 
 fication is the strength of its weakest point." How 
 many mature Christians feel this most keenly ! Al- 
 though they are strong in the Christian virtues, they 
 bitterly lament their weakness in resisting the evil 
 tendencies that the old habits of sin set in motion. 
 
 From how many bitter and unavailing regrets 
 will early conversion save our children ! Paul never 
 alluded to his old life of sin without unutterable 
 sorrow, nor can any good man gloat over the scenes 
 of his early wickedness. How sorrowful to recall 
 opportunities wasted, privileges perverted, grace de- 
 spised, goodness contemned ! How sad to think 
 that we ever did, or could, through the dark days 
 of rebellion, treat such a Saviour as Jesus is so un- 
 lovingly as to sin against him ! 
 
 And who shall recall for us the evil influence of 
 the days of evil ? Who shall undo the ruin of souls, 
 blighted by the evil influence of him who served sin 
 and Satan before he turned to God ? 
 
 Read the history of Manasseh, king of Israel, the 
 wicked son of the good Hezekiah. He " wrought 
 uncleanness with greediness," committing all man- 
 ner of sin. Late in life, under the heavy hand of 
 an avenging Providence, " he besought the Lord 
 his God, and humbled himself greatly before the 
 God of his fathers." Infinite was the mercy that 
 
42 Our Children. 
 
 heard and accepted such a sinner. But Maiiasseh's 
 pardon and Manasseh's salvation could not undo 
 the evil that he had already done. Hundreds, per- 
 haps thousands, went down to hell, as the result of 
 his false doctrines and wicked ways, even before his 
 repentance and pardon. Nor did his repentance 
 and pardon stop the long procession of rebellious 
 ones — full of sin and doomed to death — that kept 
 marching on and down to their fate. 
 
 When a man launches a false word upon the 
 stream of time it is gone from him forever. He 
 cannot recall it. When a man commits a sin it goes 
 forth from him ; it may be pardoned, it cannot be 
 recalled. The sinner, through God's great mercy, 
 may be saved from the doom he deserves, but his 
 sin goes on forever, propagating itself in other souls. 
 O, who shall tell us how far, how wide, how deep, 
 the leaven of sin and death will work ! 
 
 After Manasseh's repentance and conversion he 
 exerted himself to undo the evil that he had done. 
 His success was small. He did, indeed, ** take away 
 the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of 
 the Lord." He tried hard to arrest the downward 
 course of the nation, and to make some atonement 
 for the ruin he liad brought on his people. He 
 not only cast the implements of idolatry out of the 
 city of Jerusalem, but *' he repaired the altar of the 
 Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings and 
 thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the 
 
Prevention of Sin an Invalnable Mercy. 43 
 
 Lord God of Israel.'' Alas ! Judah had learned 
 from him to disobey God, and to give herself to 
 idols. There was a partial and temporary reforma- 
 tion , but the tide was only held in check; Manas- 
 seh could not turn it back. The brief arrest of the 
 flood seemed only to gather the waters for their 
 final plunge. When one cuts the dikes and lets 
 in the sea, wailings, and lamentations, and wringing 
 of hands, will not drive back the waves. 
 
 Sad as a tragedy in which all the actors die, is 
 the closing record of the reign of Manasseh and his 
 son. Thicker and blacker grew the shadows as the 
 night of ruin settled down upon his house. " Amon 
 was two and twenty years old when he began to 
 reign, and reigned two years in Jerusalem. But he 
 did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, 
 as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed 
 unto all the carved images which Manasseh his 
 father had made, and served them ; and humbled 
 not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father 
 had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more 
 and more. And his servants conspired against him, 
 and slew him in his own house," 
 
 Very sad is the sight of this old man trying in 
 vain to undo the evil he had done. Retribution 
 followed his sin. He was saved by the infinite 
 mercy that heard and accepted his penitential tears 
 and prayers. But bitter regrets followed him to his 
 grave. Ghostly forms stood about him, reminding 
 
44 Our Children. 
 
 him of the souls he had destroyed. Will Manasseh 
 not lament these undone souls forever? How true 
 is that Scripture which saith : ** If fire break out, 
 and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or 
 the standing corn, or the field be consumed there- 
 with, he that kindled the fire shall surely make 
 restitution." 
 
 We knew a preacher — a man of genius, and pow- 
 er, and deep devotion. He was once a great sinner. 
 He never mentioned his old life except to deplore 
 his sins, and to magnify the mercy of God. On one 
 occasion, referring to his great and merciful deliver- 
 ance, he thought of the evil he had done before his 
 repentance and conversion. He paused a moment, 
 and then with a sobbing cry that would have moved 
 a stone, he said, " But I am afraid there are souls in 
 hell that I sent there ! " And then, while the tears 
 streamed down his face, he cried, " O Jesus, Jesus, 
 tell them how sorry I am, how sorry I am ! " 
 
 Would God that we knew that the ''prevention 
 of sin is an invaluable mercy!" 
 
TJic EnligJitening and Quickening Spirit. 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ENLIGHTENING AND QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 WE have seen how easily, we might say how 
 naturally, we fall in with the notion that a 
 child, in order to embrace Christ, must know so 
 much of '' doctrines and rules," and such things. 
 Even in the case of a little child, we seem to hesi- 
 tate to take Christ and the blessing of his Gospel 
 by faith. There are thousands like the local preach- 
 er mentioned before, who cling to the notion that 
 a child should '' know the doctrines and the rules, 
 and so forth." Certainly these things should be 
 known, but not as a condition of his coming to 
 Christ. 
 
 In this connection another prevalent and hurtful 
 error may be mentioned : We seem to think that 
 religious knowledge is like other knowledge, or even 
 more difficult to attain. Parents will have their 
 children study arithmetic, and geography, and gram- 
 mar, and such things, and still talk about their be- 
 ing too young to know enough to join the Church 
 or to be religious. But it is far otherwise ; religious 
 truth is more easily learned by a child than matne- 
 matical or other scientific truth. In a most impor- 
 tant sense religious truth is more normal to the 
 
46 Our Children. 
 
 mind of a child. God has adjusted the word of the 
 kingdom to human nature so perfectly, that as soon 
 as a child can understand any thing, it can under- 
 stand, partially at least, and sufficiently for its per- 
 sonal salvation, the rudimentary truths of religion. 
 And herein we find one of the most convincing and 
 irresistible evidences of the Divine origin of the 
 Gospel — its perfect adaptedness to our nature. God, 
 who made the light for the eye and the eye for the 
 light, has assuredly adjusted the Gospel to the soul 
 of man. It is adapted to his condition, and it meets 
 all his wants. It is impossible, as it seems to us, 
 that one, who understands both man and the Gos- 
 pel, can doubt that He who made man gave him 
 the Gospel. Fallen, though he is, man has more 
 susceptibility, if we may so express it, to the knowl- 
 edge of God than to any other form of knowledge. 
 And this should not surprise us, since the whole 
 remedial scheme was designed for fallen man. It is 
 not a Gospel for unfallen and innocent, but for fallen 
 and sinful intelligences. Jesus himself said, '* I am 
 not come to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
 pentance." It is very clear, as it seems to us, that it 
 is as natural that a child should apprehend a Gospel 
 truth as that he should hear or breathe. 
 
 But, after all, it is not mere knowledge — it is 
 somewhat like intuition. Dr. John Brown, of Edin- 
 burgh, says, in one of his lectures on " The Sayings 
 and Discourses of our Lord," '' The New Testament 
 
The Enlightening and Quickejiing Spirit. 47 
 
 has an answering witness in every man's conscience." 
 Yes, and in every child's conscience. If one is 
 teaching a child a rule in grammar, or arithmetic, 
 there is need of tedious and repeated explanations, 
 and, generally, when it is learned, it is, at first, and, 
 for the most part, for a long time after, only lodged 
 in the memory, to be understood, by and by, when 
 the reflective faculties begin to develop. But when 
 a child is told that it ought to be good, to obey its 
 parents, to speak the truth, to fear God, and to pray, 
 as soon as it can understand what you say, it under- 
 stands what you mean. What it has learned is 
 more than something simply remembered, it is 
 something known. 
 
 The five-year-old boy, mentioned in a preceding 
 chapter, had as distinct a sense of the obligation to 
 speak the truth as his father had. The religious 
 truth a little child may comprehend may be small, 
 but what it knows, it knozvs. We firmly believe 
 that a child's mind seizes upon, apprehends, and 
 retains a religious truth more readily than any other 
 truth. Explain to a child that he is a sinner ; that 
 he needs a Saviour; show him that Jesus is such a 
 Saviour as he needs. Now bring the same truths 
 before the mind of a man, and there is less differ- 
 ence between the knowledge of the child and the 
 knowledge of the man than most persons are apt to 
 suppose. The man may know more abo2it sin and 
 moie about Christ than the child, but he does not. 
 
48 Our Children. 
 
 as we think, know more clearly than the child the 
 few things the child does know. 
 
 One reason we fail to recognize the adaptedness 
 of the Gospel to a child's apprehension, and fail to 
 see how easily and readily a child may learn ele- 
 mentary and saving religious truth, is that we do 
 not know or estimate aright the work done by the 
 Holy Spirit. There can be little question that in 
 much of our thinking on the subject of the religious 
 capabilities of children, we forget or undervalue the 
 illuminating and quickening influences of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 How soon does the Spirit begin his work in the 
 minds of little children ? We do not know. We 
 know that one child at least — John the Baptist, the 
 son of holy Zacharias and Elizabeth — was '' filled 
 with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb." 
 
 In him at least 
 
 •• Prevenient grace descending," 
 
 as Milton expresses it, went before the dawn of in- 
 telligence and prepared the way for the apprehen- 
 sion and belief and love of the truth. 
 
 And who knows but the same gracious Spirit now 
 moves — silently, mysteriously it may be, but truly 
 and efficaciously — upon the hearts of all our children 
 from the very day that they are born ? We do not 
 affirm, for the word of God does not say. Yet, 
 surely, no one can deny, for the word of God does 
 not deny. May we not ask, with solemn reverence, 
 
TJie Enlightening and Quickening Spirit. 49 
 
 would it not be like our loving and compassionate 
 Father to surround our little children with all holy 
 influences from the very hour they enter upon their 
 pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world? 
 With what tenderness and anxious solicitude even 
 earthly parents nurse and guard their helpless babes! 
 But we do not — for we cannot — love them as God 
 does. " If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
 good gifts unto your children ; how much more 
 shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
 them that ask him?" And what "asking" is a 
 little baby's helplessness and need of divine protec- 
 tion, love, and preventing grace ! 
 
 It may be that God has not informed us upon this 
 subject, just as he has left us in ignorance of his 
 mode of preparing an infant soul for heaven when 
 he calls it out of this evil world unto himself, because 
 this is a blessing that does not depend simply upon 
 our co-operation, and that cannot be altogether hin- 
 dered by our unbelief We know that no wicked- 
 ness in the parents can hinder God's work in pre- 
 paring the soul of their departing infant for the 
 happiness of heaven. And, as we suppose, his pre- 
 venting grace — while its ultimate results may be 
 m:>rred by parental unbelief and sin — cannot be al- 
 together, at least, if at all, kept away from the soul 
 of a little babe by a father's or a mother's wicked- 
 ness. 
 
 Who will say that the sun's rays arc not warming 
 4 
 
50 Our Children. 
 
 the earth, through all the long winter, although 
 the grass does not grow, the flowers do not bloom, 
 and the birds do not sing till the springtime comes? 
 We do not value aright the power and blessing of 
 a winter's sun. We look on the dreary land- 
 scape and the earth seems dead. But suppose 
 that sun removed from his place Then, indeed, 
 would the winter of death come upon us ; the ice 
 would strike down into the heart of the earth, and 
 the end would come. But when the spring does 
 come, and 
 
 " With one great gush of blossoms storms the world," 
 
 and the summer and the autumn, with their green 
 glories and ripening harvests, come on in their sea- 
 son, we know the power of the sun. But without 
 the winter's sun, there would be no spring, nor sum- 
 mer, nor autumn time. 
 
 And what would youth or manhood be without 
 the gracious prevenient work of the all-enlightening 
 and quickening influences of the Holy Spirit ? What 
 a hopeless task it would be to teach the Gospel to a 
 man who had never felt the influences of the Spirit 
 of God ! There is no such man ; it is inconceivable 
 that there should be. There are men who have 
 ** resisted," and " grieved," and '^ quenched " these 
 divine influences, but there is no man \\ho never felt 
 them. And this agrees with experience. Mission- 
 aries have found that the truths of the Gospel are 
 
The Enlightening and Quickening Spirit. 5 1 
 
 as normal, so to speak, to the most debased heathen, 
 as to the most civihzed and enHghtened nations. 
 
 Why should we doubt that the Holy Ghost 
 moves upon the heart of a child long before our 
 dull eyes can detect the signs of his presence? Do 
 we not read that when *' the earth was without 
 form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of 
 the deep," that '' the Spirit of God moved upon the 
 face of the waters ? " Afterward came the light and 
 the life that manifested the creative wisdom and 
 power of God. Once, at least, in the case of him, as 
 we have seen, who was to "go before " and '' pre- 
 pare the way " of our Lord, the Holy Ghost did fill 
 the heart of a child — and oi 2. fallen child of a fallen 
 man — from the very hour of its birth. Whether 
 this be an exceptional case or not, one thing we 
 know; the work of the Spirit, in the heart of John, 
 was not arbitrary or capricious; it violated no law 
 of the human constitution or of the divine govern- 
 ment. Most certainly, as it seems to us, we are 
 warranted, by all we can learn from the word of 
 God, in praying that our little ones may receive "the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost " from the day that they are 
 born. What pious father or mother is there who 
 does not pray, as soon as their children are born, 
 that God would bless them ? What do we mean by 
 such prayers if the Holy Spirit may not " move 
 upon " them, although their thoughts as yet may be 
 *" without form, and void." 
 
52 Our Children. 
 
 Nor do we estimate aright the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, as teacher of the truth of God, throughout 
 the entire course of Christian growth and experi- 
 ences. 
 
 The great promise of our Saviour, " The Com- 
 forter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father 
 shall send in my name, he shall teach you all things," 
 is surely not to be confined to the twelve who were 
 then listening to his valedictory discourse. This 
 promise, in all its grace and fullness, is ours for all 
 our needs, as it was theirs for all their needs. And 
 little children, as truly as adult believers, may plead 
 it and be glad in it. 
 
 What a grown man knows of God is not the re- 
 sult of his studies simply — is not the conclusion of 
 his philosophy, nor the discovery of his reason. To 
 know God truly we must be taught of God. ''As ii 
 is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him. 
 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : 
 for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
 things of God. For what man knoweth the things 
 of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? 
 Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the 
 Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the 
 spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; 
 that we might know the things that are freely given 
 to us of God." 
 
The Enlightening and Quickening Spirit. 53 
 
 When we think on the natural depravity of our 
 children, let us remciiber that the Spirit of God — 
 * quickening them that are dead in trespasses and 
 in sins " — moves upon their hearts, as upon ours ; 
 when we think on their ignorance of spiritual things, 
 and deplore — as it becomes us to do — our want of 
 aptness in teaching them the *' truth as it is in Je- 
 sus," let us remember, for our encouragement, that 
 the '' Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost," is their 
 teacher as well as ours. How wise, how careful, 
 how patient, how loving, and, if we may write such 
 words of Him, how apt is this blessed Teacher of hu- 
 man souls, no tongue can tell. There are those who 
 are called teachers among men who do their work 
 carelessly when they instruct little children. But 
 the wise and loving Spirit of God knows what 
 a little child is — its great worth and its many 
 needs. 
 
 During the summer of 1875 we had a long con- 
 versation with a very saintly woman — whose hus- 
 band was like-minded with her — about her son, an 
 only child. He is now a man, and himself a Chris- 
 tian teacher of children. We had known him when 
 he was a school-boy, and he had always seemed to 
 us singularly pure in word and deed. We learned 
 the secret of his early maturity in religion, and of his 
 consistent and beautiful religious character. God 
 had given them only this one child, and from his 
 birth their prayer had been, not merely that God 
 
54 Our Children. 
 
 would spare his life, but that he might be kept from 
 sin. Their prayer was full of the spirit of Christ : 
 *' I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of 
 the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from 
 the cviiy Neither his *' grandmother Lois," nor 
 '' his mother Eunice," were more prayerful, or careful 
 in teaching the way of righteousness to young Tim- 
 othy, than were our friends in bringing up their son 
 *' in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." They 
 dedicated him most solemnly to God, and God's 
 blessing upon him they supplicated day by day. 
 Above all, they prayed for the presence and influ- 
 ences of the Holy Ghost, that he might be sancti- 
 fied from his birth. And, so far as we can see, their 
 prayer was heard. Is it any wonder that their boy 
 in his early childhood — when barely beyond the peri- 
 od of infancy — gave his young and willing heart to 
 God? that he has, since that early consecration of 
 himself, run joyfully in the way of God's command- 
 ments ? that he was saved from the crimes that so 
 often blight the bloom and promise of boyhood ? Is 
 it any wonder that, in answer to such prayers and in 
 co-operation with such parental love and fidelity, the 
 Holy Ghost "was given" — that the ''fruit of the 
 Spirit" did appear in early childhood, or that now, 
 in manhood's prime, they go on multiplying and 
 maturing to the glory of God's grace ? that he is a 
 " crown of honor " to his parents, a joy and a bless- 
 ing to a large circle of friends? 
 
The Enlightening and Qidckcning Spirit. 5 5 
 
 " Lord, we believe ; help thou our unbelief ! " For 
 our children also, may we believe and pray for " the 
 promise of the Father ; " open wide our own hearts 
 to his blessed visitation ; and joyfully, " as workers 
 together with Him," " bring our young children to 
 Jesus, that he may touch them ! " 
 
t;6 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON MERE ABILITY TO TALK RELIGION. 
 
 OFTENTIMES we pass hasty and unjust judg- 
 ments upon youthful Christians. Sometimes a 
 child's religious knowledge and experience are dis- 
 counted in our minds because his power of expres- 
 sion is limited. He tells what he knows and feels 
 imperfectly and with difficulty. His simple speech 
 is an offense to the precision of orthodoxy and the 
 pride of pedantry. But there is no greater mistake 
 of the kind than that as " words are the signs of 
 ideas," there will necessarily be words where there 
 are ideas, or that there are no ideas where there are 
 no words. As if words were the only signs of ideas 
 — the only instruments of expression ! 
 
 The wisest and most cultured men have many 
 thoughts for which they can find no adequate ex- 
 pression. The best songs have not been sung, ex- 
 cept in meek and lowly hearts, by inaudible voices, 
 and to the minstrelsy of unseen harps. The noblest 
 thoudits that stir man's heart cannot find utter- 
 ance. The great sculptor Thorwaldsen, it is said, 
 was once seen contemplating through sad tears a 
 statue of the child Jesus, which he had just com- 
 pleted. His pupils, standing by, asked the cause 
 
On Mere Ability to Talk Religion. 57 
 
 of his depression. He answered with deep sorrow 
 in his tones : — 
 
 " I shall never have another great thought." 
 
 ''What do you mean, master?" they cried in a 
 breath. His answer contains a true philosophy. 
 
 '* Up to this time my conception of what a work 
 of art ought to be, has been far beyond my power 
 of execution in the work itself. This statue satisfies 
 ineT 
 
 And Thorwaldsen was right — his power of con- 
 ception was already in its decadence. It is a sad 
 thing to see a man satisfied with any thing that he 
 has done — a song he has sung, a picture he has 
 painted, a statue he has carved, a book he has 
 written, a sermon he has preached, a duty he has 
 performed, a life he has lived. Such satisfaction is 
 the token of decadence and the forerunner of death. 
 Adequate expression never comes forsome thoughts, 
 for some emotions, for some aspirations. The no- 
 bler the thoughts, the purer and deeper the emo- 
 tions, the loftier and diviner the aspirations, the 
 greater the difficulty of expression. '* Words " are 
 the " signs " of ideas, but they are only signs — mere 
 symbols of the greater things they cannot reveal. 
 Who, that by some noble thought or generous sen- 
 timent has been lifted above himself, has not felt all 
 this? And there are some rare moments when we 
 feel that speech is an impertinence. When we stand 
 upon the highest Pisgahs and the Sun of Truth 
 
58 Our Children. 
 
 pours down his beams, and all the landscape— with 
 bright streams, and green fields, and shaded woods, 
 and distant mountains — shines before us and startles 
 and subdues like a new revelation in the manifesting 
 light, we feel that silence is a necessity. 
 
 On one occasion, many years ago, a gifted preacher, 
 the great and good Lovick Pierce — who still abides 
 with the Church, saintly and venerable, honored in 
 all the gates of Zion, wise as Nestor and loving as 
 St. John — was discoursing on one of the grand 
 themes of the Gospel. The Spirit of power was 
 upon him. " The skin of his face shone " as if he 
 had just descended from some mountain of glorious 
 vision. Intellect and feeling were at their highest 
 and most confluent tides that day. Head and heart 
 worked together. Argument and passion fused and 
 coalesced. He carried his congregation with him. 
 Farther and farther they moved from the shore, till 
 at last they tided over the bar and were fairly out at 
 sea. And how wide, how deep is the sea ! And 
 then the preacher paused, as if feeling carefully with 
 his longest sounding line for the bottom, so far out 
 of sight. But in vain. He only felt the tug and 
 undertow of mighty tides deep down in the sea. 
 And then he cried, lifting his face with a look of 
 rapture : " Glory be to God ! I can find no bottom ! " 
 
 We often find the great apostle himself strug- 
 gling hopelessly to find utterance for the mighty 
 thoughts that swelled his heart with joys unuttera- 
 
On Merc Ability to Talk Religion. 59 
 
 ble. When he had completed his inspired argument 
 in the Epistle to the Romans, setting forth, in 
 words chosen by the Spirit, man's ruin by sin and 
 his redemption by Christ, as one vision after another 
 of God's greatness and goodness rose before his 
 faith, he could only exclaim in the fullness of his 
 holy joy, "■ O the depth of the riches both of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable 
 are his judgments and his ways past finding out ! " 
 
 Many times have we heard, in love-feasts and ex- 
 perience meetings, from simple people, a word that 
 indicated far more than it expressed, accompanied, 
 it may be, with a look or gesture that spoke unutter- 
 able things. 
 
 One scene we recall. We were standing in the 
 pulpit with the now sainted Dr. A. L. P. Green, at 
 a camp-meeting near Columbia, Tennessee, in the 
 autumn of 187 1. It was an hour of holy joy, for the 
 Church had won a great victory that day. Sinners 
 had been converted and saints had been made happy 
 in God. They were singing a camp-meeting hymn, 
 in which we joined as well as we were able. Right 
 before the pulpit stood a little old man whom we 
 had observed, in the morning, as one of the homeli- 
 est men we had ever seen. He was dwarfed in 
 stature, and his face had been sadly marred by dis- 
 ease and age. Dr. Green called our attention to the 
 man. He was not the same man now. The joy of 
 grace filled his heart, and shone with strange bright- 
 
6o Our Children. 
 
 ness through his face. " He was transfigured before 
 us." Now he seemed beautiful to our eyes. His 
 eyes filled with tears, and his voice, rich with heav- 
 enly gladness, spoke to our hearts things that were 
 unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 And children — very little children — sometimes 
 have these thoughts, that reach out toward things 
 infinite and eternal. 
 
 We have heard one of our bishops tell of his 
 child-experience in religion. Even he, with all his 
 gift of expression, cannot tell it all in words. The 
 gesture, the tones, the look on his face, told more 
 than his tongue could tell. How distinctly he re- 
 called the time when his mother held him in her lap, 
 and looked down into his face as she sang her fa- 
 vorite hymn : — 
 
 " Alas ! and did my Saviour bleed? 
 And did my Sov'reign die ? 
 Would he devote that sacred head 
 For such a worm as I ? " 
 
 And as the good mother sang the last stanza, 
 
 " But drops of grief can ne'er repay 
 The debt of love I owe : 
 Here, Lord, I give myself away, — 
 'Tis all that I can do," 
 
 tears dropped from her eyes as she looked down 
 upon the child in her lap and fell upon his face. 
 As the good bishop told us these things his voice 
 trembled and his eyes filled, as if he still felt his 
 mother's arms about him. 
 
On Mere Ability to Talk Religion. 6i 
 
 How deeply the impression was then made upon 
 his tender mind — how intensely it has been retained 
 —that a good and sinless One had died for him ! 
 One scene he recalled with pathetic simplicity. 
 When a little child — his mother's songs in his ears 
 and his mother's prayers in his heart — he was play- 
 ing near the house in a skirt of woods where the 
 autumn shadows and sunshine were mingling on the 
 ground, and the autumn gold and purple were upon 
 the leaves. He began to think over the song, 
 
 " Alas ! and did my Saviour bleed ? " 
 
 The thought went down into his heart, " Jesus 
 died for me — for me," and he wondered, *' Shall I 
 ever see Jesus ? Will he ever come to me ? " 
 
 And this October day, as we write of these things, 
 a saintly face, a silvered head, and a bent form rises 
 before us, and the echoes of the first song we re- 
 member ever to have heard, and the sweet, soft notes 
 of the first tune we ever learned to sing, come back 
 to us. It is dear grandmother, sitting in the low 
 rocking chair with a baby sister in her arms, singing 
 to one of the old tunes she had learned in Virginia, 
 when the first circuit preachers came to her father's 
 house : — ■ 
 
 " Hark, my soul, it is the Lord ; 
 'Tis thy Saviour — hear his words. 
 Jesus speaks, he speaks to thee : — 
 ' Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou me ? '" 
 
 How that question stirred our young heart — 
 
 " Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou me ? " 
 
62 Our Children. 
 
 And as she sang on of Him who '' delivered," and 
 " sought " out, and healed poor sinners : whose love 
 was stronc^er and tenderer than a mother's for her 
 child, we wondered, ''Can He love me better than 
 mother loves me? " And as she sang the next lines 
 — well do we remember now how her trembling 
 voice swelled out into fuller tones at this stanza — 
 
 " Thine is an unchanging love, 
 Higher than the heights above, 
 Deeper than the depths beneath, 
 Free and faithful, strong as death," 
 
 we wanted to love Him. And right then, though 
 we had no words, we did ''love Him because he 
 first loved us." 
 
 And grandmother's song brings back another re- 
 membrance, that grows more and more precious as 
 the years drift us onward. In the soft twilight 
 mother takes our hand and we go through the hall 
 — where the first presidents, in their gilded frames, 
 were always looking at each other — into the old- 
 fashioned parlor, the chairs pushed close back 
 against the wall. In the left-hand corner, near the 
 book-case, she knelt and prayed so earnestly, as if 
 pleading with One she knew and loved, for some 
 great favor. "And, O God," she prayed, " bless my 
 little boy and make him good ! " That prayer was no 
 more misunderstood then than it is forgotten now. 
 
 From the night our parents married the sacred 
 fire never went out. The morning and the evening 
 
On Mere A bility to Talk Religion. 63 
 
 came not more regularly than the morning and even- 
 ing sacrifice. And when the priest of our house 
 passed over the Jordan — that parted its waves be- 
 fore him as his ** feet were dipped in the brim of 
 the water" and '' entered into his rest " — his children 
 still guarded the holy fire. And, God be praised ! 
 it has never gone out since the night they joined 
 hands and hearts in the old village church, March 
 II, 1838. The first thing in this world that we re- 
 member is father, sitting by the window, on the left 
 of the fire-place, in mother's room, reading the 
 Bible. How strong and yet how soft, how firm 
 and yet how patient he was — governor, priest, and 
 father of his house ! The Bible lesson was about 
 Daniel and the den of lions. And as we listened to 
 the wonderful story we thought, not so generally and 
 broadly, but as distinctly then as now, "■ it is better 
 to go down among the lions than to worship a man 
 or an idol ; it is better to die than sin." 
 
 No : we must not measure a child's knowledge or 
 experience by his ability to express what he knows 
 and feels — by his ability to talk religion. And mere 
 ability to talk religion is one of the least satisfactory 
 of all its manifestations — one of the most uncertain 
 and delusive tests of its reality and measures of its 
 power. 
 
 Perhaps not one in a hundred of the adult mem- 
 bers of the Church can repeat the Articles of Re- 
 ligion, or make an argument to prove their truth. 
 
64 Our Children. 
 
 By all means adults should know, and children 
 should learn, the Articles of Religion, and be able 
 to explain and to prove them ; but this is not the 
 knowledge that saves. And no extent or accuracy, 
 breadth or depth of such knowledge, is saving kno^^ 1- 
 edge. Mere knowledge is dead, ''being alone." 
 
 It would be exceedingly misleading to estimate 
 the piety, either of a man or a child, by his ability 
 to state his creed clearly and to argue for it ably. 
 But there are blunderers who catechise — in such a 
 scholastic and, to the child at least, dead form of 
 words — about his faith and experience, and then 
 discount both, because, forsooth, it cannot tell its 
 thoughts ! How can they forget the words of our 
 Lord : " And whoso shall receive one such little 
 child in my name receiveth me ; but whoso shall 
 offend one of these little ones which believe in me, 
 it were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
 about his neck, and that he were drowned in the 
 depth of the sea?" 
 
 In the "Autobiography and Memoir of Guthrie" 
 is an anecdote that well illustrates the thought that 
 we would impress. It was on the 22d of February, 
 1873, the day before he died. The writer of the 
 memoir says : " On the 22d, in conversation with 
 Admiral Baillie Hamilton, (an Episcopalian fiiend 
 of former years, who visited and prayed with him 
 daily,) he mentioned the story of an old Scotch 
 minister, who proposed to keep back from the: 
 
On Mere Ability to Talk Religion. 65 
 
 Lord's table a young woman whose knowledge he 
 found grievously defective. Rising to go, the girl 
 burst into tears : ' It's true, sir, I canna speak for 
 him, but I think I could dee for him ! ' " 
 
 The poor girl knew the Saviour better than the 
 honest but blundering pastor, who — under shepherd 
 though he claimed to be — knew not even the lambs 
 of the fold. And there are many children, like the 
 Scotch lassie, who cannot *' talk for Christ," but 
 who love him well enough to '* die for him." Let 
 us take heed lest we require of them what our Lord 
 and Master has not required ; lest we lay upon them 
 burdens that he has not imposed ; lest, by our arbi- 
 trary shibboleths, we slay at the '* passages of the 
 Jordan" those who are truly of the Lord's chosen 
 ones ; lest, by our misconceptions and unreasonable 
 requirements, we make the Church, which ought to 
 be a "nursing mother" to our children, a stranger 
 and enemy ; lest we ourselves, by our hardness and 
 unbelief and want of love, become hinderers instead 
 of helpers, shutting up the way that leads our little 
 ones to the Saviour. 
 
 It would be a right worthy thing if godly minis- 
 ters a nd fathers and mothers would lend a hand to 
 clear away the ecclesiastical rubbish — heaped up by 
 the drift of centuries — that confronts and hinders 
 and dismays our children as they seek the Lord. 
 Would God we could strike one good blow to clear 
 the way for their little feet ! 
 
66 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 "P^EED MY LAMBS.' 
 
 "^T JE often judge the conduct of young Chris- 
 * ^ tians harshly because we expect unreasonable 
 and unnatural things of them. We too frequently 
 overlook the fact that a child converted is still a 
 child. He retains not only, as adults do, his pecul- 
 iar constitutional temperament, but the volatile dis- 
 position of childhood. It is as irrational, as it is 
 unjust, to demand of a child that he should assume 
 old ways because he professes religion. To do this 
 is to outrage the benignant spirit of religion, and to 
 do violence to one of the most beautiful and inno- 
 cent traits of childhood— its pure and spontaneous 
 joyousness, which is a precious gift of God to 
 brighten a dark and to gladden a sorrowful world. 
 
 The graces of a converted child are, like itself, in 
 their infancy. With time and favorable conditions, 
 they will ripen into the maturest '' fruits of the 
 Spirit." How rash and injurious the hand that 
 would rudely shake off the pearly blossoms because 
 the dew rests upon them and the birds sing among 
 them, and because, as yet, they are only blossoms 
 and not ripe fruit also ! 
 
 Dr. Talmage has some pungent but judicious 
 
^'- Feed my Lambs''' 6"/ 
 
 words on ^<'iis subject that it may be useful to 
 quote : — 
 
 '* We expect too much of our children when they 
 become Christians. Do not let us measure their 
 quahfications by our busheL We ought not to look 
 for a gravity and deep appreciation of eternal things, 
 such as we find in grown persons. We have seen 
 old sheep in the pasture-field look anxious and 
 troubled because the lambs would frisk. No doubt 
 the children that were hfted by their mothers into 
 Christ's arms and got his blessing, five minutes after 
 he set them down, were as full of romp as before 
 they came to him. The boy that, because he has 
 become a Christian, is disgusted with ball-playing; 
 the little girl who, because she has given her heart 
 to God, has lost her interest in her waxen doll, is 
 morbid and unhealthy. You ought not to set 
 the life of a vivacious child to the tune of ' Old 
 Hundred.' " 
 
 The injustice of these unnatural views of what 
 is proper in religious children w^orks a positive 
 damage. Many children break down utterly under 
 this man-imposed yoke and burden that is neither 
 easy nor light. In many cases they never recover 
 from the misconceptions of religion, and prejudices 
 against it, that were burned into them by hardness 
 and ignorance. Besides, this demand for unnatural 
 sedateness tends to culbVate affectation in children. 
 They cannot be what is required of them — old 
 
6S Our Children. 
 
 men and women — and the persecuted children have 
 nothing else left them that they can do but to act 
 a part. No doubt, under such influences, they fre- 
 quently mature into hypocrites. 
 
 We not only make unreasonable and unnatural 
 demands of children professing religion, but we 
 often judge their infirmities and failures with need- 
 less severity. For instance, a child recently admit- 
 ted into the fellowship of the Church does wrong in 
 some case. Very soon some sanctimonious wise- 
 acre says : '' I told you so — it was all excitement — 
 that boy never was converted any way." 
 
 Now and then two hot-blooded little boys have a 
 fight over their tops and their marbles. Doubtless, 
 it is very wrong for the boys to fall out and then 
 fall to blows. They should be taught the better 
 way of settling disputes, or rather of keeping out 
 of them altogether. They should, by all means, be 
 taught the Divine and only true method — " over- 
 coming evil with good." But shall we jump to the 
 conclusion that these boys were never converted, or 
 that they have fallen from grace altogether? God 
 forbid ! Such uncharitableness is worse sin than 
 the fighting. No doubt, many little Christians who 
 have tripped and stumbled in the way have been 
 kept down forever because seme heavy heel has 
 been planted right upon their hearts, grinding them 
 into dust. Bethlehem of Judea is not the only 
 place where there has been sad "slaughter of the 
 
^^ Feed my La,ftbsy 69 
 
 innocents," nor Ramah the only scene of sorrow 
 where, as the end of uncharitableness and mis- 
 judging, there has been '' a voice heard, lamenta- 
 tion, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel 
 weeping for her children, and would not be com- 
 forted because they are not." Verily, there are 
 crueller swords than Herod's. 
 
 But if we would see clearly how cruel and unjust 
 such judgments pronounced upon child-Christians 
 are, let us apply them to the judges themselves. 
 We may challenge them in the language of St. 
 Paul : " Thou therefore which teachest another, 
 teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a 
 man should not steal, dost thou steal ? Thou that 
 makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the 
 law dishonorest thou God?" 
 
 Only think of the consistency of those who ques- 
 tion the sincerity of the little boys because they 
 fell to blows, when they themselves are often in- 
 dulging sinful tempers, restrained, it may be, only 
 by personal cowardice or the fear of public opinion. 
 Sometimes, the grown-up censors of childish morals 
 vent their rage in hard words instead of hard licks, 
 or, what is worse, in mean and slanderous tale-bear- 
 ing and backbiting. We do not defend the boys 
 who fight, but it would be an easier task than to 
 defend parents who grumble, and whine, and quar- 
 rel, and fret, and sulk hatefully at each other. A 
 sorry sight it is to see a church member pass loftily 
 
70 Our Children. 
 
 by a brother without speaking, and then stop to 
 lecture a child on his inconsistency in the matter of 
 yesterday's fisticuff with the little boy he is playing 
 with and would fight for, if need be, to-day. The 
 boys " made it up " before night, but upon the 
 wrath of these two old people who have fallen out 
 about a trifle many suns have risen and set. They 
 have had the pastor in hot water over their case for 
 a year, and have thrown at least two committees 
 into despair, after vain efforts to bring them to- 
 gether. Besides, they have well-nigh destroyed the 
 Church to which they belong, and to which they 
 owe all they are. 
 
 There is a story of Dr. Talmage, whose words we 
 quoted before, and a lady, one of his flock, that is 
 good enough to be true, and that makes its own 
 application, even though it be apocryphal. 
 
 It seems that the lady had a little daughter, about 
 twelve years of age, who was also a member of 
 Talmage's Church in Brooklyn. One day, so the 
 story goes, little Mary, as we may call her, was 
 tempted, and, alas ! she fell. She told a falsehood. 
 Her mother, whose conscience it seems was a little 
 morbid and also a little forgetful, was, very proper- 
 ly, distressed, but she came to a very unwise con- 
 clusion. The sad mother— and parents do well to be 
 sad when their children tell falsehoods — concluded 
 that Mary's religion was all gone, albeit the child 
 was full of penitential sorrow. She even doubted 
 
** Feed my Lambs'' yi 
 
 whether the child ever had any reh'gion at all. 
 And then she thought of the Church, and concluded 
 that it would be disgraced — as if one of the chief 
 duties of the Church in this world were not to ^' re- 
 store," and " in the spirit of meekness," such as are 
 " overtaken in a fault." So the good and sorrowful 
 mother, quite unnecessarily, as it seems to us, went 
 to see Brother Talmage about the matter. Telling 
 him the whole story, she proposed, to save the 
 Church from dishonor, that Mary's name should be 
 taken from the register. With some people disci- 
 pline is synonymous with expulsion. The good 
 sister, as it appears, was one of this class. It is said 
 that Talmage's methods are sometimes a little di- 
 rect. This time, at least, the treatment was quite 
 heroic. 
 
 " Sister," said the pastor, *' how long have you 
 been in the Church?" 
 
 '^ Seventeen years. Brother Talmage." 
 
 " How many lies have you told in that time — tell- 
 ing people you were glad to see them when you 
 were sorry— that you were ' not at home ' when you 
 were, and such like things?" 
 
 Mary's name was not taken off the Church book. 
 
 Our mistakes and prejudices have, no doubt, 
 greatly hindered the growth of grace in our chil- 
 dren, as well as largely curtailed our power to do 
 them good. What would we think of a nurseryman 
 who would take the most delicate tropical plant out 
 
•ji Our Children 
 
 of his hot-house, and ''leave it out" all night, on 
 the north side of the house, with the thermometer 
 at zero? What blighting, killing frosts have fallen 
 upon more precious flowers than any that are 
 brought from over the sea by our coldness, and 
 hardness, and unreasonableness, and want of sym- 
 pathy, and unbelief! 
 
 Most of us have many misconceptions on this 
 whole subject. We demand knowledge and power 
 of expression that God does not demand ; we fail 
 to see how perfectly adapted to the mind of a child 
 are the truths of the Gospel ; we do not estimate 
 aright the influences and instructions of the Holy 
 Ghost ; we require too much, as well as unnatural 
 things, of our children. 
 
 Our conclusion is this: a child is susceptible of 
 religious influences from the beginning of its life; 
 it is capable of religion as soon as it is capable of 
 sinning ; it can learn religious truth earlier and easi- 
 er than it can learn any other form of truth. 
 
 Now what are the facts as to children who profess 
 religion and join the Church ? Some of them fall 
 away, most probably through the negligence or un- 
 kindness of others ; the majority grow up into Chris- 
 tian men and women. Take them altogether, the 
 children of the Church are as consistent and stead- 
 fast as are those who profess religion after they 
 have grown to be hardened sinners. For our part, 
 we had much rather risk the children. The "rul}' 
 
*■' Feed my Lambs.'' 73 
 
 great preacher and pastor, Spurgeon, a few years 
 ago, made the following statement : " I have during 
 the past year received forty or fifty children into 
 Church membership. Among those I have had at 
 any time to exclude from church-fellowship, out of 
 a Church of twenty-seven hundred members, I have 
 never had to exclude a single one who was received 
 while yet a child." 
 
 Any Church will show, if a test is made, that the 
 great majority of its very best people were brought 
 to Christ while yet they were children. 
 
 The Rev. Eugene R. Hendrix, of Missouri, in an 
 article published in the '' Sunday-School Magazine" 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1871, 
 made the following statements and reflections, that 
 are amply borne out by the observations of other 
 pastors, and the history of the great and good men 
 whose names he mentions. Mr. Hendrix says: " In 
 an informal meeting of seventy-six ministers, where 
 the writer was present, it was found that forty-two 
 of them were converted under sixteen, twenty under 
 fourteen, and only seven after they were twenty- 
 one. 
 
 '* Wilbur Fisk and Jonathan Edwards weie but 
 eight years of age when they were converted. Bish- 
 op Asbury was but thirteen. Bishop Roberts was 
 ten. Joseph Benson was sixteen, while Richard Bax- 
 ter and our lamented Bishop Andrew, like vSamuel, 
 John the Baptist, and Timothy, were so taught to 
 
74 Our Cif.ldren. 
 
 love God and put implicit faith in his promises, that 
 they never knew the time when first his service be- 
 came their supreme delight. Baxter discovered, as 
 the explanation of his experience, that ' Education 
 is as properly a means of grace as preaching.* Our 
 preachers, whose names are household words, be- 
 gan while mere ' boys ' to proclaim the Gospel. 
 Such w^ere Jesse Lee, an'd Hedding, and Bascom, 
 and Capers, and Reddick Pierce; and such are 
 Durbin, Foster, and Lovick Pierce. The list might 
 be greatly increased by the names of the honored 
 living and of the lamented dead." 
 
 Doubtless we have much to learn as to the right 
 treatment and nurture of our children who profess 
 Christ and enter into the fellowship of the Church. 
 O that we were wise, that we were full of the '' mind 
 that was in Christ" — that we might know how to 
 feed and care for his tender lambs ! There is no 
 higher duty, there can be no holier work or more 
 sacred trust than this. Let us go to the Sea of 
 Galilee, in the gray dawn of that morning when 
 the risen Jesus talked with the now penitent and 
 pardoned apostle. '' So when they had dined, Jesus 
 saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 
 thou me more than these? He saith unto him. Yea. 
 Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith 
 unto him. Feed my lambs." 
 
 Let us learn this lesson well, and pray for grace 
 to imitate the example of the good Shepherd, who 
 
'^ Feed my Lambs ^ 75 
 
 "gathers the lambs with his arms, and carries them 
 fn his bosom." 
 
 We have long believed that the Churches are in 
 nothing so deficient as in their care of young chil- 
 dren who are brought to Christ. Too often they are 
 left to themselves. Too often they are only baptized 
 and registered and turned loose, as a careless shep- 
 herd does his lambs — marks them, and then turns 
 them out to "pick up" a living in the woods and on 
 the commons as best they can, meanwhile dodging 
 robbers, dogs, and wolves as they may be able ! 
 
 Blessed be God ! despite our blind and sinful 
 negligence, many of our little children are soundly 
 converted to Christ by the Spirit, many of them 
 stay converted, grow in grace, and, at last, forever 
 escape the ravening wolf that prowls about the fold, 
 and dares sometimes to enter its gates that he may 
 bear away the tender lambs ! 
 
 There is a common notion — may be, though we 
 do not know, only a superstition — that angels stand 
 guard over little babies to shield them from many 
 hard knocks and falls that, but for the support of 
 angehc hands and the shelter of angelic wings, would 
 prove fatal to the helpless ones. No wonder that 
 many fond mothers believe that invisible guards 
 keep watch around the cradles in which their dar- 
 lings sleep. No doubt a good Providence keeps ward 
 and watch over the little babes, although our Father 
 may not call in the angels, strong and good as they 
 
^6 Our Children. 
 
 are, to do this holy work. And it does seem to us 
 that Heaven has Httle children who profess Christ 
 in most tender and loving care. And if there is 
 any difference, there is more anxious watch and 
 tender painstaking when Satan has them at some 
 disadvantage, just as mothers are most watchful and 
 loving when trouble comes upon their children, or 
 sickness takes the bloom from their rosy cheeks. 
 How often have we outwatched the stars with the 
 delicate mother, who seemed never to grow weary 
 while there was hope that death might be turned 
 away from our little ones ! Not more tenderly, we 
 are sure, did Jesus rest his hands on the heads of 
 the infants that the Jewish mothers brought for his 
 blessing, than he cares for and blesses his youthful 
 disciples, who are so truly '' babes in Christ." " He 
 who keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleep- 
 eth," and he is the Keeper of the little children that 
 come to him. 
 
 O that the Church were indeed a *' nursing 
 mother" to '' babes in Christ ! " How shall we ever 
 learn this holy duty till we get closer to Jesus — till 
 we have more of his Spirit — till we love the lambs 
 of the fold, according to our power to love, even as 
 he himself loved them ? 
 
 What priceless blessings the right care and nur- 
 ture of believing children would bring to us who 
 are older, and who, for that very reason, need the 
 simplicity and unquestioning trust of children, to 
 
'•''Feed my Lambs y 77 
 
 maintain within our breasts the true spirit of a child 
 in Christ Jesus ! 
 
 Would God that in every true and holy sense the 
 last prophecy of the Old Testament Scriptures were 
 fulfilled in us — that God would '* turn the heart of 
 the fathers to the children, and the heart of the 
 children to the fathers ! " 
 
78 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FAMILY— ITS BASIS IN MARRIAGE. 
 
 GOD, in the beginning, established the family. 
 Patriarchy is the only divinely established y<?r/;/ 
 of government known to men. For while, as to 
 civil government, it is true that "the powers that 
 be are ordained of God," it is also true that the 
 form of government is left to the determination of 
 the governed. Neither monarchies, nor empires, nor 
 republics, nor any other particular forms of govern- 
 ment, are divinely appointed. But the family God 
 has ordained ; as Robert Hall has well expressed it : 
 '' The union of mankind in families is ascribed to 
 God, and is a distinguished mark of his loving-kind- 
 ness. ' He setteth the solitary in families,' ' He 
 maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be 
 a joyful mother of children.' The ties of domestic 
 society are of his forming: the birth and preserva- 
 tion of children are eminent instances of his favor 
 and beneficence. It is surely incumbent on fami- 
 lies, then, to acknowledge him in their domestic 
 relation." 
 
 *' The basis of the Christian family," says a writer 
 in M'Clintock and Strong's *' Cyclopaedia," ''is 
 Christian marriage, or monogamy, the exclusive 
 
The Family — Its Basis in Marriage. 79 
 
 anion of one man to one woman. The deepest 
 ground of this union, and its true aim, without 
 which Christian marriage and family are impossible, 
 is the consciousness of union in Christ, or in the love 
 of God in Christ, the source of individual sympathy 
 as veil as of brotherly and universal love. Mar- 
 riage has, in common with Christian friendship, the 
 bond of tender sentiments; but the former is an ex- 
 clusive bond between two persons of different sexes, 
 whose personality is cotnplenicntcd^ so to speak, by 
 each other. It is, therefore, a life-long relation, 
 while friendship may be only temporary. 
 
 " Two persons thus joined in marriage lay the 
 foundation of a Christian family ; indeed, they con- 
 stitute a family, though yet incomplete and unde- 
 veloped. It awaits its completion in the birth of 
 children. In proportion, however, as the married 
 couple live in a state of holiness, so are the natural 
 desires for issue and their gratification made sub- 
 servient to the divinely ordered end of marriage, 
 and accompanied by a sense of dependence on the 
 blessing and will of God." 
 
 " Marriage," says Dr. Charles Hodge, in his " Sys- 
 tematic Theology," is a divine institution. It is 
 founded on the nature of man as constituted by 
 God. He made man male and female, and ordained 
 marriage as the indispensable condition of the con- 
 tinuance of the race. Marriage was instituted be- 
 fore the existence of civil society, and, therefore, 
 
8o Our Children 
 
 cannot in its essential nature be a civil institu 
 tion." 
 
 The perfection of Patriarchy, as a form of govern- 
 ment, grows out of the peculiar relation of husband 
 and wife. When Eve was brought to Adam he 
 said — and doubtless under divine prompting : '' This 
 is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she 
 shall be called Woman because she was taken out of 
 man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and 
 his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife : and they 
 shall be one flesh." 
 
 In showing the wickedness of the " traditions of 
 the elders " on the subject of easy divorce, our Lord 
 sets forth the same doctrine of the unity and indis- 
 solubleness of Christian marriage. He said : " But 
 from the beginning of the creation God made them 
 male and female. For this cause shall a man leave 
 his father and mother, and cleave to his wife ; and 
 they twain shall be one flesh : so that they are no 
 more twain but one flesh. Wherefore what God 
 hath joined together, let not man put asunder." 
 
 It is such a union as to produce, in some sense, 
 identity. 
 
 '* God," says Wuttke, in his " Christian Ethics,' 
 " in his primitive institution of marriage, that is, by 
 his creative will, established the essence of marriage 
 to consist in the fact that the two consorts should 
 be one flesh, one single absolutely inseparable life, 
 as to soul and body, even as every living body is a 
 
TJlc Family — Its Basis in Marriage. 8 1 
 
 single inseparable whole, and any dissevering of it 
 the death of the same." 
 
 The entire oneness of the married pair and their 
 complete community of interest — particularly in 
 their children — is therefore the basis and the con- 
 dition of the perfect administration of this divinely 
 instituted and most perfect of all possible forms of 
 human government. The wedding and the Sab- 
 bath are the two hallowed institutions which come 
 down to us from the primeval innocence of our race. 
 Among the earliest records of the human race is the 
 sacred history of the divine institution of marriage : 
 
 '' So God created man in his own image, in the 
 image of God created he him ; male and female cre- 
 ated he them. And God blessed them, and God said 
 unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
 the earth, and subdue it." As truly as beautifully 
 does the marriage service set forth the dignity and 
 sacredness of this relation when it is declared to be 
 " an honorable estate, instituted of God in the time 
 of man's innocency, signifying uHto us the mystical 
 union that is betv/een Christ and his Church ; which 
 holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his 
 presence, and first miracle that he wrought, in Cana 
 of Galilee, and is commended by St. Paul to be hon- 
 orable among all men." How wise the caution that 
 follows : '' And therefore is not by any to be entered 
 into unadvisedly, but reverently, discreetly, advised- 
 ly, and in the fear of God." 
 
82 Our Children. 
 
 We cannot exaggerate the importance to society 
 and to the Church of entertaining sound and script- 
 ural views of the sanctity of marriage, for the more 
 nearly we realize the divine idea of marriage the 
 more nearly will we approach to the Edenic purity 
 and happiness of the human race. The excel- 
 lence of the following quotation from Dr. Hodge's 
 "Systematic Theology" will more than excuse its 
 length : — 
 
 " The strongest proof of the sanctity of the mar- 
 riage relation in the sight of God is to be found in 
 the fact that both in the Old and in the New Tes- 
 taments, it is made the symbol of the relation be- 
 tween God and his people. 'Thy Maker is thy hus- 
 band,' are the words of God, and contain a world of 
 truth, of grace, and of love. The departure of the 
 people from God is illustrated by a reference to a 
 wife forsaking her husband ; while God's forbearance, 
 tenderness, and love, are compared to those of a 
 faithful husband to his wife. * As the bridegroom 
 rejoiceth over the jpride, so shall thy God rejoice over 
 thee ! (Isa. Ixii, 5.) In the New Testament, this 
 reference to the marriage relation, to illustrate the 
 union between Christ and the Church, is frequent 
 and instructive. The Church is called 'the bride, 
 the Lamb's wife.' (Rev. xxi, 9.) And the consumma- 
 tion of the work of salvation is set forth as the mar- 
 riage supper of the Lamb. (Rev. xix, 7, 9.) In 
 Ephesians v, 22-25, the union between husbands 
 
The Family — Its Basis in Marriage. 83 
 
 and wives,*" and the duties thence resulting, are set 
 forth as so analogous to the union between Christ 
 and his Church, that in some cases it is hard to de- 
 termine to which union the language of the apostle 
 is to be applied. . . . 
 
 " The analogy which the apostle traces out in 
 Ephesians v, 22-33, between the conjugal relation 
 and the union between Christ and his Church, brings 
 out the scriptural doctrines of marriage more clear- 
 ly than, perhaps, any other passage in the Bible. No 
 analogy is expected to answer in all respects, and no 
 illustration, borrowed from earthly relations, can 
 bring out the fullness of the things of God. The re- 
 lation, therefore, between a husband and his wife, is 
 only an adumbration of the relation of Christ to his 
 Church. Still there is an analogy between the two. 
 (i.) As the apostle teaches, the love of Christ to his 
 Church is peculiar and exclusive. It is such as he 
 has for no other class or body of creatures in the 
 universe. So the love of the husband for his wife 
 is particular and exclusive. It is such as he has for 
 no other object ; a love in which no one can partici- 
 pate. (2.) Christ's love for his Church is self-sacri- 
 ficing. He gave himself for it, he purchased it with 
 
 ♦"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbandb.as unto the 
 Loid. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the 
 head of the Church : and he is the Saviour of the body. Therefore 
 as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own 
 husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ 
 also loved the Church, and gave himself for it." 
 
84 Our Children. 
 
 his blood. So the husband should, and when true, 
 does, in all things sacrifice himself for his wife. 
 (3.) Christ and his Church are one; one in the sense 
 that the Church is his body. So the husband and 
 Avife are in such a sense one, that a man in loving 
 his wife loves himself. (4.) Christ's life is communi- 
 cated to the Church. As the life of the head is 
 communicated to the members, and the life of the 
 vine to the branches, so there is, in a mysterious 
 sense, a community of life between Christ and his 
 Church. In like manner, in a sense no less truly 
 mysterious, there is a community of life between 
 husband and wife. 
 
 " From all this it follows that as it would be ut- 
 terly incongruous and impossible that Christ should 
 have two bodies, two brides, two Churches, so it is 
 no less incongruous and impossible that a man should 
 have two wives. That is, the conjugal relation, as 
 it is set forth in Scripture, cannot by possibility sub- 
 sist except between one man and one woman." 
 
 If we have right views of the divine institution of 
 marriage and of its nature and sanctity, we will 
 readily conclude that in the word of God — and not 
 elsewhere — we are to find the laws and principles 
 that should regulate our conduct in relation to it. 
 
 We prefer, at this point, to borrow the wise words 
 of learned and eminent Christian writers. In con- 
 sidering the principles that should determine men 
 and women in entering into this sacred relation, 
 
Tlir Family — Its Basis in Marriage. 85 
 
 Wuttke employs the following language : " The 
 contracting of marriage is neither a mere business 
 transaction, nor a fruit of a simple falling in love ; 
 where moral love does not form the marriage, 
 there it is desecrated. Hence marriages cannot 
 be planned and brought about simply by parents 
 no more than can the parents practice virtue for 
 their children ; the moral must be accomplished 
 by each for himself. The free personal choice, that 
 is absolutely necessary to marriage proper, is not 
 to be made arbitrarily or by hap-hazard ; it aims 
 essentially at the realization of the complete life- 
 unity of the two persons, to the end of moral com- 
 munion." 
 
 It is the sanctity of the marriage relation, as well 
 as the many and great blessings which its divine 
 Author designed it to secure to mankind, that makes 
 all merely selfish or sensual, and therefore unmoral, 
 marriage an unspeakable shame and sin. 
 
 Dr. Timothy Dwight has some admirable obser- 
 vations on this subject. He says ; " The propensi- 
 ties, inwrought into our nature as a law, and the 
 declarations of Scripture, teach us alike, and irre- 
 sistibly, that this union is to be formed only on the 
 ground of affection, regulated by prudence. On 
 this plan, and on this only, can marriage be reason- 
 ably expected to be happy. We are not, therefore, 
 to wonder, that persons who marry for the purpose 
 of allying themselves with families of distinction ; 
 
S6 Our Children. 
 
 acquiring or repairing fortunes ; obtaining rank, or 
 gratifying in any manner ambition, avarice, or sen- 
 suality; should afterward find themselves unhappy. 
 These persons do not, intentionally, marry either 
 husbands or wives. They marry distinction, for- 
 tunes, titles, villas, luxury, and grandeur. The ob- 
 jects to which they intentionally unite themselves 
 they acquire. It cannot be wondered at that they 
 do not gain those which they never sought ; nor 
 that they do not find the blessings of marriage, fol- 
 lowing plans and actions, which, unless incidentally, 
 have no relation to marriage. These persons, it is 
 true, find the objects, to which they are really wed- 
 ded, incumbered by beings, who stand in the places 
 of husbands and wives. Still, they cannot form even 
 a pretense for complaining; since, with their eyes 
 open, they voluntarily subject themselves, for the 
 sake of such gratifications, to all the evils arising out 
 of the incumbrance. The person who wishes to ob- 
 tain the blessings, designed by this or any other in- 
 stitution of God, must intentionally conform to the 
 nature and spirit of the institution itself, and to all 
 the precepts concerning it, by which he has mani- 
 fested his own pleasure." 
 
 We may offer a few observations here on the sub- 
 ject of the indissolubleness of marriage, except by 
 death and the one other cause allowed by the plain 
 teaching of our Saviour — Infidelity to the marriage 
 vow. The essential oneness of the husband and 
 
TJic Family — Its Basis in Marriage. 87 
 
 wife constitutes the reason why infidehty to the 
 marriage vow must work its dissolution. An emi- 
 ncnt writer — whose name escapes us — has said 
 ** The reason of this is, the parties are no longer 
 one, in the mysterious sense in which the Bible de- 
 clares a man and his wife to be one." 
 
 On this whole subject there is no safety outside 
 of the word of God. Marriage is an institution of 
 God, and no laws — ecclesiastical or civil — that con- 
 travene the divine law in relation to it can be, 
 for a moment, for any consideration whatsoever, ap- 
 proved or obeyed by those who profess to regulate 
 their opinion and their conduct by the word of the 
 Lord. We quote again from Dr. Hodge's admirable 
 remarks on this subject : — 
 
 " The passages in the Gospel referring to this 
 subject are Matthew v, 31, 32; xix, 3-9; Mark x, 
 2-12; and Luke xvi, 18. The simple meaning of 
 these passages seems to be, that marriage is a per- 
 manent compact, which cannot be dissolved at the 
 will of either of the parties. If, therefore, a man 
 arbitrarily puts away his wife and marries another, 
 he commits adultery. If he repudiates her on just 
 grourds and marries another, he commits no offense. 
 Our Lord makes the guilt of marrying after separa- 
 tion to depend on the ground of the separation. 
 Saying, * that if a man puts away his wife for any 
 cause save fornication, and marries another, he com- 
 mits adultery;' is saying that 'the offense is not 
 
88 Our Children. 
 
 committed if the specified ground of divorce exists.' 
 And this is saying that divorce, when justifiable, dis- 
 solves the marriage tie. . . . 
 
 '' It cannot be dissolved by any voluntary act of 
 repudiation by the contracting parties, nor by any 
 act of the Church or State. ' Those whom God hath 
 joined together no man can put asunder.' The 
 compact may, however, be dissolved, although by no 
 legitimate act of man. It is dissolved by death. It 
 is dissolved by adultery; and, as Protestants teach, 
 by wil'lful desertion. In other words, there are cer- 
 tain things which from their nature work a dis- 
 solution of the marriage bond. All the legiti- 
 mate authority the State has in the premises is to 
 take cognizance of the fact that the marriage is 
 dissolved, officially to announce it, and to make 
 suitable provisions for the altered relations of the 
 parties." 
 
 No human arguments or theories, however ingen- 
 ious and plausible ; no human legislation, by Church 
 or State, can change in the least degree the essen- 
 tial basis, character, or obligations of the marriage 
 institution, divinely ordained and regulated. The 
 attempt to change the nature or to diminish the ob- 
 ligations of marriage is treason to God and to the 
 most sacred interests of humanity. All those the- 
 ories that arc at the bottom of the modern divorce 
 laws— which, indeed, alone make them possible — 
 multiplying the grounds of divorce and facilitating 
 
The Family — Its Basis in Marriage, 89 
 
 its procurement, are false, wicked, and injurious to 
 the last degree. Whatever theory of marriage there 
 may be which in the least discounts its sanctity, less- 
 ens its obligations, abridges its responsibilities, or 
 facilitates its dissolution — except as allowed by the 
 word of God — is, indeed, nothing more nor less than 
 an inspiration of Satan. It is a sort of sacrilege to 
 think of marriage as a mere partnership — terminable 
 at will, like any mere business association. " Free- 
 love " — as certain knavish fanatics call it — is brutal- 
 ity. It is sensual, bestial, devilish. Unscriptural 
 divorce laws indicate retrogression into worse than 
 barbarism. They violate nature and outrage grace. 
 They foster licentiousness, break down the family, 
 destroy the peace, and debauch the purity of soci- 
 ety. No pen can overstate the ever intensifying 
 evils which flow from false views of marriage, and 
 from laws designed to facilitate its dissolution. 
 There are, perhaps, no more alarming symptoms of 
 increasing social corruption in our country than the 
 multiplication of divorces. The " easy divorce " 
 laws that prevail in some States are first effect and 
 then cause. That they were enacted, or could be 
 enacted, was the effect and the proof of the degen- 
 eracy of domestic purity and social virtue ; as soon 
 as they became operative they began at once to 
 make large contributions to the aggravation of the 
 evils that their authors pretended they were de- 
 signed to hold in check. 
 
90 Our Children. 
 
 Dr. Hodge says justly and forcibly:— 
 
 ** As all denominations of Christian'^, Romanists 
 and Protestants, are of one mind on this subject, it 
 is matter of astonishment that these objectionable 
 divorce laws are allowed to stand on the statute- 
 books of so many of our States. This fact proves 
 either that public attention has not to a sufficient 
 degree been called to the subject, or that the public 
 conscience is lamentably blinded or seared. The 
 remedy is with the Church, which is the witness of 
 God on earth, bound to testify to his truth and to 
 uphold his cause. 
 
 " If Christians, in their individual capacity and In 
 their Church courts, would unite in their efforts to 
 arouse and guide public sentiment on this subject, 
 there is little doubt that these objectionable laws 
 would be repealed." 
 
 The following extract from one of Dr. Dwight's 
 discourses is instructive and suggestive at this point 
 in our discussion : '' In France, within three months 
 after the law permitting divorces was enacted by 
 the National Assembly, there was in the city of 
 Paris almost as many divorces registered as mar- 
 riages. In the whole kingdom there were, as re- 
 ported by the Abb6 Gregoire, chairman of the com- 
 mittee of the National Assembly on that subject, 
 upward of twenty thousand divorces registered with- 
 in about a year and a half. ' This law,' added the 
 abb6, 'will soon ruin the whole nation.' " 
 
The Family — Its Basis in Marriage, 91 
 
 The prophecy has been fulfilled ; this and other 
 such laws and doctrines— with the sentiments they 
 engender and the practices they encourage — Jiave 
 ruined France. 
 
 Cursed be the hand that is lifted against the mar- 
 riage altar! 
 
92 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FAMILY— THE BASIS OF CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 THE family is the beginning of society and the 
 foundation of government. It is before the 
 Church, or the State, and both grow out of and de- 
 pend upon it. This is not a human device, but a 
 divine appointment. It is not an arbitrary arrange- 
 ment, but a necessary relation. It cannot be other- 
 wise. It inheres in the very constitution under 
 which man is created and under which the develop- 
 ment of the race must proceed. Both Church and 
 State existed partially and potentially in the first 
 married pair. " For two persons," as Wuttke has 
 said, " thus joined in marriage lay the foundation of 
 a Christian family; indeed, they constitute a family, 
 though yet incomplete and undeveloped. It awaits 
 its completion in the birth of children." " Individ 
 uals," says Howe, ** are elements of families ; families 
 are elements of which both Churches and kingdoms, 
 or commonwealths, are made up ; and as the one of 
 these is purely civil, the other purely sacred, that 
 which is elementary to both must be both." And 
 Harris says: " Here we find ourselves looking in on 
 the elements of all the forms of human society." 
 In ancient Greece the idea of the family was the 
 
The Family — 7 lie Basis of Church and State. 93 
 
 nucleus of society, or of the State. Aristotle speaks 
 of the family as the foundation of the State. '' Par- 
 ents," observes Wuttke, " are the first princes, and 
 true princes are the fathers of their people ; patres — 
 fathers, was the title of distinction of the Roman 
 senators ; * elders ' is used in a like sense for the 
 leaders of moral society in almost all the free con- 
 stitutions of antiquity and also of the Church." It 
 is Montesquieu, we believe, who says : " Man is 
 born in society, and there he remains." Another 
 writer remarks, "The family is a rehearsal for soci- 
 ety." It should be also a rehearsal for the Church. 
 We sometimes speak, in a loose way, of the Jew- 
 ish and the Christian Churches as if they were two 
 distinct and totally different things. But this is not 
 a correct or scriptural view of the subject. Richard 
 Watson says : '' The Christian Church is not another 
 Church, but the very same that was before the com- 
 ing of Christ, having the same faith with it, and inter- 
 ested in the same covenant. Great alterations, in- 
 deed, were made in the outward state and condition 
 of the Church, by the coming of the Messiah. The 
 carnal privilege of the Jews, in their separation from 
 other nations to give birth to the Messiah, then 
 failed, and with that also their claim on that account 
 t ) be the children of Abraham. The ordinances of 
 worship suited to that state of things then expired, 
 and came to an end. New ordinances of worship 
 were appointed, suitable to the new light and grace 
 
94 Our Children. 
 
 which were then bestowed upon the Church. The 
 Gentiles came into the faith of Abraham along with 
 the Jews, being made joint partakers with them in 
 his blessings. But none of these things, nor the 
 whole collectively, did make such an alteration in 
 the Church but that it was still one and the same. 
 The olive-tree was still the same, only some branches 
 were broken off, and others grafted into it. The 
 Church is, and always was, one and the same." 
 
 And it has always been — where it has been a 
 Church at all — a Christian Church ; for Christ Jesus 
 — ''AlpJia and Oviega, the beginning and the end " — 
 was in the beginning, and is now and forever will 
 be, the head and life of the Church. 
 
 Dr. John Owen, in one place, remarks : *' Sin hav- 
 ing entered into the world, God was pleased to 
 found his Church (the Catholic or Universal Church) 
 in the promise of the Messiah given to Adam." 
 Thus Adam, who was the first ruler, was also the 
 first priest. Both State and Church began with the 
 first family. Robert Hall does not go too far when 
 he says of the family : '' This sort of society is the root 
 and origin of every other; and as it is the most an- 
 cient, so it is bound together by ties the most tender 
 and sacred. Every other social bond in which men 
 are united is loose and incidental, compared to that 
 which unites the members of the same family." 
 
 If we trace the Bible history of our race we will 
 find the same general views sustained and illus- 
 
The Family — The Basis of Church and State. 95 
 
 trated. All *' new departures," so to speak, took 
 their origin in the family. In the second founder 
 of the race we have a striking illustration ; Noah 
 was both prince and priest of that household which 
 was at once both State and Church. The same 
 facts appear in the history of Abraham and of all 
 the worthy and believing patriarchs. All the great 
 lawgivers of antiquity have had some conception, 
 more or less clear, of the principle we are endeavor- 
 ing to set forth. But it is in the Bible that we find 
 the clearest and most impressive recognition of the 
 family in all its relations to the State and the 
 Church. The call of Abraham and the covenant 
 made with him involve this general fact. The new 
 State and the new Church — that is, the reorganiza- 
 tion of society and the rehabilitation of the Church 
 — began not with a nation, or a tribe, but with the 
 family of Abraham. Two out of the ten command- 
 ments look to the regulation and preservation of the 
 family. When the venerable Joshua dehvered his 
 farewell exhortations he exclaimed, *' As for me and 
 my house, we will serve the Lord." Very deeply did 
 he feel the sanctity and responsibilities of his rela- 
 tion to his family. The most thorough and useful 
 labors of Ezra, as a reformer, were intended to pre- 
 serve the purity of marriage and the integrity of the 
 family among those who '^ad returned from the cap- 
 tivity. 
 
 We cannot overestimate or overstate the import- 
 
cfo Our Children. 
 
 ancc of the relations sustained by the family to all 
 that concerns the real welfare of our race. What- 
 ever strengthens and improves the family, strength- 
 ens and improves the State. Vv^hatever degrades 
 and disintegrates the family, destroys the State. All 
 history will sustain the general view here presented. 
 If the dead civilizations of ancient days could send 
 us witnesses, they would bear no uncertain testimo- 
 ny. For Rome and Greece, as well as Judea, their 
 true golden days were the days of their comparative 
 fidelity to marriage vows and to family obligations. 
 The noblest days of Roman history were those 
 purer times when a wife, like the noble Lucretia, 
 thought it better to die than to be dishonored ; 
 when chastity was reckoned a cardinal virtue ; when 
 sons were brought up honorably, and daughters vir- 
 tuously. When divorce became easy, domestic 
 virtue began to perish. Then the family began to 
 fall to pieces ; when the family fell, all that was 
 truly great and noble in Rome fell v/ith it. Her- 
 culaneum and Pompeii — now that they have been 
 exhumed from their long burial under volcanic 
 ashes — tell us what the family had become at the 
 time of the greatest corruption and exhaustion of 
 the Roman State. All that we knov/ of Assyria, of 
 Egypt, and, indeed, of all the great nations of ancient 
 times, illustrates the same principle : with the degra- 
 dation of the family began the disintegration and 
 utter downfall of the nations themselves. The most 
 
The Faintly — The Basis of Church and State, ay/ 
 
 frightful corruption of society that human history- 
 records — the corruption of the antediluvian nations, 
 avenged by the most terrible punishment that 
 heaven has visited upon our world, the deluge, 
 sweeping them all away — seems to have originated 
 in a general breaking down of the sanctities of mar- 
 riage and of the virtues of the family. And the 
 second father of his race, as it seems, was spared for 
 his exceptional purity as a husband and a father, 
 for it is said, as distinguishing him from the rest, 
 '' Noah was a just man and perfect in his genera- 
 tions." *' This phrase," says Murphy, " indicates the 
 contrast between Noah and the men of his day. It 
 is probable, moreover, that he was of pure descent, 
 and in that respect also distinguished from his con- 
 temporaries who were the offspring of promiscuous 
 intermarriage between the godly and the ungodly." 
 In the family are the rock-foundations of what- 
 ever good and great things are possible to our race. 
 In the family originate the impulses and inspira- 
 tions of all high and true civilization. When trouble 
 has come upon any nation — when defeat and dis- 
 aster have swept its fields and crushed its industries, 
 the restoration of even material vigor and prosper- 
 ity must begin with the industry and economy of 
 the household. Much more is it true that those 
 who would reform the manners or morals of any 
 nation must begin in the family. Whether in the 
 
 Church or in the State, the fireside is the reformer's 
 
 7 
 
98 Our Children. 
 
 true battle-ground — here reverses are suffered, here 
 victories are won. 
 
 We have many utterly false and delusive meas- 
 ures of prosperity. That is not the most vigorous 
 State, the most prosperous nation, the best govern- 
 ment, where there is the largest population, the 
 most splendid cities, the greatest refinement and 
 polish of manners, the largest accumulations of 
 gold, the most brilliant achievements in the arts 
 and sciences — not unless these things are coincident 
 with domestic purity and peace. After all, that is 
 the best government whose influence is most potent 
 in fostering and securing the greatest number of in- 
 dustrious, virtuous, and happy families. Indeed, is 
 there any possible use of government that does not 
 promote these ends? Is not that government, 
 whatever it may be called, an unspeakable curse 
 and nuisance, to be got rid of and out of sight, that 
 can only exert an influence that must disintegrate 
 and destroy the family? 
 
 And, as to the Church, that is the best Church 
 which most perfectly shows its strong spiritual vi- 
 tality by fostering religion in the family. A Church 
 that docs not make its families better is a wretched 
 failure and fraud. Both Church and State have 
 theii origin in the family, and their chief end at last 
 is the greatest good of the family. Their excellence 
 is proved and measured by the contributions they 
 bring to the family life. 
 
The Family a School of Religion. 99 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FAMILY A SCHOOL OF RELIGION. 
 
 TRADITION — transmission from parent to child 
 — is God's first and chosen plan for the perpet- 
 uation and extension of religion in the earth. We 
 do not, in saying this, forget the institution of a 
 public, Christian ministry, nor do we in anywise 
 undervalue the office of a true preacher of the Gos- 
 pel of Jesus Christ. The Christian ministry is also 
 a Divine institution — the true preacher is one '' called 
 of God." To those who hear he also is " one sent 
 from God." He who has no Divine vocation and 
 mission may be many other things, but he is not, 
 he cannot be, a true preacher of Christ Jesus. 
 
 The preacher's responsibilities are great and mani- 
 fold. His opportunities are vast, his duties difficult, 
 his office sacred, his rewards glorious. He is a man 
 far removed from the low level of life's carnal and self- 
 ish motives. He is not his own, but Christ's and hu- 
 manity's. He must not seek his own will but Christ's. 
 He should be able to say from his heart of hearts : 
 '* For none of us liveth to hims'^lf, and no man dietb 
 to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the 
 Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord . 
 whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.' 
 
100 Our Children. 
 
 It is a very sad thing when a Christian minister 
 fails to walk worthy of his high vocation. As a 
 falling tree crushes the humbler shrubs and more 
 tender plants that grow and cling about it, so the 
 apostate preacher when he falls, falls not alone. 
 
 It is a humiliating thing to see a preacher so con- 
 duct himself that he does not deserve the respect 
 that is due to his sacred office. It is an ominous 
 thing for any community or people when it be- 
 comes the custom to treat God's chosen servants 
 with disrespect. It is a shameful and wicked thing 
 when a depraved press delights in inventing ribald 
 and profane jests to their confusion, or in publish- 
 ing slanders to their undoing. High and holy is 
 the place the watchman holds who stands on Zion's 
 walls and warns the city of the enemy. Truly did 
 Isaiah sing : ** How beautiful upon the mountains 
 are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that 
 publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings of 
 good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto 
 Zion, Thy God reigneth ! " 
 
 Let us reverence this holy office as it becomes 
 us to do ; and let preachers so walk as to deserve 
 reverence. But the father was a priest before there 
 was a priestly order, as he was a king before there 
 was a nation. Richard Watson^s observations on 
 this subject are judicious : " In ancient times the 
 heads of families were their priests; of Abraham 
 the Almighty said, * I know him, that he will com- 
 
The Family a School of Religion. loi 
 
 mand his children and his household after him, and 
 they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice 
 and judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon Abra- 
 ham that which he hath spoken of him.' Nor did 
 parents cease, in a very important sense, to be the 
 priests in their families, after the establishment of 
 the Levitical priesthood. ' David returned ' relig- 
 iously *to bless his household.' In this respect no 
 change has taken place under the Christian dispen- 
 sation. In the Christian Church, as well as among 
 the Jews, there is the public ministry; but the head 
 of every family is still its prophet and its priest, 
 daily to offer spiritual sacrifices. And from this we 
 come to a conclusion, which too many forget, but 
 which every wise and pious person will carefully re- 
 member, that, if he is at the head of a family, he is, 
 in fact, a sacred person, and has a sacred office." 
 
 Yes, that is it; the parent is "a sacred person, 
 and has a sacred office." The father is generally 
 named first as the responsible head of the family, 
 but the obligations of parenthood rest equally upon 
 the mother. When God delivers a solemn charge 
 to a father to bring up his children '' in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord," it is to the mother 
 also and equally. As it seems to us, it is indispen- 
 sable to recognize and accept as unalterable two 
 things: i. The father is the representative and re- 
 sponsible head of the house. 2. The mother is 
 equally responsible for the duties of her place. 
 
102 Our Children. 
 
 Astronomers tell us of certain double stars thac re-. 
 volve about a common center, and in some way are 
 necessary to each other. So, in the family life, there 
 is a common center of interest and responsibility, 
 affection and duty ; they are two, yet one, and each 
 is necessary to the other. The parents are the 
 common source of the life of their children ; we can 
 no more think of a family government as perfect 
 that lacks either the paternal or maternal element, 
 than we can think of parenthood itself as complete 
 in the father, or the mother alone. 
 
 The inspired record says ; " So God created man 
 in his own image." This is the first statement, 
 showing that the first man is the essential unit and 
 representative of the race. But the historian of 
 creation does not complete his sentences without 
 adding this other word : '' male and female created 
 he them." In a sense the woman was created in the 
 man, but the man himself was not perfect till wom- 
 an — the wife-man, his complement — was formed. 
 Perfection of humanity is found in the union of the 
 two ; the harmony of the family in the adjustment 
 of their resemblances and their differences. And 
 surely, if we are to study and understand aright the 
 fatherhood of God, we must understand the true 
 meaning of human parenthood — not mere father- 
 hood, or mere motherhood, but perfect and entire 
 parenthood, for both motherhood and fatherhood 
 are necessary to complete the image of the Divine 
 
The Family a School of Religion. 103 
 
 fatherhood. Whatever is good and precious in our 
 earthly parents — in our mothers as well as in our 
 fathers — is but a reflection of the perfections of Him 
 of whom it is said in one place, "As a father piti- 
 eth his children, so the Lord pitleth them that fear 
 him;" and in another, "As one whom his mother 
 comforteth. so will I comfort you ; and ye shall be 
 comforted in Jerusalem." 
 
 Let it be insisted on with all possible emphasis 
 that parenthood is fatherhood and motherhood. In 
 this complicated yet simple relation the Bible and 
 nature alike make the father the responsible head, 
 and yet, in no sense, is he more essential to the per- 
 fection of family life than the mother. Whatever 
 duties, therefore, we shall find enjoined in the word 
 of God upon the father in the instruction and dis- 
 cipline of his children, these are the mother's duties 
 also. 
 
 When Moses, the man of God, gave the second 
 statement of the law as it is recorded in the book 
 of Deuteronomy, he laid down very broadly and un- 
 mistakably the duty of parents as to the religious 
 instruction of their children. After stating the ob- 
 ligation to love the one God supremely, Moses, 
 speaking under divine direction, says : " And these 
 words, which I command thee this day, shall be in 
 thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently 
 unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou 
 sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the 
 
104 Our Children. 
 
 way, and when thou licst down, and when thou 
 risest up." 
 
 After further warnings and exhorl.itions this ad- 
 ditional injunction is recorded: ''And when thy son 
 asketh thee in time to come, saying. What mean the 
 testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, 
 which the Lord our God hath commanded you ? 
 Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's 
 bondmen in Egypt ; and the Lord brought us out 
 of Egypt with a mighty hand : and the Lord showed 
 signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon 
 Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes : 
 and he brought us out from thence, that he might 
 bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto 
 our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do 
 all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our 
 good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is 
 at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we 
 observe to do all these commandments before the 
 Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." 
 
 '' The priests* lips should keep knowledge," and 
 the people should " seek the law at his mouth," 
 and yet it pleased God to lay upon parents the chief 
 duty, and, at once, the most important and difficult 
 work, in preserving a saving knowledge of divine 
 Providence and statutes in the world. They were 
 to ''teach diligently" his commandments and or- 
 dinances; they were to recite in the hearing of 
 their children the marvelous providential history of 
 
The Family a School of Religion. 105 
 
 Israel, and to impress upon their young hearts a sol- 
 emn sense of their relation to God and of their obli- 
 gations to love and to obey him. 
 
 The Seventy-eighth Psalm is a deeply interesting 
 poetic description of the leading events in Jewish his- 
 tory. Its date and author are not definitely known, 
 but the preface contains a very striking recognition 
 and statement of the divine purpose in laying upon 
 parents the responsibility of the religious education 
 of their children. It sets forth also, in stirring lan- 
 guage, the admirable wisdom of the divine method. 
 The Psalmist thus introduces his recital of the his- 
 tory of his people : — 
 
 " Give ear, O my people, to my law : incline your 
 ears to the words of my mouth. ... I will open my 
 mouth in a parable : I will utter dark sayings of old : 
 which we have heard and known, and our fathers 
 have told us. We will not hide them from their 
 children, showing to the generation to come the 
 praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his won- 
 derful works that he hath done. For he established 
 a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, 
 which he commanded our fathers, that they should 
 make them known to their children : that the gen- 
 eration to come might know them, even the chil- 
 dren which should be born ; who should arise and 
 declare them to their children : that they might set 
 their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, 
 hut keep his commandments : and might not be as 
 
io6 Our Children. 
 
 their fathers, a stubborn and rebeUious generation; 
 a generation that set not their heart aright, and 
 whose spirit was not steadfast with God." 
 
 Words cannot be plainer. God's deahngs with 
 his people were to be known by all the generations 
 of Israel ; to secure this great result God lays upon 
 parents the duty of telling these things to their chil- 
 dren, that they might tell it to their children, and so 
 on and on to the last, that all '' the generations to 
 come might know them." The grand purpose of 
 these parental instructions is that *' the children 
 which shall be born " — who, in turn, were to " arise 
 and declare them to their children " — '' may set their 
 hope in God, and not forget the works of God." It 
 was not only designed to teach them God's ways, 
 but, in teaching them the statutes and providences 
 of God, to save them from the blunders and crimes 
 o: their fathers, and thus secure that noblest hope 
 of our race — a course of improvement and develop- 
 ment from age to age ! 
 
 '' And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn 
 and rebellious generation." 
 
 The father, the mother, the parent is a " sacred 
 [)erson." By no possibility can any other do the 
 work of the parent. The duty inheres in the rela- 
 tion. The responsibility cannot be abridged, or laid 
 down, or avoided. The work of the parent, in the 
 religious education of his children, cannot be done 
 by proxy. Even if another could do it better, it 
 
TJie Family a Sdiool of Religion. 107 
 
 would not relieve the patent of his peculiar obliga- 
 tion. The voice that calls to this duty is imperative 
 —it must be obeyed. But no other can do the par- 
 ent's work as well as the parent himself. He has 
 the true vantage ground ; no other created being can 
 get as close to the child's heart as he ought to be 
 able to do. The parent holds a mystic key that no 
 other hand can fit to the wards of its locks. If the 
 parent does not do his work it is forever undone. 
 So left undone, the parent is guilty and the child 
 wronged, and wronged irreparably. The child, in 
 spite of parental delinquency, may, in the great mer- 
 cy of God, be saved at last ; but, if he has failed to 
 receive proper parental instruction in the things of 
 God, and to come under salutary parental influences 
 during the formative period of his life, he has suf- 
 fered a real loss that no blessings, advantages, cul- 
 ture, successes in other departments and through 
 other instrumentalities can ever fully regain. 
 
 Truly and eloquently does Harris in his " Patri- 
 archy " say : '' Well might the mind be haunted age 
 after age with a social ideal never yet realized ! 
 Life, a sacred thing. Every child a divine promise. 
 Every family beginning the race anew from a higher 
 point. Brothers and sisters ministering angels to 
 each other's purity and beneficence. Every addition 
 a new element of happiness. Education the rearing 
 of a living temple. Conjugal love a central fountain 
 in warm, fragrant, perpetual play. The father the 
 
io8 Our Children. 
 
 representative of God ; feeding them, as a prophet, 
 with more than angel's food ; as a priest, standing 
 at the portico of the temple to guard it from pollu- 
 tion, or ministering at its holy altar, and finding his 
 spirit purified and refreshed by the service ; swaying 
 like a king, a divine scepter, and tasting the God- 
 like blessedness of seeing his subjects find happiness 
 and freedom in obedience. The mother, the earli- 
 est to enter the infant heart, and to take possession 
 in the name of God ; radiating on her children the 
 light and life of her own intense affection, and in- 
 vested in addition with the delegated and solemn 
 reverence of paternal authority. Home, the home 
 of the affections ; where law is superseded by love ; 
 where the lowliest act is consecrated and ennobled 
 by the highest motive ; and where separate individ- 
 ual interests are forgotten in the aim of each for the 
 good of all. The family, sending forth its youthful 
 members — each with a heritage of happy recollec- 
 tions and holy habits, impressed with the sanctity 
 and high responsibilities of the domestic constitu- 
 tion, studiously trained and qualified to enter on 
 them, and determined to raise still higher, if possi- 
 ble, in his own circle, the standard of his early 
 home. The aged patriarch, happy in the conscious- 
 ness of having linked his mind for good with all his 
 own immediate offspring, and cheered by the pros- 
 pect of transmitting, through them, the happiest in- 
 fluence to others through an ever-enlarging circle. 
 
The Family a School of Religion. 109 
 
 Tlie generation, conscious of rising, and aspiring to 
 rise still higher ; recognizing in its present blessed- 
 ness the proof that God is its paterfamilias ; and 
 valuing the future chiefly as the means of perpetu- 
 al approximation to the only perfect home in the 
 bosom of God. Such are the capabilities of the 
 family, and the sunny visions at which it hints." 
 
 Surely since the wreck of Eden there has ap- 
 peared among the children of men no picture so 
 fair, so noble, so inspiring and so full of hope for 
 both worlds, as a well-ordered and truly Christian 
 family. Here indeed are repeated, from day to day, 
 the miracles of Providence and the wonders of grace. 
 Here, in a most precious and peculiar sense, the 
 Lord is *' Emmanuel," "' which being interpreted is, 
 God with us." Here is seen the pillar of cloud by 
 day and of fire by night. Around this habitation 
 manna descends, " every morning new." Whatever 
 else may be parched and arid, here there is dew 
 " as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that de- 
 scended upon the mountains of Zion : for there the 
 Lord commanded the blessing, even life for ever- 
 more." . 
 
no Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DUTY OF TEACHING GOD'S WORD TO OUR 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 TIJ*OR the children the family is a school — the 
 -■- parents being the divinely appointed teachers. 
 This is not a question of mere privilege, although 
 it is a very lofty privilege that God gives us when 
 he allows us to teach his precious word to our chil- 
 dren. It is a duty the most imperative, the most 
 solemn, that can appeal to our judgment, our affec- 
 tions, and our conscience. He who does not know 
 that he ought to teach God's word to his children — 
 that he owes it to God, to his children, to the 
 Church, to society, and to his own soul — does not 
 know what every true father must know — does not 
 feel as every true father must feel. It is not a ques- 
 tion for the capriciousness of human inclination, or 
 the arbitrariness of human choice. It is a question 
 of law — as the ten commandments are law. God 
 does not simply advise or exhort — he coininands : 
 " And these words, which I command thee this day, 
 shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt teach them 
 diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
 when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou 
 vvalkest by the way, and when thou licst down, and 
 when thou risest up." 
 
Teaching God's Word to Oitr Children. i f i 
 
 This holy work all parents must do. God com- 
 mands it. It is not a matter to be argued about — 
 to be debated or doubted. It is a duty to be done 
 — that must be done, if we would escape the right- 
 eous condemnation of a broken and holy law. Nor 
 may this very sacred duty be left to accident for 
 its performance — to be a pious amusement for our 
 leisure, a something good enough when it is done, 
 but that may be omitted innocently by us, and 
 without damage to our children. We are not only 
 to teach God's word to our children, but to intend 
 to do it ; not only to teach them, but to take all 
 l^ossible pains to do it. God's word is plain — it is 
 unmistakable : '* And thou shalt teach them dili- 
 gently to thy children." He who does not under- 
 stand this does not understand the commandment, 
 "Thou shalt not kill;" he does not understand any 
 thing. No place is left for doubting or dodging 
 this duty; for omitting it or transferring its respon- 
 sibilities. " And tJioii " — not another, or others, how 
 great, or good, or learned, or skillful soever they may 
 be — '' and thou shalt teach them " — not incidentally, 
 casually, carelessly, occasionally — " thou shalt teach 
 them diligently unto thy children." 
 
 And it is a perpetual duty, a constant obligation, 
 an unintermittent responsibility. It presses upon 
 us, it commands us at home, abroad, every-where, 
 all the time. The sense of obligation to do this 
 holy duty must pervade and solemnize our entire 
 
112 Our Children. 
 
 family life. No business, however pressing, no pleas- 
 ure, however fascinating, no human interest what- 
 ever can affect it. It is not a duty for one man- -as 
 the man of wealth, of leisure, of learning, of piety. 
 Nothing, among all the employments or pleasures 
 of men, can be so important that it may interfere 
 with this duty, hinder this work, hghten this obliga- 
 tion. Our condition in life ; our mere circumstances 
 of prosperity or adversity, wealth or poverty, have 
 nothing to do with it. Are we parents? Have we 
 been the means of bringing children into this world ? 
 The fact of parenthood settles the question of respon- 
 sibility and constitutes the call to duty. If we are 
 parents we must — not we may — teach God's word, 
 his will, his providence, his grace, his saving truths 
 to our children. 
 
 How definite, how precise are the words! How 
 imperative the command ! And no wonder ; the 
 eternal interests of immortal souls are connected 
 with the performance or neglect of this duty. 
 
 As already pointed out, this peculiar duty is one 
 that, if done at all, must be done by the parents ; 
 if they do it not it is never done, it can never be 
 done. Let us read again, carefully and prayerfully, 
 this command of God, and, if there is any heart to 
 believe in us, we will respond to it : " And these 
 words, which I command thee this day, shall be in 
 thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently 
 unto thy children." When ? Where ? '' And shalt 
 
Teaching God 's Word to Our Cliildrcn. 1 1 3 
 
 talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and 
 when thou walkest by the way, and when thou h'est 
 down, and when thou risest up." 
 
 These words are much plainer in their meaning, 
 and far more impressive in their injunctions, than if 
 God, speaking through Moses, had said : " And at 
 a certain set time " — on Sunday afternoon at three 
 o'clock ; and at the church, or in the Sunday-school, 
 or by the fireside — " thou shalt teach these words." 
 No ; this duty abides with us, rests on our con- 
 sciences as we sit in our houses, walks with us by 
 the way, solemnizes our thoughts when we lie down, 
 meets us with its demands when we rise up. It is 
 a duty that begins with the birth of our first child 
 and ends never. Nay, it begins before a child is 
 born, for those should not be parents who will not 
 prepare themselves for the duties of parenthood. 
 The performance of this duty belongs to the entire 
 course of family life. 
 
 And lest we ourselves forget, lest our children 
 forget, the lessons are to be repeated perpetually, 
 they are to be stereotyped in memory, they are to 
 saturate the thoughts and sentiments and employ- 
 ments of every day. We are to knozv God's words 
 and our children are to know them. " And thou 
 shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they 
 shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou 
 shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and 
 
 on thy gates." 
 8 
 
114 Oup Children. 
 
 O the loss, the incalculable, the shameful, the 
 guilty loss, of not knowing God's words ! O the 
 cruel wrong, the heinous sin of not teaching them 
 to our children ! Why is this duty pressed upon us 
 so imperatively, as if God would burn it into our 
 minds, and hearts, and consciences? Because so 
 much, for both worlds, depends upon its perform- 
 ance. Because the right knowledge of God's words 
 — his will, his government, his grace, his salvation — 
 is necessary to the welfare of our children in this 
 world and their salvation in the next. 
 
 " Whom to know is life eternal ! " What does he 
 know who does not know God ? What is knowledge 
 that leaves out the knowledge of God ? What is 
 learning that forgets, or contemns, the truths of 
 God ? What is education — though a thousand di- 
 plomas certify its depth and variety — that neglects 
 or despises the word of God ? He knows most who 
 knows God best ; he is most learned who is most 
 learned in the things of God ; he is wisest who 
 knows, not merely the most facts, but the most 
 truth ; he is best educated whose mind is most il- 
 lumined by the light of Divine revelation, whose 
 heart is most surely enshrined in the promises of 
 God's grace, whose conscience is most responsive 
 to the demands of God's law, whose life is most 
 obedient to the requirements of God's will. Will 
 we never learn our most sacred duty? Will we 
 never know our best and noblest work? Will we 
 
Teaching God 's Word to otir Children. 1 1 5 
 
 never know what is the chief good we can do our 
 children — the richest heritage we can leave them? 
 
 No doubt we love them. We toil for them throug-h 
 winter and summer. We never rest. We think for 
 them by day and dream of them by night. They 
 fill our thoughts ; they create our anxieties ; they 
 excite our hopes ; they alarm our fears. But, alas ! 
 we love them in a blind sort of way — the love of 
 higher instinct — when we do not know that for 
 our children the best knowledge, and, indeed, the 
 only indispensable knowledge, is the knowledge of 
 God. 
 
 How early we send them to earthly schools ! 
 How carefully we choose their teachers ! How we 
 seek to make them wise in the use of words that 
 they may speak well with their fellow-citizens in the 
 gates ! How we wish them to be skillful in the use 
 of numbers that they may conduct their business 
 successfully ! And much other human learning we 
 think indispensable to them. Our fond hearts are 
 thrilled when our boys win applause for their youth- 
 ful oratory, when our girls are complimented on 
 their skill in music, or on their grace of manner 
 We spend money, time, and toil in giving them the 
 knowledge of this world. And this is right, so far 
 as it goes. We have neither word nor thought to 
 discredit the true secular teacher, or to discount the 
 value of a thorough scholastic education. But this 
 is not all. 
 
ii6 Our ChildrEi'J. 
 
 *' Let knowledge grow from more to more, 
 But more of reverence in us dwell ; 
 That mind and soul according well, 
 May make one music as before, 
 
 . . . But vaster." 
 
 How many parents arc solicitous about the world- 
 ly education of their children, but careless, forgetful, 
 indifferent as to their education in Divine things ! 
 How many thousands of children have lived through 
 infancy, and early childhood, and adolescent youth, 
 and have died and gone into the eternal world, who, 
 if they bear with them any account of their parents 
 must say, '' My father toiled for me, sent mc to 
 school, taught me business, but I never heard him 
 pray ; he never told me of God, his government, or 
 his grace ! '* 
 
 What bitter tears should flow, what lamentations 
 should we wail out of our breaking hearts, when we 
 stand by the cold clay of a darling child, dressed 
 for its burial and gone from us forever, when we 
 remember, '^ He never heard me pray — I never 
 taught him God's word — I never led him to his 
 Saviour!" Will we not conclude such a lamenta- 
 tion with this confession : *' I was no true father, no 
 true mother to you, my wronged and neglected dar- 
 ling!" What a shadow the consciousness of such 
 failure, of s "ch neglect, must throw across the life of 
 a parent who has, perhaps, done all that he could do 
 for his child except this, o( all others, most sacred, 
 most necessary duty — to teach him the word of God ! 
 
Teaching God V vVord to on?- Children. 1 17 
 
 We have often thought that there sobs out — as a 
 pathetic undertone — in the lamentations of David, 
 over rebellious and lost Absalom, the consciousness 
 of some sacred parental duties neglected, or but par- 
 tially performed. In Absalom's boyhood and youth 
 David was sorely pressed with the cares of govern- 
 ment. His enemies, pressing his kingdom on every 
 side ; his intractable and half-civilized people crowd- 
 ed his waking thoughts with anxieties, his dreams 
 with cares and alarms. He had little time, during 
 all this period, to watch over the morals of his chil- 
 dren, to teach them God's words, or to train them 
 in their duties. But Absalom — bright, beautiful, 
 quick-witted, and ambitious — was not slow to learn. 
 In the court and in the camp he soon learned the 
 '' words " of men, the ways of the world, but God was 
 not in all his thoughts. In all his words and deeds 
 Absalom shows himself simply a man of the world. 
 By and by the penalty came, as, sooner or later, it 
 always will and must come. David little knew what 
 a storm was brewing, and when at last it burst upon 
 his house it well-nigh broke his heart. The loving 
 father's heart was sorely wrung when he thought of 
 his idolized children. There was dishonored Ta- 
 mar and dead Amnon — and by a brother's hand. 
 And now, at last, after treason and all manner of 
 wickedness, Absalom — so fondly loved, so petted, 
 and so spoiled — hangs dead from the thick boughs 
 of an oak in the dark '' wood of Ephraim." This 
 
ii8 Our Children. 
 
 time victory brought no joy to David. Absalom — 
 his beautiful and petted Absalom — is dead and lost 
 — forever lost1 
 
 There is nothing sadder than David's lamentation, 
 and, as it seems to us, his conscience bleeds with his 
 heart as he wails out his sorrows in sobs and cries. 
 ''And the king was much moved, and went up to 
 the chamber over the gate, and wept : and as he 
 went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my 
 son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O 
 Absalom, my son, my son ! " 
 
 Were it better never to have been born than to 
 live to look on such a sight as wicked, ungrateful, 
 impenitent, unpardoned, unprepared and lost Ab- 
 salom, hanging dead in the " wood of Ephraim ? " 
 
 That father who is too busy to teach his chil- 
 dren God's words and to be the priest of his house 
 is too busy for his soul's good — too busy to be a 
 father. If his children, untaught and untrained in 
 the ways of life, shall live without God and die 
 without hope, be sure their blood will cry from the 
 wet and sobbing earth against him. That father 
 whc is so borne down with honors and public cares 
 that he cannot perform the duty of a father, is too 
 great before men to be great before God. No cares 
 of government — no necessities of civil or ecclesias- 
 tical position — modify or abridge the obligations that 
 inhere in the very relation of fatherhood. If the 
 king cannot rule his people and teach God's word 
 
Teaching God's Word to our Children. 119 
 
 to his children, and be a true priest in his house, 
 there is no room for debate ; he must be no more 
 king. There are fathers who should take this to 
 heart. There can be in this world no more sacred 
 relation than that of fatherhood ; nothing in this 
 world may come between a father and the duty he 
 owes his child. Whatever hinders him in the dis- 
 charge of his duty, that, if he truly fear God and 
 wisely love his child, he will turn from and eschew. 
 Whatever is left undone, the duties of fatherhood and 
 motherhood must be done. And yet there are some 
 parents who neither think nor care. They are of 
 this world ; they build, not on God's plan, but on 
 their own, meager and false though it is. They 
 assume to choose and to decide. They set God's 
 claims aside, or subordinate them to the claims of 
 business or pleasure ! Audacious unbelief, damna- 
 ble self-will ! 
 
 Concerning those whose plan of life is so meager, 
 so human, so selfish, so carnal, we might use St. 
 Paul's terrible words in describing him who is only 
 a citizen of this world : '* For many walk, of whom I 
 have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, 
 that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ ; 
 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, 
 and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earth- 
 ly things." 
 
 And theie are some parents — parents only in this 
 one sense, they have been the instruments of bring- 
 
120 Our Chiudren. 
 
 ing children into this world— who are so cons imed 
 by personal ambition, so fascinated with worldly 
 pleasures, that they have neither time nor heart for 
 the instruction of their children. It is a pitiful and 
 shameful sight to see a father so swallowed up by 
 love of money, so consumed by ambition, that he has 
 no time to teach his children the ways of wisdom 
 and life. To see a mother — if such a one may be 
 called a mother — so absorbed by pleasure and fash- 
 ion that she has no deep maternal longings to car- 
 ry her little ones in her arms to Jesus — to teach 
 them the way of salvation — this is a shame and a 
 crime for which there are no words. 
 
 Very strong and bold, but just and true, are the 
 words of Dr. Robert South on this subject : — 
 
 "Let parents endeavor to deserve that honor 
 which God has commanded their children to pay 
 them ; and believe it, that must be by greater and 
 better offices than barely bringing them into this 
 world ; which of itself puts them only in danger of 
 passing into a worse. And as the good old sentence 
 tells us, that it is better a great deal to be unborn 
 than either unbred or bred amiss, so it cannot but 
 be matter of very sad reflection to any parent to 
 think within himself that he should be instrumental 
 to give his child a body only to damn his soul. And, 
 therefore, let parents remember, that as the paternal 
 is the most honorable relation so it is also the great- 
 est trust in the world, and that God will be a certain 
 
Teaching God 's Word to our Children, 1 2 1 
 
 and severe exactor of it ; and the more so, because 
 they have such weighty opportunities to discharge 
 it, and that with almost infallible success. 
 
 " Now these and the like considerations, one would 
 think, should remind parents what a dreadful ac- 
 count lies upon them, for their children, by the laws 
 of God and man, owe them the greatest reverence ; 
 so there is a sort of reverence also that they as 
 much owe their children : a reverence that should 
 make them not dare to speak a filthy word, or to 
 do a base or indecent action before them. What 
 says our Saviour to this point ? * Whosoever shall 
 offend one of these little ones ... it were better for 
 him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and 
 that he were drowned in the depth of the sea ! ' And 
 surely he who teaches the little ones to offend God, 
 offends them with a witness ; indeed, so unmerciful- 
 ly, that it would be much the less cruelty of the two 
 if the wretch, their father, should stab or stifle these 
 poor innocents in their nurse's arms. For then he 
 might damn himself alone, and not his children also; 
 and himself, for his own sins only, and not for theirs 
 too. . . . 
 
 " These things I say, and a thousand more, par- 
 ents are to be perpetually inculcating in the minds 
 of their children, according to that strict injunction 
 of God himself to the Israelites : ' These words, 
 which I command thee this day, shall be in thine 
 heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy 
 
122 Our Children. 
 
 children, and snalt talk of them when thou sittest in 
 thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, 
 and when thou liest down, and when thou risest 
 up.' Such discourses should open their eyts in the 
 morning and close them in the evening." 
 
Training as Well as Teaching. 123 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TRAINING AS WELL AS TEACHING. 
 
 T is not only our duty to teach our children what 
 is right, we must also train them in the practice 
 of what is right. " Train up a child in the way he 
 should go : and when he is old, he will not depart 
 from it." An eminent and judicious critic, Henry 
 Cowles, in his notes on this passage, says: "The 
 word for * train up' means to educate, to confirm in 
 a given course. The translation, * in the way he 
 should go,' is what we call free, departing consider- 
 ably from the literal form of the original, yet not 
 perhaps from its true sense. The original would 
 naturally read, after the manner of his way ; that is, 
 train him with reference to his future way, in a 
 manner corresponding to what his future is to be ; 
 which certainly may mean, to what you wish it to 
 be, to what it ought to be. . . . Probably Solomon 
 meant, shape the young twig as you would the fut- 
 ure tree ; give your child a culture for the after-life 
 which you wish him to live." 
 
 Some good people have found a stumbling-block 
 in this passage. They point to those who have, as 
 they conceive, performed the condition ; who have, 
 as they say, '' trained up their children in the way 
 
124 Our Children. 
 
 they should go," but whose children have notorious- 
 ly gone in the way they should not go. Where, 
 then, suggests unbelief, is the promise? We great- 
 ly fear that many parents have insensibly fallen in 
 with perhaps the most pernicious notion possible 
 to be entertained by them on this subject — that it 
 is, after all, a matter akin to chance at best. It 
 makes little difference, the devil whispers, what you 
 do. Those children that are going to be good, will 
 be good any way ; those that are going to be bad, 
 will be bad in spite of all that you can do. Alas! 
 that a notion so absurd, so false, so pernicious, 
 should be entertained at all. It is absurd, for it is 
 inconceivable, that a God of order, of wisdom, of 
 goodness, of justice, has left our children to the 
 sport of chance, or to the inexorable decrees of blind 
 fate. It is false, for it contradicts experience, ob- 
 servation, sound sense, and the express teachings 
 of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 The words of Solomon are the statement of a 
 principle. It agrees with every law we know of 
 human life that right conduct should follow right 
 training. And it is a broader principle than this — 
 it is the statement of a universal truth ; training — ■ 
 good or bad — determines the future conduct. It is 
 not peculiar to right training that it results in right 
 living, any more than it is peculiar to wrong train- 
 ing that it results in bad living. It is as broad as 
 St. Paul's proposition: ** Whatsoever a man soweth, 
 
Training as Well as Teaching, 125 
 
 that shall he also reap." His succeeding proposi- 
 tions are contained in this broad and axiomatic 
 statement : *' For he that soweth to his flesh shall 
 of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to 
 the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." 
 
 We would not go to any extreme length in the 
 statement or application of this principle. It will 
 not do to say, the child, rightly taught and trained, 
 is obliged to do right, as if he could not do wrong. 
 For no amount of right training interferes with 
 volition. The rightly trained child is still free— free 
 as the angels, '' who kept not their first estate " — free 
 as our first parents, who fell by disobedience in 
 Eden. If a rightly trained child ''departs" from 
 ''the way in which he should go," we may say of 
 him, 
 
 " Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall." 
 
 Solomon speaks in the text not of a possible neces- 
 sity, but of what we might call a probable certainty. 
 It is not that a rightly trained child cannot depart 
 from the "way he should go," but that he will not. 
 He can if he will ; but, though he can, he will not. 
 It will not be his will to do so. Being trained 
 aright, it is aln^ost a moral certainty that he will 
 zvill to do right. 
 
 But if, in any given case, there seems to be a con- 
 tradiction between Solomon's text and the supposed 
 facts ; if a good man " tries hard," as he says, " to 
 train his children aright," and they go astray, is it 
 
126 Our Children. 
 
 not going very far— indeed, altogether too far— for 
 him to say, " I did what the text enjoins, and my 
 children have gone astray ? " That his children /lave 
 gone astray may be plain enough, but who will dare 
 to say, '■' I have done all my duty in training them in 
 the way in which they should go?" He would be, 
 indeed, a bold man who, in such a case, would dare 
 to affirm so much. 
 
 There is more in ''training" than mere ''teach- 
 ing." St. Paul says, "And, ye fathers,* provoke 
 not your children to wrath : but bring them up in 
 the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Here we 
 find discipline as well as instruction. Children are 
 to be drilled as well as instructed in the right way. 
 The soldier learns the use of his arms not simply 
 by reading some " Manual" on the subject, or by 
 being told how to use them, or how not to use them, 
 but by drill in the use of them. The family is not 
 merely a school, it is also a drill. 
 
 The mere enforcement of good conduct is not 
 enough ; the mere inculcation of sound principle is 
 not enough. If we would truly "bring up our chil- 
 dren in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," 
 it is not enough that we simply teach them what is 
 right, nor that we simply compel them to do what 
 is right. True knowing, true doing, and true being, 
 involve each other. They go together, and cannot, 
 
 * The mothers being included, also, as subject to the husbands, they 
 being the fountains of domestic rule. — Alford. 
 
Training as Well as Teaching 127 
 
 without disappointment and defeat be separated. 
 They are mutually corrective and conservative. The 
 knowledge of duty ought to insure the doing of 
 duty ; while the doing of duty will surely enlarge 
 and perfect the knowledge of duty. The psalmist 
 teaches us that " the testimony of the Lord is sure, 
 making wise the simple." A greater than the psalm- 
 ist has said, '' If any man will do his will, [that is, 
 wills to do his will^ he shall know of the doctrine, 
 whether it be of God, or whether I speak of my- 
 self." And St. Paul teaches us that he alone 
 '' proves " — that is, realizes in his own conscious- 
 ness and experience — that God's will is " good, per- 
 fect, and acceptable," who thoroughly seeks to do 
 that will. 
 
 Oversight or neglect of this double principle ex- 
 plains, in many instances, the apparent contradic- 
 tion between efforts and results in the experience 
 of some who have tried hard to rear their children 
 aright, but whose failure to make good men and 
 women out of them is sometimes as notorious as it 
 is mournful. Some parents only teach what is right, 
 and give themselves little concern about the per- 
 formance, relying upon the power of truth alone ; 
 others compel performance, without taking the 
 trouble to instruct, relying upon the habit of en- 
 forced obedience alone. In the first case, the in- 
 struction needs to be connected with habits of right 
 doing; and if the habit be not induced, the mere 
 
128 Our Children. 
 
 knowledge of duty is easily forgotten or overlooked, 
 and the conviction of duty readily disappears before 
 temptation to do wrong. In the latter, where there 
 is only compulsion, rendered possible by the parent's 
 superior strength and the child's dependence and 
 subordination, there is nothing but a kind of force. 
 It does not take hold upon the mind — the thoughts 
 and sentiments — and no real habits of virtue are 
 formed. As there is nothing but compulsion, when, 
 by the lapse of years, the child is free from parental 
 restraint, there is nothing left but a memory of 
 what — for the want of instruction and nurture in 
 sound principles — is recalled as a sort of slavery. 
 In this case, the only centripetal force is parental 
 compulsion. When the child is free, by attaining 
 its majority, or by the death of the parent, the 
 centrifugal forces of depraved nature have no cor- 
 rective and no restraint, and the child very naturally 
 flies from his orbit and goes wandering into the 
 darkness — witherward no man knows. It is of the 
 utmost importance that parents and teachers recog- 
 nize and act upon this double principle. Then, 
 with every ground of confidence, it may be expect- 
 ed that our children will, in all their future life, find 
 that sound principles will regulate their conduct, 
 and that good habits of life will imbed these prin- 
 ciples in the mind, and that all the cardinal virtues 
 will become, so to speak, part of their spiritual 
 nature. 
 
Training as Well as Teaching. 
 
 <i> 
 
 129 
 
 Something was said before about ''habits." Who 
 fully understands, who can fully expound the law 
 of habit ? What power there is in habit ! Are not 
 all men, for the most part, controlled by their hab- 
 its? True, a man can will to cross the current of 
 his habits, but it is rarely done. And when one 
 does summon courage to make the attempt, it is 
 often very like crossing a swollen stream with a frail 
 canoe — there is a mighty drift, and the landing is 
 not straight across from the starting point, but far 
 below it. 
 
 He who forms a deeply set habit of thinking, feel- 
 ing, and doing right, moves with the current of a 
 mighty tide of life, and has good hope, through 
 grace, of making a happy landing at last. 
 
 The law of habit has a far wider and more poten- 
 tial reign than most persons imagine. It sways its 
 strong scepter over the physical, the intellectual, 
 and the spiritual man. The bodily functions and 
 appetites are under the law of habit. So is the in- 
 tellect and the affections. We form habits of think- 
 ing and feeling, as well as of doing. And what is 
 of unspeakable importance to consider and under- 
 stand — habits set us in our ways, be they good or 
 bad. "Habit," says St. Augustine, " if not resisted 
 becomes necessity." Dr. Johnson has well expressed 
 the same truth, " The diminutive chains of habit 
 are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they arc 
 too strong to be broken." And herein is the chief 
 
I30 Our Children. 
 
 danger — ruinous habits may be fastened upon us 
 before we are fairly conscious of their existence. 
 As Archbishop Whately has said, " It is important 
 to keep in mind that habits are formed, not at one 
 stroke, but gradually and insensibly ; so that, unless 
 vigilant care be employed, a great change may 
 come over the charac'.er without our being conscious 
 of any." Hence the wisdom of Locke's caution, 
 ** Whoever introduces habits in children deserves 
 the care and attention of their governors." How 
 irresistible our gradually and unconsciously formed 
 habits may become is well illustrated by Bentham : 
 '' Like flakes of snow that fall unperceived upon the 
 earth, the seemingly unimportant events of life suc- 
 ceed one another. As the snow gathers together, 
 so are our habits formed. No single flake that is 
 added to the pile produces a sensible change. No 
 single action creates, however it may exhibit, a 
 man's character ; but as the tempest hurls the ava- 
 lanche down the mountain, and overwhelms the in- 
 habitant and his habitation, so passion acting upon 
 the elements of mischief which pernicious habits 
 have brought together by imperceptible accumu- 
 lation, may overthrow the edifice of truth and 
 virtue." 
 
 In illustrating the power of habit, Miss Marti- 
 neau tells us of a white infant who was captured by 
 the Indians, and grew up among them, trained to 
 their habits of life. He grew up, as did the Indian 
 
Training as Well as Teaching. 1 3 1 
 
 boys, to think that he was the greatest man who had 
 taken the greatest number of scalps. " While yet a 
 youth he was rescued, and subsequently became a 
 minister. During the Revolutionary War he held 
 a pastorate near the scene of conflict. He went 
 into the battle in his ministerial dress, but returned 
 changed. A gentleman saw blood on his shirt and 
 said, 'You are wounded! ' The clergyman put up 
 his hands as if to conceal the wound. The gentle- 
 man, thinking it ought to be looked to, pulled open 
 his shirt, and from beneath it took out a bloody 
 scalp ! ' I could not help it,* said the victim of early 
 habits. He ran to the Indians, and never again ap- 
 peared among the whites." 
 
 It is infinitely better for a child never to form bad 
 habits at all. If, in after years, he should, by the 
 grace of God, be delivered from them, there is, as 
 was noticed in another place, always a danger and a 
 tendency in the currents of his life to seek the old 
 channels again. John Foster, in one of his essays, 
 says justly and forcibly: ''I know from experience 
 that habit can, in direct opposition to every convic- 
 tion of the mind, and but little aided by the ele- 
 ments of temptation, (such as present pleasure, etc.,) 
 induce a repetition of the most unworthy actions. 
 The mind is weak when it has once given way. It 
 is long before a principle restored can become as 
 firm as one that has never been removed. It is as 
 in the case of the mound of a reservoir: if this 
 
132 Our Children. 
 
 mound has in one place been broken, whatever care 
 has been taken to make the repaired part as strong 
 as possible, the probability is, that if it give way 
 again it will be in that placcy 
 
 A bad habit becomes despotic. The Orientals 
 portray the growth and power of such a habit by the 
 following fable : '■' The story runs that as Abdallah 
 lingered over his morning repast, a little fly lighted 
 on his goblet, took a sip and was gone. It came 
 again and again, increased^ts charms, became bold- 
 er and bolder, grew in size till it presented the 
 likeness of a man. It consumed Abdallah's meat, 
 so that he grew thin and weak, while his guest be- 
 came great and strong. Then contention arose be- 
 tween them, and the youth smote the demon, so 
 that he departed, and th^ youth rejoiced at his de- 
 liverance. But the demon soon came again, charm- 
 ingly arrayed, and was restored to favor. On the 
 morning the youth came not to his teacher. The 
 mufti, searching, found him in his chamber, lying 
 dead upon his divan. His visage was black and 
 swollen, and on his throat was the pressure of a 
 finger, broader than the palm of a mighty man. His 
 treasures were gone. In the garden the mufti dis- 
 covered the footprints of a giant, one of which 
 measured six cubits." 
 
 We see the power of habit illustrated in the case 
 of those who become, at last, not only reconciled tc 
 discomforts, but who reach such a point that they 
 
Training as Well as Teaching. 133 
 
 find pleasure in them. Sir George Staunton, a 
 British embassador to the Court of China toward 
 the close of the last century, told a singular story — 
 that might be easily paralleled in the writings of 
 modern travelers — that Colton has preserved. Col- 
 ton says : " The late Sir George Staunton informed 
 me that he had visited a man in India who had 
 committed a murder; and in order not only to save 
 his life, but, w^hat was of much more consequence, 
 his caste^ he submitted to the penalty imposed. 
 This was that he should sleep for seven years on a 
 bedstead without any mattress, the whole surface of 
 which was studded with points of iron resembling 
 nails, but not so sharp as to penetrate his flesh. Sir 
 George saw him in the fifth year of his probation, 
 and his skin was then like the hide of a rhinocerus, 
 but more callous. At that time, however, he could 
 sleep comfortably on his * bed of thorns ; ' and re- 
 marked that at the expiration of the term of his sen- 
 tence he should most probably continue that sys- 
 tem from choice which he had been obliged to adopt 
 from necessity." 
 
 With what yearning solicitude will Christian par- 
 ents, who are wise to understand these things, strive 
 to secure the formation of good habits in their chil- 
 dren. And they cannot begin too soon. A mother 
 once asked a man of wisdom, "At w^hat age should 
 I begin to teach my child? " 
 
 " How old is he now?" inquired the sage. 
 
134 Our Children. 
 
 *' Two years old," the mother answered. 
 
 •* Then," said he, *' you have already lost about 
 two years." 
 
 Who will say that he was very far wrong, for we 
 need not wait till our children understand all that 
 we teach them. *' Influence," says one, ** far more 
 than simple rules, secures and concerns parental 
 discipline." 
 
 Undoubtedly, parents can, from the earliest infan- 
 cy, bring their children under their influence. Before 
 children can talk, the first steps can be taken in in- 
 ducing the formation of some of the simple but car- 
 dinal virtues. Almost from the beginning of life — 
 if we ourselves possess these virtues — we can begin 
 to teach our children to be patient, punctual, order- 
 ly, obedient, generous, honest, truthful. As soon 
 as a child is old enough to know the difference be- 
 tween scattering its clothes over the floor and put- 
 ting them properly in place upon going to bed at 
 night, it is old enough to begin to learn habits of 
 neatness and order. And so of all the other virtues 
 of this class. Surely we do not value as we should 
 the importance of what most persons esteem th^ 
 small virtues in the formation of good habits and of 
 good character. " How carefully," says St. Francis 
 de Sales, " we should cherish the little virtues which 
 spring up at the foot of the cross ! " When asked, 
 ''What virtues do you mean?" he replied, " H" 
 mility, patience, meekness, benignity, bearing one 
 
Training as Well as Teaching. 135 
 
 another s burdens, condescension, cordiality, com- 
 passion; forgiving injuries, simplicity, candor — all, in 
 short, of that sort of little virtues." 
 
 We know not, as we should, the conserving and 
 harmonizing power of these orderly virtues. As 
 sometimes one sweet voice, singing in perfect time 
 and tune, may harmonize at last the dissonant voices 
 of an ill-trained congregation, so one genuine virtue 
 firmly established, one good habit fully formed, may 
 hush the discords of an unregulated and disor- 
 dered life. ■ • 
 
 In this work of training our children we cannot 
 begin too soon, and we cannot strive with too great 
 diligence or patience. Above all we cannot be too 
 earnest in prayer to God for his good help in the 
 most responsible, delicate, difficult and useful task 
 ever committed to mortals — the task of '' training 
 up our children in the way in which they should 
 go," and of " bringing them up in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord." 
 
 In all our cares and strivings for our children let 
 us strive above all things to bring them from the 
 beginning under divine influences, and to induce 
 them, at the very dawn of accountable life, to em- 
 brace Jesus as their Saviour and King. Without 
 Christ all our teaching and all our drilling will be 
 in vain. 
 
 Says the author of "• Apples of Gold : " "' It is the 
 duty of every Christian, living in communion with 
 
136 Our Children. 
 
 God, to bring up his children so that they shall be 
 Christians from the beginning. The grace of God is 
 given just as much during the progress of education 
 and unfolding as afterward, during the process of 
 deliberate volition in adult life ; yea, more abun- 
 dantly. You cannot, parents, bequeath to your 
 children any thing that shall be equal to a heart al- 
 liance with God. It is very well to leave your child 
 property; it is very well to leave him an honored 
 name ; it is very well to see him well-connected, af- 
 fianced, and fill an honored place in society. Sur- 
 round him with joy ; scatter gold mines under his 
 feet ; span the crystal dome over his head ; send 
 the winged birds to sing for him of joy and peace ; 
 but you have done but little for him, he is but a 
 bankrupt, unless there is added to all these an abid- 
 ing faith in the life to come, and an abiding trust 
 that for him there is a place among the sons of God. 
 All is for naught if it does not lead him to trust in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and to live for the world 
 to come, and not for the world that now is. It is a 
 very solemn thing to take God's children and at- 
 tempt to rear them ; but it is an awful thing to per- 
 vert them by bringing them up for this world, and 
 utterly forgetful of the world that is to come. We 
 are making slow work at converting ; we must begin 
 at the other end. Let us begin now to take care of 
 little children." 
 
W/ia^ Human ParentJiood sJiould Signify. 137 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WHAT HUMAN PARENTHOOD SHOULD SIGNIFY. 
 
 T3UT example is the most successful and Irresisti- 
 ^-^ ble teacher. Parents who do wrong in the 
 presence of their children may teach them what is 
 right, and for a time compel obedience; but the evil 
 that is in the example overbears and paralyzes the 
 good that is in the instruction and the discipline. 
 
 We think too little of what we appear to be in 
 the eyes of our little ones. For a long time — and 
 we say it w^th reverence, for it is true — the parents 
 stand, as it were, in the place of God to their little 
 children. And they are God's representatives. 
 
 It is a solemn thought that parents are to serve a 
 typical purpose. They should be types — meager and 
 imperfect, it may be, yet true and not misleading — 
 of the character of God. It is the duty of us all to 
 trust, to love, and obey God. But the parent is the 
 first object of faith to the child. The parent is also 
 the first object of love. And to the parent the 
 child yields its first conscious obedience. The par- 
 ents are first known, first trusted, first loved, and 
 first obeyed. 
 
 A child should learn the true conception of the 
 divine Fatherhood from his earthly parents. God 
 
138 Our CiiiLDKEN. 
 
 is a governor, but he is a father also ; the parents are 
 also governors. Authority, subordination, obedience, 
 law — these ideas first come to a child from its earth- 
 ly parents. We speak of philosophers who 
 
 *' Look through Nature up to nature's God." 
 
 And shall it not be so that our children can look 
 through us up to the God and Father of us all ? 
 
 This is no mere fancy, for God does reveal him- 
 self to us as Father. He is not merely like a father 
 — he is a Father. When Jesus would teach us the 
 true doctrine of prayer he appeals to the universal 
 instincts of childhood and parenthood. It is impos- 
 sible that any child, any parent, should fail to under- 
 stand him. " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, 
 and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
 unto you : for every one that asketh rcceiveth ; and 
 he that secketh findcth ; and to him that knock- 
 eth it shall be opened. Or what man is there of 
 you whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a 
 stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? 
 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
 unto your children, how much more shall your Father 
 which is in heaven give good things to them that 
 ask him ! " And in many places in the Scriptures 
 is the great God represented to us as a father. 
 ^' Behold," says St. John, *' what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
 called the sons of God." And our Lord Jesus, in 
 
IV/ia^ Human Parenthood sJiould Signify. 1 39 
 
 the last words preceding his passion, said to his 
 disciples: " Let not your heart be troubled : ye be- 
 lieve in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 
 house are many mansions. ... I go to prepare a 
 place for you." St. Paul, in describing the relation 
 a true believer sustains to God, bases his whole 
 doctrine on the same truths : *' For ye have not re- 
 ceived the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye 
 have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we 
 cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth wit- 
 ness with our spirit that we are the children of 
 God." 
 
 The following passage from Young's '' Christ of 
 History" will be appropriate and useful at this 
 point : — 
 
 " * How is God connected with me? How is he 
 affected toward me?' are questions of infinite inter- 
 est to a rational being. The answer of the Teacher 
 of Nazareth to these questions is simple and ex- 
 plicit, and is conveyed in a single word, a word of 
 profound significance and surpaasing tenderness— 
 the word Father. To man this term belongs em- 
 phatically, and it is one of the wealthiest in human 
 language, and men at least can have no difficulty in 
 comprehending all its meaning. The relation which 
 it indicates has no such interpretation, among other 
 intelligent creatures, as it finds in this word. There 
 is no fatherhood or childhood am.ong angels, no der- 
 ivation of being from one to the other. But men 
 
140 Our Children. 
 
 on earth are connected together in this extraordina- 
 ry sense ; and from the imperfect type existing 
 among themselves, they at least are able to rise to 
 the supreme reality in God. The human spirit is 
 the offspring, the immediate and direct offspring, of 
 the everliving Spirit. It is capable of bearing and 
 does bear, and it is the only thing that bears or is 
 capable of bearing, a resemblance to God. When 
 we have said that God created the heavens, the 
 earth, and material things, we have exhausted all 
 of which the subject admits. But it is not simply 
 true that he created minds also — He is the Father 
 of minds, and of nothing else. . . . God is a King, 
 but he is a Father-king ; his subjects are his own 
 children, and his government of them in its very 
 origin, and consequently in its essential spirit, in all 
 its laws, and in all its acts, is strictly and only 
 parental. God's kingdom is a figure, his Father- 
 hood is the profoundest reality. He may justly, and 
 in certain respects, be compared to a king; but he 
 is a Father." 
 
 Now what idea of the divine Fatherhood will 
 children receive from parents who themselves, turn- 
 ing from the good and right way, follow the way ot 
 sin and folly and men ? If there is sin in the par- 
 ents ; if they keep not the law of love ; if they fear 
 not God ; if they walk not in the way of his com- 
 mandments, how slowly and with what difficulty 
 will their children ever learn the true idea of God! 
 
W/ia^ Human Paroithood sJiotild Signify. 141 
 
 Because parents occupy the very extraordinary and 
 *;acred relation that binds them and their children 
 together — a relation, as we have seen, that obtains 
 nowhere else in the intelligent universe — they do 
 most undoubtedly, for a time at least, stand in the 
 place of God to their children. They are his repre- 
 sentatives. They are, therefore, not only to teach 
 the truth and to drill their children in duty, but 
 they themselves must illustrate the truths they 
 teach and exemplify the duty they enjoin. By the 
 sobriety, wisdom, justice, truthfulness, unselfishness, 
 patience, purity, love, and tenderness of their own 
 lives, let them interpret to the understanding and 
 the faith of their children the true conception of 
 God's fatherhood. So far as means are concerned, 
 the first revelation made to a child's mind of the ex- 
 istence and greatness of God comes through its par- 
 ents, and this not so much through what they say, 
 as through the child's sense of their greatness and 
 goodness. " The order," says Harris in his " Patri- 
 archy," *' in which the love of the child graduates, 
 is from the stage of instinctive love to moral affec- 
 tion, and from this to the love of its heavenly Par- 
 ent. Desirous as the parents may be to lead its af- 
 fections up at once to the Creator, the previous 
 stages of the path must first be passed through. 
 For awhile the maternal care is the only Providence 
 it knows ; and the father's experience a world of 
 grand enterprise, and of power unlimited. In vain 
 
142 Our Children. 
 
 it strives to climb the height of his knowledge- -his 
 virtual omniscience ; nor can it conceive of a Di- 
 viner guarantee than his promise. To see its par- 
 ents bend in worship, and to hear them speak with 
 holy awe of their Father in heaven, is itself solemn 
 and suggestive as a ladder set up from earth to 
 heaven. The wise discipline, too, which leads the 
 parent kindly to repress its selfish desires, and con- 
 stantly to aim at its moral welfare, invariably begets 
 in return the highest order of filial love and confi- 
 dence ; evincing the power of the child to discrimi- 
 nate between instinctive and moral affection, and 
 preparing it to embrace that heavenly Parent of 
 whom the earthly is but the imperfect representa- 
 tive. And let the parents remark that, from the 
 moment they begin to point their child to God as 
 an object of reverence and love, they are pursuing 
 the certain course for augmenting its moral affection 
 for themselves ; while its intelligent love for them is 
 a valuable means and a pledge for its ascending to 
 the love of God. . . . When the human infant comes 
 into the world, it resembles a temple on the day of 
 opening. Ten thousand objects are waiting and 
 eager to enter, but the doors must first be thrown 
 open. One after another they unfold, and in crowd 
 the throngs. Day after day they repeat their visit, 
 with multitudes of new faces added to them. At 
 first, all are admitted without question, pass-word, 
 or hinderance. In full faith, the soul is laid open, 
 
W/ia^ Human Parenthood should Signify. 143 
 
 and the streams flow through it. After awhile, a 
 higher order of applicants press for admission, and 
 the young human being begins to look round for 
 authority. Proof is, as yet, out of the question ; the 
 highest proof is authority, and the highest authority 
 the parental. The example of his parents guaran- 
 tees alike his belief and his conduct. His trust in 
 them becomes obedience to their injunctions, and a 
 sense of duty takes root." 
 
 It seems too plain a truth for argument, that par- 
 ents are under a very great and peculiar obligation 
 to be holy. If, as we have seen, they are, for a 
 time and in some sense, in the place of God to their 
 children — how awful their responsibility, how great 
 their opportunity, and how terrible their sin if they 
 be unfaithful ! And yet, alas ! there are parents 
 who reflect not God's but Satan's image upon the 
 hearts of their little children. How sad and ruinous 
 it is, when parents who, of all others, should " live, 
 and move, and have their being" in the midst of 
 holy influences, live under an inspiration of sin and 
 carnal-mindedness! How portentous of ruin to 
 both parents and children ! 
 
 ' Sometimes God-fearing parents are overwhelmed 
 with a sense of the responsibilities of their position 
 and they are tempted to despair, exclaiming, with 
 painful consciousness of their lack of wisdom and 
 strength, ''Who then is sufficient for these things?* 
 
 This we say in answer and without doubt of its 
 
144 Our Children. 
 
 truth : Unaided by Divine grace, unenlightened by 
 Divine wisdom, the great duties of parenthood can- 
 not be rightly and fully discharged. No '' rules " 
 for family government, no set of maxims, no amount 
 of instruction, no vigor or regularity of drill, can 
 compensate for the lack of true personal godliness 
 in the parents. The first condition of the full and 
 successful discharge of our parental obligations is 
 devotedness to God. If we have the spirit of 
 Christ, if we be led by that spirit, if we be full of 
 that spirit, then we have the first and chief condi- 
 tion of doing t/ie very best that we can do. 
 
 Of course we do not overlook or undervalue those 
 natural qualities, as they may be called, of good 
 judgment, patience, firmness, justice, and benevo- 
 lence, that are so needful in all good family govern- 
 ment, but we do mean to say that no excellence in 
 these qualities is sufficient without religion, and 
 that religion makes the best natural endowments 
 tenfold more efficient. 
 
 The course of our discussion leads naturally to 
 three conclusions as to the duty and work of the 
 father — the same principles applying to the mother 
 also — if he is to be what God designed him to 
 be, a representative and interpreter of the divine 
 Fatherhood. 
 
 First. He must know God's words himself. 
 
 Second. He must drill Jiimself in obedience to 
 these words. 
 
W/iat Human ParcntJiood should Signify. 145 
 
 Third. He must be a man oi prayer. 
 
 He must knozv God's words himself. " These words, 
 which I command thee this day, shall be in thine 
 heart." This goes before the words, "and thou 
 shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." We 
 cannot teach what we do not know, and we cannot 
 know what we do not search out. " Search the 
 Scriptures," is a Divine command. They "testify" 
 of Christ, and in them we find " eternal life." The 
 motive is of the most persuasive and controlling 
 character ; but it is too plain a question to argue 
 now. He who does not know that it is his duty 
 to "search" a book that God gave him for his guid- 
 ance through this world to a better, knows nothing; 
 and argument — how strong, wise, eloquent soever — 
 . cannot help him. 
 
 The word of God is to be learned by earnest, pa- 
 tient, persistent, prayerful study, and not otherwise. 
 There is no charm about the volume — a sort of bet- 
 ter fetish — so that keeping it about the house, or on 
 the center-table, will make it useful. So kept and 
 so abused — for not to use the Bible is to abuse it — 
 it will do us no more good than any other volume. 
 A volume of patent-office reports, or census tables, 
 <.)r of the last century's almanacs, or any other dry- 
 as -dust compilation, will do as much good as an un- 
 used Bible. An Egyptian papyrus, an Assyrian 
 brick or cylinder, covered over with indecipherable 
 
 hieroglyphics, would be as useful as a Bible, though 
 10 
 
146 Our Children. 
 
 bound in embossed leather and clasped with gold 
 not read and prayed over. 
 
 It has pleased God, in his gracious and wise prov- 
 idence, for the good of men, to secure the publica- 
 tion of his blessed word in many tongues. And it 
 is now brought within the reach of every person 
 who wishes to have it. What a priceless privilege 
 is this ! Each person may have, for his own use, a 
 complete copy of the sacred Scriptures. And this 
 fact deepens our obligation to " search the Script- 
 ures" — to know, to understand, to believe, to love, 
 and to obey them. 
 
 It is the duty of parents, and made their duty 
 by the imperative command of God, to teach the 
 Scriptures " diligently unto their children." This 
 they cannot do without knowing the Scriptures; 
 they cannot know them without earnestly studying 
 them. No imaginable excuse for the neglect of 
 this duty can be good. Does one say, " I cannot 
 read?" It is his duty to learn. Does he say, "I 
 have not time?" This is not true, for he has all 
 the time there is — twenty-four hours in every day. 
 If he has made himself so busy with his farm, his 
 shop, his merchandise, his pleasures, or his ambi- 
 tion that he cannot find time to study the word of 
 God, then he is too busy with these things for the 
 good of his soul here or its safety hereafter. Such 
 absorption in this world's affairs as hinders or pre- 
 vents the discharge of divinely-appointed duties 
 
What Human ParcntJwod shoidd Signify. 147 
 
 is not simply a mistake, an error, a fault — it is a 
 sin. 
 
 Is it the parent's duty to drill his children in the 
 ways of God ? Then he must drill himself. What 
 good is done by the drill-sergeant who lectures the 
 soldiers upon their unsoldierly attitudes and man- 
 agement of their arms when he himself constantly 
 does the very things he censures in them ? " Stand 
 erect" comes with poor grace from an officer who 
 himself leans forward with drooped shoulders and 
 listless air. Would we teach our children patience 
 and drill them in this great virtue ? Then we must 
 ourselves be patient. Would we have them grow 
 up to be generous? We must be generous. Would 
 we have them honest, truthful, chaste, reverent? 
 We must exemplify these virtues. And in every 
 case it is so: we must be ^'ensamples" to our chil- 
 dren in all good things. We may indeed " point to 
 brighter worlds," but we must also " lead the way." 
 How wretched must be his failure who assumes to 
 teach God's "words" when he has never learned 
 them, nor tried to learn them ! Who would drill 
 his children in virtues in which he himself is not 
 disciplined ! It cannot be that we can teach our 
 children truths we have not learned, or train them 
 in those virtues which we ourselves do not possess. 
 If all had to be compressed into one sentence, 
 one might say, " If you would do all your duty 
 to your children, learn all you can of God's word, 
 
148 Our Children. 
 
 and, in your experience, realize all you can of God's 
 grace." 
 
 The true parent, who feels as he ought his great 
 burden of responsibility; who understands that he 
 is, in an important and true sense, in the place of 
 God to his little children ; that it is his high and 
 sacred duty to show them something of God's Fa- 
 therhood reflected in himself; who knows, also, that 
 to be to his children what he ought to be, he must 
 not only be a man wise in the Scriptures, but a man 
 disciplined in the virtues ; such a parent will feel 
 that, to do and to be all these things, he must be a 
 man of prayer. 
 
 What father — what mother is there who does 
 not feel the need of Divine help? If such there 
 be, failure is foredoomed. Here many great, many 
 wise have failed. No man can feel secure who, 
 like the writer, has not yet fully solved the prob- 
 lem and finished the task — whose children are still 
 about him, with principles unfixed, habits unset- 
 tled, character unformed. Many have tried and 
 have failed. 
 
 Shall we also fail? It were better never to have 
 been born than to be the father of lost children. 
 
 Praise be to God ! Those four blessed ones of 
 ours that were gathered to God in the sweet inno- 
 cence of infancy, they, at least, are safe. Their feet 
 will never slip ; they will never go astray. No ship- 
 wreck can await them; but as to the rest- -those that 
 
What Hitman Parenthood should Signify. 149 
 
 God spares to us, puts in our care and keeping, the 
 future — but we know not the future. 
 
 Well may parents pray for Hght and strength, 
 and grace divine that they may fill the place God 
 called them to fill — do the work he gave them to 
 do, and be to their children what he intended them 
 to be — true teachers of righteousness, and true pat- 
 terns of godliness. He who has succeeded in train- 
 ing his children in the way in which they should go ; 
 who has brought them up in the nurture and ad- 
 monition of the Lord, — may not be rich in gold or 
 great in name, yet he deserves, and he will receive, 
 the congratulations of the wise and of the good. 
 And him will children's children rise up and bless. 
 
 But he who has failed in his office and duty of 
 fatherhood ; who has not taught God's words to 
 his children ; who has not trained them in the way 
 in which they should go ; who has not brought 
 them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord, — he may be rich in gold and great in name, 
 but he has made the worst failure a man can 
 make, who himself escapes hell, for he has failed in 
 the holiest trust that can be committed to human 
 keeping. 
 
 Very sad is the condition of the father of lost 
 children. His fault merits censure, but his wretch- 
 edness should excite pity. The good and wise can- 
 not praise him, for he has left undone the greatest 
 work that a man .';an do in this world. Neither 
 
150 Our Children. 
 
 Church nor State can thank him, for he has cursed 
 both by turning loose upon society a race of bad 
 men and women. His children cannot bless him in 
 the gates, for all that he has done for them is that 
 he has been the means of bringing them into one 
 bad world that becomes their passage to a worse. 
 
Home Influence. 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOME INFLUENCES. 
 
 \ T TTIERE parents do their duty as teachers of 
 • • God's " words " and exempHfiers of godliness, 
 by bringing up their children " in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord," and where the children 
 *' obey their parents in the Lord," there grows 
 around, about, and within such people that inde- 
 scribable something we may call a Christian Jionie. 
 We propose in this chapter some remarks upon the 
 true home as an important element of all high and 
 pure civilization. 
 
 And what is a true home? That blessed reality 
 which this sweet word expresses is easily understood 
 when realized, but it is incapable of a strict and lim- 
 ited definition. 
 
 One — the pure but unfortunate Mrs. Hemans — - 
 who seems not to have known the reality, asks, 
 
 "What is home, and where, but with the loving?" 
 
 We may well believe that where the "loving" are 
 not there can be no such thing as a true home. And 
 this suggests one of the most blessed facts of human 
 experience : it is in the power of true love to over- 
 come all external disadvantages, and to create happy 
 homes in the midst of poverty and hardship. We 
 
152 Our Children. 
 
 will find them all over the world — under arctic skies 
 as well as in the land of flowers — in stately palaces 
 and lowly cabins — in crowded cities and on the 
 border of deserts. But all homes are not alike. 
 Some are better than others. Some contain more 
 of the elements that are necessary to constitute a 
 perfect home. 
 
 Fine-spun theories would be out of place in our 
 argument and tedious description would be unprofit- 
 able. We may speak very briefly of a few general 
 facts and principles which, however simple and easy 
 of comprehension, are yet too often overlooked and 
 undervalued. One thing to be considered thought- 
 fully by us all, and too little, we venture to think, 
 regarded in our country, is this : a perfect home 
 cannot exist without a '' local habitation and a 
 name." Homes are not nomadic. The love of an 
 Arab for his tent and of a sailor for the sea are but 
 poor substitutes for those divinely implanted affec- 
 tions which, ivy-like, grow from the roots and twine 
 themselves about the roof-tree of a true Christian 
 home. No homeless man or family, no wanderers 
 from place to place, can become all that with a 
 home they might have been. 
 
 Again, and of no small importance, if we are to 
 have perfect homes, it is well that each family have 
 a proprietary right in its place of residence. This 
 sentiment has nothing in common with that agra- 
 rian wickedness which has so often proposed to 
 
Home Influences, 153 
 
 rob the industrious and frugal to bolster up the idle 
 and wasteful, and that has sometimes blotted out, in 
 fire and blood, the homes of the good because it 
 could not bear the sight of their happiness. Of 
 communism — a fanaticism whose zeal for equality 
 is born of selfishness, whose methods are lunatic, 
 whose inspiration is devilish, and whose experiments 
 have been only and utterly disastrous — the Christian 
 home is at once the antagonist, the preventive, and 
 the cure. 
 
 If we cannot have a home in our own right, our 
 misfortune cannot justify envy of the more favored, 
 or excuse impatience or repining at our lot in life. 
 But whoever has, or expects to have, a family, should 
 cherish, earnestly and religiously, the desire and the 
 purpose to have a hearth-stone of his own. It is a 
 very great blessing if a man's home be in his own 
 house, and especially if it be his as the reward of 
 honest toil. The man who has won a home for him- 
 self and his family as the fruit of manly labor has 
 achieved a great and true success. 
 
 As it seems to us, much depends on the people's 
 having homes — far more than most persons seem to 
 suppose. That government is wisest and best that 
 multiplies, fosters, and preserves the home of its 
 people. After all, if the object of government 
 should be to secure " the greatest good of the 
 greatest number," should not the homes of the peo- 
 ple be the chief concern of Government? Laws 
 
154 Our Children. 
 
 and administrations that hinder the people from 
 creating homes are bad, and in the long run will, 
 as they should, prove themselves self-destructive. 
 There are, we may be sure, other and better meas- 
 ures of a nation's greatness than the splendor and 
 populousness of its cities, or the extent of its com- 
 merce ; there are better tests of good government 
 than the power of its navies, or the number and 
 valor of its soldiers. It does seem too plain to need 
 evidence or argument, that the nation which has the 
 largest number of happy Christian homes is the 
 most prosperous — as determined by every measure 
 of true prosperity — and that the government which 
 most effectually — by the wisdom of its laws and the 
 righteousness of their administration — by the con- 
 scientiousness with which it confines itself to its le- 
 gitimate sphere and keeps itself from arbitrary inter- 
 ference in the sphere of individual and family life — 
 secures happy. Christian homes to the people, is the 
 best government. For the real powers that form 
 nations — shaping their history and determining their 
 destiny — are social ; for as communities make na- 
 tions, families make communities. 
 
 As we have seen, in the earlier discussions of this 
 work, the State, as well as the Church, has its foun- 
 dations in the family. If the State forgets this, we 
 have anarchy; when the Church forgets it, it is 
 apostasy. Having homes — and homes that are in 
 their own houses — helps to make people orderly and 
 
Home hifluences. 155 
 
 law-abiding, industrious and virtuous, conservative 
 and patriotic, and so builds up the State ; having 
 homes helps also to make them religious, and so,, 
 handing down the truth of God from generation to 
 generation, according to the chosen plan of heaven, 
 preserves, extends, and perpetuates the Church. 
 
 The importance of this whole subject, as related 
 to the individual, the family, the community, the 
 Church and the State, will appear if we consider 
 the strength of our home instincts and affections, 
 the controlling power of their influence upon chil- 
 dren, and, therefore, their determining power in 
 molding the society of the future. No affections 
 are so universal, so intense, so enduring as those 
 which cluster about our homes. Their existence 
 and influence do not depend upon circumstances of 
 age, or character, or position. These may modify 
 them, as to their intensity and character, but they 
 survive them all. 
 
 Who forgets his home ? Not the wanderer. There 
 is Jacob fleeing from the face of wrathful Esau, and 
 during long years of wasting toil with Laban the 
 Syrian clinging but to this fond hope : " So that I 
 come again to my father's house in peace." The 
 old, whose feet may even now be pressing the bor- 
 der-land between two worlds, do not forget. How 
 dear, sainted grandmother used to forget recent 
 events and new acquaintances, but never forget the 
 green meadows, nor the spring that went laughing 
 
156 Our Children. 
 
 from the foot Df the hill — the rose-tree in the gar- 
 den, nor the old oaks in the yard, with all the pre- 
 cious memories of her childhood's home in grand old 
 Virginia, away back in the time when Washington 
 and his barefooted heroes were braving the hard- 
 ships of Valley Forge, and another hero, as great 
 and noble as the Father of his country, our apostolic 
 Asbury, was traversing a thinly-settled continent, 
 preaching Christ to the people and founding a 
 Church for the ages — a messenger of peace and a 
 herald of salvation. 
 
 When David was returning to Jerusalem after the 
 defeat of rebellious Absalom, Barzillai, an aged Gil- 
 eadite, who had showed the king and his band of 
 faithful followers much kindness the day they fled 
 before the face of the traitor, joined him on his re- 
 turn, and accompanied him with an escort of honor 
 part of the way to his capital. Grateful David 
 begged the old man to go on with him to Jerusalem 
 and promised to reward him like a king. Barzillai's 
 reply speaks a language that all hearts will under- 
 stand : " Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back 
 again, that I may die in mine own city, and be 
 buried by the grave of my father and of my mother.'* 
 
 Nor does the prodigal, who has " wasted his sub- 
 stance with riotous living," forget. The remem- 
 brance of his '' father's house " brought penitential 
 tears to eyes unused to weep, and the light of life to 
 a spirit that had long wandered in darkness. " And 
 
Home Influences. 157 
 
 when he came to himself, he said, How many hired 
 servants of my father's have bread enough and to 
 spare, and I perish with hunger ! I will arise and 
 go to my father." 
 
 Disaster cannot destroy the power of this sacred 
 instinct and affection. See the crew of the ''Ad- 
 vance " — with brave and true Dr. Kane — blocked in 
 by Arctic ice during the dreary darkness of two 
 polar winters. See them fighting against their fate 
 — cheerful and brave when life had become a bur- 
 den — or, steadily though painfully, dragging their 
 little boats over the ice, or working their way 
 among the dissolving '' floes," over a thousand 
 miles of frozen and stormy sea. And what, next 
 to the grace of God, sustained them ? They thought 
 and talked of their homes during all their waking 
 hours, and dreamed, when they slept for an hour 
 in the shadow of icebergs that seemed — so white 
 and pitiless were they — to mock their desolation, 
 that they were at home again, while they talked in 
 their sleep joyful responses to the welcome of wives 
 and the prattle of children. True to the life — as all 
 good hearts must feel — is Tennyson's picture of 
 Enoch Arden, cast upon an island and left alone, in 
 the wide Pacific, far from England and his love foi 
 long and dreary years. 
 
 *' There often, as he watched, or seemed to watch, 
 So still, the golden lizard on him paused, 
 A phantom, made of many phantoms, moved 
 
158 Our Children. 
 
 Before him, haunting him, or he himself 
 Moved haunting people, things and places known 
 Far in a darker isle beyond the line ; 
 The babes, their babble, Annie, the small house, 
 The climbing street, the mill, the leafy lanes, 
 The peacock-yewtree, and the lonely Hall, 
 The horse he drove, the boat he sold, the chill 
 November dawns and dewy-glooming downs, 
 The gentle shower, the smell of dying leaves. 
 And the low moan of leaden-colored seas." 
 
 Affections like these — so universal, so intense, so 
 indestructible — must be divinely implanted. They 
 are intended to exercise a controlling influence in 
 molding human character. In shaping the destiny 
 of individuals and of society they are all but omnip- 
 otent. Every thing that relates to them, that can 
 regulate or pervert them, is of the last importance to 
 us all. And shall powers like these be overlooked, 
 or undervalued, or misunderstood, in our estimate 
 of the creative, regulative, and regenerative forces 
 that are to form or to restore society? Shall we 
 regulate and utilize them according to the dictates 
 of sound reason and of divine inspiration, or leave 
 them to accident, or surrender them to caprice? 
 Who does not know that the future destiny of the 
 Church and of the State is now being woven in the 
 noiseless but unresting looms of the family and the 
 home? The family, not the fates, determine desti- 
 ny. The destiny of a people is not settled by the 
 defeat of one great political party or the triumph of 
 another— by presidents or Congress — but by the 
 
Home Influ€7iccs. 159 
 
 powers that sway their scepter about the hreside — 
 by those influences that shape and fix the character 
 of Httle children. 
 
 We count it a benefaction to the race when some 
 gifted and patient man shows us how to control and 
 employ more perfectly the great powers of nature. 
 We build monuments to Franklin and Morse for 
 telling us what the lightning is and for making it 
 the obedient servant of our wants. We call him a 
 benefactor who develops a new industry; we offer 
 rewards and hold expositions to encourage inven- 
 tions. If one can show us how to be rich and great 
 and prosperous, we call him wise, bless him as a 
 friend, and crown him with honors. But is there 
 not something more important to us than any or 
 all of these things ? For what are the influences 
 that make us all what we are? that make, or mar, 
 our mortal and immortal fortunes ? What are the 
 influences that form and determine the character 
 and, therefore, the destiny of our children ? The 
 silent but potent energies that originate in the fam- 
 ily relation — intertwisted with all the ties that bind 
 us together — that begin their work with the first 
 motherly caress that soothes a baby's cry, that work 
 on through all changes of condition and that leave 
 us not till we have left this world— if indeed they do 
 not continue with us forever — these have made us 
 what we are, these will determine what our children 
 shall be. 
 
i6o Our Children. 
 
 We do well to honor the great and unselfish pa- 
 triots, like the Prince of Orange, for whom " little 
 children cried in the streets," when he died ; like our 
 own Washington, whom all good men loved while he 
 hved, and whom all men praised when he was dead. 
 And we do well to honor the great reformers — like 
 Luther, and Knox, and Wesley, and others of kin- 
 dred spirit — '' of whom the world was not worthy "-- 
 whose courage and faith delivered the Church in the 
 days of darkness and danger, or led the way to new 
 triumphs of the truth. How much the world owes 
 them eternity alone will reveal. 
 
 But if it shall be the will of heaven to give us a 
 man or woman who will read aright the purpose 
 of God in instituting the family ; who will fully 
 understand why in a world exposed to temptation, 
 under the curse of sin, and that must be redeemed 
 to be saved, it pleased God not to people it as he 
 did heaven with angels by direct creations — so that 
 there is no marriage, nor fatherhood, nor mother- 
 hood, nor childhood, nor kinship among them all, but 
 rather, by the births of generation after generation, 
 making children dependent on their parents during 
 many helpless years, segregating the population of 
 the earth into families and yet binding them all to- 
 gether, by ten thousand ties that make the race but 
 one; who will, by the earnest study of God's word, 
 and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, under- 
 stand all these things and then teach us the full 
 
Home Influeytces. i6i 
 
 measure of our responsibilities ; who will not only 
 teach us, but arouse our conscience to a full sense of 
 our obligation to train our children for the kingdom 
 of Christ Jesus ; who will also show us how we 
 may most perfectly discharge our sacred family du- 
 ties — that man, or that woman, will we hail as chief 
 among prophets and apostles who have blessed the 
 world. And if such a teacher and guide could in- 
 duce all fathers and mothers to employ the great 
 powers of the family and the home, as God wills 
 them, to be used, he would reform the world. 
 11 
 
i62 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN HOME. 
 
 GOD holds parents responsible for the influen- 
 ces exerted by the homes they originate. 
 
 To begin with the best understood of our parent- 
 al duties, we may mention what does not need dis- 
 cussion : — 
 
 First. Parents are to provide for the maintenance 
 and comfort of their children. It is theirs to pro- 
 vide food, and raiment, and shelter. Who does not 
 — if Paul be authority — " hath denied the faith, and 
 is worse than an infidel." 
 
 Secondly. The obligation to provide for the intel- 
 lectual wants of our children is as manifest and 
 binding as the obligation to feed them, and it is en- 
 forced by higher motives. Some day this will be 
 understood, and the father who can, but will not, 
 educate his children, will feel himself disgraced. 
 IIow blind, how foolish, how cruel, how unjust, is 
 that father who can educate his children and will 
 not — who refuses them opportunity to get them- 
 selves ready for the duties of manhood ! And it is 
 all the worse since the opportunities of youth come 
 but once. As Carlyle says, in one place, '' Nothing 
 ever happens but once in this world. What I do 
 
The Christian Home. 163 
 
 now I do once and forever. It is over, it is gone, 
 with all its eternity of solemn meaning." 
 
 Denying a child the opportunity of education is 
 worse than ordinary robbery, for it is a wrong that 
 can never be atoned for. It robs the child of his 
 seed-time, and limits, mars, and blights his harvest 
 No gifts of gold or land can atone for such a wrong 
 It is a personal injury, inflicted on the helpless, and 
 by the hand that of all others owed blessing and not 
 blighting. 
 
 The writer at this point, in place of argument, will 
 tell what he saw some years ago. 
 
 Attending a Quarterly Conference, it so happened 
 that we spent two nights and a day with a brother 
 whose name did not suit him, and so we will call 
 him Brother Blind. He was a hard worker, and 
 this was creditable. His wife was like-minded with 
 himself. Their industry and economy had brought 
 them more than competence. Brother Blind owned 
 a beautiful and fertile farm, and, as we rode to his 
 house from the railroad, he explained to us how he 
 proposed, during the year, to buy more land that 
 ^' lay convenient." There was one daughter and 
 three sons in the family; the eldest boy about six- 
 teen years old. They were exceptionally bright 
 and well-formed. The children were well-behaved, 
 quiet, and mannerly, giving marked attention to 
 all that was said in their presence. All day Satur- 
 day the rain poured down, and we were hindered 
 
164 Our Children. 
 
 from going to Church. After reading our Bible a 
 long while, and after spending an hour or two in 
 writing for one of our Church papers, we began an 
 exploration of our brother's house to see what 
 books he had. Here follows the inventory: A Bible, 
 a worn hymn book, one very old copy of a '* Life of 
 George Whitefield" with another's name in it, a few 
 spelling books, primary geographies, and such like, 
 and one copy of the *' Patent-Office Reports," sent 
 by some congressman, who hoped to get his vote in 
 the next election. 
 
 There was 07ie other book in the house, hid be- 
 hind some slates and school books. It was a Mor- 
 mon novel, full of obscene pictures and vulgar 
 stories. This last the boys had borrowed. The 
 boys we pitied — the father we blamed. The boys 
 were quick-witted and hungry to read, and this 
 swine's-food, from the tree of Satanic literature, had 
 fallen into their hands. So far as we know Brother 
 Blind kept on hoarding to buy more land. And it 
 is not unlikely that his poor boys, having tasted 
 the poisonous fruit, went on eating till all purity 
 and honor perished out of their souls. It will be 
 an infinite mercy and a miracle of grace if that vul- 
 gar and accursed novel of Mormon beastliness do 
 not yet damn the children of this blind father, who 
 hoarded money to buy land he did not need, who 
 kept his children from learning more than enough 
 to "cipher out" the value of their crops, who denied 
 
The Christian Hoim, 1 65 
 
 them the pleasure and profit of good books and of 
 judiciously selected newspapers. Surely it would 
 be pardonable to feel contempt for the stinginess, 
 as it would be a duty to commiserate the blindness 
 of such a father. 
 
 Thirdly. Besides providing for the general intel- 
 lectual training and furnishing of our children to 
 the best of our ability, there are (Esthetic wants — 
 emotions of beauty, sentiments of taste to be pro- 
 vided for. These wants, and the capacities they 
 imply, are common, in greater or less degree, to us 
 all. God gave to the human spirit the power to 
 recognize and enjoy all beautiful things, as he gave 
 it the power to recognize and love all loveliness 
 To say to this divinely implanted instinct of beauty 
 that it shall close its eyes to all beautiful things, is 
 to speak treason to one of our purest and noblest 
 inspirations. God, who made the eye for the light 
 and the light for the eye, has given to man, whom 
 he made in his own image, the sense of beauty, and, 
 in order to satisfy it, has scattered beautiful things 
 in rich profusion all around him. 
 
 Ruskin has truly taught us, that where we find in 
 the creation one adjustment for simple utility, we 
 find twenty for beauty. Did not God himself raise 
 up, from the midst of his brethren, the beauty-see- 
 ing and skillful Bezaleel to devise rare ornaments 
 for the tabernacle? And does not the Lord him- 
 self declare that they had their place in the appoint- 
 
i66 Our Children. 
 
 ments of his earthly habitation " for glory and for 
 beauty?" Is not the Church commended for her 
 beauty? The psalmist sings, "Beautiful for situa- 
 tion, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on 
 the sides of the north, the city of the great King. . . . 
 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath 
 shined." And St. John, In the visions of the apoc- 
 alypse, describes the New Jerusalem, that he saw 
 " descending out of heaven from God," as radiant 
 with a Divine beauty that could not be told. We 
 do not read the book of nature or the book of 
 revelation aright, if we fail to see something of the 
 infinite pains that our gracious God has taken to 
 lift us above all unworthy things by filling earth 
 and heaven with beauty. Beautiful things are min- 
 isters of grace, if we will only receive them. 
 
 That we are beginning to understand these things, 
 that we are seeking. In some small degree, to provide 
 for the aesthetic wants of our children, may be taken 
 as an evidence of progress in our theories of educa- 
 tion. If, sometimes, a taste for beautiful things is 
 gratified unwisely ; if, sometimes, devotion to art 
 has been found in unnatural and unholy alliance 
 with materialistic unbelief; and if, too often, the 
 great masters of art, with eyes open to all natural, 
 but closed to all spiritual beauty, have lent their 
 genius to prostitute painting and sculpture to grati- 
 fy the prurient tastes, and to pamper the licentious 
 habits of indolent and overfed communities — all 
 
TJic Cliristiaii Home. 167 
 
 these things only show how needful it is that Chris- 
 tian education should be wise and liberal enough to 
 so provide for these wants, and to so regulate these 
 tastes, that our inborn love of beautiful things shall 
 lead us to seek, with quenchless desire, that beauty 
 of which all other is but the shadowy and imperfect 
 symbol, " the beauty of holiness." 
 
 Fourthly. It may be useful, in this connection, to 
 consider briefly another important, but often over- 
 looked duty — the duty of providing for the emotional 
 wants of our children. In common speech the heart 
 represents the affections. Now, the heart is capable 
 of culture ; its sympathies and affections may be 
 educated. Love is as capable of culture as is the 
 memory or the imagination. So is every passion, 
 good or bad, that belongs to our nature. In the 
 very constitution of our complex nature God has 
 provided for this, making every power — physical, 
 intellectual, and spiritual — capable of culture, and, 
 for its true development and highest uses, depend- 
 ent on culture. The athlete, who seeks the utmost 
 development of physical strength, understands this 
 law, as related to the lower part of our nature. To 
 accomplish his purpose, he requires appropriate 
 food and exercise, and he will fail if either condition 
 be lacking. That the intellect is capable of culture, 
 and that the conditions of its normal and vigorous 
 growth are food and exercise, appropriate to its na- 
 ture and wants, has long been unquestioned. Out 
 
i6S Our Children 
 
 of the recognition of this truth have grown the 
 world's schemes of education ; which, let us hope, 
 the experience of ages is helping us to improve, and 
 which, if we are ever to improve, we will acknowl- 
 edge to be very far from perfection. 
 
 And that wonderful thing — defying analysis, and 
 impatient alike of the rigid formulas of logic and of 
 the subtle distinctions of philosophy — the human 
 heart, with all that is highest and deepest in its 
 hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows, its loves and 
 hates, its good and bad, is capable of culture. And 
 the conditions of its culture are not unlike the laws 
 of bodily and mental growth, but more manifold 
 and complicated in their relations, and more diffi- 
 cult, perhaps only because less understood, in their 
 application. The possibility and desirableness, nay, 
 necessity of heart culture, the Bible teaches. Sound 
 reason and experience confirm and illustrate the 
 truth of the doctrine. Those spiritual qualities 
 which, on the one hand, as the " fruits of the Spirit," 
 determine and measure our resemblance to God, 
 and, on the other, as the *' works of the flesh," show 
 our estrangement from him — all these come under 
 the general law of culture and development that 
 finds, on the spiritual side of our nature, its widest 
 and most potential reign. 
 
 These views do not contravene, in the least de- 
 gree, the evangelical doctrine that all good is the 
 ''gift of God," and all grace the " fruit of the Spirit.'' 
 
The Christian Home. 169 
 
 They recognize this truth, and find in its blessed 
 reality all that is bright and hopeful in our never- 
 ending conflict with the "powers of darkness." The 
 truth is, co-operation with God is the condition of 
 all spiritual growth, and no heart can be truly edu- 
 cated, its powers led out into harmonious develop- 
 ment, its noblest possibilities of blessedness realized, 
 that is a stranger to God and to the experience of 
 his grace. 
 
 How important— how infinitely important — is the 
 heart-education of our children ! But how few con- 
 sider this, or understand it, or strive, or pray that 
 the great duty may be performed — the great result 
 accomplished ! And yet, the most important edu- 
 cation possible to our probationary existence is the 
 education of the heart ! We do not mean only the 
 conversion of our children, but what we have said, 
 their heart-education — their heart-culture. Alas ! 
 there is sO much yet to be learned by those of us 
 whose ofifice it is to teach. 
 
 We may nconclude this chapter with a few remarks 
 concerning some of the important ends which par- 
 ents, with ceaseless endeavor, should strive, in the 
 use of all right means, to realize in the sphere of 
 the Christian home. 
 
 We must make our homes Jiappy, Fine, or luxuri- 
 ous, they may not, need not be, but happy they 
 must be, at whatever cost. Nor gold, nor power, 
 nor fame, can buy or command a substitute for this. 
 
lyn Our Children. 
 
 If home-happiness could be bought hke estates, the 
 gold of all the Rothschilds would be a poor price to 
 pay for this inestimable blessing. The lack of it is 
 sorrow upon sorrow, and woe upon woe. The lack 
 of it makes aching hearts, that all the pleasures and 
 riches and honors in the world cannot soothe. O, it 
 is mockery, delusion, shame, and madness when 
 husbands and fathers turn from their homes to seek 
 satisfaction in the glitter of gold, the charms of 
 power, the fascinations of strange and unhallowed 
 pleasures ; when wives and mothers, ignorant of the 
 true glory and blessedness of their lives, forgetful 
 of the holiest of all the holy duties of womanhood, 
 and recreant to the most sacred trusts God ever 
 committed to human hands, leave the pure delights 
 that make every true home a '' Paradise Regained," 
 and seek contentment in the whirl and frivolity of 
 capricious fashion ; when sons and daughters find, 
 in the revelry of the outside world, attractions that 
 outbid the endearments of home. 
 
 Passing through the streets of a Southern city one 
 day we saw a poor laboring man lift up his little 
 girl, as he passed out of the gate, and kiss her a 
 kind good-bye. That was the best thing in his 
 whole day's work, although he knew it not. 
 
 We parents should labor and pray to make the 
 "father's house" the last place our children wish to 
 leave, and the place where they would like to die. 
 Let it be to our children so happy a place that it 
 
The Christian Home. 171 
 
 shall haunt their latest dreams ; that its sweet tones 
 shall sound in their hearts when they are aw^ay at 
 school, or gone out from us into the wide world be- 
 yond ; that its blessed memories, following them 
 through the smiling valleys of their prosperity and 
 along the rough paths of their adversity, shall bring 
 them back to us when sorrow has bowed them 
 down, or temptation overtaken them. He whose 
 heart is stayed in the sweet charities and holy faith 
 of a happy Christian home may have many sor- 
 rows and disappointments, but he cannot be wholly 
 crushed by adversity. He may be '' troubled on 
 every side," yet he will not ''be distressed;" he 
 may be " perplexed," but he will not be '' in de- 
 spair;" he may be "persecuted," yet he cannot be 
 *' forsaken ; " he may be " cast down," yet he cannot 
 be " destroyed." 
 
 Again, and advancing our argument to a higher 
 place, we must make our homes sacred. That they 
 are cultivated and happy is not enough ; to be per- 
 fect they must be sacred. And a Christian home is 
 sacred, for it is a dwelling place of God. If we dig 
 among the ruins of the dead and buried cities of the 
 ancients, we will find memorials of their household 
 worship. Even they had their household gods — 
 even they had some sort of religion. But we do 
 not want such homes as these, or as any of the 
 modern substitutes which are proposed in the place 
 of true Christian homes. Christianity, not the rites 
 
172 Our Children. 
 
 of pagan idolatry ; the knowledge of God, not the 
 discoveries of science ; religion, not the charms of 
 poetry, or the refinements of art ; the spirit of Jesus 
 within us, and the truth of Jesus making us free 
 from sin, and not what is called the progress of civ- 
 ilization, can make our homes sacred. Christianity 
 only, but Christianity fully, meets the highest and 
 deepest wants of our nature. All the evil that is in 
 us, it can take away ; all the good we are capable of, 
 it can implant and nurture. The gospel plan of life 
 is divinely perfect, for it comprehends and provides 
 for all the wants and exigencies of our race in this 
 world and in the world to come. And this blessed 
 Gospel of Christ must be the law of life to the fam- 
 ily, as well as to the individual. Husbands and 
 wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, 
 must learn from Christ the duties of their place, and 
 receive from him grace to discharge them. 
 
 All the truth in the world, outside the word of 
 God, cannot substitute one truth that is peculiar to 
 the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is not 
 too much truth in the Gospel, as there is not too 
 much light and heat in the sun. We can spare none 
 of it, and yet there is enough for every duty, every 
 relation, every condition of life. Every virtue and 
 every grace that can establish and adorn the family 
 life finds its root and support in the Gospel of 
 Christ The family that would live by another than 
 the law of Christ robs itself of the most exalted 
 
The Christian Home, 173 
 
 privilege and truest blessedness possible to human- 
 ity here below. And that home, whether it be in a 
 king's palace or in a slave's cabin, where Jesus is 
 most truly the Lord of all hearts, and the pattern 
 of all lives, is most like heaven — the home of the 
 good who have entered into rest — of all places in 
 the world. 
 
 Would God that we would make our homes sa- 
 cred in the eyes of our children ! And, if we will, 
 we may. Once only does childhood, does youth 
 come ; it is the parent's opportunity. Let him use 
 it well ; it comes no more. By and by our day will 
 end, and we will be ** gathered to our fathers." 
 Then, when we are dead and gone, our children will 
 remember, among the earliest experiences of child- 
 hood they can recall, the family altar, standing with 
 its perpetual fires of devotion, in the very midst of 
 the family life, with its morning and evening sacri- 
 fice, its incense of prayer and praise ever ascending 
 a sweet savor to God. To remember such a child- 
 hood will some day bring a joy that can almost 
 make old hearts young again. 
 
 And now, as the conclusion of our argument on 
 this subject, and as expressive of the highest and 
 holiest style of life this side the mansions of the 
 blest, we may say that, if making our homes happy 
 we do also make them sacred, we will have achieved 
 for our households the utmost that is possible to us 
 in this worlds as well as all that we should desire to 
 
174 Our Children. 
 
 accomplish — we will make them types of the heav- 
 enly homes that await the good in the world of light 
 and perfect blessedness. 
 
 And this feeling, that heaven is home, has its 
 roots deep in our hearts. Our Redeemer sanctions 
 the sentiment, and makes a memorable appeal to 
 our instinctive faith in its truthfulness : *' Let not 
 your hearts be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe 
 also in me. In my Father's house are many man- 
 sions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go 
 to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
 a place for you, I will come again, and receive you 
 unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 
 
 Thrice happy is that man whose memory of a 
 Christian home quickens his desire for a better, in 
 "Our Father's House" in heaven! In such a case 
 we might say, with a good old German saint when 
 about to go hence, " Blessed are the home-sick, 
 for they shall get home ! " 
 
The Family Altar. 175 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FAMILY ALTAR. 
 
 /^~\N this subject we prefer to take from one of 
 ^^ Robert Hall's eloquent sermons his admirable 
 and useful remarks upon '' Family Worship." These 
 observations are commended to the careful and 
 prayerful consideration of our readers. 
 
 *' Family prayer is a natural and necessary ac- 
 knowledgment of the dependence of families upon 
 God, and the immeasurable obligations they are 
 under to his goodness. On what, let me ask, does 
 the obligation of social worship rest ? Is it not in 
 the social nature by which man is distinguished ? 
 It is because we are destined to live in society, and 
 are bound together by mutual wants and sym- 
 pathies, that it becomes a duty to worship the 
 Creator in a social manner. Man, being essentially 
 a social creature, his religion takes the form of his 
 nature and becomes social. Supposing the justice 
 of these observations to be admitted, they conclude 
 with the greatest force in favor of the obligation of 
 family worship. Does the duty of social worship 
 result from man's being placed in society? Here is 
 the closest and most intimate society. Is it right 
 that mercies received in common should be publicly 
 
lyb Our Children. 
 
 acknowledged; that the interpositions of Divine 
 goodness we in common want, should be implored 
 in company with each other? Here is a perfect 
 identity of wants and necessities; a closer conjunc- 
 tion of interests than can possibly subsist in any 
 other situation. In an affectionate and well-ordered 
 family, that quick sympathy is felt which pervades 
 the members of the body: if one member suffers, all 
 suffer with it ; or if one member be honored, all the 
 members rejoice with it. 
 
 " No earthly blessing can befall the head of a family 
 in which the members do not share the benefit ; no 
 calamity can befall him without spreading sadness 
 and distress through the household. Whatever is 
 suffered, or whatever is enjoyed, extends its influ- 
 ence through the whole circle. Whoever, conse- 
 quently, reflects on the true foundation of social 
 Avorship, must perceive that the arguments which 
 evince its propriety apply to the worship of families 
 with greater cogency, in proportion as the ties of 
 domestic union are more close and intimate than all 
 others. It is hardly possible to conceive of two in- 
 dividuals who are actuated by a principle of true re- 
 ligion, passing years together under the same roof 
 without uniting in their addresses to a throne of 
 grace. We feel a persuasion that two such indi- 
 viduals, though nowise related to each other, will be 
 led to signalize their union by acts of social piety, 
 and that as they must often hold * sweet counsel 
 
The Family Altar. lyy 
 
 together,' so they will frequently be disposed to 
 pour out their supplications to God. 
 
 '' How much more may this be expected to take 
 place between those who are united in the close re- 
 lation of husbands and wives, parents and children ! 
 It most assuredly will, unless that ingredient be 
 wanting which, in the former instance, was supposed 
 a principle of real piety. Thus we perceive that 
 family religion is the natural result of the social na- 
 ture of man, when sanctified by divine grace ; that 
 it is, in truth, a most important branch of social re- 
 ligion. Viewed in that light, it is clearly compre- 
 hended within the extent of the injunction, of 
 ' praying always with all prayer and supplication in 
 the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all per- 
 severance.' 
 
 "■ The duty we are commending is enforced by its 
 tendency, under the blessing of God, to form the 
 minds of children and servants to the love and prac- 
 tice of religion. On those persons — if there be any 
 such — who look upon religion as a delusive fancy, 
 instead of the most important concern in the world, 
 we despair of making any impression ; but with 
 those who believe it to be the one thing needful, the 
 consideration now mentioned will have considerable 
 weight. Nothing is more certain than that what- 
 ever we wish others to practice, we must exemplify 
 in our conduct as well as enjoin. Would we wish 
 
 to impress on young persons a sound regard for 
 12 
 
178 Our Children. 
 
 veracity? Wc must maintain a strict regard to it in 
 our intercourse with mankind. Are we desirous to 
 train up our families in the observance of the rules 
 of justice? We must take pains to signalize our at- 
 tachment to it by exemplary uprightness in our be- 
 havior. In every department of moral and religious 
 conduct we must not only point out the path, but 
 lead the way. The application of this remark to 
 the subject in hand is extremely obvious. Your 
 wish, we take it for granted, is to train up your chil- 
 dren in the fear of the Lord, and, as a necessary 
 branch of this, in the practice of prayer. Is it like- 
 ly you will succeed in that wish while you neglect to 
 afford them an example of what you wish them to 
 practice ? What, under the blessing of Divine grace, 
 is so calculated to impress them with the import- 
 ance of prayer, as the being called at stated intervals 
 to take part in your devout supplications to God ? 
 While they witness your constancy, assiduity, and 
 fervor in this exercise, they cannot fail of acknowl- 
 edging its importance, without avowing a contempt 
 of parental example. 
 
 '* A household in which family prayer is devoutly 
 attended to, conjoined with the reading of the 
 Scriptures, is a school of religious instruction. The 
 whole contents of the sacred volume are in due time 
 laid before them. They are continually reminded 
 of their relation to God and their Redeemer, of theii 
 sins and their wants, and of the method they must 
 
The Family Altar. 179 
 
 take to secure pardon for the one and relief for the 
 other. Every day they are receiving Mine upon 
 hnc, and precept upon precept.' A fresh accession 
 is continually making to their stock of knowledge: 
 new truths are gradually opened to their view, and 
 the impression of old truths revived. A judicious 
 parent will naturally notice the most striking inci- 
 dents in his family in his devotional addresses, such 
 as the sickness, or death, or removal for a longer or 
 a shorter time, of the members of which it is com- 
 posed. His address will be varied according to cir- 
 cumstances.* Has a pleasing event spread joy and 
 cheerfulness through the household? it will be no- 
 ticed with becoming expression of fervent gratitude. 
 Has some calamity overwhelmed the domestic cir- 
 cle ? it will give occasion for an acknowledgment 
 of the divine equity. The justice of God's proceed- 
 ings will be indicated and grace implored through 
 the blood of the Redeemer to sustain and sanctify 
 the stroke. 
 
 " When the most powerful feelings and the most 
 interesting circumstances are thus connected with 
 rehgion, it is not unreasonable to hope that through 
 Divine grace, some lasting and useful impressions 
 will be made. Is not some part of the good seed 
 thus sown, and thus nurtured, likely to take root and 
 
 *And we may add to Mr. Hall's judicious suggestions, that the Bi- 
 ble lesson may lend the charm of pleasing and useful variety to the 
 form and language of the prayer that succeeds it. 
 
i8o Our Children. 
 
 to become fruitful ? Deeply as we are convinced of 
 the deplorable corruption of the human heart, and 
 the necessity, consequent on this, of divine agency 
 to accomplish a saving purpose, we must not forget 
 that God is accustomed to work by means ; and sure- 
 ly none can be conceived more likely to meet the 
 end. What can be so likely to impress a child with 
 the dread of sin, as to hear his parent constantly 
 deprecating the wrath of God as justly due to it; or 
 to induce him to seek an interest in the mediation 
 and intercession of the Saviour, as to hear him im- 
 ploring it for him, day by day, with an importunity 
 proportioned to the magnitude of the subject ? 
 
 ** By a daily attendance on such exercises children 
 and servants are taught most effectually to pray ; 
 suitable topics are suggested to their minds ; suita- 
 ble petitions are put into their mouths ; while their 
 growing acquaintance with the Scriptures furnishes 
 the arguments by which they may ' plead with 
 God; 
 
 ^' May I not appeal to you who have enjoyed the 
 blessing of being trained up under religious parents, 
 whether you do not often recall with solemn tender- 
 ness what you felt in domestic worship ; how amia- 
 ble your parent appeared at such seasons, doubly 
 sacred, while you beheld in him, not only the father 
 but the priest over his household, invested not only 
 with parental authority, but with the beauty of 
 holiness 
 
The Family Altar i8r 
 
 "• Where a principle of religion is not yet planted in 
 the hearts of the young, family prayer, accompanied 
 with the reading of the Scriptures, is with the di- 
 vine blessing, the most likely means of introducing 
 it. Where it already subsists, it is admirably adapt- 
 ed to cherish, strengthen, and advance it to maturi- 
 ty; in the latter case it is like the morning and the 
 evening dew at the root of the tender blade. On the 
 contrary, where there is no public acknowledgment 
 of God in a family, nothing can be expected but 
 that children and servants should grow up ignorant 
 and careless of their highest concerns. You may 
 pretend, indeed, that you are punctual in your pri- 
 vate devotions; but without observing that this 
 pretense, under such circumstance, will seldom bear 
 a rigorous examination. W^hat is that part of your 
 conduct that falls under the notice of your domes- 
 tics, that distinguishes you from those unhappy per- 
 sons who live without God in the world? If the 
 Scriptures are not r^ad, if your family is never con- 
 vened for worship, no trace or vestige of religion 
 remains. A stranger who sojourns in such a family 
 will be tempted to exclaim, with much more truth 
 and propriety than Abraham on another occasion : 
 ^ Surely the fear of God is not in this place ' 
 
 *'The practice of family worship may be expected 
 to have a most beneficial influence on the character 
 and conduct of the heads of families themselves. In 
 common with other means of grace, it is reasonable 
 
1 82 Our Children. 
 
 to expect it will have this influence. Of all the 
 means of grace, prayer is the most beneficial. But 
 prayer, under the circumstances we are now con- 
 templating, is likely to be productive of advantages 
 which deserve to be considered by themselves. 
 
 " He who statedly invites others to be witnesses ol 
 his devotions invites a peculiar inspection of his be- 
 havior, and must be conscious to how much observa- 
 tion and contempt he lays himself open should he 
 betray a flagrant inconsistency between his prayers 
 and his conduct. That parent who morning and 
 evening summons his family to acts of devotion, is 
 not perhaps distinctly aware of the total amount of 
 the influence this circumstance has upon his mind. 
 It will act as a continual monitor, and will impose 
 useful restraint upon his behavior. He recollects 
 that he is about to assume an awful and venerable 
 character in the eyes of his domestics — a character 
 which must set the indulgence of a multitude of im- 
 proprieties in a most glaring light. Is he in danger 
 of being ensnared into indecent levity, or of con- 
 tracting a habit of foolish jesting and talking? He 
 recollects he is soon to appear as the mouth of his 
 family in addressing the blessed God. Is he sur- 
 rounded with temptations to an immoderate indulg- 
 ence of his fleshly appetites in meats and drinks ; 
 should he yield to the temptation how would he 
 bear in the eyes of his family to appear on his knees 
 before God ? Is he tempted to use harsh and pro- 
 
The Family Altar. 183 
 
 voking language to his children? He recollects he 
 is in a few hours to bear them in his arms before the 
 Lord. He is to commend his companion in life to 
 the divine mercy and protection ; how, then, can he 
 be ' bitter against her ? ' The case of his servants is 
 to be shortly presented before God in social prayer ; 
 under such a recollection it will surely not be diffi- 
 cult for him to forbear threatening, reflecting that he 
 himself has ' a Master in heaven.' Knowing that in 
 the hearing of all his inmates he is about to bewail 
 the corruptions of his nature, to implore pardon for 
 his sins and strength to resist temptation, will he 
 not feel a double obligation on this account to strug- 
 gle against that corruption and anxiously to shun 
 temptation ? The punctual discharge of the duty 
 we are contending for will strengthen his sense of 
 the obligation of domestic duties, forcibly remind 
 him of what he owes to every member of the do- 
 mestic circle, and cement the ties of conjugal and 
 parental affections. 
 
 *' The most plausible plea which will be urged for 
 the neglect of this duty, that I think of, is want of 
 ability. To this it would not be easy to furnish a 
 leply, did it absolutely require a degree of ability 
 ribove the most ordinary measure. They who urge 
 this plea maybe conscious of their incapacity to be- 
 come the mouth of others in extemporary prayer, 
 but this is by no means necessary. Excellent forms, 
 expressive of the wants and desires of all Christian 
 
1 84 Our Children. 
 
 families, may be obtained, which, supposing the in- 
 abihty alleged to be real, ought by all means to be 
 employed. We, as Dissenters, for the most part, 
 use and prefer free prayer. But God forbid we 
 should ever imagine this the only mode of prayer 
 which is acceptable to God. We cannot doubt that 
 multitudes of devout persons have used forms of 
 devotion with great and eminent advantage. To 
 present our desires before God, in reliance on the 
 atonement of the Mediator, is the real end of prayer, 
 and is equally acceptable whether it be offered with 
 or without a preconceived form of words. The 
 plea of mental inability will not stand the test of an 
 examination, unless it includes an incapacity to 
 read ; a case comparatively rare, and which we 
 hope is becoming continually rarer, and applies 
 to few instances of the neglect we are complain- 
 ing of. 
 
 *' It is more than probable that those who com- 
 plain of this inability have never made the trial, and 
 consequently never can form any accurate judgment 
 of their qualifications. Were you to make the at- 
 tempt, beginning with the use of a form if abso- 
 lutely necessary, and making variations and ad- 
 ditions as your feelings may suggest, you would 
 find the accomplishment of that gracious promise, 
 * They that wait on the Lord shall renew their 
 strength.' 
 
 " If your omission of family prayer is accompa- 
 
The Family A Itar. 1 8 5 
 
 nied with a similar neglect of private devotion, your 
 situation is, indeed, deplorable ; you are living 'with- 
 out God in the world.' But supposing you to make 
 conscience of private prayer, why not adopt the 
 same method in domestic worship, with the addition 
 of such petitions as the circumstances of its greater 
 publicity require ? Beware lest a secret disaffection 
 to God, a secret enmity to his person and his ways, 
 lies at the foundation of this apology. It wears a 
 show of humility, but it is but a mere shadow of it, 
 without the substance. 
 
 "Another class of persons are ready to admit the 
 propriety and utility of this practice, but allege that 
 such is the variety and multitude of their worldly 
 avocations, that they cannot spare the time requi- 
 site for this exercise. Let such be urged to remem- 
 ber that the time necessary for the purpose we are 
 recommending is very small — five minutes will suf- 
 fice for reading an ordinary chapter ; not many more 
 for the utterance of a fervent prayer; so that the 
 exercise, morning and evening, need occupy little, 
 if any thing, more than half an hour. And is this a 
 space too much to be allotted, in the most busy life, 
 for an exercise so sacred in its obligation, and so re- 
 plete with advantage, as this has been shown to be? 
 Where is the man so incessantly occupied as not to 
 allow himself more leisure than this, frequently, if 
 not habitually that does not allot more time to 
 objects of confessedly inferior magnitude ? 
 
iS6 Our Children. 
 
 " In addition to what has been advanced, It would 
 not be difficult to prove that no loss of time will 
 usually result ; for what may seem a loss will be 
 more than compensated by that spirit of order and 
 regularity which the stated observance of this duty 
 tends to produce. It will serve as an edge and bor- 
 der to preserve the web of life from unraveling; it 
 will tend to keep every thing in its proper place and 
 time ; and this practice will naturally introduce a 
 similar regularity in other employments. Consider 
 for a moment on what principle does the plea of 
 want of time depend. Plainly, on this: that relig- 
 ion is not the grand concern ; that there is some- 
 thing more important than the service of God ; that 
 the pleasing and glorifying of our Maker is not the 
 great end of human existence; a fatal delusion, a 
 soul-destroying mistake, which militates against the 
 whole spirit of the Gospel, and presumptuously im- 
 peaches the wisdom of that Saviour who exclaimed, 
 * Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his right- 
 eousness ; and all these things shall be added unto 
 you.' 
 
 " Another class will, perhaps, reply, ' We are con- 
 vinced of the urgent obligation of the duty which 
 has been recommended ; but we have so long neg- 
 lected it that we know not how to begin — are 
 ashamed at the prospect of the surprise, the curi-- 
 osity, it will occasion.' 
 
 " But there is much impiety in this shame, and if 
 
The Family Altar. 187 
 
 it be permitted to deter you from complying with 
 the dictates of conscience and the command of 
 God, it will unquestionably class you with the fear- 
 ful and unbelieving, who shall have their portion in 
 the second death. To be ashamed of the service 
 of Christ is to be ashamed of Christ and his cross ; 
 and you have heard the divine denunciation of 
 judgment on such characters: ' Whosoever therefore 
 shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this 
 adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall 
 the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the 
 glory of his Father with the holy angels.' You are 
 afraid of presenting yourself under a singular aspect 
 to your domestics and acquaintance : have you not 
 reflected on the awful and trying situation in which 
 you will be placed by the infliction of the sentence, 
 justly merited, ' Of him will 1 be ashamed ?' " 
 
 We will only add to what the eloquent and evan- 
 gelical preacher has said a short story which comes 
 to the writer in a reliable shape, and well illustrates 
 the closing thoughts of Mr. Hall's admirable dis- 
 course. 
 
 '' A well-to-do and intelligent farmer, who had 
 eight grown-up children, was powerfully convicted 
 of sin, but would not yield to be saved. Being 
 asked as to the nature of his difficulties, he an- 
 swered : '^ If I become a Christian and make a pro- 
 fession of religion I must have family worship. 
 But I cannot take my Bible, read a chapter, and 
 
1 88 Our Children. 
 
 then kneel down and pray in the presence of my 
 family. Had I commenced when my children were 
 young, as I oiigJit to have done, it would have been 
 comparatively easy; but now most of them are 
 grown up around mc, and I cannot do it, / cannot 
 do ity 
 
 " A nd he did n^. '* 
 
Eli and his Sons, 189 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ELI AND HIS SONS. 
 
 ELI was high-priest and judge in Israel when 
 the ark was in Shiloh. How he came to be 
 priest, and how the priestly office was transferred 
 from the house of Eleazer to the house of Ithamar, 
 who was Aaron's youngest son, we do not know.* 
 The beginning of Eli's career is hid in the gloom of 
 the dark ages of Jewish history. Samson, who was 
 little more than a lawless leader of lawless men, 
 could do but little for Israel that would survive his 
 own turbulent life. He was no true ruler of the 
 people, teaching them right principles, and illus- 
 trating them in his own life. He made no con- 
 tribution to the progress of the nation. He left 
 to history nothing but the story of his amazing 
 strength and his terrible revenges. When the blind 
 giant pulled down upon himself the temple of Dagon 
 in Gaza and found common death with the lords 
 of the Philistines, Israel was left to the turbulence 
 and revenges of discordant factions, and to the rage 
 of relentless enemies. There followed a long and 
 gloomy period of anarchy, when '' there was no king 
 
 * Compare I Sam. i, 3, 9 ; Lev, x, I, 2, 12 ; r K'ngs ii, 27 ; i Chron. 
 xxiv, 3 ; 2 Sam. viii, 17. Also i Sam. xiv, 3. 
 
igo Our Children. 
 
 in Israel, and every man did that which was right 
 in his own eyes." This is the last word in the his- 
 tory of the Judges of Israel, and it tells us plainly 
 enough what the historian had not the heart to re- 
 cord. The last five chapters of the book of Judges 
 are crowded with pictures of confusion, anarchy, ir- 
 regular worship, idolatry, internecine struggles, and 
 horrid war — pictures drawn in fire and blood. 
 
 Amid some of the disorders of this dark period 
 Eli became high-priest and judge of Israel. He ap- 
 pears upon the scene abruptly — sitting upon " a seat 
 by a post in the temple of the Lord," close by the 
 spot where Hannah, the sorrowful, because childless, 
 wife of Elkanah, was praying that God would give 
 her a son. When he died at the age of ninety-eight, 
 he had been priest and ruler for forty years. But 
 we cannot tell how long he had been in office the 
 day he administered the unmerited rebuke to the 
 pious Hannah. 
 
 The parent who can read the story of Eli and his 
 sons without anxious interest, increased by many 
 mingled hopes and fears concerning his own chil- 
 dren, is strangely insensible. For it is a story re- 
 plete with dramatic power and tragic interest. Nor 
 does the simple recital of the ancient chronicler who 
 compiled the annals of Samuel need the garniture 
 of many words. 
 
 As to Eli himself, he does not appear to have 
 been a man of great gifts or great deeds. His life 
 
Eli and Ids Sons. 191 
 
 I's not instructive by its exalted virtues and deep 
 devotion so much as by its neglects, its misfortunes, 
 and its punishment. That his disposition was ami- 
 able and affectionate is evident. Very kind were his 
 words to Hannah when once he understood why 
 she lingered and prayed in the house of God. 
 
 The brightest trait in Eli's character is his sub- 
 mission to the will of God when it bore hardest upon 
 him and his house. 
 
 In the morning after young Samuel's vision Eli 
 called him and said, " What is the thing that the 
 Lord hath said unto thee ? I pray thee hide it not 
 from me. . . . And Samuel told him every whit, and 
 hid nothing from him." It was no message of hope, 
 but the revelation of the doom that was hovering 
 over the high-priest's house. *' And the Lord said 
 to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at 
 which both the ears of every one that heareth it 
 shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli 
 all things which I have spoken concerning his house : 
 when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have 
 told him that I will judge his house forever for the 
 iniquity which he knoweth ; because his sons made 
 themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And 
 therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that 
 the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with 
 sacrifice nor offering forever." 
 
 In this last warning ever given to Eli there is a 
 reference to admonitions and threatenings already 
 
192 Our Children. 
 
 delivered. About twenty years, as is supposed, 
 before the midnight revelation to young Samuel, 
 '^ a man of God " — an unknown and unnamed proph- 
 et — suddenly appears before Eli, delivers a fearful 
 message, and then steps back into the obscurity 
 from which he came and we see him no more. 
 
 What had this unnamed prophet said to the ven- 
 erable priest, while Hophni and Phinehas were yet 
 in their youth, while there was yet hope for their 
 reformation and salvation ? 
 
 ''And there came a man of God unto Eli, and 
 said unto him. Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly 
 appear unto the house of thy father, when they 
 were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? And did I 
 choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my 
 priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to 
 wear an ephod before me ? and did I give unto the 
 house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of 
 the children of Israel? Wherefore kick ye at my 
 sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have com- 
 manded in my habitation ; and honorest thy sons 
 above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest 
 of all the offerings of Israel my people? Where- 
 fore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that 
 thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk 
 before me forever: but now the Lord saith. Be it 
 far from me ; for them that honor me I will honor, 
 and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 
 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, 
 
Eli and Ids Sons. 193 
 
 and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall 
 not be an old man in thine house. And thou shalt 
 see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth 
 which God shall give Israel : and there shall not be 
 an old man in thine house forever. And the man 
 of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, 
 shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thino 
 heart : and all the increase of thine house shall die 
 in the flower of their age. And this shall be a sign 
 unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on 
 Hophni and Phinehas ; in one day they shall die 
 both of them. And I will raise me up a faithful 
 priest, that shall do according to that which is in 
 mine heart and in my mind : and I will build him a 
 sure house ; and he shall walk before mine anointed 
 forever. And it shall come to pass, that every one 
 that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to 
 him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and 
 shall say. Put me, I pray thee, into one of the 
 priests' offices, that I may eat a piece of bread." 
 
 All this was terrible. God's wrath was to be 
 poured in overwhelming and desolating storms upon 
 Eli and his house. But this was not the worst ; so 
 far, at least, as this world was concerned, there wai. 
 to be no mercy. '* I have sworn unto Eli, that the 
 iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sac- 
 rifice and offering forever." 
 
 What answer can Eli make to Samuel's message 
 
 announcing the impending judgments of God, and 
 13 
 
194 Our Children. 
 
 declaring anew what the '' man of God," the un- 
 named prophet, had said twenty years ago ? Truly 
 it was no ordinary liumiHty and resignation to the 
 Divine will that could promptly reply to all this, 
 "It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him 
 good." We have a further and striking proof of his 
 personal piety in his deep concern for the ark of 
 God, and his heart-breaking sorrow at its capture, 
 on the day of Israel's overwhelming defeat by the 
 Philistine armies. 
 
 But Eli was a very inefficient ruler, a very unwise, 
 unfaithful, and unhappy father; "a wavering, feeble, 
 powerless man, with excellent intentions, but an 
 utter want of will." As chief judge and high-priest 
 of Israel during forty years, he held the reins of 
 authority with a feeble and irresolute hand. Fred- 
 erick Robertson says of him : " He could not rule 
 his own household ; he could not rule the Church 
 of God — a shy, solitary, amiable ecclesiastic and re- 
 cluse was Eli. And such are the really fatal men 
 in the work of life. . . . Eli's feelings were always 
 good ; his acts were always wrong. In sentiment 
 he might be always trusted ; in action he was for- 
 ever false, because he was a weak, vacillating man. 
 All history overrates such men. Men, like Eli, ruin 
 families by instability, produce revolutions, die well 
 when only passive courage is wanted, and are reck- 
 oned martyrs. They live like children and die like 
 heroes. Deeply true to nature and instructive is 
 
Eli and his Sons. 195 
 
 this history of Eli. It is quite natural that such 
 men should suffer well. For if only their minds are 
 made up for them by inevitable circumstances, they 
 can submit. When people come to Eli and say, 
 * You should reprove your sons,' he can do it after 
 a fashion ; when it is said to him, * You must die,' 
 he can make up his mind to die ; but this is not 
 taking up the cross." 
 
 It is evident from various circumstances that dur- 
 ing his long and feeble rule many abuses that should 
 have been crushed the day they were born had 
 grown up all around him. When Hannah went 
 into the temple of the Lord at Shiloh, '' and was in 
 bitterness of soul," as she prayed to God for a son, 
 Eli who was sitting close by where she knelt mis- 
 took her for a lewd and drunken woman. " And it 
 came to pass, as she continued praying before the 
 Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, 
 she spake in her heart ; only her lips moved, but her 
 voice was not heard : therefore Eli thought she had 
 been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long 
 vilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from 
 hee." All this shows that religion was at a low 
 )bb indeed, and the regulations concerning the ad- 
 mission of improper characters into the sacred in- 
 closure much neglected. The manner in which this 
 circumstance is introduced into the narrative shows 
 that drunken women were frequently seen close 
 about the altars of God. When matters had reached 
 
196 Our Children. 
 
 such a pass that the sight of one supposed to be a 
 drunken woman in the sanctuary excited no sur- 
 prise, and only drew from the high-priest a common- 
 place reproof, we may well believe that there had 
 been strange and criminal carelessness in the admin- 
 istration of affairs. 
 
 Under Eli's slack and feeble rule many grave 
 abuses had developed in the dealings of the subordi- 
 nate priests with the people. Certain parts of the 
 offerings were alloted by law for the support of the 
 priests and their families. In addition to this it had 
 become customary for the servants of the priests to 
 come, while the flesh was being boiled for the use 
 of the offerer and his friends, and, with his three- 
 pronged flesh-hook *'^ in his hand, " he struck it into 
 the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot." What his 
 "three-pronged flesh-hook" brought up the priest 
 appropriated to his own use. '' So they did in Shi- 
 loh unto all the Israelites that came thither." The 
 people, perhaps, out of a habit of veneration for a 
 priesthood that was indeed no longer entitled to re- 
 spect, submitted to this additional tax upon their 
 offerings, by which the appetite of the priests was 
 gratified with greater variety, and their avarice with 
 larger perquisites. But these rapacious sons of Be- 
 
 * The three-pronged fork which fishes up the seething flesh is the 
 earliest type of grasping at pluralities and church preferments by base 
 means. For students of ecclesiastical history, Hophni and Phinehas 
 are characters of great and " instructive wickedness." They are the 
 true exemplars of the grasping and worldly clergy of all ages.— Sfanley. 
 
Eli and his Sons. 197 
 
 lial, Eli's sons, were not satisfied with this. The 
 flesh-hook plunged into the pot at random did not 
 always bring up the choicest pieces. They claimed 
 the very best of the offerings, and if any devout, 
 honest-minded Israelite objected to a proceeding so 
 unjust, and so unworthy the sacred office of the 
 priests, the very servants of these apostates had 
 the effrontery to take by force whatever pieces of 
 the flesh they chose. Eli was a careless judge and 
 a negligent high-priest to allow such outrages to 
 pass unrebuked, or even to allow them to exist for 
 a single day. Had Eli been faithful to his sacred 
 duties, had he '' honored God " aright, he would, 
 without ceremony or delay, have ejected from an 
 office they so shamefully abused these " sons of Be- 
 hal," Hophni and Phinehas — 'Mording it over God's 
 heritage," and *' profaning his altar." 
 
 As always, in such a case, things went from bad 
 to worse. The avarice and rapaciousness of Eli's 
 sons became a stench in the nostrils of all the 
 people. Their wickedness culminated at last in the 
 foulest and most unblushing debauchery. Was ever 
 blacker record made than this ? " Now Eli was 
 very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all 
 Israel ; and how they lay with the women that as- 
 sembled at the door of the tabernacle." Truly the 
 glory was departing from Israel. How mournful is 
 the inspired comment, ''Wherefore the sin of the 
 young men was very great before the Lord ; for 
 
iqS Our Children. 
 
 men abhorred the offerings of the Lord." These 
 were evil times indeed ; truly these men were 
 ^'wolves in sheep's clothing" — like the devil, to 
 whom they belonged, ''going about" seeking whom 
 they might destroy. 
 
 It was truly " the hour and the power of dark- 
 ness," when those who should have won the people 
 to God's worship, by their rapacity and licentious- 
 ness drove them in mortal disgust from the house 
 of God, and barred them from the use of his altars. 
 
 Now read and learn ye parents who let your chil- 
 dren live as they list. What sort of a speech is that 
 which a timid, doting, fond, and foolish old father 
 made to his reprobate sons ! What sort of rebuke is 
 that which God's anointed high-priest and appoint- 
 ed judge administered to apostate priests, who had 
 made themselves so vile that God's humble wor- 
 shipers were made to "abhor the offerings" of his 
 altar! Hear him, the fond father, "honoring" his 
 unworthy sons above the honor he showed to the 
 cause of God, " And he said unto them, Why do ye 
 such things? for I hear of your evil doings by all 
 the people. Nay, my sons ; for it is no good report 
 that I hear : ye make the Lord's people to trans- 
 gress." Such words might have been appropriate 
 as the rebuke of some minor offense; as the reproof 
 of men smarting with a tender conscience, and 
 penitent on account of acknowledged and lament- 
 ed faults. But for such brazen-faced apostates and 
 
Eli and his Sons. igg 
 
 seducers of the people, no words were sufficient. To 
 have ejected them at once and forever from every 
 priestly office was the very least that Eli could have 
 done, if his fear of God had surpassed his foolish 
 fondness for his wicked sons. 
 
 But the principal charge brought against him is 
 one that makes his life and fate an instructive study 
 and an impressive warning to us all. Why are such 
 dire punishments to be visited upon Eli's house ? 
 Why is the '' man of God," the unnamed prophet, 
 who delivered the first warning while yet, perhaps, 
 there was space for repentance, commissioned to 
 tell the high-priest of a coming day when there 
 should "not be an old man in his house?" — when 
 he should " see an enemy in his habitation ?" — when 
 such of his children as should not be cut off should 
 live but *' to consume his eyes, and to grieve his 
 heart ?" — when " all the increase of his house should 
 die in the flower of their age?" — when any soul of 
 his descendants who might escape should come to 
 those who occupied the places that might have been 
 theirs, and " crouch to them for a piece of silver, 
 and a morsel of bread?" These were, indeed, ter- 
 rible maledictions. How are they to be explained ? 
 Of what heinous parental sin are they the just and 
 appropriate punishment? God gives the answer — 
 simple, conclusive — " For I have told him that I 
 will judge his house forever for the iniquity that he 
 knoweth ; because his sons made themselves vile 
 
200 Our Children. 
 
 and he restrained them not." These words were 
 spoken to Samuel, who announced as impending a 
 doom of which long time before the " man of God" 
 had given the first warning. 
 
 But in vain. Hophni and Phinehas went on their 
 way, and the doting father, through all these years 
 of probation lengthened out, ''restrained them not." 
 Eli knew what became a father and a high-priest, 
 and his fault would have been inexcusable had there 
 been no special warning. But after the warning his 
 sin — as to its consequences in this world at least — 
 was unpardonable. 
 
 It is not simply a question of the effect of his 
 weak indulgence upon his sons themselves, but upon 
 the people and the cause of God. In Eli's fault was 
 the origin of most of the troubles of the times. 
 His sons " caused the Lord's people to transgress." 
 They made them to *' abhor the offerings of God." 
 What Hophni and Phinehas could do to debauch 
 society and corrupt the Church they did. By the 
 potent force of their iniquitous example, they taught 
 the people avarice, rapacity, profanity, licentious- 
 ness. They turned loose such a tide of sin as came 
 near sweeping away both the religion and the liber- 
 ties of the nation. 
 
 God makes Eli responsible foi this fearful state 
 of things, because he did not punish " the iniquity" 
 that he knew ; because he did not arrest in his sons 
 the growth of sins that well-nigh destroyed the 
 
Eli a?id his Sojis. 201 
 
 people ; *' because his sons made themselves vile 
 and he restrained them not." 
 
 Had Eli been a true father to his sons they had 
 never outgrown his authority ; they had never reached 
 a depth of abandonment in sin that shut them off 
 from sacrifice and intercession. If there is any first 
 duty we owe our children, it is that which Eli did 
 not perform — it is the duty of restraining them. 
 What a mercy it is to restrain our children from the 
 commission of sin ! How great is our sin when we 
 do it not ! 
 
 It is not the fondest parent who always loves his 
 child the best, nor the most doting who will gain 
 the child's most devoted and lasting love. On the 
 other hand the severest parents are not those who 
 govern most wisely and successfully. O, that rare 
 man, that rare woman, who knows how to love and 
 to rule — how to temper kindness with firmness ! If 
 the hand of affection hold firmly and wisely the rod 
 of authority, there is a sure pledge of the Divine 
 blessing upon the training such government implies, 
 and upon the obedience that it secures. 
 
 We may close this chapter most appropriately 
 with the wise words of Dr. Adam Clarke : — 
 
 " Many fine families have been spoiled, and many 
 ruined, by the separate exercise of these two prin- 
 ciples. Parental affection, when alone, infallibly 
 degenerates into foolish fondness ; and parental au- 
 thority frequently degenerates into brutal tyranny 
 
202 Our Children 
 
 when standing by itself. The first soit of parents 
 will be loved without being respected ; the second 
 will be dreaded without either respect or esteem. 
 A father may be as fond of his offspring as Eli, and 
 his children be sons of Belial ; he may be as author- 
 itative as the Grand Turk, and his children despise 
 and plot rebellion against him. But let parental 
 authority be tempered with fatherly affection, and 
 let the rein of discipline be steadily held by this 
 powerful but affectionate hand, and there shall the 
 pleasure of God prosper; there will he give his 
 blessing, even life for evermore." 
 
Ichabod, 203 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ICHABOD. 
 
 LET US follow to its catastrophe this doleful trag- 
 -^ edy. Heaven reserves the right of vindicat- 
 ing its insulted majesty at the great judgment-day. 
 The stores of its delayed vengeance will not be 
 found wanting in that day of final inquisition and 
 award. But lest men should altogether forget that 
 there is really a Divine government, or grow skep- 
 tical as to God's purpose to enforce its claims, ever 
 and anon, even in this world, the omnipotent Ruler 
 smites his obdurate enemies with the rod of his 
 power. Here and there, along the great highway 
 of the world's history, God has built monuments 
 over the dead nations for the warning of the living. 
 And there are more of them than careless readers 
 suppose. They are found in almost every land, 
 silent but mighty preachers of repentance. This — 
 that penalty is the normal and inevitable sequence 
 of sin — is the lesson they teach, the gospel of re- 
 pentance they preach: "The wages of sin is death." 
 This is God's announcement to all the nations that 
 dwell upon the earth. Sin brings death, always, 
 and every-where ; and nothing else does, or can, 
 bring death to man. But sin is the beginning of 
 
204 Our Children. 
 
 death — rather it is death begun. It is also '* the 
 sting of death" — to individuals, to families, to na- 
 tions. It cannot be otherwise. The Bible is full 
 of this doctrine ; sound reason agrees to it ; experi- 
 ence and observation confirm and illustrate it. It 
 is the great lesson of human history. Not Jewish 
 history only, but all other history that we read 
 aright, proclaims and illustrates this law : " The 
 wages of sin is death." 
 
 This is what the flood that swept the earth of its 
 life in the days of Noah teaches us. This is the 
 meaning of the fiery ruin that descended on Sodom 
 and Gomorrah. This voice comes to us from Jeru- 
 salem in ruins. And the Jews — a scattered nation, 
 peeled and oppressed — in exile among all people, 
 preach to all generations the sin, and folly, and ruin 
 of rebellion against God. We hear this warning, in 
 a muffled voice from the graves of Herculaneum 
 and Pompeii. The desolate palaces of Nineveh 
 and Babylon echo the same solemn warning : " The 
 wages of sin is death." 
 
 Is there any truth so plain, so important as this, 
 and yet so hard to understand, so easy to forget ? 
 
 The apostasy of the priests, led on by Hophni 
 and Phinehas, and the consequent wickedness of 
 the people, culminated at last in that fearful scourge 
 of God — cruel, relentless war. Only the wicked or 
 the ignorant can wish for war. Those whose hearts 
 are steeled to human woe may welcome war as the 
 
■ Ichabod, 205 
 
 means of their aggrandizement ; and those who do 
 not know what war is — w^ho have never seen battle- 
 fields, or hospitals, or besieged and destroyed cities 
 - — who have never helped to bury noble friends in 
 shallow ditches right w^iere they died — who never 
 followed the wake of a desolating army — who have 
 never known the poverty and the hunger, the wid- 
 owhood and orphanage, the madness and the sin of 
 war, these may talk glibly of military glory, but 
 the good man, who is wise, hates war and prays 
 evermore for peace. 
 
 The Philistines were in Canaan before the coming 
 of Abraham. Originally coming from a tribe of the 
 Egyptians they settled themselves in the south of 
 Palestine, probably stretching themselves north- 
 ward along the Mediterranean coast. In the time 
 of Joshua their country was divided into five 
 lordships or principalities : Gaza — in the extreme 
 south — Askelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron, on the 
 north. The conquests of Joshua in Philistia were 
 ill maintained, for we find these fierce men from the 
 south, through the whole four hundred years of the 
 judges, warring upon Israel with a bitterness that 
 was never appeased. Oftentimes they were the cruel 
 oppressors of Israel, till such time as '' Israel cried 
 unto the Lord," and some deliverer was sent in an- 
 swer to the prayer of a penitent nation. There w^ere 
 always quarrels between Israel and the Philistines. 
 Nor were they ever subdued till David established 
 
2o6 Our Children. 
 
 his kingdom, and overthrew the enemies of his 
 people. 
 
 Soon after the last message and warning to Eli — 
 delivered through young Samuel — war broke out 
 between the children of Israel and the Philistines. 
 " Now Israel went out against the Philistines to 
 battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer : and the Phil- 
 istines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put 
 themselves in array against Israel : and when they 
 joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philis- 
 tines : and they slew of the army in the field about 
 four thousand men." 
 
 The result of this first battle seems to have been 
 a surprise to the children of Israel. But discomfited 
 though they were, they strengthened themselves for 
 another trial of arms. 
 
 The elders took counsel together. They remem- 
 bered, perhaps, how that Moses, when Israel joined 
 battle with Midian, sent, along with the people, 
 " Phinehas, the son of Eleazer the priest, to the 
 war, with the holy instruments." Perhaps, too, they 
 recalled the procession of priests, bearing the ark in 
 their midst, around the doomed city of Jericho. 
 And the elders said, *' Wherefore hath the Lord 
 smitten us to-day before the Philistines?" Alas! 
 they seemed not to know that their sins had brought 
 defeat that day upon Israel. Instead of proclaiming 
 a fast and bowing themselves to the earth in repent- 
 ance and lamentation over their sins, they say, '' Let 
 
Ichabod. 207 
 
 us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of 
 Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us,, it 
 may save us out of the hand of our enemies." 
 
 Deluded men ! They should have sought for the 
 coming of the God of the covenant, ind not for the 
 ark of the covenant. The ark could do them no 
 good who had forsaken their God. But how this de- 
 lusion has perpetuated itself in the world ! When 
 the Church loses the *' life and power of godliness," 
 she clings with superstitious reverence and fondness 
 to the dead and putrefying forms of the life that 
 she has lost. Better in such a case to " bury their 
 dead out of their sight." 
 
 "How have the mighty fallen!" "How has the 
 fine gold become dim ! " Are these the children of 
 the men who followed Joshua's banner and chased 
 their enemies when the " sun stood still in the midst 
 of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole 
 day?" Those who have forgotten God now seek 
 " the ark," saying, " that when it cometh among us, 
 it may save us from the hands of our enemies." 
 And what was this "ark of the covenant" without 
 the presence and blessing of Him who answered 
 from between the cherubim when the people for- 
 sook their sins and sought him aright? The " ark" 
 was now to them no more than " a charm." When 
 the God of the covenant had forsaken them, the ark 
 of the covenant had no power to deliver. Woe to 
 the Church that bears at the head of its columns, 
 
2o8 Our Children. 
 
 ** an ark," no longer consecrated by the presence of 
 God ! Woe to the Church that clings to dead fornix, 
 not knowing that the life has gone out of them ! 
 
 ^' So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might 
 bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the 
 Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cheru- 
 bim : and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, 
 were there with the ark of the covenant of God." 
 An ill omen this, when these bad men, who had 
 "caused the Lord's people to transgress," and who 
 had made them to " abhor the offerings of God," 
 came bearing the "ark of the covenant" they had 
 broken and despised. " And when the ark of the 
 covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel 
 shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang 
 again." If Israel had known her duty aright, wails 
 and lamentations would have rent the heavens, and 
 the earth would have been wet with penitential 
 tears. Vain was the shout that made " the earth 
 ring again." The deserted ark had no power to 
 rally their broken legions. But the Philistines were 
 afraid when they heard the unwonted cheers, and 
 recalling, perhaps, the prowess of Joshua, of Gideon, 
 and of Samson, the chiefs rallied their soldiers and 
 in the name of all their gods, exhorted them to 
 " quit themselves like men." 
 
 And they joined battle — terrible, bloody battle 
 It was one of those days when the sorrowful and 
 sobbing earth opened to hide the blood of her chil- 
 
Ichabod. 209 
 
 dren. "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: 
 and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell 
 followed with him." "And the Philistines fought, 
 and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man in- 
 to his tent : and there was a very great slaughter ; 
 for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen." 
 
 There was not the thunder of artillery and the 
 rattle of musketry to hush the groans of the dying, 
 nor sulphurous smoke to hide the bloody work from 
 the face of the sun ; for they fought with spears and 
 swords. The two armies emptied their quivers and 
 then rushed together in the strife and agony of 
 hand to hand conflict. There was all the frenzy 
 and fierce struggling of personal combat. Ere the 
 sun went down, the broken lines of the Hebrew 
 army were slowly and sullenly falling back before 
 their victorious enemies. 
 
 At last retreat became rout, with its confusion 
 and madness, helplessness and despair. There was 
 sore weeping that night among the mothers, and 
 wives, and maidens of Israel — the flower of their 
 army lay dead in the fields of Aphek, in the tribe 
 of Issachar. 
 
 What a sad story is this! It is woe piled on woe. 
 It is war, defeat, disaster, rout, and thirty- four 
 thousand brave men dead. But there is another 
 shame and another sorrow awaiting the discom- 
 fited army : " And the ark of God was taken ; and 
 
 the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were 
 14 
 
210 Our Children. * 
 
 slain." As to the young men it seems— since they 
 would not reform — better that it were so. But " the 
 ark " in which they trusted, that, too, is gone. 
 
 By and by the evil tidings reach Shiloh — a name 
 prophetic of the Prince of Peace. " And there ran 
 a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to 
 Shiloh the same day [it was nearly forty miles] with 
 his clothes rent, and earth upon his head." 
 
 Where was poor old Eli that day of grief and 
 wrath ? " And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat 
 by the way-side watching : for his heart trembled for 
 the ark of God." 
 
 The panting runner ran by the poor old man and 
 rushed into the city. *' And when the man came 
 into the city, and told it, all the city cried out. And 
 when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, 
 What meaneth the noise of this tumult f* And the 
 man came in hastily and told Eli. Now Eli was 
 ninety and eight years old ; and his eyes were dim, 
 that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, 
 I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to- 
 day out of the army. And he said, What is there 
 done, my son? And the messenger answered and 
 said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there 
 hath been also a great slaughter among the peo 
 pie, and thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are; 
 dead, and the ark of God is taken. And it came 
 to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God. 
 that he fell from off the seat backward by the side 
 
Ichabod, 211 
 
 of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died : for 
 he was an old man, and heavy." 
 
 Let us who have children stand by the gate of 
 Shiloh and consider. Let us behold old Eli, lying 
 dead by the side of the gate. God Jias "judged his 
 house," " because his sons made themselves vile and 
 he restrained them not." Unwise, indulgent, un- 
 faithful, unhappy Eli, this is the sad end of your 
 doting fondness, your unfaithfulness as a father and 
 a priest, your indecision and timidity as a judge. 
 God held Eli responsible for the sins of his children. 
 He will so hold us. O ! fond mother, your heart 
 refuses the lesson of this sad tragedy, and you say to 
 yourself, " But my sweet prattler can never be bad 
 like the sons of Eli." Alas ! you know not the na- 
 ture and the power of sin. There was a time when 
 these dark men — Hophni and Phinehas — were as in- 
 nocent of crime as the fair babe that smiles on your 
 breast and looks love into your eyes. They, too, 
 once lifted their tiny hands in the evening prayer, 
 their voices joined in the morning song, and long 
 before Eli's eyes grew dim with age and weeping, 
 they were the pride of his heart and the hope of his 
 life. The sweetest child that ever looked up from a 
 fond mother's heart, if left to itself, if unrestrained 
 by parental authority — unrenewed and unblessed by 
 the grace of God — may become as reprobate as 
 Hophni and Phinehas. May the curse that fell on 
 Eli's house be far from each one of us forever ! 
 
212 Our Children. 
 
 But Eli and his sons fell not alone. The pious 
 wife of the apostate and dead Phinehas was heart- 
 broken by these sore calamities. " And his daugh- 
 ter-in-law, Phinehas's wife, was with child, near to 
 be delivered : and when she heard the tidings that 
 the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law 
 and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and 
 travailed ; for her pains came upon her. And about 
 the time of her death, the women that stood by her 
 said unto her. Fear not, for thou hast borne a son. 
 But she answered not, neither did she regard it. 
 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory 
 is departed from Israel ... for the ark of God is 
 taken." 
 
 "And will the living lay it to heart?" 
 
PART II. 
 
 ¥S5i ^ii>ff)SY.0caooi<. 
 
 N 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MAGNITUDE OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 O thoughtful man who is concerned about the 
 welfare of the Church, or of the State, can be 
 indifferent to the Sunday-school movement of our 
 times. This age is fruitful in notable developments. 
 Its plans are projected on a large scale. Nothing 
 is, perhaps, more unjust or foolish than the habit of 
 a certain class of people of decrying the times. It 
 is quite useless to reason with these people — they 
 have '' made up their minds." They are sure that 
 the '' times are out of joint," that the '' former days 
 were better than these days "—Solomon to the con- 
 trary—that we are all— themselves excepted — " de- 
 generate sons of noble sires," that every thing is 
 going to the bad. Evidences of substantial prog- 
 ress make about as much impression upon them as 
 sunlight upon a stone-blind eye. 
 
 One thing may be said, without injustice or want 
 of charity, concerning this class of persons— they do 
 nothine to make the times better. 
 
214 Our Children. 
 
 There is not space in our little book to speak in 
 detail of the evidences of the substantial progress of 
 our times. We belong to that hopeful class who 
 believe that there is more religion in the world now 
 than at any previous period. Undoubtedly there 
 are more Churches and more professors of religion. 
 There are more Bibles printed, circulated, and, as 
 we firmly believe, read, believed, loved, and obeyed 
 than at any other time in the history of the world. 
 Only think! The precious word of God is now 
 printed and circulated in nearly tJiree hundred oi the 
 babbling tongues of our race. And this gift of life 
 is being carried to all nations. The '■'■ true Light " is 
 shining in many of the dark places of the earth : — 
 
 •• Higher yet that Star ascends." 
 
 There were never so many missionary organiza- 
 tions as now ; never so many missionaries in the 
 foreign field ; never so much money raised, year 
 after year, for the advancement of Christ's kingdom; 
 never so many heathen converted to God. There 
 were never so few professors of Christianity opposed 
 to missions, or indifferent to them. There were 
 never so many good books in circulation ; never so 
 many periodical publications doing battle for the 
 truth. The press was never so subsidized to the 
 uses of the Christian religion as to-day. It is very 
 true that the agencies of evil have been multiplied 
 and intensified. The devil is a famous copyist, and 
 
The Magnitude of the Movement. 2 1 5 
 
 it has always been his practice to counterfeit every 
 "genuine coin in circulation. This intensifies the an- 
 tagonism between the empires of light and dark-- 
 ness ; but the empire of light is wider and stronger. 
 " He must reign till he hath put all enemies under 
 his feet." 
 
 One reason that some persons imagine the world 
 to be getting worse is found in the fact that our 
 modern appliances for collecting intelligence gath- 
 ers up and publishes every thing — good and bad — 
 that is going on in the world. 
 
 The telegraph and the daily paper tell us every 
 thing. The world's wickedness, as well as its good- 
 ness, is laid bare to public inspection. But the fact 
 that we see and hear more of the wickedness that is 
 done, is, in itself, no proof that more is committed. 
 But we must not, at this place, enter upon the con- 
 sideration of these many-sided themes. 
 
 As already intimated, the Sunday-school move- 
 ment is one of the most notable facts of our times. 
 So far as the formative influences that enter into 
 the determination of the character of the next gen- 
 eration are concerned, it will, perhaps, be agreed by 
 all, that the Sunday-school is one of the most Jiotable 
 facts of our times. Those — if there still linger a 
 few invincibly obstinate and ignorant doubters — who 
 oppose the Sunday-school, must admit its impor- 
 tance from its very magnitude. ^ o matter how 
 much or how little of good may be in this move- 
 
2i6 Our Children. 
 
 ment, its magnitude, if nothing else, makes it a mat- 
 ter of very great importance. If several hundred 
 thousand grown people and several millions of chil- 
 dren met together once a week without speaking a 
 word — if they only looked at each other in utter 
 silence — we should have a subject of interest and 
 importance. 
 
 Let us consider briefly some of the leading facts 
 and figures connected with this movement. 
 
 In the first place, it is every-wliere in our country. 
 Outside of some of the most recently settled terri- 
 tories and some of the newest railroad stations there 
 is hardly a county, or village, or hamlet in the 
 United States without a Sunday-school. With few 
 exceptions, we may say, wherever there is a Church 
 there is a Sunday-school. 
 
 The Secretary of the International Sunday-school 
 Association made an elaborate and carefully pre- 
 pared report at the meeting in 'Baltimore, in May, 
 1875. We know something of the care with which 
 the statistics of his report were gathered. Most of 
 them were from official sources. We do not ques- 
 tion that they are in the main as reliable as any 
 statistical tables prepared for public consideration. 
 They aie as reliable as the United States census we 
 do not doubt. 
 
 Now, we have long ago learned that all statistics, 
 covering a wide field of observation, are to be re- 
 ceived as only approximations to the truth. We 
 
The Magnitude of the Movement, 2 1 7 
 
 do not belong to those who place implicit faith in 
 statistical columns and schedules All philosophy 
 is not, as some seem to think, wrapped up in these 
 long columns of bewildering figures. But the Sun- 
 day-school statistics referred to above we believe 
 to be substantially correct. 
 
 How many Sunday-schools, according to these 
 tables, are there in the United States? We 
 copy from the official report. The secretary says, 
 69,871. How many teachers and officers are en- 
 gaged in the management of these 69,871 schools? 
 The secretary says, 753,060. How many scholars are 
 in these 69,871 schools and under the guidance and 
 instruction — at least for one hour on the Sabbath — 
 of these 753,060 officers and teachers? The secre- 
 tary s-ays, 5,790,683. 
 
 Counting Canada with the United States, there 
 are 74,272 schools ; 788,805 officers and teachers ; 
 6,062,064 scholars. Most of these scholars are chil- 
 dren between the ages of six and fifteen ; nearly all 
 of them are young people under twenty. 
 
 Counting officers, teachers, and scholars, there are 
 engaged in Sunday-school work in the United States 
 6,543,743 persons ; by adding Canada, 6,850,869. 
 Reckoning the population of the United States 
 as being about 40,000,000, we find more than one 
 seventh of our entire population engaged in some 
 way in the Sunday-school work. These naked fig- 
 ures indicate a movement of immense magnitude 
 
21 8 Our Children. 
 
 and power, even if we do not take into account the 
 character of the movement itself. Now what is 
 ostensibly the design of this Sunday-school move- 
 ment? To teach God's word to children and young 
 people in order to bring them to Jesus Christ, their 
 King and Redeemer, and to secure, by the blessing 
 of God, their salvation. What does this vast army 
 of Sunday-school *' officers and teachers " do? They 
 bring this multitude of children largely under their 
 personal influence. How do they spend the hour 
 allotted to the Sunday-school on the Sabbath day? 
 In singing, in praying, in teaching the Bible, in de- 
 livering advice and exhortation on moral subjects. 
 Millions of books are given out and millions of pa- 
 pers distributed every week. 
 
 What tremendous powers are here at work ! These 
 753,060 teachers teaching God's word and will to 
 5,790,683 children! And these songs, prayers, les- 
 sons, exhortations, these children never will, never 
 can forget. They will be, of necessity they must be, 
 largely influenced by these agencies. These chil- 
 dren are forming opinions upon the most important 
 subjects that can invite their attention — their duty to 
 God and to their fellow-men. Who can measure 
 the height and depth and length and breadth of 
 these influences? No man can overstate or exag. 
 gerate their magnitude, their power. And they arc 
 every-where. 
 
 If these influences are evils, there are no greatei 
 
The Magnitude of the Movement. 219 
 
 evils. If they are good, there are few greater 
 blessings. 
 
 Another important question is this : What is the 
 character of these officers and teachers — in the 
 United States alone 753,060 of them? No doubt 
 many of them are far below what they ought to be. 
 Many of them are ignorant and indolent. Many of 
 them are lacking in both zeal and knowledge. But 
 take them all together, the Sunday-school teachers 
 are among the best people in the Church. There is 
 among them more faith, love, zeal, and aggressive 
 power than can be found among any 1,506,120 who 
 are outside of this Sunday-school movement. We 
 prefer to understate rather than to overstate these 
 things. But we are safe in saying the real aggres- 
 sive power of the Church is found among these 
 753,060 teachers and officers. Take them as a body, 
 we venture to say they are the best people in the 
 Church. And they are the most intelligent. They 
 read more, study more — particularly in the Bible. 
 And most of them are in earnest. The most zeal- 
 ous men and women of the Church are engaged in 
 the Sunday-school work. 
 
 We say again, the magnitude of the Sunday- 
 school movement entitles it to thoughtful consider- 
 ation. Whether we like it or not, the Sunday- 
 school is a fact — a very great fact among us. 
 
 No doubt there is now and then an outbreak of 
 fanaticism. So full a river will sometime break out 
 
220 Our Children. 
 
 of its banks, but fertility follows its very inunda- 
 tions. Some songs are sung that neither poetry nor 
 piety will approve. Some things are taught that 
 are not true. There is much very superficial work. 
 There are many things about the Sunday-school 
 movement that are not altogether satisfactory, but it 
 is the most notable — perhaps also the most hopeful 
 • — fact of our times. It will have, perhaps, more to 
 do in making the future of our civilization than any- 
 thing else. 
 
 If we would estimate the magnitude of the Sun- 
 day-school movement from another stand-point, 
 consider its relations to the press. Several of the 
 largest publishing houses in the country are run al- 
 most exclusively in the interest of Sunday-schools. 
 A distinct sort of literature — " Sunday-school liter- 
 ature " — has sprung up. Scores of papers and mag- 
 azines are published in this country for the use of 
 teachers and scholars. Their circulation is immense 
 — running up into the millions monthly. Millions 
 of dollars are invested in the business of producing 
 papers and books to meet this ever-growing demand 
 for new " Sunday-school literature." The demand 
 is always ahead of the supply. 
 
 Some people speak of the Sunday-school as a 
 small affair — fit to amuse and occupy the attention 
 of pious young women and of extra zealous men. 
 How mistaken, how ignorant they are ! For wheth- 
 er we work with it, or against it : whether we like it, 
 
The Magnitude of the Movement. 22 1 
 
 or dislike it, the fact remains, the Sunday-school is 
 an institution of incalculable power. More, it is a 
 steadily growing power — the current widens and 
 deepens every day. It will have very much to do 
 with the controlling influences that will fashion and 
 fix the future of both Church and State in our 
 country. 
 
 Is the Sunday-school not entitled to the attention, 
 respect, sympathy, and co-operation of all who love 
 either the country or the Church — of all true patri- 
 ots and of all true Christians ? 
 
222 Our Children 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL AUXH.IARY. 
 
 IN considering the true sphere and work ol the 
 Sunday-school, one thing is clear to begin with, 
 it is not to substitute any other means of grace 
 or divinely appointed instrumentality of usefulness. 
 The sooner this is distinctly understood and defi- 
 nitely recognized on all hands the better, every 
 way, for all the great interests involved. The Sun- 
 day-school, rightly employed, will bring many con- 
 tributions to increase the efficiency of every other 
 means of grace and agency of usefulness, but it takes 
 nothing from any of them. It is no substitute for 
 the day-school, although it may, in a degree, supple- 
 ment its deficiencies and countervail some of its in- 
 cidental evils. It is no substitute for th& regular 
 ministration of the word of God by men called of 
 him to preach the Gospel, but it may largely in- 
 crease the resources and opportunities of the gospel 
 ministry for thorough and efficient work. It is no 
 substitute for parental government and instruction 
 in the word of God, but it may greatly aid Christian 
 fathers and mothers in bringing up their children 
 "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
 
 The true conception of the Sunday-school is this: 
 
The Sunday-School Auxiliary. 223 
 
 it is auxiliary to every other divinely appointed 
 means of grace. It cannot substitute any other, for 
 each is necessary. As it seems to us, it is of very 
 great importance that those who labor in the Sun- 
 day-school should understand this fundamental truth 
 — it is atixiliary. To attempt to make it other, or 
 more than this, is to make it less. If it be not an 
 auxiliary — a helper — it is worse than nothing; it is 
 a very great evil. It is like a badly-adjusted wheel 
 in a complicated system of machinery ; it develops 
 friction and leads to breakage and ruin, instead of 
 increasing, or regulating, or distributing power. 
 
 False or crude opinions at this point are at the 
 bottom of almost all the troubles incident to the 
 management of Sunday-schools. Once let a super- 
 intendent, or teacher, get it into his head that the 
 Sunday-school is a substitute for any other means 
 of grace, and he makes two very hurtful mistakes at 
 once. First, he places the Sunday-school where it 
 does not belong, and requires of it what it never 
 can do. Secondly, he discounts, or subverts, or de- 
 stroys some other means of grace that is indispen- 
 sable to the work of the Church. Even to discount, 
 by false views of one good thing, any other good 
 thing is itself a great misfortune. 
 
 Let us illustrate by supposing a case that can 
 never occur. Suppose that all should agree that 
 the existence and work of the Sunday-school makes 
 the Gospel ministry — the regular preaching of the 
 
224 Our Children. 
 
 word- -no longer necessary; and suppose that the 
 pulpit should give place altogether to the instruc- 
 tions of the Sunday-school class ; and suppose that 
 we have no more preaching, and substitute, once 
 for all, the preacher by the teacher: who does not 
 know that this would destroy the Church ? 
 
 God calls men to preach and he appoints preach 
 ing, because preachers and preaching are necessary 
 to the work he intended the Church to do. But it 
 may be said, nobody thinks of so absurd a thing as 
 doing away with the pulpit — with preachers and 
 preaching. True enough, and yet there are many 
 who do this very thing — perhaps without intending 
 it or knowing it — to a degree. They imagine that 
 the Sunday-school teacher is doing the work of the 
 preacher, and that, on account of this work, the 
 preacher's work is no longer as necessary as once it 
 was. This is to discount, and thereby to hinder, 
 the work of preaching. But this is as injurious as 
 it is unwise and unscriptural. 
 
 Let us take another illustration. Suppose that 
 the 753,060 Sunday-school teachers in the United 
 States should take it into their heads that they are 
 doing the work of parents — of fathers and mothers 
 — for these 5,790,683 children in the United States 
 that listen to their instructions once a week, and 
 that, in some sense, they substitute parental work 
 • — instruction, influence, government, discipline; 
 and suppose the parents of these 5,790,683 chil- 
 
The Sunday-School Auxiliary. 225 
 
 dren should agree with this view, and all at once lay 
 down their responsibilities, cease their work, with- 
 draw their influence: what then? Such a course 
 would be madness ; its result would be ruin. After 
 that the deluge. 
 
 But nobody proposes this. True ; and yet many 
 Sunday-school teachers do not understand aright 
 that, as to the parental functions, the Sunday-school 
 is simply auxiliary. And many parents, it is to be 
 greatly feared, have suffered some weakening of 
 their sense of responsibility in the rearing of their 
 children on account of the work proposed or accom- 
 plished by the Sunday-school. But this is a griev- 
 ous, a most hurtful, mistake. It were better to have 
 no Sunday-school than to put it in a false attitude 
 to other instrumentalities for doing good. 
 
 We have made special mention, in this connec- 
 tion, of the work of the gospel ministry and of the 
 Christian family, because these are the two great 
 driving-wheels through which God moves the whole 
 machinery of useful agencies. These are the two 
 divinely-ordained, and, therefore, indispensable in- 
 strumentalities. When the Sunday-school, or any 
 other agency or influence, interferes with the normal 
 functions of the ministry or the family, it is out of 
 place and injurious. Whenever the Sunday-school 
 works harmoniously with the ministry and the fam- 
 ily it is in its place, and an unspeakable blessing. 
 
 Suppose the water-power that moves the compli- 
 15 
 
226 Our Children. 
 
 cated machinery of a great factory is supplied by 
 two streams that unite before they descend upon 
 the great wheel, through which every smaller wheel 
 is moved. Suppose now a third and smaller stream 
 should be brought into the united current of the 
 other two, in order to increase the power. What 
 now would be the true relation of the new stream? 
 An auxiliary, a helping relation. It is this, or 
 worse than nothing. 
 
 Suppose it could move on to make the plunge 
 upon the great wheel independently of the other 
 two — that one of them should be stopped, or have 
 its volume lessened by the presence of the third 
 stream. How inevitable the result ! Disaster. 
 
 The third stream is needed, but only that it may 
 swell the volume and increase the power of the 
 other two. The more completely it is merged in 
 them the better. We have said much, in anothei 
 place in our book, about the relation of the Chris- 
 tian family to the preservation and extension of re- 
 ligion in the earth. Much might be said upon the 
 relations of the Christian ministry to the same work 
 Now the true work of the Sunday-school is that 
 of helper to these two. The more intimately it i* 
 related to the Christian family and the Christian 
 ministry the better for all interests involved. There 
 is no Church without the Christian home and the 
 Christian ministry. These two are great and Divine 
 institutes for the salvation of the world. Welcome 
 
The Surtday-School Auxiliary. 227 
 
 the Sunday-school when it is a true helper to the 
 Christian home and to the Christian ministry ! Away 
 with it when it hinders them, or discounts, or seeks 
 to substitute them ! 
 
 It is easy to apply a test. Does the Sunday- 
 school make the preacher less zealous or useful? 
 Then there is something wrong, and the Church of 
 God suffers damage, although the preacher alone 
 may be to blame. Does it make the father, the 
 mother, less careful, less conscientious, less anxious 
 to perform their sacred parental duties for the salva- 
 tion of their children ? In this case also there is 
 something wrong, and the Church is damaged, al- 
 though the parents only may be to blame. What 
 effect is produced upon the mind of the scholar? 
 Does the Sunday-school diminish his respect and 
 veneration for the divinely-called preacher of the 
 Gospel ? Does it make, in any way, the preaching 
 of the word less profitable to him ? Then there is 
 something wrong, and the managers of the Sunday- 
 school are to blame. Does it make the child less 
 obedient, less loving to its parents? In this case 
 also there is something wrong, and the Sunday- 
 school is to blame. The true Sunday-school will 
 lead children to a higher appreciation of the office 
 of the Christian ministry, and will prepare them for 
 its ministrations. And it will deepen their sense 
 of the obligation to obey and to reverence their 
 parents. If it does none of these things it is worse 
 
228 Our Children. 
 
 than a failure — it is a hinderance to the work of 
 God, and an encumbrance upon the energies of the 
 Church. 
 
 It seems to us too plain for argument ; the Sun- 
 day-school is auxiliary to other means of grace, and 
 it is nothing else. It substitutes nothing — it can- 
 not. It is to bring contributions of power to all 
 Other means of grace — especially to the Christian 
 home and to the Christian ministry. But it must 
 take nothing from these, and it must not hinder 
 them. 
 
 In substantiation of these general views, it may 
 be mentioned here that more and more, and in all 
 quarters, the Sunday-school is being recognized as 
 a part of the Church, and not as an independent 
 and isolated institution. In some Churches pro- 
 vision is made for the government of the Sunday- 
 school as part of the Church. This is very clearly 
 recognized in the book of Discipline of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, South. Among the duties 
 of the Quarterly Conference we find this item: 
 *'To superintend the interests of Sunday-schools 
 and the instruction of children, and to elect super- 
 intendents of Sunday-schools on nomination of the 
 preacher in charge." And this, in that Church, as 
 proved by experience, is a good law. 
 
 Among the questions propounded by the bishop 
 to those who, having satisfactorily finished their 
 probation, are about to be '' admitted into full con- 
 
The Sunday-School Auxiliary. 229 
 
 nection " in an Annual Conference is this : " Will 
 you diligently instruct the children in every place?" 
 The Discipline enjoins the formation of Sunday- 
 schools in all the congregations. The language of 
 the Discipline upon the entire subject shows that 
 the Sunday-school is recognized as truly a part of 
 the Church. 
 
 At this place we may quote with propriety a para- 
 graph from an address delivered by the Rev. Bishop 
 H. N. MTyeire before the Sunday-school Conven- 
 tion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that 
 met in Nashville, Tennessee, May, 1871. Bishop 
 M'Tyeire said : — 
 
 " The Sunday-school is of the Church ; in every 
 way it has been so recognized. It is set on the 
 Lord's day ; our houses of worship are open to it, 
 notwithstanding they have been set apart from all 
 unhallowed or common uses ; in General, Annual, 
 District, Quarterly, and Church Conferences, its in- 
 terests are inquired into and its affairs regulated; 
 ministers are detailed for its agency and editorial 
 department ; its statistics are displayed every-where 
 on the face of ecclesiastical journals. It is not an 
 alien and foreigner; it is not an outside friendly 
 institution — it is nearer than that. The Sunday- 
 school is the catechetical institute of the Church. 
 It is maintained by and for the Church, and under 
 the Church's control. . . . Let the Sunday-school 
 be kept close to the Church, under its watchful eye, 
 
230 Our Children. 
 
 near its warm heart. Let the pastor of the parents 
 remember that he is the pastor of the children, and 
 that Sunday-schools may help, but cannot super- 
 sede him. Let him be seen moving often among 
 them, thus giving aid, and assurance of his interest. 
 Bishop Andrew's last Sunday on earth saw him in 
 the Sunday-school. Among his last words to the 
 preachers were these : ** Take care of the children • 
 look after the Sunday-schools.' " 
 
The Chief h unction of the Sunday-School. 231 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CHIEF FUNCTION OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 
 
 TEACHING the word of God is, as we judge, 
 the chief function of the Sunday-school. 
 Speaking through his servant Moses, God said to 
 his people : " Hear, O Israel : the Lord our God is 
 one Lord : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy might. And these words, which I command 
 thee this day, shall be in thine heart : and thou 
 shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
 shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, 
 and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou 
 liest down, and when thou risest up." Here we 
 find a divine statute of perpetual obligation upon all 
 heads of families. If it were obeyed so perfectly 
 that there remained nothing more to teach, it does 
 not readily appear that there would be any need 
 of Sunday-schools, or of any other teaching instru- 
 mentality for imparting to children a knowledge 
 of God's word. If we ask now concerning the 
 true work of the Sunday-school, or of any other 
 such instrumentality as to children, we answer 
 by asking, What does God require to be done for 
 children? The words of Moses make this very 
 
232 Our Children. 
 
 plain : " And thou shalt teach them dihgently unto 
 thy children." 
 
 This involved, of necessity, the use of all right 
 means for making the knowledge of God's words a 
 real and true knowledge, by bringing heart and life 
 under its influence. Now what God requires to be 
 done for children, in order to their proper nurture in 
 the life of religion, the Sunday-school should at- 
 tempt to do. 
 
 If we once clearly understand what we consider a 
 very plain matter, that the Sunday-school substi- 
 tutes no other instrumentality for doing good, but 
 that it is auxiliary to each and all of them, we will 
 find no difficulty in determining the true work of 
 the Sunday-school. In order to secure the supreme 
 love of his people, God requires, first, that his words 
 shall be in their hearts; and, secondly, in order 
 to secure their perpetuation in the world, they shall 
 be taught diligently unto their children. 
 
 There are many useful things that the Sunday- 
 school may do, indirectly and incidentally. It is 
 well that the children be taught to sing for the sake 
 of singing itself. But it is especially useful if they 
 learn to sing such songs as contain the marrow of 
 the Gospel, and celebrate the praises of God. Alas I 
 that much of the singing of our Sunday-schools can- 
 not be approved on any ground. There is great 
 danger of being misled right here. It is easy to in- 
 terest children in singing, and it is certainly desira- 
 
TJie CJiief Function of the Sntiday-ScJiooL 233 
 
 ble to do so. But the Sunday-school must be very 
 much more than a mere singing-school. Good sing- 
 ing is desirable and delightful, but good singing 
 alone is no right measure of a good Sunday-school. 
 
 Nor are mere numbers any just measure of the 
 value of a Sunday-school. Some of the very best 
 schools we ever saw were among the smallest ; while- 
 some of the very poorest were the largest. We have 
 seen large schools that sang well, paid money well, 
 drilled well, looked well, behaved well, where teach- 
 ers and children evidently enjoyed themselves very 
 much. But they failed in teaching God's word — 
 failed just where it was most important to succeed 
 and where failure was most fatal. 
 
 We must insist strenuously on this : the school 
 that does not teach God's word, no matter what 
 else it may attempt or accomplish, is a failure. 
 As to the great end designed to be accomplished, 
 there can be no two opinions. It is the same end 
 that is sought in parental instruction, in the public 
 preaching of the word, in the circulation of religious 
 books and papers, in the entire machinery of the 
 Church, namely, the salvation of the people. Par- 
 ents instruct and train in God's word, preachers 
 proclaim the Gospel, good men write, and print, and 
 publish to accomplish this one thing — to save the 
 people from their sins. No lower end can be con- 
 sidered for a moment. This thought should be ever 
 before us. 
 
234 Our Children. 
 
 But how are we to accomplish this? By doing 
 exactly what God commanded his ancient people, 
 and what, as truly, he now commands us to do — to 
 teach his word diligently unto our children. In- 
 struction in His " words " is the divinely appointed 
 means for inducing repentance, and for fostering in 
 his children the life of faith and righteousness. And 
 we cannot do God's work except in God's way. His 
 way is best; there is no other good way. He allows 
 us no short cuts of human invention to accomplish 
 results. The shortest, because the surest, way is to 
 do just what God requires, and not somethine^else 
 that we have invented. It is God's word that tells 
 us not only how to be good, but also how to do 
 good. And every-where, and always, and in every 
 thing, God's way is the best way. 
 
 What is the first and the chief direction given to 
 those who would bring up their children in the 
 *' nurture and admonition of the Lord," that they 
 may '* love the Lord . . . God with all " their " heart ? " 
 **And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy 
 children." Why? Because this is God's appointed 
 means for accomplishing the end. Indeed, we can 
 conceive of no other reason for giving the Bible to 
 men but that its lessons should lead them to love 
 God. 
 
 We would insist on this with all emphasis and in 
 all possible ways. Parents, preachers, teachers, all 
 who propose to do any good in the world, should 
 
Tlie CJiicf Function of the Sunday-School. 235 
 
 remember this : their chief business is to teach God's 
 word. Why should children be taught the word of 
 God ? Because they are ignorant, of it and the 
 knowledge of it will, if they will hear and heed, lead 
 to their salvation. And it is the only knowledge 
 that does save. Whenever we find a person, man 
 or child, philosopher or peasant, if he be ignorant 
 of God's word and we would do his soul good, we 
 must teach him. We must teach him what he is, 
 what God requires of him, and what he has done for 
 him. 
 
 The teaching function of the Sunday-school must 
 never be lost sight of — must never be subordinated. 
 When we do this we abandon the original charter; 
 we take up with a human invention instead of the 
 divine direction on this subject. Not the man who 
 talks most about it, but the best teacher of God's 
 word is the best Sunday-school teacher. And the 
 school where God's word is taught most diligently, 
 thoroughly, and effectively is the best school of all. 
 
 There is no danger, if we understand aright what 
 it is to teach the word of God, of falling into the 
 very hurtful error that it is a mere intellectual drill 
 — that teaching the commandments and teaching 
 the multiplication table are the same thing in their 
 character, and require only the same qualities and 
 efforts. A heathen child, who never heard of God 
 or his word, may be easily taught the multiplication 
 table by one who is as ignorant of divine things as 
 
236 Our Children. 
 
 himself. But teaching the word of God is a veiy 
 different thing, and done under very different condi- 
 tions both as it relates to the teacher and the learn- 
 er. In the first place, the child makes no sort of 
 opposition to the multiplication table. Tell him 
 that " twice two are four," and the child has no pos- 
 sible objections to receiving the truth of what it 
 learns. Tell the same child something of its own sins, 
 of the necessity of repentance, of self-denial, and 
 we will find that in this child, how young and ten- 
 der soever, St. Paul's doctrine holds good : " The 
 carnal mind is enmity against God." And because 
 the " carnal mind is enmity against God," it is al- 
 ways true that there can be no effective saving 
 teaching of God's word and of the plan of salvation 
 without the blessing of the Holy Ghost. This is as 
 true about the fireside and in the Sunday-school as 
 in the pulpit. The parent who teaches well prays ; 
 so does the Sunday-school teacher who teaches well ; 
 so does the preacher who preaches well, /le prays. 
 We must not make mistakes here ; to teach, we 
 must have the Spirit's aid ; to secure this we must 
 pray for it. And how precious is the promise that 
 encourages us to pray for the influences of the Holy 
 Ghost ! ''If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
 good gifts unto your children ; how much more 
 shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
 them that ask him ? " 
 
 We may begin the argument where we will, we 
 
The Chief Function of the Stniday-School. 237 
 
 must ever come to the same conclusion — teaching 
 God's word is the chief function of the Sunday- 
 school. If we do every thing else and omit this we 
 have failed. 
 
 Let us meditate upon the method of Ezra: **So 
 they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, 
 and gave the sense, and caused them to understand 
 the reading." This is a perfect description of the 
 best preaching. And this is exactly what we all, 
 who have any thing to do with the religious instruc- 
 tion of the people — adults and children — should 
 strive diligently to do. 
 
 John S. Hart, LL.D., in his admirable work, 
 ** The Sunday-School Idea," after stating clearly 
 and forcibly that '' the first great aim, undoubtedly, 
 is to bring the scholars to a saving knowledge of 
 Jesus Christ, to secure their conversion," adds some 
 valuable remarks on the duty of thorough indoctri- 
 nation in the truths of religion. We quote one sug- 
 gestive paragraph : " We must aim not only to bring 
 the lambs into the fold, but to keep them there, and 
 to give them due nurture and protection. The 
 Sunday-school is an agency of the Church specially 
 suited to do this part of the Christian work. The 
 young Christian needs to be thoroughly grounded 
 in doctrine. When a scholar is converted and joins 
 the Church, our work with him is just begun. We 
 must patiently and faithfully teach him the doc- 
 trines of the Bible. The truths of the Holy Script- 
 
238 Our Children. 
 
 ures are the aliment by which the Christian grows. 
 What the young disciple especially needs is, not 
 only exhortation, but teaching. The pastor who is 
 wise will spend much time in simple, instructive dis- 
 courses, having for their aim to build up the young 
 of his flock in sound Christian knowledge, and he 
 will regard with peculiar satisfaction those of his 
 helpers and fellow-laborers who in the Sunday- 
 school carry out in detail, and apply to personal and 
 individual cases, the portions of doctrine which he, 
 from the pulpit, distributes in the mass and to the 
 whole congregation. 
 
 *' Nor should a teacher wait till a child is converted 
 before beginning to instruct him in the truths of the 
 Bible and the duties of the Christian life. The doc- 
 trines of the Bible, it should be remembered, are 
 not only useful for growth in grace, but they are 
 the most efficient means of conversion. While the 
 teacher should not neglect the duty of personal ap- 
 peal and exhortation, yet let him not forget that 
 there is a mighty power in God's word to pierce the 
 heart and conscience. Let him unceasingly plant 
 this divine seed in the minds of his scholars. It 
 may lie long before it is quickened. The work of 
 grace in a heart thus thoroughly indoctrinated in 
 Scripture truth is much more glorious than that fit- 
 ful excitement wrought by mere passionate appeals 
 to the feelings. The great aim of the Sunday-school, 
 then, is the conversion of the young, and the build- 
 
The CJiief Function of the Sunday-School. 239 
 
 ing up of its converts in holiness of heart and life, 
 and the great means are their indoctrination in the 
 truths of the Bible." 
 
 Some years ago an article from the pen of the 
 Rev. W. C. Wilkinson appeared in the " Sunday- 
 School Journal," which we introduce entire. Here 
 are useful hints for parents and preachers as well as 
 teachers : — 
 
 " Teach the children. Don't try to move their 
 hearts, at least, not directly. It is a mistake to use 
 the emotion which you have excited in yourself by 
 thought, by study, by prayer, as the chief means of 
 exciting emotion in your pupils. Emotion begets 
 emotion, it is true, but it is the emotion of sym- 
 pathy that is thus begotten. What you want is the 
 emotion of intelligence. The emotion of sympathy 
 is transient. It is a reflection which vanishes when 
 the emotion that produced it is withdrawn. Be- 
 sides, it is not a fruitful emotion. It is emotion, 
 and nothii.g else. It even tends to impoverish in- 
 stead of enrich. The heart is not fed — the heart is 
 exhausted by it. On the contrary, the emotion of 
 intelligence is as durable as emotion can be, or 
 ought to be. It does not depend upon the presence 
 of other emotion in sotne one else. It springs from 
 within, and not from without. It is a product of 
 thought. 
 
 *' Therefore, teach the children. Feed them with 
 knowledge. Set them to thinking. Thinking will 
 
240 Our Children. 
 
 make them feel. Consider how you yourself came 
 to feel as you do in .meeting your class. You had 
 used your mind. That is subject to your will. 
 Your heart is not. You cannot feel by willing to 
 feel, but you can think by willing to think. And 
 after thinking, with thinking feeling comes without 
 willing, nay, against willing even. 
 
 " It is natural to want a straight road to the heart ; 
 and the mind lies between. You must not seek, 
 generally, to apply your own emotion to awake 
 emotion. To excite emotion in another without 
 first exciting thought, is like lighting a fire without 
 using kindling. Thought is the kindling for setting 
 emotion in a blaze. So aim to lead your class 
 through a course of thought similar to that by 
 which you were yourself led to feeling as you do. 
 
 " Teach, brethren and sisters, teach. Again, I 
 say, tcac/i. Christ was a teacher. For all that 
 appears, he was himself outwardly calm when he 
 taught. He trusted to the truth. You must trust 
 to the truth. Never fear but if you reach the mind 
 of your pupil with gospel truth — gospel truth, re- 
 member—the mind in turn will reach the heart with 
 it. ' Sanctify them through thy truth,' was Christ's 
 prayer. 
 
 "The mind is the heart's mouth. Thrust truth 
 into the child's mind. If it is the bread of life to 
 the child, it will not stay in his mind ; it will sink 
 down deeper. It will go to his heart. And the 
 
The Chief Function of the Siinaay-ScJiool. 241 
 
 hunger of the heart will grow by what it feeds 
 on The heart will crave more and more forever. 
 * Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness.' Why? Because they will eventu- 
 ally cease from hungering and thirsting after right- 
 eousness ? Not at all. That would be no blessing. 
 It would be a curse. But because they shall be 
 filled, and keep on hungering and thirsting, to be 
 filled again and again. Feed the sheep. Feed the 
 lambs. Truth is the bread of life. The mind is the 
 mouth to the heart. Put truth into the mind. 
 
 Teach, teach, teach ! " 
 Id 
 
242 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHO SHOULD BE IN THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL? 
 
 MANY young people are of the opinion that 
 only little children should be expected to 
 attend Sunday-school, at least as regular scholars. 
 
 *' How shall we retain our larger boys and girls?" 
 is a question that has been very largely discussed. 
 Every-where we have the complaint — our larger 
 scholars, especially the boys, leave us. This seems 
 to us to be a very great evil. Our boys leave us 
 just when they ought to do their most profitable 
 Bible study. This is a great loss to them and to 
 the schools they leave. And what is worse, they 
 drift away with bad company we know not whither. 
 
 In considering this problem we have raised in our 
 mind another question, Should we not revise our 
 notions on this whole subject of proper persons for 
 Sunday-school work and instruction ? 
 
 Up to this time most persons have thought of tnc 
 Sunday-school only as a place where mere children 
 can be taught the primary truths of religion. If our 
 larger sons and daughters have concluded that the 
 Sunday-school is simply a proper enough place for 
 little children, we, their elders, who have under- 
 taken to expound to them the Sunday-school idea, 
 
M'^/io Should Be in the Sunday-School f 243 
 
 are responsible. For, what is the drift of nearly 
 all we say and write on the subject? That it is a 
 good place for children, especially little children. 
 We call it the " nursery of the Church," and we 
 often manage the matter in such a way as to make 
 it very doubtful what we mean by " nursery." * 
 Very often the songs that are sung, the speeches 
 that are made, the papers and books that are circu- 
 lated, are only fit for the nursery; "Mother Goose 
 Stories," with the imprimatur of the Church. 
 
 We grant readily that the Sunday-school is pecul- 
 iarly adapted to children ; we know, too, that it is 
 far easier to secure their attendance and to excite 
 their interest than that of the older ones. Why is 
 this? There may be many reasons, some of them, 
 doubtless, growing out of the restlessness and impa- 
 tience of restraint that belongs to adolescent man- 
 hood and womanhood. But for this much-to-be- 
 deplored state of things there is a reason in us and 
 in our methods of dealing with our young people. 
 We are at fault. We do not meet the wants of 
 these larger ones as we do the wants of the little 
 
 * " Nursery, 2. The place where nursing is carried on ; as, (a.) Tlie 
 place, or apartment, in a house, appropriated to the care of children. 
 {b^ A place where yourg trees are propagated for the purpose of be- 
 ing transplanted ; a plantation of young trees, (r.) The place where 
 any thing is fostered and growth promoted. ' To see fair Padua, 
 nursery of arts.' — Shakspeare. ' Christian families are the nurseries 
 of the Church on earth, as she is the nursery of the Church in heav- 
 en,'— y. M. J//^j^«."— Webster. 
 
244 Our Children. 
 
 ones. Our opinion, in short, is this: If our schools, 
 in their methods and appHances, were as well adapt- 
 ed to the wants of our children just blooming into 
 adult life as they are to our little children, then we 
 would not lose the larger ones. 
 
 Take one case only for illustration — the papers 
 that are distributed from Sunday to Sunday ; for 
 whom are these papers, for the most part, intended ? 
 The little ones — generally speaking, for those under 
 fourteen years old. But boys and girls, nearly 
 grown, soon tire of the "Sunday-School Visitor," 
 and '' Child's World," and " Children's Guide," and 
 *' Sunday-School Advocate," and '^ Kind Words," 
 and such like. Excellent as these papers are for 
 mere children, they are not what the larger ones 
 want. And, in most schools, there is nothing that 
 meets the wants of our young people. The same 
 state of things exists, to a large extent, in our Sun- 
 day-school libraries. 
 
 We go farther, without discussing the matter here : 
 for the most part, our teachers in charge of Bible- 
 classes do not, in their own studies, keep up with 
 the development of the young people who look to 
 them for instruction. But they ought, they must, 
 keep in advance. It is a fatal day when the class 
 discovers that the teacher is dropping behind in in- 
 terest, in information, in application. 
 
 After long and patient reflection on this whole 
 subject, we conclude — and we are glad to know that 
 
W/io Should Be in the Sunday-School. 245 
 
 we are not alone in the opinion — that we should 
 conceive of the Sunday-school as the school of the 
 whole Church. Some have, indeed, proposed to call 
 it " Bible School." But we do not see very clearly 
 how this would remedy the evil we are now con- 
 sidering. 
 
 All should be in the Sunday-school — as scholars 
 or as teachers. What reason can be given why an 
 old member of the Church should not be a member 
 of the Sunday-school ? Why should not the oldest, 
 and wisest, and saintliest man in the Church be a 
 scholar in the Sunday-school, if he should not be 
 needed as a teacher? We can think of but one rea- 
 son, and that would not be good could it exist. And 
 it never did, never will exist. If we could find a 
 man who had learned so much of God's word that 
 there is no more in it to learn, we might excuse him 
 so far as his need of instruction is concerned. But 
 such a wonder, such a solitary phenomenon, would 
 be under peculiar obligation to attend regularly 
 and promptly to show what can be done by diligent 
 and continued study! 
 
 Now, why should a child go to Sunday-school? 
 To learn God's word, that he may grow thereby ''in 
 grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." For the very same reasons a grown man, 
 however wise, however good, unless he can become 
 no wiser and no better, should attend the Sun- 
 day-school. For the wisest and best need to be 
 
246 Our Children. 
 
 enlightened and strengthened in spiritual things. 
 And the wisest and best, of all others, most clearly 
 see their ignorance and most keenly feel their de- 
 ficiencies. 
 
 It is only the incorrigible egotist or the self-satis- 
 fied Pharisee who does not lament his lack of knowl- 
 edge and his immaturity in grace. 
 
 We cannot conceive of a single objection to mak- 
 ing the Sunday-school a Bible-school for the whole 
 Church and congregation that cannot be easily met 
 and answered. 
 
 Such an attendance would, indeed, overflow many 
 of our Churches. But they could be built larger, 
 or the congregation could "swarm" as the wise 
 bees do, when overcrowded, and colonize in new 
 quarters. 
 
 As things are now in many of our communities, 
 there certainly needs to be a readjustment of our 
 plans. We could name scores of churches where 
 the following state of things exists : the house is 
 filled with children at nine o'clock, and filled with 
 grown people at eleven o'clock. Three-fourths of 
 the children are absent from preaching, and three- 
 fourths of the adults were absent from the Sunday- 
 school. In many cases, indeed — if the preacher 
 happen to be unattractive — a larger congregation is 
 seen going from the Church when the Sunday-school 
 is dismissed than is seen going to it. 
 
 What is to be done about this matter? We 
 
W/io Should Be in the Sunday-School. 247 
 
 nave slept over it long enough. When the chil- 
 dren are not at the public worship of God with 
 the congregation, when they do not attend the 
 preaching of the word, something is wrong, very 
 wrong. And it ought to be remedied. If there 
 were no alternative and we had to choose between 
 the two, we would say, the children should attend 
 the preaching of the word even if they do not go to 
 Sunday-school. 
 
 So, as the matter now stands, we have two serious 
 evils to meet : the larger children do not go to 
 Sunday-school, and the smaller children do not go to 
 Church. This is a most unsatisfactory state of 
 things. The larger ones — our almost grown-up chil- 
 dren — ought to be in Sunday-school, and our young- 
 er children ought to attend public worship with the 
 congregation. This double trouble is very largely 
 the fault of us who are older — parents and preach- 
 ers, superintendents and teachers — who have talked 
 about the Sunday-school and managed it as if it 
 were intended only for little children, and have con- 
 ducted public worship as if that were intended only 
 for adults. 
 
 What remedy have we? It seems to us to lie in 
 two directions. First, we should try as hard in the 
 Sunday-school to meet the wants of our young peo- 
 ple as we do the wants of our children. We must 
 make the Sunday-school as interesting and useful to 
 the adolescents as to the infants. Secondly, let us 
 
248 Our Children. 
 
 drop the '' nursery " idea for a while. It has done 
 good service and deserves superannuation — at least 
 retirement — that it may rest, with *' Washington's 
 hatchet," for instance. 
 
 Let us quit talking of the Sunday-school as if we 
 thought it only a fit place for little ones. Let us 
 have something in it besides nursery rhymes, side- 
 shows, magic lanterns, scene-shifting, little '' wee- 
 bit " papers, with pictures of nice children and good 
 dogs — all, perhaps, more or less excellent in their 
 way. But, in the name of common sense, let us 
 have something else — something that will be to the 
 older ones what the little papers and other such 
 things are to the little ones. 
 
 But in dropping for awhile, or retiring to the 
 back-ground, the '' nursery " idea, let us who are 
 neither children nor young people, let us who are 
 their fathers, mothers, uncles, and aunts, march eji 
 masse into the Sunday-school and do what would be 
 an unspeakable advantage to us — study and teach 
 the word of God. If we will do this our older sons 
 and daughters will go to Sunday-school and our 
 younger ones will go to Church. He was right who 
 at a convention answered the question, '' How shall 
 we retain our young people in the Sunday-school?" 
 by saying, *' Put the old people between them and 
 the door." We cannot enumerate or overstate the 
 blessings that would follow such a general study of 
 the Bible as our view of the subject involves. Let 
 
JV/io Should Be in the Stcnday-SchooL 249 
 
 die Sunday-school be the Bible-school of the Church, 
 of the whole Church. 
 
 We have one simple argument to offer as to the 
 practicability and usefulness of the plan. It has 
 been tested and proved. We have, here and there, a 
 fev/ v,'ell-attended, well-conducted adult classes. We 
 have seen grandfathers in them. One class we could 
 name of nearly a dozen where nearly all were over 
 fifty years old. And for this class there was no hap- 
 pier or more profitable hour during all the week 
 than the hour between nine and ten o'clock Sun- 
 day morning. They studied their lessons and their 
 teacher studied them. Perhaps we should call him 
 the conductor of the lesson, as all were pupils and 
 all were teachers — '* both hearing and asking him 
 questions," as they felt inclined. 
 
 What these old men did others can do. 
 
 Why did they go to Sunday-school ? They wished 
 to learn more of God's word, and found it useful, for 
 its good fellowship and mutual aid, to study in a 
 class. 
 
 How did they manage to succeed so well? In 
 the first place, they got up soon enough to go. 
 This is quite important. People who lie in bed till 
 nine o'clock Sunday morning will not be in Sunday- 
 school at that hour. These old gentlemen really 
 wanted to go — found pleasure and profit in going — 
 and, therefore, determined that they would go. It 
 ',vas a part of their plan for Sunday morning and 
 
250 Our Children. 
 
 and they took pains to work it out faitli fully. When 
 the bell rang these old gentlemen put on their hats 
 and we7it. 
 
 This is the way they managed. It is so simple a 
 plan that we fear it will not be popular. But it was 
 effective, nevertheless. 
 
Hunting Plans, 251 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HUNTING PLANS. 
 
 WE received a letter once from which we may 
 make a short extract here : — 
 
 " I am anxious to succeed — to do my full duty 
 to the dear children of the school ; but I sadly fear 
 that I have not the best plan for conducting the 
 school — of gaining attention, enlisting interest, in- 
 ducing study, etc. I hear of so many plans — so 
 many devices for amusing and interesting the chil- 
 dren. Brother A. of D. does this, and Brother R. 
 of G. this, ami they are very different. What shall 
 I do ? Why don't you tell us just how to conduct 
 the Sunday-school?" 
 
 Of course we did not " prescribe " for his case, 
 except in a very general way. Part of our answer, 
 however, may be useful in this chapter of our 
 discussion. 
 
 " There are hundreds, dear brother, in like per- 
 plexity. Sunday-school journals are full of such 
 questions and attempted answers. The Sunday- 
 school conventions often have what they call the 
 ' question box,' into which all sorts of questions are 
 thrust. Some one who is supposed to know every 
 thing about Sunday-schools is appointed to open the 
 
252 Our Children. 
 
 box and answer, without falling, or even hesitating, 
 right then and there, whatever comes up. We have 
 watched one such answerer of hard questions, who 
 looked, when he opened the box, as wise as one 
 supposes an ancient priest of Jupiter must have ap- 
 peared when inspecting the entrails of the slain 
 victims, or when watching the flight of wild geese, 
 to determine future events — as wise as an owl. His 
 answers to all sorts of questions were so compla- 
 cently confident that It would have been almost 
 an insult to have applied to him Sidney Smith's 
 witticism on the learned Dr. Whewell. * Whew- 
 ell's forte,' said the wit, ' is science ; his foible is 
 omniscience.' 
 
 '' We cannot say how we have wondered at the 
 courage — audacity, perhaps, is the befter word — of 
 such an oracle ; telling twenty different superintend- 
 ents how to manage their schools, as coolly and 
 unhesitatingly as a broker tells the price of gold 
 or bonds. And he did it with a certain epigram- 
 matic flourish, that snapped like a silk cracker to a 
 stage-driver's whip. As if he knew any thing about 
 the peculiarities of these various schools ! It is. 
 preposterous. 
 
 ''Some people call such 'replies' to the conun- 
 drums of the question box the ' practical ' pari of a 
 Sunday-school convention. For our part, we pro- 
 nounce these off-hand, yet 'cut and dried,' answers 
 to be of all things the most impracticable. Often 
 
Hunting Plans. 253 
 
 these so-called answers are not the expression of 
 even one man's experience ; your convention oracle, 
 who can answer questions faster than did that su- 
 perb old humbug at Delphi, not being every time a 
 Sunday-school man at all, except as he talks the 
 subject up or down, as the case may be. It is a 
 great mistake to suppose that the man who volun- 
 teers answers to all sorts of questions knows what 
 he is talking about. A strange fatality seems often 
 to seal the lips of those who really know how to do 
 things. But this is not so strange to us as the un- 
 failing eloquence of those who do not know how to 
 do any thing. 
 
 " We shall never forget a notable planter's con 
 vention, that met in a southern city some years ago. 
 There were not less than two hundred of the most 
 sagacious and successful planters in the country in 
 the convention ; but the chief speakers were three 
 fluent gentlemen who had a State reputation for be- 
 ing unsuccessful in whatever they had undertaken — • 
 a preacher, an ex-politician, and an editor. Which 
 was the greatest genius was hard to determine. But 
 neither of them knew what every body else knew — • 
 that they were, in spite of all their genius for fine 
 theorizing and fine talking, very impracticable vis- 
 ionaries. We suppose that neither one of theni 
 could make a living on the best farm in the land- 
 But they could speak. And speak they did, long 
 and often, and with a persuasive eloquence that won 
 
254 Our Children. 
 
 applause at least, and made men who had grown 
 rich on poor land ashamed to tell what sort of plows 
 they used. 
 
 *' What is the moral of this story ? Why, dear 
 brother, that you are not to carry home from the 
 next convention you attend, or to gather out of the 
 next over-confident article you may read, a whole 
 armful of new plans, devices, notions, tricks, and 
 charms, 'warranted to cure all diseases' known to 
 Sunday-schools." 
 
 Now in the face of all this we are going to ven- 
 ture something like an answer to our perplexed 
 brother's hard questions. 
 
 I. "What shall I do?" he asks. 
 
 A7iszuer, Do your best, not somebody else's best. 
 You can't be Brother A. of D., and Brother A. 
 can't be you. And your schools are as different as 
 their superintendents. The same plan does not suit 
 all soils. Moreover, if you attempt to imitate A. or 
 R., you will be sure to catch their weak points, and 
 apt to miss their strong ones. Remember David, 
 who would not fight with Saul's armor because he 
 had not ''proved it." He could do better with his 
 sling than with the king's sword and spear, his shield 
 and his helmet. But Saul, may be, could not have 
 used the shepherd-boy's sling at all. Most likely 
 he would have missed the giant, big as he was, and 
 given his own head a hard rap into the bargain. 
 
 To be sure, you are to find out how others do — • 
 
Hunting Plans. 255 
 
 how they fail as well as how they succeed. But 
 " prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." 
 
 2. " Why don't you tell us just how to conduct 
 the Sunday-school?" 
 
 Answer. We are too far off. We would have to 
 attend your school and work in it a month, for a 
 full month, as superintendent, before we could know 
 it well enough to guess at a solution of your par- 
 ticular difficulties. Managing Sunday-schools and 
 putting up prescriptions are quite different things. 
 The chemist has his acids and alkalies and such like. 
 He can follow the formula and is sure of the result. 
 It is always the same. But even he— if he be nei- 
 ther fool nor knave — would hesitate if called on to 
 put up a complicated prescription, combining new 
 and unknown elements, for an unknown ailment, 
 prescribed for by clairvoyance. You have seen some 
 of these wretched humbugs, pirates upon human- 
 ity, sailing under medical flags they have stolen. 
 Sometimes you see their pretentious advertisements, 
 proposing by clairvoyance to make in New York 
 an infallible diagnosis of some mysterious disease in 
 Texas, and to prescribe a certain and speedy cure. 
 
 Now did we even know exactly what is the matter 
 with your school, and did we know exactly what to 
 prescribe, you would not find it like putting up 
 prescriptions in a drug store. Those who manage 
 teachers, and parents, and children, and who must 
 themselves be managed, bannot work by exact for- 
 
256 Our Children. 
 
 mulae. Therefore, we can't tell you "just how to 
 conduct" your school; and no man who has good 
 sound sense will try. 
 
 But we may offer you a few hints in quite a gen- 
 eral way. 
 
 I. You are in earnest. This is well; it is essen- 
 tial. If you are not in earnest, we advise you and 
 beg you to resign at once. If you are not in ear- 
 nest, the only service you can do your school is to 
 resign. Would that more men had this grace to 
 resign when they are not in earnest, or, being in 
 earnest, have the misfortune to occupy wrong posi- 
 tions ! The wrong man in the right place is a very 
 unsatisfactory person. But you are in earnest, and 
 there is hope and the promise of great success in be- 
 ing in earnest. We have not yet learned the power 
 there is in downright earnestness. It can work im- 
 possibilities — to those who are not in earnest. 
 
 The school, dear brother, ought to rest on your 
 heart till you feel it. But take kindly a well-meant 
 caution ; dont fret over your school. Worry is 
 much worse than work. Worry often kills men, 
 work seldom. We have known many preachers fail 
 by being over-anxious to succeed. One case we re- 
 member quite distinctly. A brother — a man ot 
 gifts, graces, and energy — was appointed to a most 
 responsible charge. He ought to have succeeded 
 and would have done so had he known how to 
 manage himself. He started at his very best, and 
 
Hunting Plans. 257 
 
 strained himself lame trying to surpass his best 
 speed. He was soon ''knocked up." 
 
 We inquired after him of a friend who understood 
 tlie case, " How is Brother getting on?" 
 
 Our friend answered, " You have seen a picture 
 ol a race-horse on the course?" 
 
 *' Yes." 
 
 *' Did you observe that his ears were laid back, 
 and that his head and tail were both straight, and 
 about on a level with each other?" 
 
 "Just so." 
 
 " Well, that's the way Brother is ; he is fail- 
 ing because he is trying so hard to succeed." 
 
 And it was so — he exhausted himself with his 
 anxieties. 
 
 The best advice, for such a case, we ever received 
 was from a certain bishop, honored and beloved. We 
 were entering upon a work that we were afraid of — 
 it was too heavy for us. He saw the apprehension 
 that tried us, and one day he said, *' I want to give 
 you some advice." We fairly jumped with joy. 
 We wanted advice above all things, and from hnn 
 above all men. Sitting down by him, our willing 
 soul waited for the words of wisdom. We were in 
 for an hour's talk. This is what he said — all of it : 
 
 " Go to . Do your work the best you can. Trust 
 
 God, and don't worry about success." 
 
 The more we pondered his words the wiser they 
 
 seemed to us. They were providential. We took 
 17 
 
258 Our Children. 
 
 his advice, did our best, trusted God, and did not 
 worry about success. One result, at least, was, we 
 were happy, and what is more, were at rest while at 
 our work. 
 
 He who keeps himself strained up to his highest 
 running speed all the time does not make the best 
 progress on a long journey. There is much differ- 
 ence between a spurt and a four-mile course. And 
 when you come to make a long journey '* Dobbin " 
 and his "jog-trot " will beat *' Eclipse," or any other 
 racer at his best. Do not mistake morbid nervous- 
 ness for zeal. 
 
 2. Be systematic. It is one condition of success. 
 It is as needful in the Sunday-school as in the 
 counting-room or the machine shop. If you get at 
 loose ends you will soon ravel out. If the screws 
 and bolts of your engine are loose, you will soon 
 rattle it to pieces. And the faster you go the soon- 
 er it is done. But don't turn the screws too tight, 
 you may break something. Possibly a martinet in 
 the small matters of army-drill may be of some use , 
 but martinets have no business running Sunday- 
 schools. Genuine system is an easy-going thing. 
 Like well-made and well-oiled machinery, it runs with 
 little noise. If what you call system makes a noise, 
 or heats the axles, it is something else. True sys- 
 tem prevents and reduces friction ; the counterfeit 
 develops it. 
 
 We have seen brakcmen who knew exactly how 
 
Hunting Plants , 259 
 
 to stop a train. They applied the brake in such a 
 weiy as to bring down the speed regularly and easi- 
 ly, so that the train seemed to glide into a full stop. 
 The whole thing is so easily done that it wouldn't 
 wake a baby, or give an old man's rheumatism an 
 extra twinge. Others " put down the brake " with 
 such a wrench that the whole train groans, and quiv- 
 ers, and jumps, and bumps, and thumps, till sleep- 
 ing babies are rolled off the seats upon the floor, 
 mothers are frightened, old gentlemen hurt all over, 
 and every body is disturbed. 
 
 Happy is he whose system makes things go easily 
 instead of roughly. We have known superintend- 
 ents so intent on what they called system as to 
 destroy, by their ugly frowns, and quick, sharp ways, 
 and snappy words, and incessant bell-jingling, the 
 pleasure and profit of an entire Sunday morning. 
 Better not try to be systematic than to worry your- 
 self sick, and to make every body else miserable 
 about it. 
 
 True system avoids friction, and jolts, and jars, 
 and hurts. 
 
 3. Have patience as well as perseverance. These 
 graces are sometimes confounded with each other. 
 But they are very different, though sometimes beau- 
 tifully blended. There are more persevering than 
 patient people. We know people who will stick to 
 a thing through thick and thin, who will go through 
 what they undertake if it kills them ; but they fret. 
 
26o Our Children. 
 
 and growl, and whine, and complain, and criticise, 
 and scold from beginning to end. They have 
 perseverance such as it is. They drag the train 
 through, but with hot axles and damaged machin- 
 ery. Withal there is much smell of burning car 
 grease, and great danger of general conflagration. 
 
 Happy is he who perseveres in a good work 
 patiently ! 
 
 With this much concerning patience we say, stick 
 to your work. Perseverance will conquer — always 
 has conquered. And don't get out of heart if you 
 fail at first. Most people have failed twice where 
 they have succeeded once. Those who ever do any 
 thing worthy fail first. In fact we can't learn to do 
 some things till we fail. You are not the first man 
 who has failed ; you will not be the last. Remem- 
 ber your old copy — "Rome was not built in a day." 
 And that is not all ; Rome never got itself built 
 aright till it was burned down several times. Fail 
 and learn why. The lesson will redeem the failure. 
 This leads to success. Dear brother, hundreds of 
 schools fail and die because their superintendents 
 lose heart and quit. Do you stick to your work. 
 
 But, we say again, be patient. Take things easy, 
 although you must work very hard. You can work 
 hard and be quiet ; you can persevere and be pa- 
 tient. The fact is, you must be patient. There is 
 no getting on without it. You will have need of 
 patience. You will not find your teachers always in 
 
Hunting Plans. 261 
 
 their place, or always prepared to teach. Some- 
 times they will be late, sometimes they will be ab- 
 sent. All this is bad, but fretting and scolding 
 wont make it better — rather, worse. And some 
 people — if you are of any account — will find fault 
 with you. What of that? Are you the first good 
 man ever criticised, complained of, misrepresented ? 
 There have been always people who complain, and 
 criticise, and misrepresent. They called John the 
 Baptist a madman, and said he *' had a devil; " the 
 same people called Jesus a "glutton" and "a wine- 
 bibber." 
 
 Besides, you ought to remember how you used to 
 
 do when Brother was superintendent and you 
 
 were a teacher. You will remember that you gave 
 him some hard raps. May be he deserved criticism 
 — but not the raps. Perhaps you also deserve crit- 
 icism, and have received the *' raps " for good meas- 
 ure, according to the example you set. When a 
 man finds fault with you, instead of getting mad 
 and proving his accusation by the bad temper with 
 which you receive it, look into the matter. Per- 
 haps he is right. May be you can amend. If so, 
 what a duty — what a privilege ! 
 
 This brings us to name another grace — a ripe 
 fruit of the Spirit— meehtess. Perseverance is good, 
 patience is better, meekness is best. Can we not 
 say when the wise and the good, our best and truest 
 friends, reprove us : " Let the righteous smite me ; 
 
262 Our Children. 
 
 it shall be a kindness : and let him reprove me ; It 
 shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my 
 head : for yet my prayer also shall be in their ca- 
 lamities." 
 
 4. Study the lesson. The lesson is the central 
 idea. Drive a post down here. We do not forget 
 in saying this that the grand end is the salvation of 
 the children. That is always understood, but the 
 lesson is the central idea because it is about God 
 and Christ, and the true knowledge of God is the 
 grand means of salvation. Once more we say, if 
 you do not teach you fail. Exhortations, songs, ad- 
 dresses, anecdotes, and all manner of light drill, can- 
 not substitute the lesson. You must be an example 
 of studiousness to the teacher. Although you may 
 never hear a class, every teacher and scholar should 
 know that you make it a matter of conscience to 
 prepare every lesson. Want of study — hard, earnest 
 study — is one of the greatest evils among teachers 
 and scholars. If you, as superintendent, study the 
 lesson as you ought, there may be — there will be — 
 contagion in your example. 
 
 5. Be of good cheer. Despondent, morose you 
 must not be. For pity's sake, don't drive the light 
 out of young eyes by darkness in your own. It is a 
 high Christian duty to be cheerful. Christian cheer- 
 fulness is a grace, and it is also a means of grace. 
 But mind you, cheerfulness and levity are very dif- 
 ferent things. You have no business with levity. 
 
Hunting Plans. 263 
 
 If you have any conscience and know how responsi- 
 ble your office is, trifling you cannot be. Your 
 best spiritual power will evaporate if you fall into 
 habitual levity. Cultivate Christian cheerfulness. 
 If you have chronic melancholy, go on a marooning 
 expedition, or a buffalo hunt, or a whaling voyage, 
 or something, but don't throw a chill over a whole 
 Sunday-school by the clouds that darken your face. 
 
 6. Attempt and expect great tilings. " According 
 to your faith be it unto you." So spake the Master. 
 If you expect to fail, you will not be disappointed. 
 If you expect to fail, get out of the way at once. 
 It will save time, and perhaps '' feelings." There 
 are few sublimer words than Carey's, when he was 
 pleading for foreign missions before a prejudiced 
 .audience in Northampton, England. He had two 
 points in his sermon, thus : '' I. Attempt great things 
 for God. 2. Expect great things fro n God." 
 
 7. Ask God to help you. This you will do if you 
 attempt great things for God. Pray for guidance 
 and support. Above all, pray that you may have 
 in your own heart, as an abiding presence, " the 
 mind that was in Christ." Then you also will be 
 *' moved with compassion on souls." If your heart 
 is full of this feeling you will learn what it is neces- 
 sary for you to know. 
 
 Finally, dear brother, do your work earnestly, 
 systematically, perseveringly, patiently, meekly, stu- 
 diously, cheerfully, prayerfully. ^'Attempt great 
 
264 Our Children. 
 
 things for God ; " " expect great things from God ; " 
 leave results with God. The exhortation of St. Paul 
 is always appropriate for workers in God's field : 
 *' And let us not be weary in well-doing ; for in due 
 season we shall reap, if we faint not." And the ex- 
 hortation of St. James is always a good reproof of 
 our unbeHef : ** Be patient therefore, brethren, unto 
 the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman 
 waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath 
 long patience for it, until he receive the early and 
 latter rain. Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts : 
 for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." 
 
The Power of the Right Spirit. 265 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE POWER OF THE RIGHT SPIRIT. 
 
 THERE is no end to our discussions, in all sorts 
 of Church papers and Church conferences, of 
 method. Is there any evil in the Church, some- 
 body answers. Let us tighten this screw, or lengthen 
 this band, or shorten this shaft, or move this wheel. 
 Is there some trouble in the Sunday-school, some- 
 body suggests tinkering with its machinery. We 
 are too apt to consider these subjects in the spirit 
 of the machinest, who, detecting an irregularity of 
 motion, is sure that the trouble is in the machinery 
 itself, and that it can be remedied by overhauling 
 and readjusting its parts. The machinist is right. 
 The machinery cannot go wrong when its parts are 
 rightly adjusted and the requisite power is applied. 
 But nations, communities, families. Churches, Sun- 
 day-schools are not mere machines, and cannot be 
 forced into proper action by mechanical appliances. 
 There has been no end of experiments, great and 
 small, in this matter. Government and management 
 of men by mere force of machinery may seem to do 
 well enough for a time, but it is all wrong and contrary 
 to nature. It breaks down — it is obliged to do so. 
 We can estimate the power of an engine, and tell 
 
266 Our Children. 
 
 exactly what it can do. But we cannot do this in 
 our estimate of the influences that determine the 
 conduct and mold the character of men. " There is 
 a spirit in man," and the powers that affect him are 
 chiefly spiritual. He who would do good to men, 
 and does not know this, has every thing to learn. 
 
 For our part, we believe in system, order, method, 
 to the full extent of our capacity to understand 
 their value. We know that learning, genius, zeal, 
 often waste themselves in fruitless, self-destructive 
 exertions, for the lack of method. We have no 
 confidence in blind force. Crooked and gnarled 
 oaks cannot be split in straight lines, or by the blunt 
 end of the wedge with ever so great an outlay of 
 power. Power working in the wrong direction is at 
 a ruinous disadvantage, and the greater the power, 
 in such a case, the greater the danger, damage, and 
 disaster. Right adjustments seem to multiply power 
 indefinitely, for while they may not increase it ab- 
 solutely, they utilize it and show us the results — and 
 we judge power by its results. But when we are 
 considering the influences that move men, let us 
 never forget what it is easy to forget, what we can- 
 not overvalue or adequately aescribe, t/ie poiver of 
 the right spirit. 
 
 A young girl is married and moves into her new 
 home. She is inexperienced, and will often burn 
 her fingers, spoil the breakfast, and fret her soul be- 
 fore she attains to her mother's perfection in house- 
 
The Power of the Right Spirit, 267 
 
 keeping. The good mother may tell her all and 
 show her all, and furnish a whole library of books 
 on cooking and housekeeping ; but if the daughter 
 have not the true housewife spirit, she will fail in 
 spite of printed directions and maternal counsels. 
 But if she have the true housewife spirit she will 
 learn from all teachers, or learn without them. 
 
 If a boy have no inventive genius and no love for 
 the mechanic arts, the life-long study of models and 
 authorities would never make him an inventor. But 
 if he have the right mechanical spirit within him — 
 if he have true inventive genius, with teachers or 
 without them, he will learn. Deprive him of ordi- 
 nary facilities, he will make them for himself, or in- 
 vent better ones. Shut him up to his own resources, 
 and he will study dynamics from nature, and learn 
 from his failures the secret of success. 
 
 Books might be written filled with illustrations 
 of this principle. Artists, mechanics, scientific dis- 
 coverers, indeed, all the great workers, show that 
 they won success for their work by the power of 
 the right spirit that was in them. 
 
 Far more important than the question of method, 
 is that of the right spirit. For the right spirit will 
 surely find for itself the best methods for the exer- 
 tion of its power. Let our law-makers go on pei- 
 fecting, as best they can, the machinery of the 
 Church, but, above all, let them seek for the right 
 spirit in the work of the Church. Let our Sunday- 
 
268 Our Children. 
 
 school people find out and tell to others the best 
 methods ; but, above all, let them work in the right 
 spirit. We shall find, at last, that the right method 
 is a natural development and expression of the right 
 spirit. 
 
 We know a man who for several years accom- 
 plished a great deal of good as the superintendent of 
 two Sunday-schools. One of them was part of a rich 
 and strong Church, the other was called a " Mis- 
 sion-school." Tried by the final test, both schools 
 succeeded, because in both many children were 
 happily converted to God. But our friend was ill 
 at ease because many of the children remained un- 
 converted. This was well, and this anxious interest 
 in the salvation of the children was one secret of his 
 power. A superintendent who could be satisfied 
 while even one of his children is an unpardoned, 
 unsaved sinner, is unworthy his position. 
 
 On one occasion our friend wrote us a personal 
 letter, not intended for publication, but, as we give 
 no name, he will pardon us, should this ever meet 
 his eye, for trying to make his example useful to 
 others. 
 
 He gave some account of his work in the two 
 schools and wound up thus : — 
 
 '■'■ I shall make a special effort to secure the salva- 
 tion of these children. I believe that God will 
 grant me my desire. I pray for them, and I have 
 faith. I know he is a prayer-answering God. I 
 
The Pozvcr of the Right Spirit. 269 
 
 thank him for a humble place in which I can work. 
 Pray for me, my dear brother. I have the weight 
 and burden of these children upon my inmost soul.'* 
 
 And this m.an worked just as he wrote. Now to 
 this brother, and through him to others, we wish to 
 say several things. 
 
 First of all, he ought to be very thankful. To 
 have an earnest purpose to do good and glorify 
 God is a great blessing. Our friend is neither rich, 
 nor learned, nor eloquent. But God has given him 
 ''a place in which he can work," a heart for his 
 work, and grace to do his work. During several 
 years past he has been gaining in power and skill. 
 It was very hard and awkward at first. We were 
 with him at the beginning, and feared much that his 
 repeated failures would discourage him altogether. 
 But he learned wisdom, and grew in strength and 
 grace while trying to do what lay before him. Car- 
 lyle says truly in one place, and the words have 
 been a blessing to the writer of this little volume, 
 '' Do the duty that is nearest thee ; the next will 
 already have become plainer." 
 
 The children converted in these two schools dur- 
 ing our friend's superintendency were counted by 
 the score. One good, strong Church has grown out 
 of the mission-school. 
 
 In the short extract we have given from his letter 
 it is all explained. It is well to inquire diligently 
 concerning method, and means, and plans, and rem- 
 
270 Our Children. 
 
 edies. It is always best to work in the best way. 
 But if we feel as our brother did when writing his 
 letter to us, and while conducting his two Sunday- 
 schools, we will find out the best methods and plans. 
 If we do not feel so, all the plans and methods in 
 the world cannot help us. For zeal, patience, en- 
 ergy, good sense, faith, love, and prayer, there are 
 no substitutes. Lacking these, we must fail. Some 
 points in our friend's letter we must recall for a 
 moment. 
 
 " / thank Him for a /nimble place in zvhich to 
 worky We rejoice in the spirit of a man who 
 thanks God " for a place in which to work," although 
 it may be but a ''humble place." This is the 
 Christ-spirit, " I delight to do thy will, O my God." 
 A reluctant service discredits our profession and 
 destroys our usefulness. Whoever loves God aright 
 wiir be glad to labor in his cause, finding the dig- 
 nity and importance of the work in the source of 
 command, rather than in the nature of the work it- 
 self. So do the good angels rejoice to do the work 
 God gives them to do. We see one bringing a mes- 
 sage to the princely Abraham under the oaks at 
 Mamre, and another, with as swift wing and ready 
 grace, discovering to outcast Hagar a fountain of 
 water. The angels came singing over Bethlehem, 
 *' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good-will to men," to tell the world that the Re- 
 deemer-king was born in Bethlehem. Again we see 
 
The Power of the Right Spirit. 271 
 
 them keeping watch with the stars over dying Laz- 
 arus, and giving escort to his ransomed spirit as he 
 ascended to Abraham's bosom. 
 
 Fretting and whining over our work for God is 
 a sin. Gratitude to Him " who hath redeemed us 
 and bought us with his own blood," should make us 
 rejoice in his work. It is pitiable and shameful to 
 hear some men talk about the " sacrifices " — as they 
 say — of the Christian ministry ; to see a young man 
 " called of God to preach " the blessed Gospel, hes- 
 itating and shrinking and mourning over the '' sacri- 
 fice " he makes in '* giving up the law," or " medi- 
 cine," or '^ merchandise " — this is a shame to rouse 
 just indignation. If the great God condescends to 
 allow any poor, pardoned sinner to invite his fel- 
 low-sinner to Christ, he should shout for joy — he 
 should make his whole life an anthem of rapturous 
 gratitude. 
 
 David Livingstone, one of the truest heroes, most 
 devoted Christians, and most unselfish lovers of his 
 race, in writing of the dangers and hardships .of his 
 missionary travels in Africa has wisely and beauti- 
 fully written in his journal, and only a year or two 
 before he died : " I do not mention these privations 
 as if I consider them to be ^sacrifices ;' for I think 
 that the word ought never to be applied to any 
 thing we can do for Him who came down from 
 heaven and died for us." 
 
 Our brother furthermore understood very clearly 
 
2/2 Our Children. 
 
 that though machinery may be perfect, it is nothing 
 without power. Very many do not understand this. 
 Therefore, while doing his best to secure the most 
 thorough organization of his school, to ascertain and 
 employ the best methods of instructing and govern- 
 ing the children, he made the whole great work 
 committed to him a matter of special, earnest, and 
 continued prayer. It does not occur to a man who 
 is not deeply in earnest to pour out his soul in ask- 
 ing for divine aid — he does not feel the need of it. 
 It is only when the heart is " moved " with some- 
 thing like that " compassion " that Jesus felt for the 
 famishing multitude that the utter insufficiency of 
 all human strength is painfully felt. Then the good 
 man flies to the Strong for strength. 
 
 We commend to all who labor for the conversion 
 of children or adults — to pastors, superintendents 
 teachers, and parents — these words of our friend, who 
 felt that a great work was to be done, that it must 
 be done, that he was very weak, and that God was 
 almighty and willing to help him : — 
 
 " I believe that God will grant me my desire. I 
 pray for them ; I have faith. I know that he is a 
 prayer-answering God. I have the weight and bur- 
 den of these children upon my inmost soul." 
 
 If we " have the weight and burden of the chil- 
 dren upon our inmost 30ul," and if we "have faith" 
 also, we will solve all the difficulties of our work. 
 We will accept difficulties and discouragements as 
 
TJie Power of tJu Right Spirit. 273 
 
 part of our discipline, ind by divine grace will over- 
 come them all. Zeal, and faith, and love, will teach 
 us how to do all that the Master requires of us. 
 
 We cannot better conclude this chapter than by- 
 giving an extract from an article published in the 
 "Sunday-school Magazine" in January, 1873, ^^'^- 
 titled " A True History." The writer, whom we 
 know to be reliable, tells how one superintendent 
 succeeded in doing a good and great work in a city 
 in Alabama. The writer says : — 
 
 " About five years since the school was put under 
 the superintendence of an untried man, since which 
 time a new era in its history has commenced, with 
 much more satisfactory results. Now, our young 
 people remain with us, are punctual in their attend- 
 ance, and most warmly attached to the school — 
 promising to develop into just such a generation of 
 Methodists and Sunday-school workers as the times 
 and the people require. This change I, in common 
 with the other teachers, attribute to the influence 
 of the superintendent. Therefore, as showing the 
 best means for retaining our young people, I would 
 state what his course has been. 
 
 " When placed in charge he was comparatively 
 
 without experience, but was known as an earnest, 
 
 prudent worker. In addition to the usual routine 
 
 pointed out by the best publications to be had, two 
 
 general ideas appeared to have possession of his 
 
 mind, and to govern his administration: — 
 18 
 
274 Our Children. 
 
 *' I. That the Sunday-school had an evangelical, re- 
 ligious character to be developed and improved. 
 
 " 2. That the pupils were to be influenced by the 
 evangelical religious character and spirit of the 
 teachers. 
 
 *' This was placing the institution on a new basis, 
 causing it to be regarded rather as a children's 
 Church than a school— the object being the conver- 
 sion of the children under Gospel teaching, enforced 
 by loving hearts ; which result was prayed for and 
 expected, at any and all times, without waiting for 
 the influence of revival seasons, but hailing such op- 
 portunities with gladness, and using them to advan- 
 tage when they came. 
 
 " To make himself acquainted with the pupils he 
 visited them extensively ; so much so that few, if 
 any, of the two or three hundred members of the 
 school had failed to see him at their homes more 
 than once during the year; and in cases of sickness, 
 or other affliction, he was with them often as a sym- 
 pathizing friend. Thus hearts were warmed and 
 won. 
 
 " Having thus shown himself to be the most earn- 
 est worker among them all, the teachers were pre- 
 pared to submit to such changes as he suggested 
 among the classes when reorganizing. Worth, hith- 
 erto obscured, was brought out and employed, earn- 
 est industry in study was rewarded, and those of 
 artificial mold led to value real character. 
 
TJie Power of the Right Spirit. 275 
 
 " Each Sabbath found him well prepared to ap- 
 ply with tact and earnestness the main points in the 
 lesson to both teachers and pupils. His heart was 
 in his words, and his short, pithy sermons impressed 
 us all 
 
 '' Knowing, as he did, that most children who are 
 instructed sigh — if they do not cry out — for a knowl- 
 edge of '■ what they must do to be saved ' long before 
 such feelings are generally expected, he was always 
 on the watch for symptoms of the operation of 
 awakening grace, and prompt to treat them as the 
 case required. Such a spirit and example could not 
 fail to stimulate his teachers to more earnest work. 
 They, too, visited, exhorted, prayed, and watched : 
 and their appeals to the members of their respective 
 classes to give their hearts to Christ were not in 
 vain. Many have done this. No wonder, then, 
 that they love the Sabbath-school. 
 
 " Here, then, is the cure for the great evil we have 
 suffered by our young people leaving us. I repeat 
 with confidence : the Sunday-school, worked as an 
 evangelical, religious institution, and the Church 
 working earnestly in it, under a good superintend- 
 ent, will keep our young people with us. In day- 
 schools and colleges, in business and in society, the 
 young find those who want them — seeking them 
 where they may be found. And shall the Church 
 show less zeal or wisdom in this respect ? , . . 
 
 *' In conclusion, let me say that our prayer-meet- 
 
2/6 Our Children. 
 
 ings, class-meetings, Sabbath congregations, and 
 sacramental tables are now filled up with a due pro- 
 portion of the youth taught in our Sabbath-schools, 
 many of whom have now taken positions in business 
 and society ; yet they attend, and, from present in- 
 dications, will continue to do so. I again repeat, 
 here is the cure for the evil we suffer by our young 
 people leaving us : Work by the Church in the Sun- 
 day-school, tinder the directioji and leadership of a 
 right-minded superintendent . 
 
 " Is this too much to ask? 
 
 " This will we not say in word or act. If * the 
 love of Christ constrain us,' and if, for his sake, we 
 be wiUing to toil and to wait, we shall realize what 
 his word assures us : ' Our labor shall not be in vain 
 in the Lord.' " 
 
 Who of us all can measure the power of devotion, 
 of true enthusiasm for God's work by those who 
 love him ? Jean Ingelow says as beautifully as 
 truly, " The man to follow in any cause, let it be 
 what it will, is he who loves it well enough to fling 
 into it every thing he has in this world, and then 
 thinks that is not enough, and so flings himself in 
 after it. This last item often weighs down the 
 scales held in heaven, and he gets what he gave 
 himself for." 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 277 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A LIGHT IN A DARK PLACE. 
 
 WE have a friend who is young, educated, and 
 a Methodist. He is a cotton-planter, whose 
 plantation is in an out-of-the-way place. He lives 
 on his plantation, and has little congenial society. 
 Most of his neighbors are poor and ignorant. The 
 neighborhood church — Hopewell, they call it — is 
 weak. The house is uncomfortable, and the mem- 
 bership small. They lack, not only money and 
 numbers, but organization and enterprise. Hope- 
 well is really in a sad condition, and it is much to 
 be feared that the old logs are not the only things 
 that are falling into decay. One of the worst feat- 
 ures of the case is that the members have no confi- 
 dence in themselves. They are, as the soldiers used 
 to say, " demoralized." It is a bad state to be in — 
 for a man, a woman, a child, a family, an army, a 
 community, a Church, or a nation. It is the paral- 
 ysis of faith and the death of energy. 
 
 Hopewell has had no proper head since the good 
 man died who gave the land it is built on, and who 
 sleeps under the cedars in the little grave-yard close 
 by. The neighbors often think of him and talk 
 over his virtues, and wish that he were with them 
 
2/8 Our Children. 
 
 again. They would rejoice to see him in his place 
 once more. Dear old Brother Greatheart, every 
 body loved, trusted, and followed him. He was 
 every thing while he lived — the head, the tongue, 
 the hand, the foot, the purse of Hopewell. No 
 wonder they miss him. His advice was their law, 
 and his opinion was their gauge of the new preach- 
 er's abilities. If he frowned during the delivery of 
 the first sermon, or shrugged his shoulders when 
 they asked him what he thought, the new preacher's 
 fate was sealed — 'Mie wont do." If he smiled with 
 satisfaction, or wept under the exhortation, or 
 praised him when the benediction was pronounced, 
 he was accepted of all men. Candor compels us to 
 admit that Brother Greatheart was apt to like best 
 the preacher he had asked for when the presiding 
 elder was on his last round. But in this, perhaps, 
 he has many imitators, who mean well enough, but 
 whose pique at disappointment sometimes warps 
 their judgment of the new preacher's ability. 
 
 While Brother Greatheart lived he did whatever 
 was done at Hopewell. He was the greatest man 
 in their neighborhood ; and while some called him 
 '' Brother," others '' Father," or '' Uncle," or '' Grand- 
 father" Greatheart, the truth is, whether any of 
 them knew it or not, he was, while yet among them, 
 their real king. And no wonder, for they needed a 
 king, and Jeremiah Greatheart was their ablest and 
 best. 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 279 
 
 The commander of men," says Thomas Carlyle, 
 ■ is called Rex, Regulator, Roi ; our own word is 
 still better — King, Konning, which means, Can-ning, 
 able man." According to Mr. Carlyle, the true king 
 then, is one who Can. Brother Greatheart was, to 
 the Hopewell Church and neighborhood, such a 
 man. Another English writer, Mr. Freeman, de- 
 rives our word king after another fashion. Thus: 
 " Cyning, by contraction King, is evidently closely 
 connected with the word Cyn or Kin. The con- 
 nection is not without an important meaning. The 
 king is the representative of the race, the embodi- 
 ment of its national being, the child of his people 
 and not their father." This also made Brother 
 Greatheart king — he was kin to nearly every body 
 round about Hopewell, albeit rather in the relation 
 of father than child. Another eminent scholar, Sir 
 F. Palgrave, derives King from *'Cen," a Celtic word 
 signifying the head. By this token also Brother 
 Greatheart was king. He was their ablest man, 
 their head-man, and kinsman to them all. 
 
 Maybe some of our readers never heard of this 
 '' king of men," Brother Greatheart. They even 
 know more of Agamemnon. This proves that they 
 have never been to Hopewell. 
 
 We have sometimes thought that possibly Brother 
 Greatheart did too much — rather that the rest of 
 them did too little. They never did enough to find 
 out that they could do any thing. Their opinion 
 
28o Our Children. 
 
 was that Brother Greatheart was the best trustee, 
 class leader, steward, and manager-general of a 
 Church in the circuit, or in the conference. 
 
 When he died they were lost, and men and women 
 asked each other at his grave, "What will become 
 of Hopewell now?" They had depended on him so 
 long that they depended on him altogether. Emer- 
 son's brief and specific formula for the cure of ego- 
 tism they would have rejected with disdain if it had 
 been applied to Brother Greatheart, " The world 
 needs every man; but not much." And we have 
 seen some persons who aspired to be kings on a wid- 
 er scale, who seemed to us not to understand this. 
 
 At all events Brother Greatheart is dead, and the 
 dear people are like a little flock of sheep that have 
 lost their leader. What is to become of the little 
 Church we cannot tell. The old house will fall 
 down for one thing, if they will only let it alone an- 
 other winter or two. It is said that the presiding 
 elder is advising about " leaving it off the plan of 
 the circuit" next year. The outlook is certainly far 
 from promising. 
 
 Let us sum up the general status as things are 
 and have been for some time. The old Red-Oak 
 Circuit, which once boasted, when this writer was 
 on his first itinerant rounds, twenty-one appoint- 
 ments, has been divided and subdivided till we must 
 call, for propriety's sake, the little corner in which 
 Hopewell falls, Pea Patch Circuit. There are only 
 
A LigJit In a Dark Place. 281 
 
 five Churches, and Hopewell, being the weakest, is 
 the '' Saturday appointment." When they found 
 out that they were to have " Sunday preaching" no 
 more, they knew for certain that Brother Greatheart 
 was dead. As long as he lived he managed to 
 stave off this misfortune. But what is a poor circuit- 
 rider to do when he has five Churches, and each 
 one clamors for Sunday preaching? If there were 
 only five Sundays in every month he could fix it ! 
 As there are only four in most months, Hopewell 
 has had to compromise, that is, take what she could 
 get, on "Saturday preaching" once a month and 
 the " fifth Sundays." 
 
 It is said by some, with what truth we know not, 
 that since the circuit was reduced — one of the argu- 
 ments being that there would be more time for pas- 
 toral visiting — there is actually less pastoral visiting 
 then when the old Red-Oak numbered twenty-one 
 Churches. '' They say " the explanation is found in 
 the fact that the preacher can easily reach the most 
 distant appointment. Mount Carmel, by leaving 
 home after early breakfast Sunday morning. And 
 ''they say" furthermore, that first one cause and 
 then another often carries him home Sunday night. 
 Hopewell, as we fear, has "Saturday preaching" in 
 more senses than one. It seems that the preacher 
 is not expected to do his best at Hopewell, with its 
 small Saturday congregation. 
 
 So the preacher comes and goes, and the old 
 
282 Our Children. 
 
 church is generally closed till the next " circuit 
 preaching." There is a *' protracted meeting" just 
 after the " crop is laid by" and before " fodder-pull- 
 ing time."* This galvanizes them into unwonted 
 zeal, and they "start" a prayer-meeting that holds 
 on for about one month, and then dwindles down to 
 the brother w^ho '' sets the tune," and " who is fond 
 of it," — that is, of setting the tune. In the spring, 
 when other things are budding, the preacher " starts " 
 a Sunday-school. It rarely lives a month. 
 
 It is doubtful if they start any thing next year. 
 Sunday-school, prayer-meeting, and all will prob- 
 ably freeze down to the roots this winter. The fact 
 is, the preacher has lost heart and faith. Which 
 died first, his zeal or his faith, he himself, perhaps, 
 could not say. As to the Sunday-school, the people 
 have about concluded against it ; some that they 
 can't have it, others that they don't want it. Prac- 
 tically, the distinction between these opinions is not 
 worth pointing out. 
 
 Hopewell, as the case stands now, is virtually with- 
 out class-meeting, prayer-meeting, or Sunday-school. 
 How much preaching do they have? The Annual 
 Conference and its changes takes one appointment, 
 
 * This is a more important statement than some city reader may 
 imagine. A complaint was once made against the Rev, John Strick- 
 land, a pioneer preacher in Georgia, whose memory is still precious, 
 " that he would just as soon start a meeting right in the middle of 
 fodder-pulling time as any other time ' " 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 283 
 
 stormy weather another; and if for any cause, as 
 Quarterly or District Conference, or camp-meeting, 
 tlie preacher should ''call in" one appointment, 
 there are three months out of the twelve when 
 Hopewell has no preaching, or any thing else. Its 
 annual average is not above nine appointments for 
 regular ''circuit preaching." To these add fifth 
 Sundays, the " protracted meeting," an occasional 
 sermon by some good local preacher who compas- 
 sionates the "little flock," and we have the sum 
 total of public services for Hopewell Church during 
 the whole year. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that things get a little 
 loose sometimes. If matters cannot be improved 
 Hopewell had better be " absorbed " before it is 
 utterly " disintegrated." 
 
 But let us not misjudge them. There are good, 
 religious people at Hopewell. They would be glad 
 to do good if they only knew how. But the leading 
 man now, Brother Greatheart's oldest son, is not a 
 man who can. At least, he thinks lie cant, and that 
 is about the same thing. We are not sure that he 
 wants to lead, but as he is Brother Greatheart's son, 
 and is the best talker, or the most influential man 
 among them, the people wait for him and he waits. 
 So they have been going on, rather not going on, 
 for several years. 
 
 There are very few books among the neighbors 
 and but one " Advocate " is taken, and Widow 
 
284 Our Children. 
 
 Greatheart takes that. They pay a small part of 
 their small assessment for quarterage ; missionary 
 money and the '' conference collection " they do 
 not expect to be asked for. Some of the younger 
 ones have never heard these collections mentioned, 
 and do not know the difference between them. 
 The Hopewell people have only one general idea 
 about Church finances — that they can't do much. 
 But there is one other notion among them, vague 
 and nebulous; whence they derived it nobody 
 knows ; they think there is a " fund " somewhere 
 to keep things going. Perhaps they " evolved " the 
 notion from their knowledge of how very little they 
 do, and from the fact that the Church don't stop ! 
 Somehow the " preacher comes " every year, and 
 they conclude that there must be a '^ fund " some- 
 where. Alas ! this dreamy notion of a ^' big fund " 
 somewhere has made very small indeed the *' fund " 
 in many a poor preacher's pocket. What if the 
 preacher's " fund " of devotion to the cause were as 
 small as his money " fund ? " 
 
 Of course Hopewell don't grow — it can't. It has 
 nothing to grow on. It does not quite hold its 
 own, the gain from the protracted meeting not 
 keeping up with the loss by emigration, death, and 
 defection. The older people are getting older and 
 will soon be gone ; but few of the young people are 
 being brought into the Church. Some of them go 
 to other Churches. 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 285 
 
 The Baptists — the missionary Baptists, we mean — 
 are "wise in their generation." They have been 
 concentrating of late. They have a few strong, well 
 located Churches — the river in one end of the 
 county and the creek in the other winding about 
 quite conveniently. Now and then they get some 
 of Hopewell's young people. Old Sister Greatheart 
 took a quiet cry when they told her that one of her 
 granddaughters, and a namesake at that, had been 
 ** immersed." We have not the heart to blame the 
 child much. Bethabara has a very good Sunday- 
 school in which Bessie learned some very sweet 
 songs, and there was a crowd there and it looked 
 like something. For our part we had a thousand 
 times rather she would join at Bethabara than stay 
 out in the cold. But some of the young people go 
 nowhere, unless it be to a singing-match at some 
 neighbor's. This furnishes a pretext for idling and 
 talking through the Sunday. 
 
 Widow Greatheart took a much harder cry soon 
 after Bessie's conversion when she learned that Bes- 
 sie's brother had spent a whole Sunday rabbit hunt- 
 ing. It was enough to have broken his old grand- 
 father's rest if he only knew it. We hope he did 
 not. We heard a quaint old preacher say once : 
 " No bad news goes to heaven ; all letters sealed in 
 black go to hell." Who knows ? 
 
 What has all this to do with our friend the cotton 
 planter, who is young, educated, and a Methodist? 
 
286 Our Children. 
 
 Much every way. First of all he lives there, and 
 not by chance. His father owned the place before 
 the war and kept a '' quarter " there. Since the 
 war the old gentleman has died — entered into his 
 eternal rest, there is every reason to believe. In the 
 division of his estate this out-of-the-way place fell to 
 our friend, his eldest son. He does not like living 
 there, and this is natural. It seems never to have 
 occurred to him that there may be a providence 
 in his going there to live. But he may be sure 
 of one thing — it did not all come about by 
 chance. A man's life in this world is not ordered 
 by chance. 
 
 It is quite true that money-getting carried our 
 young friend, Mr. John Pushon, to the Hopewell 
 neighborhood, but he must mix his religion with his 
 business or he will lose his religion, and perhaps 
 fail in his business. We hope so, at any rate, for 
 nothing is plainer, as we read the Book of God and 
 the book of human life, than that the more a man 
 succeeds in this world, if at the expense of his re- 
 ligion, the worse it is for him. He who wins what 
 men call prosperity on any other plan than God's 
 plan wins ruin. 
 
 Now young Pushon's tastes incline him to keep 
 his membership in the town Church, ten miles off. 
 He has not yet '' taken out his letter." If he will 
 not '* put it in " at Hopewell, he had better not. 
 We have a young friend for whom life has a bright 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 287 
 
 and glorious future — unless he himself spoil and 
 pervert his fine gifts and fair opportunities. But he 
 ^' took his letter out " some years ago, carried it 
 awhile, and then destroyed it. We fear for him. 
 This violent sundering of the last tie that bound 
 him to the fellowship of the Church is ominous. It 
 appears to us as if a planet had left its orbit and 
 were drifting. In its orbit is brightness and safety ; 
 out of it is darkness and danger. 
 
 But our young friend's taste must not determine a 
 question like this. There is a higher law than taste 
 or sentiment. In the order of Providence he lives 
 among the people of Hopewell, and not among the 
 people of the town whom he likes so well — and it is 
 his duty to God to help them. They need help, 
 the help he can give. They already look up to him, 
 and last fall changed the big road to accommodate 
 him. Soon afterward he was called in to write a 
 will for a neighbor. They would take him, young 
 as he is, to be their Rex, Regulator, Can-ning man, 
 if he would only be and do what he ought. 
 
 Of course he prefers to drive to town on Sunday 
 morning behind his quick-stepping bays, and listen 
 to the eloquent '' stationed preacher." We may re- 
 mark, in passing, that it is a " tight squeeze " to run 
 the little town on the " station " schedule, and mak- 
 ing it a station nearly killed the circuit to which it 
 used to belong. Perhaps, too, our friend likes to 
 hear the organ and choir performance. But shall 
 
288 Our Children. 
 
 likes, and preferences, and sentiments- -dashed with 
 a little carnal pride — settle a question like this? 
 
 We now call upon our friend, young Brother 
 Tushon, to consider, seriously and prayerfully, that 
 he is there with the Hopewell people, and that 
 they need him. He has money, education, system, 
 energ}^, experience, and religion. If he does not 
 use his gifts he will lose most, if not all, of his re- 
 ligion. In town he fills his pew at morning preach- 
 ing and pays his quarterage, but he is too far off 
 to be a working member. But he does work his 
 horses harder than is becoming on Sunday when, in 
 busy times, he drives to town in the morning and 
 home in the evening. Of course he misses the 
 Sunday-school and the Wednesday night prayer- 
 meeting. 
 
 The town Church *' needs him — but not much." 
 They can do without him, Hopewell needs him, 
 and, as it seems, may die without him. And what 
 a sad thing it is to see even a poor little Church like 
 Hopewell die? It will die not alone. 
 
 One other thing we will tell our young, friend, 
 and we hope he will understand it and take it kind- 
 ly. He needs Hopeiuell. This he may not know. 
 He may deny that he has any such need, but he 
 does need Hopewell nevertheless. Hopewell fur- 
 nishes the best conditions for his true spiritual 
 growth. If he turns away from the need of Hope- 
 well he will never be — he can never be-^the man he 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 289 
 
 ought to be — he might be. True and earnest work 
 for Christ among Christ's poor at Hopewell will de- 
 velop the Christly character in him as nothing else 
 in this world will or can do. 
 
 When our young friend was a penitent — when 
 deeply convicted of sin as well as for sin, he felt that 
 he was vile as well as wicked — when he felt his feet 
 sinking down in the mire of the horrible pit, then he 
 promised God that he would do any thing for Christ 
 that he might require of him. Will he keep his 
 .solemn vow ? This is now about the first great 
 duty that has been required of him. God gives him 
 opportunity to use all his gifts and graces in build- 
 ing up Hopewell Church. Let him do it. Oppor- 
 tunities to do good never come by chance. God 
 sends them. Every opportunity is a divine call. 
 The house ready to tumble down, the scattered 
 flock, the children going wild, the poor lambs hun- 
 gry and bleating about the fold and no shepherd to 
 care for and feed them — all these call him, as the 
 man of Macedonia called Paul and Silas when they 
 were asleep at Troas and waiting to know the will 
 of God. 
 
 And in St. Paul's words do we press our exhorta- 
 tion upon our young friend: "As we have therefore 
 opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially 
 unto them who are of the household of faith." 
 
 "Ye are the light of the world," said the Master. 
 
 •* A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither 
 19 
 
290 Our Children. 
 
 do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but 
 on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that are 
 in the house. Let your light so shine before men, 
 that they may see your good works, and glorify 
 your Father which is in heaven." 
 
 Fearful is his guilt, awful is his responsibility who 
 *' digs in the earth and hides his Lord's money," 
 and who, in the great day of account, can only say, 
 " Lo, there thou hast that is thine ! " Men talk 
 of humility, modesty, and shrink away from their 
 work, and plead '* fear of the responsibility," and 
 decline the task assigned them. Fear of responsi- 
 bility, indeed ! Well may they fear the responsi- 
 bility of refusing to do what God commands, for it 
 is heavy indeed. 
 
 What a beautiful, holy, and, therefore, happy life 
 opens before our young friend if he is only wise 
 enough to be led by the good Providence that has 
 watched over and blessed him always. He may be 
 as a " light shining in a dark place." What a priv- 
 ilege, what an honor, what a blessing, to reflect the 
 light he has borrowed from Jesus! 
 
 Fame among men he may not win at Hopewell, 
 but he will be known and honored among the good 
 angels. As surely as God lives and takes account 
 of the lives of men, for our young friend and for 
 every one of us, the post of duty — not pleasure, 
 nor riches, nor fame, nor honor, nor power — is the 
 post of safety and true blessing for this world and 
 
A Light In a Dark Place. 291 
 
 the world to come. Very beautiful is the legend, 
 preserved by some old author, of the monk to whom 
 there appeared, while at prayer in his cell, a glori- 
 ous vision of our Saviour. In silent and adoring 
 rapture he gazed upon the glorious presence. While 
 he gazed the hour arrived at which it was his duty 
 to feed the poor who came to the convent gate for 
 their bread. The bell rang, calling the monk to his 
 humble duty. How he longed to stay! But linger- 
 ing not to enjoy the vision, he went his way to the 
 lowly work of dividing bread among the poor beg- 
 gars at the gate. When he returned he found the 
 blessed vision still waiting for him. As he looked 
 again he heard these words, " Hadst thou stayed I 
 must have fled !" 
 
 And it is always so ; the Saviour manifests him- 
 self to those who do the work he has given them to 
 do, no matter how humble, how obscure it is. For 
 Jesus does not measure our work after the manner 
 of men. All work is great that he appoints ; all 
 duty holy that he enjoins. 
 
 As truly as beautifully does Schiller sing the 
 praise of duty done : — 
 
 " What shall I do to be forever known ? 
 
 Thy duty ever. 
 This did full many who yet slept unknown — 
 
 O, never, never ! 
 Thinkest thou, perchance, that they remain unknown 
 
 Whom thoic knowest not ? 
 By angel trump in heaven their praise is blown, 
 
 Divine their lot. 
 
292 Our CinLPREN. 
 
 "What shall I do to gain eternal life? 
 
 Discharge aright 
 The simple dues with which each day is rife ? 
 
 Yea, with thy might. 
 Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise 
 
 Life will be fled, 
 While he who ever acts as conscience cries 
 
 Shall live though dead I " 
 
Stoves as a Mea7is of Grace, 293 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STOVES AS A MEANS OF GRACE. 
 
 THERE are many churches, particularly in the 
 southern and western parts of our country, in 
 the condition of Hopewell, so far, at least, as general 
 discomfort is concerned. At its annual session, De- 
 cember, 1 87 1, one of the oldest, strongest, and best 
 organized Annual Conferences of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, appointed a committee 
 to investigate the condition of church buildings. 
 We fear much that this Conference can make as 
 good a showing as the average. Since the session 
 referred to there has been some improvement in the 
 general condition of church buildings in this Con- 
 ference, but not enough to justify congratulations. 
 
 We copy the report of the committee, omitting 
 only the names of the districts lest we give offense, 
 numbering them instead. 
 
 '' The Committee on Church Buildings beg leave 
 to report : — 
 
 "There are in District No. i, churches, 46; ceiled 
 or plastered, 25 ; with stoves, 22. In District No. 2, 
 churches, 53; ceiled or plastered, 34; with stoves, 
 19. In District No. 3, churches, 64; ceiled or 
 plastered, 16; with stoves, 11. In District No. 4, 
 
294 Our Children. 
 
 churches, I02; ceiled or plastered, 3; with stoves, 5. 
 In District No. 5, churches, 45 ; ceiled or plastered, 
 13; with stoves, 12. In District No. 6, churches, 
 50; ceiled or plastered, 18; with stoves, 18. In Dis- 
 trict No. 7, churches, 65; ceiled or plastered, 7; 
 with stoves, 8. In District No. 8, churches, 48; 
 ceiled or plastered, 20; with stoves, 14. In District 
 No. 9, churches, 64; ceiled or plastered, 24; with 
 stoves, 31. In District No. 10, churches, 69; ceiled 
 or plastered, 17; with stoves, 1 1. Total, churches, 
 606; ceiled or plastered, 177; with stoves, 151 ; with- 
 out ceiling or plastering, 429; without stoves, 455." 
 
 We have here a fruitful text, but it would take a 
 long while to expound and apply it. It contains 
 history and prophecy, explaining many failures, and 
 portending many more. We can only attempt, in 
 this place, to indicate some of the main points, and 
 to make, what the old divines used to call, "some 
 improvements," by way of application. 
 
 Here are 606 churches, counting big and little. 
 Some of them are very little; no churches at all, 
 only preaching-places ; often the neighborhood 
 school-house. Of the 606 only 177 have ceiling or 
 plastering: 429 of them are shells, only weather- 
 boarded, or else logs, with cracks between of indefi- 
 nite size and number. These 429 unceiled, un- 
 plastered shells, or log-pens, make out a '' true 
 bill " against us. 
 
 It is not a question of mere poverty; a great 
 
Stoves as a Means of Grace. 295 
 
 many of these little frames, shells, and pens were 
 built before the war. Many of them were found in 
 rich neighborhoods. People who lived in fine houses 
 were content to worship in log-pens. And even 
 since the war, in many communities, these wretched 
 apologies for churches are out of all relation to the 
 comfort and ability of the people who live around 
 them. We have gone to meeting with people who 
 lived in fine houses, displayed silver on their tables, 
 walked on carpets, and rode in carriages, to worship 
 in a little twenty by thirty frame, or pen, with big 
 cracks, loose floors, '^ puncheon " seats, and other 
 appropriate accompaniments. There is no fancy in 
 this picture — nothing but hard, cold fact. The 
 memory of such places almost brings back the chills 
 we had in trying to preach in them. We can give. 
 by the dozen, names, places, and dates. On this 
 subject wx have been slow to learn and slower to 
 reform. Such is the present state of facts. It is 
 not creditable to our past history, or encouraging 
 for our future prospects. 
 
 Of 606 churches, 429 were without ceiling or plas- 
 tering, and 455 without stoves; 177 were ceiled or 
 plastered, and 151 had stoves. A number of the 
 ceiled or plastered houses are without stoves, so 
 that we find a number, iinceiled and unplastered, 
 with stoves. In such a case the stove is, of course 
 at a disadvantage. 
 
 What discomfort these fig^ures reveal ! O, brother 
 
296 Our Children. 
 
 preacher, trying to preach with chattering teeth! 
 O, shivering remnants of congregations, trying to 
 hear such a preacher with cold toes, and blue noses, 
 and chattering teeth also ! let us all, preachers and 
 hearers, join hands, and hearts, and voices, and 
 pens, dind purses, and remedy these things! 
 
 What are some of the results? In the first place, 
 our Sunday-schools in nearly all country places 
 break down inevitably soon after the first white- 
 frost in October, and then go into torpor and semi- 
 death, what we call " winter-quarters," till the flowers 
 come again in the spring. 
 
 Here let us press what a great many do not seem 
 rightly to apprehend — the great body of our south- 
 ern and western people live in the country and in 
 the small villages. Of large cities there are but 
 few. Ours is a rural, agricultural population. We 
 took the trouble once to look somewhat carefully 
 into this matter. Taking the statistical reports of 
 one Southern Conference for 1870 we found a total 
 membership of 41,247. Now what proportion of 
 these members belonged to what we call " stations," 
 that is, charges that enjoy the weekly sermons and 
 the exclusive pastoral services of their preacher? 
 To the stations of this Conference there belonged, 
 in 1870, 6,101 members, leaving 35,146 in the cir- 
 cuits. In another conference for that year we found 
 a total membership of 22,657; of these 4,212 be- 
 longed to the stations, 18,445 ^o ^^e circuits. 
 
Stoves as a Meajis of Grace. 297 
 
 The circuits are made up of the country churches 
 and the small villages. The great part of our popu- 
 lation, as well as of our membership, live in the vil- 
 lages and in the country. Some persons, in their 
 theories, plans, and law-making, seem to overlook 
 these facts. In this they are not wise. We should, 
 by all means, adapt our plans to the needs of the 
 few large cities we have, but let us also remember 
 who and what our people are, where and how they 
 live. 
 
 These figures — in one conference 6,101 members 
 in the stations and 35,146 in the circuits, in the 
 other 4,212 in the stations and 18,445 ^^ the circuits 
 — will show how important is every thing that re- 
 lates to the spiritual welfare of our people who live 
 in the rural districts. For the great majority of 
 them live there. Whatever, therefore, contributes 
 to the efficiency of these wonderful '* circuits" 
 blesses the whole people, for it blesses the great 
 majority of them ; whatever hinders the circuit, hin- 
 ders the whole Church. Now the great majority of 
 the 455 Churches, mentioned above, that are with- 
 out stoves, and of the 429 that are neither ceiled 
 nor plastered, belong to the circuits. When we 
 write, therefore, of stoves as a means of grace, we 
 are considering a subject of at least very general 
 importance. As a matter of course, with such un- 
 furnished and uncomfortable churches the majority 
 of our country Sunday-schools must, of necessity, 
 
298 Our Children. 
 
 suspend during the winter months. How great is 
 this evil, and how wide-spread ! 
 
 A few years ago a dear little girl living some- 
 where in Arkansas wrote us a letter which only told 
 what thousands of children might have wTitten of 
 hundreds of Churches. We give her letter entire, 
 except the address, the signature, and a personal 
 item : — 
 
 " Our Sunday-school closed a few weeks ago in 
 consequence of the cold weather, and we are obliged 
 to spend the Sabbath at home. How I wish we 
 could always have Sunday-school ! I like so much 
 to go to Sunday-school and read my Testament. I 
 like to study for the prizes offered by our superin- 
 tendent, all of which are so nice. But I like most 
 to learn something about our Saviour and his fol- 
 lowers. But I will anxiously await the approach of 
 spring, and the opening of our much-loved Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 December %, 1871. 
 
 And yet the people in her neighborhood did not 
 freeze around their comfortable fires at home, and 
 nothing went into winter-quarters but the Sunday- 
 school and the Church ; unless, indeed, we should 
 add the snakes, bears, mud-turtles, and such like. 
 Notably the devil went into no winter-quarters. 
 His schools were kept open, and warm, and full. 
 The ball-room, the drinking saloon, the gambling 
 
Stoves as a Means of Grace, 299 
 
 den — these managed to keep themselves warm and 
 crowded. Would that we could write words that 
 would kindle fire enough to thaw some of these 
 little country schools and Churches out of their an- 
 nual torpor! 
 
 One great trouble results from the habit of sus- 
 pending in October. It is plainly, with most of 
 them, a chronic case. In most country churches 
 nothing else is attempted or expected. The schools 
 fade and die, and fall as regularly as the leaves do. 
 Most people seem to think that it is equally a mat- 
 ter of course. We know some schools that have a 
 formal meeting in October. They sing, speak, eat, 
 sing and speak again, march and countermarch, and 
 then adjourn to a day set somewhere about the first 
 Sunday in the next April ! They actually march 
 into their winter graves with banners flying and to 
 the sound of music ! They call it the " fall picnic ! " 
 To us, it looks very like a funeral. 
 
 But really this is far better than another and 
 more common plan — rather no plan — falling to 
 pieces by degrees. If our schools will not, or can- 
 not, go on through the entire winter, by all means 
 let them adjourn in good order, with a pledge all 
 round to meet as soon next February as the 
 " hedge-hog, coming out of his hole, can see his 
 shadow in the sun," or, at farthest, as soon as the 
 buds begin to swell. But, at best, it is a sad 
 busines5. this packing up song-books, folding away 
 
300 Our Children. 
 
 • banners, breaking up classes for nearly six months 
 in the year. 
 
 We have reason to believe that of something over 
 300,000 children reported in the Sunday-school sta- 
 tistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South — 
 and we are persuaded our beloved Southern Baptist 
 brethren are no better off — at least one hundred and 
 fifty tJioiisand are annually denied the benefit of 
 Sunday-school instruction during the entire winter. 
 This is a woeful state of things — the loss and damage 
 we suffer are incalculable. We lose time, books, 
 organization, esprit^ opportunity, every thing that 
 makes a Sunday-school good and useful. We ravel 
 out like an unhemmed carpet ; we rust out like pol- 
 ished steel exposed to salt water and all changes of 
 weather. The trouble of organization has to be 
 gone through with every spring; a month or two 
 passes away before the machinery, rusted by ex- 
 posure to winter rains, gets into working order. O, 
 the loss of time, waste of power, neglect of op- 
 portunity — of opportunity that can come no more 
 forever ! 
 
 Last winter we passed a field where a fifteen-dol- 
 lar plow was standing in the last furrow it made. 
 There it had been standing for months. It was red 
 with rust — the stock and handles black with mildew. 
 The man's wagons were out in the yard ; a M'Cor- 
 mick reaper was divided, part in the yard, part in 
 the field, and part under shelter ; and his farm 
 
Stoves as a Means of Grace. 301 
 
 under mortgage for the guano he had used to make 
 cotton enough to pay for the tools and implements 
 he bought last year ! His smoke house was in Cin- 
 cinnati, his corn crib in Chicago ! The few hogs he 
 had were in his garden ; while his poor cows — their 
 hair turned the wrong way in premonition of their 
 death in the spring — were drawn up in a shivering 
 group around a pile of straw that was rotting in the 
 field ! There were five dogs, and not a ram, ewe, 
 wether, or lamb — black sheep or white sheep — in 
 sight ! And yet this man was a member of '' Mount 
 Hope Grange," attended agricultural conventions, 
 and talked about farming and co-operative industry ! 
 
 How much wiser, thriftier are we with four hun- 
 dred and twenty-nine churches in one Conference 
 without ceiling or plaster, mere shells and log- 
 pens, and many of them with only board covers — 
 with four hundred and fifty-five churches without 
 stoves? 
 
 What does it all mean? How in the world did 
 we ever fall into such a style of doing things ? And 
 what are we going to do about it ? 
 
 We hibernate, but the devil does not. What 
 royal sport he has about Christmas, catching our 
 young people who have neither preaching nor Sun- 
 day-school ! Young blood does not go to sleep ; 
 and while their timid fathers are trying to keep 
 warm at home, the young people are seeking enter- 
 tainment abroad. 
 
302 Our Children. 
 
 But there is no Sunday-school. One " monthly 
 appointment " is " called in " during the transition 
 of the Annual Conference, so that at least two 
 months pass away — as we saw in the case of Hope- 
 well Church in our last chapter — before circuit 
 preaching comes again. If it should rain on the 
 Sabbath of the first appointment, it frequently hap- 
 pens that three months pass away before the old 
 log-house is opened, unless some good local preacher 
 goes through the form of worship with a shivering 
 skeleton of a congregation, the preacher too cold to 
 preach, and the people too cold to hear. Thus it 
 comes to pass that the whole machinery runs down. 
 The Sunday-school goes first, the prayer-meeting 
 soon follows, and preaching becomes a penance on 
 cold Sundays, if it is attempted at all. 
 
 These uncomfortable churches are responsible for 
 many things besides the death of hundreds of Sun- 
 day-schools, and what a " slaughter of the inno- 
 cents " this is ! 
 
 This state of things touches the finances of the 
 preachers most materially. The people do not go 
 to Church, the steward does not see them, and 
 the preacher does not get his money. We remem- 
 ber one Quarterly Conference — we could easily give 
 names — in a certain circuit in Georgia, in 1869. 
 There were seven or eight churches, most of them 
 stoveless and cheerless as could be. There was one 
 little church that was thoroughly comfortable. It 
 
Stoves as a Means of Grace. 303 
 
 was plcistered around and ceiled above. They had 
 a good stove, and the fire was kindled every Sunday 
 morning with dry wood kept for the purpose. They 
 had never gone into winter-quarters — congregation 
 and Sunday-school running a steady schedule all the 
 year round. That Church came within a few dol- 
 lars of paying its whole assessment for the year at 
 the first Quarterly Conference, held in February. It 
 paid twice as much as all the rest put together. 
 
 After comparing a great many facts we found the 
 following to be a general rule : The more comforta- 
 ble the house, the better the pay during the winter 
 months; the meaner the house the smaller the pay. 
 And this does not depend on the matter of compar- 
 ative ability. But churches that are frozen all win- 
 ter never pay much till another summer thaws them 
 out, and another crop brings relief. 
 
 In the North and North-west the winter is the re- 
 vival season. It is a time of abundant leisure, and 
 the severity of the climate has compelled the people 
 to provide against it. In Maine and Minnesota they 
 make their churches comfortable enough in the 
 depth of winter — even with snow piled up to the 
 window-sills — for profitable protracted and revival 
 meetings. They have found out the value of 
 comfortable churches. Unfortunately, perhaps, our 
 Southern winters are not rigorous enough to com- 
 pel us to make adequate provisions for them, but 
 too cold to be comfortable without fire. 
 
304 Our Children 
 
 A winter revival in a Southern country church 
 would be a phenomenon. We remember one in- 
 stance in the mountain region of Cherokee, Georgia. 
 It was a quarterly meeting occasion at one of those 
 wretched little log-houses, with a big door at one 
 end and a big fire-place at the other, the door gen- 
 erally open and the fire-place generally fireless. It 
 was in March and unusually balmy for the season. 
 On Saturday night three persons presented them- 
 selves for prayer, and one of them professed conver- 
 sion. Next morning, lying awake with our eyes 
 shut, in the " big room " of our host, while the 
 brethren who spent the night with us were talking 
 around the fire, a brother began to comment on the 
 meeting of the night before. We were trying to 
 make out our plan of the morning sermon, but one 
 remark of the brother effectually broke up our ser- 
 monizing. He spoke of the three persons who went 
 forward for prayer, and particularly of the one who 
 professed conversion. It had surprised him much, 
 and he told more than he knew of " Salem's " his- 
 tory in his comment: ''Well, I never did see any 
 body converted this time of the year before ! " The 
 period between " laying-by " and *' fodder-pulling 
 time" was, in his opinion, the true canonical revival 
 season. Ke really seemed to doubt whether the 
 person who had '' professed" was truly converted — 
 was it not the wrong time of the year? 
 
 Hqw much bad preaching has been done because 
 
Stoves as a Means of Graee. 305 
 
 the preacher's toes were cold, his hands were cold, 
 his whole body cold, his mind benumbed, and his 
 poor heart cold too ! How much bad hearing for 
 the 3ame reasons ! And how could preacher or con- 
 gregation keep warm, when a dozen big cracks let 
 in the whistling west wind, or the blighting east 
 wind? Cracks in the floor, cracks in the weather- 
 boarding, cracks in the roof, cracks in the sermon, 
 cracks every-where ! We saw a church in January, 
 1875, that had over forty panes of glass out of its 
 windows, and yet the people — the unreasonable 
 people — complained of being cold ! 
 
 Is this evil to go on forever? Shall we hand 
 down to our children what is, perhaps, the worst 
 legacy our Methodist fathers — of blessed memory — 
 left to us ; wretched shells and pens instead of 
 churches, and, what is worse, a state of chronic 
 contentment therewith? 
 
 Now, we ask in all soberness, is this sort of an- 
 nual hibernation, with perhaps three fourths of our 
 country membership, to become the settled policy 
 of our Church? Then let us provide for it by stat- 
 ute, and " put it in the Discipline." Is it really a 
 Wesleyar or an Asburian feature ? 
 
 Are we never to learn that what a few hun- 
 dred country churches have done, all our country 
 churches can do — provide comfortable houses, and 
 keep up Sunday-schools, and prayer-meetings, and 
 
 profitable preaching perpetually? We can make 
 20 
 
3o6 Our Children. 
 
 our churches comfortable. Some have done it ; all 
 can, if they will. 
 
 We will agree to debate with any man who will 
 deny the following propositions: — I. Wood placed 
 in a stove and set on fire in a country church will 
 generate heat as certainly as in a town church. 
 2. We can make a log-church warm as easily as we 
 can make a log-dwelling warm. If, after full and 
 fair argument and experiment, we fail to convince 
 or silence him, we will agree to give him up — to 
 hibernation. 
 
 We rejoice to hear of fine churches erected in the 
 cities — provided our people do not go over their 
 ears and eyes in debt for them. We are not afraid 
 that too many will be built. But just now we would 
 rather hear of a great number of well-planned, 
 well-built, well-furnished churches dedicated in the 
 country. Our brethren in the country are able to 
 provide themselves with comfortable churches. Let 
 the reform begin. And let them begin in time. A 
 prudent man gets ready for winter before winter 
 comes. The example of the man who would not 
 patch his broken roof " in fair weather because then 
 it didn't leak, nor in bad weather because he wouldn't 
 work in the rain to patch any body's roof, even his 
 own," is not to be commended for its far-sightedness. 
 
 If Hopewell, or Speedwell — and this last was the 
 very pokiest church we ever knew — has a good 
 house that only needs a stove, let them buy a stove. 
 
Stoves as a Means of Grace. 307 
 
 If the house is only a hull, plaster or ceil it. If it 
 is only a log-house, and they can do no better, God 
 will accept the log-house and bless the people when 
 they worship in it, if tJicy " chink the cracks!' and 
 make it warm enough for their children to study GocTs 
 word in I But will he accept a house with huge 
 spaces between the logs, that lets in the cold to 
 drive out his children ? We trow not. 
 
 One thing more we say at this place, and the fact 
 we commend to the meditations of all concerned : 
 it is not the fault of the children that our Sunday- 
 schools are broken up during the winter. 
 
 O for some country Haggai, with the true fire of 
 a reformer and the true spirit of temple-building in 
 him, to rise up in our midst and preach to us " re- 
 pentance;" repentance for our thousands of bleak 
 and cheerless '' meeting-houses," for our suspended 
 Sunday-schools, broken-down prayer-meetings, our 
 scattered congregations, and our poorly paid preach- 
 ers ! How pitiable would be our condition if we 
 could do no better ! how guilty our negligence, and 
 indifference, and indolence, and stinginess when we 
 can do better — when we can make the house of God 
 as comfortable at least as we have made our own ! 
 
 We have been going on in this bad way for near- 
 ly two generations. Do we intend to go on in this 
 way forever? 
 
3o8 Our Children. 
 
 CHAPTER rx. 
 
 BUILDING DIKES. 
 
 OUR last chapter was on building comfortable 
 churches ; we come now to speak of a differ- 
 ent, but altogether indispensable, work to be done — 
 we must build dikes. 
 
 The wise Hollanders built immense sea-walls to 
 prevent the overflow of lands reclaimed from the 
 ocean. Much of the fairest and most fertile of this 
 rich and populous State is " reclaimed land." Long 
 and hard was the fight with the sea, but labor 
 and patience have had their reward. It is really a 
 wonderful story — the dikes of Holland, their build- 
 ers, and their uses. But it can only be sketched in 
 meager outline here. We borrow the language of a 
 writer in Appleton's Cyclopedia : — 
 
 " In Holland are the most remarkable dikes in 
 the world. Their immense importance may be 
 appreciated from the fact that a single inundation 
 from the sea in the year 1277 caused the destruc- 
 tion of forty-four villages; and in 1287, only ten 
 years afterward, eighty thousand persons were de- 
 stroyed by another, and its present shape and ex- 
 tent were given to the Zuydcr Zee. In the fif- 
 teenth century about one hundred thousand persons 
 
Building Dikes. 309 
 
 were destroyed through the imperfection of the 
 dikes, when their construction was undertaken in 
 the most thorough manner, and a law was enacted 
 enforcing their being kept in order. At present 
 this work is conducted on a systematic plan, and at 
 great cost. Embankments are made toward the sea 
 with heavy timbers filled in with stone, and the 
 surface is covered with bundles of flags and reeds 
 fastened down by stakes. Piles also are driven into 
 the sand, and protected by planking as well as by 
 earth, turf, and stones. 
 
 "■ These artificial dikes are often forty feet above 
 ordinary high water, and wide enough at the top 
 for a common roadway. Frequently the slopes are 
 covered with wicker work, made of willow twigs, 
 and the willow tree is extensively cultivated to 
 furnish these supplies, which require frequent re- 
 moval, as also to bind together by its roots the loose 
 sands. Walls of masonry are built in some of the 
 most exposed situations, and rows of piles outside 
 protect the dikes from the action of the waves. 
 
 ** It is estimated that the annual expense of keep- 
 ing up the dike of Helder and that of West Cappel, 
 at the western extremity of the Island of Walchcr- 
 en, is about $30,000 each. The whole expenditure 
 in Holland for maintaining its dikes and regulat- 
 ing its water levels is annually from $2,000,000 to 
 $2,500,000. Engineers are constantly employed 
 and every provision is made of materials that may 
 
310 Our Children. 
 
 be required for constant repairs. Watchmen are 
 employed during the winter months to patrol the 
 dikes by day and by night, and give alarm when- 
 ever the danger appears imminent, and the tide 
 threatens to overflow. The people then hasten to 
 the point, and by mats of straw and rushes, and 
 large sheets of sail-cloth buried in the sand, they 
 raise a temporary bulwark, to be more securely built 
 before the approach of the next tide." 
 
 Now, as it seems to us, we live in a time and in a 
 country where broadly-laid and strongly-built dikes 
 must be raised to prevent overflow of the fair in- 
 heritance our fathers, by the grace of God, re- 
 claimed from the sea and handed down to us. 
 Whatever is good in our civilization is so much, 
 by God's blessing, reclaimed from the sea of this 
 world's corruption. 
 
 We have no sympathy with croakers and whiners. 
 We do by no means believe that the world has 
 seen its best days — its true *' golden age " is before 
 us, not behind us. We do not believe the Church 
 used to be better than she is now. On the contra- 
 ry, the world, as we truly believe, is better than it 
 ever was. And the Church, we make no question, is 
 also better than she ever was. There were never so 
 many people reading God's word and trying to obey 
 It ; there were never so many recognizing God's 
 government and endeavoring to live according to its 
 statutes; there were never so many praying; there 
 
Building Dikes, 311 
 
 were never so many true lovers of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; there were never so many trying to extend 
 his blessed kingdom to the uttermost parts of the 
 earth. 
 
 But evil is also strong and wide-spread. The 
 " devil is loosed," the " powers of darkness " have 
 developed an intenser activity than at any former 
 period. The enemies of our Lord and his Church 
 are more bitter and relentless, as well as more active 
 and capable, than ever before. True, the Church is 
 far more able to meet and withstand these attacks 
 than at any former period. But the Church should 
 indulge no dreams of millennial peace. '' By day and 
 by night " her watchmen should '' patrol" her dikes 
 that they may give the alarm whenever the sea 
 threatens to break in upon us. If we will only listen 
 we can always hear its sullen roar, for it is close by. 
 
 It is no part of the plan of this little volume to 
 write a long indictment of the times in which we 
 live. But some dangers are so imminent that the 
 most inexperienced eye may detect them, and so 
 great that the humblest of us all may well lift up his 
 voice to swell the cry of alarm. 
 
 First we may mention the intense materialism, 
 tending fast to downright atheism, that has so 
 largely taken possession of the teachers of natural 
 science in our time. This evil spirit having once 
 been cast out of science, has '' walked to and fro " 
 in the earth *' seeking dry places," and finding none, 
 
312 Our Children. 
 
 has returned to his old lodging. *' Finding It empty, 
 swept, and garnished," he has entered into it again, 
 and the " last state " of its victim '' is worse than the 
 first." 
 
 The names of the leaders of this new crusade 
 against Christianity — for that is what this material- 
 ism means, hatred of Christ and his Church — we 
 need not name here. But their pernicious doctrines 
 are filtering down to the most unlettered of the peo- 
 ple. Reviews, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, 
 lectures, and even text-books, are spreading far and 
 wide, to the very best of their ability, the chilling 
 and blighting skepticism of their first propounders 
 and apostles. 
 
 The wonderful material progress of our country 
 has brought many evils in its train. It has devel- 
 oped an all-devouring worldliness that corrupts so- 
 ciety. It has brought into being a hundred essen- 
 tially false notions of life — its true end and true bless- 
 edness. It has brought luxury and corruption. 
 
 The influx of several millions of foreigners, with 
 little sympathy with our people or their institutions, 
 in some cases speaking a different language and 
 professing a different faith, or repudiating all faith, 
 has brought an evil and disintegrating element into 
 the very heart of our civilization. 
 
 Rome — learning nothing that is good and forget- 
 ting nothing that is bad — is p-lanning for new con- 
 quest in our western republic. Baffled in Europe, 
 
Building Dikes. 313 
 
 «he reappears in this country, to preach salvation by 
 sacraments to all who will bow down before her, and 
 damnation by priestly malediction to all who will be 
 free in Christ Jesus. Priests, bishops, archbishops, 
 and cardinals — nuns, and monks, and Jesuits — they 
 are all here. And they have brought with them 
 every folly that Rome ever invented, and every form 
 of spiritual tyranny she ever devised. Unchanged 
 in her badness, unblushing in the memory of her 
 shameful history, and only lacking opportunity to 
 employ the old and bloody implements of persecu- 
 tion — the sword, the fagot, the wheel, the stake, and 
 the whole enginery of the horrible Inquisition — the 
 papacy seeks new empires in America. God be 
 praised ! The pope cannot now convert us by force 
 of inquisitional machinery, nor burn us if we refuse 
 to kneel. 
 
 If any good souls delude themselves with the no- 
 tion that Rome has been purged of her ignorance, 
 her superstition, her cruelty, let him consider how 
 her priests hounded on the multitude that murdered 
 Stevens in Mexico, and let him contemplate the 
 poor body of Guibord — six years unburied — laid in 
 the grave at last under military protection — Romish 
 priests of high degree threatening to curse the 
 ground where he sleeps with " bell, book, and can- 
 dle," because while he lived he dared to read books 
 that their intolerant hierarchy in Rome had con- 
 demned. 
 
314 Our Children. 
 
 In some parts of our country monstrous social 
 heresies find advocates and disciples. False notions 
 of the relation of the sexes, with loose and unscript- 
 ural divorce laws, are among the graver evils that 
 threaten our purity and peace. And in the same 
 category should we place that monstrous abortion, 
 falsely called '* spiritualism," that is neither science, 
 nor philosophy, nor religion, but the scandal of each 
 and the shame of our generation. 
 
 But one of the most notable of all the evils and 
 corrupting influences that characterize this age is 
 the multiplication of bad books, and the ever widen- 
 ing circulation of bad newspapers. The press is 
 stronger than Hercules, has more hands than Bria- 
 reus, and when it fairly sets itself to do wickedness 
 can be as unclean as the Harpies. 
 
 We have no inclination to denounce the press of 
 our country — we would not, we do not, bring whole- 
 sale and indiscriminate accusations against its con- 
 ductors. The multiplication of good books makes 
 us glad ; in the growing influence of those among 
 the newspapers of our country that love truth and 
 defend it we rejoice. There were never so many 
 good books printed and circulated ; there were nev- 
 er so many newspapers worthy of praise and confl- 
 dence. But, on the other hand, there were never 
 so many bad books, never so many depraved news- 
 papers. Books are sent out every month from re- 
 spectable publishing houses that are not fit to be 
 
Building Dikes. 315 
 
 read by a pure man or a chaste woman. Hundreds 
 of influential papers are unfit to be read in the fam- 
 ily circle. There are absolutely millions of copies 
 of cheap and very bad novels, and millions of illus- 
 trated journals of crime, in constant circulation. 
 They are every-where — at hotels, in reading-rooms, 
 in the cars, in steamboats, at news stands, on the 
 streets, and in the houses of the people. They are 
 printed by the million and sold and read. And 
 the busy printer can hardly keep up with the 
 demand. 
 
 They are as troublesome and as loathsome as the 
 plague of frogs that swarmed out of the Nile and 
 came up into the houses of the Egyptians — cold, 
 and slimy, and ugly — sparing neither prince, nor 
 priest, nor slave. Would God some Moses and 
 Aaron would come to drive them back to the ooze 
 and mud where they were born ! 
 
 Many of the great dailies — we write it with pro- 
 found sorrow — have done what they could to make 
 these vile publications respectable by imitating 
 their example and filling their columns with the 
 sickening details of crime. How for- six mortal 
 months, in the year of grace 1875, they flooded our 
 homes with the revolting nastiness of a scandal suit 
 in Brooklyn ! Shame upon them for the part they 
 took in that shameful affair! And the lesser dailies 
 follow in their wake, to the best of their ability 
 Crime is paraded in all its revolting details, and we 
 
3i6 Our Children. 
 
 charge it upon them that their managers do not 
 even design to do good by their minute description 
 of the most shameful and abominable sins. 
 
 No ; they give publicity to crime and shame to 
 sell their papers. And it does sell them. Alas ! 
 that there are so many people who have such 
 tastes! Shame on those who call themselves '' men 
 of letters," who aspire to conduct public journalism, 
 and who, for the sake of money, pander to these 
 low and debauched tastes ! It is a crime against 
 civilization and religion. And the more pretentious 
 the paper that pursues such a course the greater 
 the crime. 
 
 We go one step farther: all the good men and 
 women in the country should unite to put down 
 the corrupt and to put up the purest of our news- 
 papers. They can do both most effectually, and in 
 a lawful and proper manner. Let us cease, once 
 and for all, to subscribe for papers that teach infi- 
 delity and pander to licentiousness, and patronize 
 only those that defend the truth and foster purity. 
 This zuill be effectual. 
 
 November 26, 1875, we read this statement, made, 
 it is said, by one who knows: '* A daily paper con- 
 ducted on Christian principles would not pay ex- 
 penses." This we do not believe. But if it is so 
 we have no difficulty in the answer : it is better to 
 have no daily papers than to have bad ones. 
 
 The bad books, the low novels, the vile illustrated 
 
Building Dikes. ' ^ly 
 
 journals of crime, and the dailies that respond to 
 the same inspiration, all taken together, make up ^ 
 what one has termed '* Satanic Literature," and an- 
 other '* The Literature of Sodom." And the desig- 
 nations, the descriptions, are just. 
 
 Some of our readers may, perhaps, think that we 
 are unnecessarily alarmed on this subject. However 
 this may be, we are quite sure that many persons 
 are not alarmed who ought to be. 
 
 We may profitably quote on this point part of an 
 article written by the Rev. E. A. Rand, and pub- 
 lished in 1873 in the "Christian Banner." His 
 figures were taken from official sources — from the 
 records, as we remember, of the court before which 
 certain arrested parties were tried. Mr. Rand says : — 
 
 ''The accumulation of immoral literature in our 
 cities is immense. Anthony Comstock, of New 
 York, has been specially conspicuous for his cru- 
 sade against it. He reported, at one date, having 
 seized one hundred and 'eighty thousand impure 
 and obscene pictures and photographs ; five tons of 
 impure and obscene books and pamphlets ; more 
 than two tons of letter-press in sheets ; more than 
 twenty thousand sheets of impure songs, catalogues, 
 circulars, and hand-bills ; obscene transparent play- 
 ing cards, five thousand five hundred to six thou- 
 sand ; letters fro7n all parts of the country, ordering 
 these books, etc., over seventy-five thousand. The 
 seizures included other Sodom agencies than lit- 
 
3i8 Our Children. 
 
 crature, and covered from six to twelve months' 
 time. 
 
 " A later report of Mr. Comstock mentions fifteen 
 thousand letters of orders to dealers and publishers 
 of these wares, coming from pupils of both sexes 
 in our schools. The fact has come out that there 
 are circulating libraries in schools, the librarian re- 
 ceiving compensation from the bookseller, and for 
 ten cents pupils can read any one of one hundred 
 and forty-four volumes of Sodom literature, pub- 
 lished in New York. ... In the discussion of this 
 subject it has come out that over six thousand 
 people earn their daily bread in this traffic of hell 
 by scattering every-where these books, illustrations, 
 and agencies of Sodom. One dealer was arrested, 
 and on opening his books twenty orders were found 
 from the librarian of a prominent Western school. 
 [Parents would like to know the names of schools 
 where such abominations exist.] 
 
 " The whole subject forces upon us some very un- 
 pleasant inferences. The booths of Sodom would 
 not keep such wares if the homes of Sodom did not 
 demand them. The publishers of immoral litera- 
 ture in the United States know that in depraved 
 human nature there is a craving for what they send 
 out. We are getting down to the dark, sad fount- 
 ains of evil. It is not enough to bring out the bat- 
 tering-ram of the law against the publishers and the 
 sellers ; t/te people who buy need talking to. The 
 
Building Dikes. 319 
 
 generation that is growing up needs our warnings 
 and instructions. And these instructions cover a 
 good deal of ground. They are not to touch the 
 subject of purity in general and stop there. 
 
 '' We know this is not a very agreeable subject. 
 The Dead Sea is not so winning as the slopes of 
 Carmel. Prayer is a far more beautiful subject to 
 talk about than impurity, but the subject cannot be 
 ignored any longer with safety." 
 
 It is truly time to speak out on this subject. "A 
 broadside of Sinaitic thunder" should be turned 
 loose upon these ramparts and legions of darkness. 
 
 One thing we will make bold to say right here : 
 if the government cannot keep obscene publications 
 out of its mails, it is weak ; if it will not, it is bad. 
 
 The quantity of obscene publications that go 
 through the mails is not suspected by one in a hun- 
 dred. Their publication is a crime against domestic 
 and social purity, against civil liberty and Christian 
 civilization, whose enormity is immeasurable. 
 
 They are conceived in sin and brought forth in 
 iniquity. Their fruit is death. All concerned in 
 the shameful business are guilty before man and 
 God. Those who write them, or things like them, 
 for the secular press, are a disgrace to the profession 
 of letters. They are the enemies of the human race. 
 Those who publish, advertise, and sell them — shall 
 we not say also, who read them? — are aiders and 
 abettors in the fearful crimes suggested by them 
 
320 Our Children. 
 
 that shock into daily agonies what conscience is left 
 in the public mind. 
 
 Glory and honor to Anthony Comstock, the brave 
 young clerk who, in New York, has bearded this 
 hydra-headed beast in his den ! He has deserved 
 well of his country. 
 
 Men talk of liberty when they mean license. Lib- 
 erty of the press that allows bad men to debauch 
 and destroy society is a shame and a curse. We 
 cannot bring ourselves to the conclusion that gov- 
 ernment is designed only for the protection of crim- 
 inals. The loyal and the virtuous surely have some 
 rights that government is bound to respect and 
 vindicate. They pay by far the largest proportion 
 of the taxes to support the government, and we 
 take leave to say that a government that allows the 
 immense machinery of its postal service to be sub- 
 sidized by the publishers and venders of obscene 
 literature betrays its trust, and is false to its best 
 friends and truest supporters. 
 
 Liberty of the press ! liberty of conscience, in- 
 deed ! What these people wish is license to de- 
 bauch. They know nothing, care nothing, about 
 liberty, because they know nothing and care nothing 
 for truth and purity. 
 
 It is time, indeed, to speak out on this subject. 
 Pure literature, as well as pure religion, is concerned 
 in this matter. Every scholar and man of culture 
 .should speak and denounce this colossal and poi 
 
Building Dikes, 321 
 
 tentous evil. Preachers of the Gospel should warn 
 the people of the danger. The religious press of 
 the country should speak out, and in no uncertain 
 tones. The religious press can, if it will so stir the 
 hearts of the people on this subject that our rulers 
 will be glad enough to mend their ways ; and rail- 
 road and steamboat managers will cease to allow 
 the peddling of obscene wares in every car and in 
 every boat that carries passengers. 
 
 The fathers and mothers of the country should 
 take this matter in hand. Vain the sacred culture 
 of pure and religious homes if the streams of pollu- 
 tion flow through their nurseries. No amount of 
 watchfulness can keep bad books, lewd prints, and 
 corrupt papers out of the hands of our children 
 while the government continues to be their com- 
 mon carrier and colporteur.^ It would be as easy 
 to justify the government in scattering small-pox 
 pustules through its mail-bags because some villain 
 might be found who would pay the postage, and to 
 claim that he lives in a free country ! 
 
 The friends of true education should join the 
 friends of true religion in this protest. What can 
 the most competent and faithful instructor do when 
 his pupils occupy the recess, or the night at home, 
 
 * After this chapter was written a twelve-year-old son of the writer 
 of this book received, through the post-office, a specimen number of 
 a paper we would not knowingly allow to come into our house. How 
 do the publishers of these things procure the names and post-offices 
 of even little children ? 
 21 
 
322 Our Children. 
 
 in gloating over obscene pictures, and in devouring, 
 with ever-increasing voracity, licentious stories? 
 Mow can such minds be trained to healthy action, 
 or stored with useful information? Under such cir- 
 cumstances education is impossible. 
 
 We are profoundly sorry to believe that but few 
 of our secular papers can be relied on to do good 
 service in bringing government to do its duty in this 
 matter. A few — truth, perhaps, requires us to say 
 many — of our secular papers are the organs of this 
 literature of Sodom ; some of them care nothing 
 about it so they have good subscription lists and 
 paying advertisements ; some of them are really 
 unfriendly to Christianity ; others, that have right 
 views on the subject, are afraid to speak the truth ; 
 but there are others that believe the truth and dare 
 affirm it. The country looks to them, and demands 
 of them, as the best service they can render society, 
 that they join all good men and women in protect- 
 ing our children against this '' pestilence that waik- 
 eth in darkness," this '' destruction that wasteth at 
 noonday." 
 
 But, we are told, Congress has passed a law on 
 this subject. Then let it be enforced, without wait- 
 ing till some devoted man, like Anthony Comstock, 
 risks his life in making up a case. If we have no 
 laws that can protect us, let us make them ; if the 
 fault be in our law-makers, let us have others. 
 
 Now, in relation to this whole matter, there is a 
 
Building Dikes. 323 
 
 very great and needful work for our Sunday-schools 
 to do. As we have seen, there are in the United 
 States 69,871 Sunday-schools, with 753,060 officers 
 and teachers and 5,790,683 scholars. Here is power 
 to reform and to save a whole nation, if we know 
 how to use it ; here is boundless hope, if we know 
 how to work with God in bringing up this army 
 of children and young people to understand, and 
 believe, and love, and do the truth. Here are the 
 true dike-builders ; they can build broad and high 
 the strong sea-walls that shall beat back the devour- 
 ing waves. 
 
 It should be our prayerful study and labor to 
 preoccupy these young minds and hearts with the 
 knowledge and love of the truth. In God's truth 
 must we lay the foundations of the only dikes that 
 can withstand the sea. 
 
 If we would save our children from the gross 
 materialism in heart and life that is sure to follow 
 the present rage of speculative materialism in science; 
 if we would save them from the sordid worldliness 
 that seems to be tightening its grasp upon the 
 hearts of our people ; if we would save them from 
 false opinions and corrupt practices ; if we would 
 save them from the blight and curse of licentious 
 literature — then we must preoccupy their thoughts 
 and their love with the truth. And the truth they 
 need and must have — if they are saved from these 
 evils — is in God's word and nowhere else. There is, 
 
324 Our Children. 
 
 we are sure, no other adequate remedy. How sacred, 
 then, is the office of teacher of God's blessed word! 
 
 In this whole most needful work of dike-building 
 there is much that should be done through our Sun- 
 day-school libraries. Only consider the thousands 
 and tens of thousands of books that are annually 
 published and sold for the use of Sunday-schools. 
 Through these books wonders of prevention and 
 cure may be wrought if we are only wise to '' know 
 our danger and our remedy." There was never so 
 much talent employed in the production of Sunday- 
 school literature ; never so much money expended 
 in its circulation. 
 
 No doubt there has been great improvement. 
 For the progress that has been made we '' thank 
 God and take courage." But much remains to be 
 done ; there '' remaineth yet very much land to be 
 possessed." Our children's books and papers ought 
 to be better than they are ; they ought to exercise 
 tenfold the influence they do. 
 
 We cannot discuss the subject as it deserves in 
 these concluding pages. But some things may, at 
 least, be suggested. 
 
 Are not our Sunday-schools books too largely 
 simply ''story-books?" Perhaps nine tenths of 
 those that have the largest sale are merely stories. 
 Some of them are very good, some of them are very 
 bad ; many of them are simply innocuous. We 
 must venture to say that, in our humble opinion, 
 
Building Dikes, 325 
 
 the universal novel-reading mania of the present 
 period is largely attributable to the story-books that 
 fill the shelves of our Sunday-school libraries. When 
 novel reading becomes a mania there is not much 
 wisdom or taste in the choice of books. Persons 
 under this spell are like certain omnivorous animals, 
 they devour whatever comes to hand, choosing, how- 
 ever, if they choose at all, those books that shock 
 their feelings most. 
 
 We have no fanatical notions on the subject of 
 novel reading. Some novels are good and useful. 
 They ought to be read. But where people will read 
 nothing else it augurs badly for their true culture, 
 character, and usefulness. Are not our young people 
 losing, very largely, their taste for solid reading? 
 The circulating libraries show that novels are in far 
 greater demand than any other class of books, and 
 by precisely those people who, most of all, have 
 need to read better books. 
 
 We propose, for our part, a general overhauling 
 of the prevailing theories as to what books are ap- 
 propriate for Sunday-school libraries. We would 
 enlarge their range, retaining, of course, all the best 
 of what are generally and properly known as relig- 
 ious books. Such books, we suppose, should pre- 
 dominate. But we would have done with that 
 notion that limits our selection of Sunday-school 
 libraries to works on religion. We seem, hitherto, 
 to have proceeded on the idea that we must only 
 
326 Our Children. 
 
 buy books suitable for Sunday reading, as if the 
 children had only Sunday for their reading. Surely 
 we have erred on this point. There are six other 
 days in which they may redeem, from study or labor, 
 a few hours at least for the reading of good books 
 If we had our way we would revolutionize the en- 
 tire theory and practice of our schools on this 
 subject. 
 
 We would have religious books most certainly, 
 and the best of them. We would also introduce, to 
 the extent of our means to buy them, and the needs 
 of each particular school, standard works in other 
 departments. We would introduce the great poets 
 and historians. Milton, Young, Shakspeare, to men- 
 tion only three, ought to be in our Sunday-school 
 libraries. So ought Macaulay, Prescott, Irving, and 
 such other princes among historians and essayists. 
 There should be books of travel and discovery. 
 Our libraries should be rich in biography. Here 
 we would have the lives of the great leaders of men, 
 civil and military, as well as religious. And why 
 not ? Whatever great and useful books young peo- 
 ple ought to read, we judge to be suitable for Sun- 
 day-school libraries. Then they would be worth 
 something ; then our young people would form a 
 taste — a habit, we might say — for reading good 
 standard books. Once form such a habit and they 
 never will — they never can — take pleasure in trash 
 or obscenity afterward. 
 
Btnlding Dikes. 327 
 
 Three fourths of the goody stoiy-books — full of 
 " gush " and " bosh " and unnatural sentimentalism 
 —we would inexorably rule out. For our part — and 
 we say it boldly and unhesitatingly — we would great- 
 ly prefer to see our own children reading Macaulay, 
 or Prescott, or Motley, or some other standard and 
 pure writer, on Sunday evening itself, than to see 
 them running through, to see how the story winds 
 out — volume after volume of very thin, very shallow, 
 very '* goody " little books of the nowadays ap- 
 proved Sunday-school libraries. Of course, for their 
 Sunday reading, we are not shut up to these alter- 
 natives ; but if it were so, we would not hesitate 
 one moment to decide against the last-mentioned 
 books. 
 
 Besides, as we have said, they have six week- 
 days. Let us give them something to read that is 
 worth reading. 
 
 We press the view the more earnestly, because, as 
 we know, the great mass of our people have com- 
 paratively few books of any kind. This is, perhaps, 
 peculiarly true in the South and West. We are 
 no slanderers of our people, but we must tell the 
 truth ; they are not, in any broad sense, a reading 
 people. 
 
 Now, outside of a very few of our cities, there is 
 nothing that deserves the name of a circulating li- 
 brary. But wherever there is a Sunday-school 
 there may be, and, as we think, ought to be, a small 
 
328 Our Children. 
 
 circulating library — not only for little children, but 
 for intelligent young people, for teachers, for par- 
 ents, and for the adult members of the Church and 
 congregation. Never fear about the money. If we 
 will only make a wise use of it and buy books that 
 will make people wiser and better — books they need 
 — books for week-days as well as Sunday afternoon 
 — they will furnish the money. 
 
 We would regret to give offense in this expres- 
 sion of very carefully formed opinions about our 
 Sunday-school libraries. Our thoughts have long 
 been drawn this way. We have considered it from 
 the stand-point of Sunday-school librarian and 
 teacher; we have looked into it from the stand- 
 point of pastor and parent. For over five years it 
 was almost part of our official duty to consider this 
 subject in its various bearings. We are deeply con- 
 scientious in what we have written, and intend, 
 providence permitting, to " fight it out on this line," 
 unless we shall be brought to see our error. And 
 we declare ourself open to conviction — willing to be 
 convinced and ready to be reproved. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, we repeat that much 
 can be and should be done by our Sunday-school 
 libraries in " building dikes" to ** prevent the over- 
 flow of lands reclaimed from the sea." This work 
 must be largely done by preoccupying the minds 
 and hearts of children with the truth. And, as we 
 suppose, much can be done by giving them such 
 
Building Dikes. 329 
 
 oooks as will elevate their conceptions, refine their 
 tastes, and fix in them such habits of thought and 
 sentiment as will forever protect them against the 
 dangers from corrupt and corrupting literature, 
 that threaten every one of our homes, discredit 
 our civilization, and corrupt our society. 
 
330 Our Children* 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HINTS ON SUNDAY-SCHOOL WCRK. 
 
 OUR chapters have so grown and multiph'ed, as 
 we have written, that there is now no room 
 for discussing, as one might wish to do, several im- 
 portant practical questions connected with the gen- 
 eral subject of Sunday-school work, without making 
 this volume much larger than the design of its pub- 
 lication would justify. Perhaps it is better that it 
 should be so. If the general principles we have set 
 forth — how imperfectly and unsatisfactorily we un- 
 derstand and feel — shall be accepted only in part, 
 we are more than content. We have far more faith 
 in ideas than formulas ; in principles than in recipes. 
 
 We venture, however, in this concluding chapter 
 to group, as seems most convenient, a few general 
 ideas — Jiints, if our readers please — which those who 
 desire may expand as much as they wish ; and 
 which may, perhaps, be suggestive of far abler dis- 
 cussions of the subject than we could hope to make, 
 had we opportunity to make the attempt. 
 
 Nor are we careful to reduce these hints and sug- 
 gestions to any rigid order of arrangement. 
 
 I . The Model Supcrintiiidcnt. — Some writer, whose 
 name we do not know, says pithily and wisely: 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 331 
 
 " The chief officer of a Sunday-school should be a 
 man too brave to be over-sensitive, too pious to 
 notice little sources of irritation, too manly fre- 
 quently to threaten resignation, too loving to let 
 people remain cold to him, too strong to be dis- 
 turbed by trifles, and so firm in nerves as not to be 
 classed with the sensitive ones. 
 
 2. A Christian Education. — Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, 
 says : '* To give a man a truly Christian education, 
 is to make him love God as well as to know him ; 
 to make him have faith in Christ, as well as to have 
 been taught the facts that he died for our sins and 
 rose again ; to make him open his heart eagerly to 
 every impulse of the Holy Spirit, as well as to have 
 been taught the fact, as it is in the Nicene Creed, 
 that he is the Lord and Giver of life." 
 
 3. Brilliant but Useless. — Many superintendents 
 and teachers, and preachers as well, may lay to 
 heart, with great profit to themselves and their 
 charges, the following story : — 
 
 '^ Sir Astley Cooper, on visiting Paris, was asked 
 by the surgeon en chef of the empire how many 
 times he had performed a certain very difficult 
 operation. Sir Astley answered that he had per 
 formed the operation but thirteen times. 
 
 '' '■ Ah, but. Monsieur,' said the Frenchman, * I 
 have done him one hundred and sixty times.' 
 
 " Sir Astley was amazed. The curious French- 
 man, looking at the Englishman's blank face, asked, 
 
332 Our Children. 
 
 ** * And how many times did you save his life?' 
 
 " Very modestly the great surgeon answered, ' I 
 saved eleven out of the thirteen.' 
 
 It was his turn to question, ' And how many did 
 >ou save out of the one hundred and sixty times?' 
 
 " ' Ah, Monsieur,' replied the Frenchman, ' I lose 
 dem all, but de operation was very brilliant.' " 
 
 4. Ainateur Theology. — A few years ago, a writer 
 in " Blackwood's Magazine " gave us a trenchant 
 paper on the readiness with which people who have 
 no fitness for the work rush into the field of theo- 
 logical discussion. Would that we had space to re- 
 produce it ! 
 
 When an over-confident person comes across some- 
 thing that is nciv to hwt, it is easy, perhaps natural, 
 for him to conclude that he is a discoverer. If the 
 world does not agree with him, it is so much the 
 worse for the world ; if his opinion is contrary to 
 the facts, it is so much the worse for the facts. The 
 disposition to go smashing about among received 
 opinions is not confined to people who write ; talkers 
 do the same thing. Few qualities are required for 
 a full equipment for such a crusade against "■ author- 
 ities — ignorance, audacity, and flippancy are quite 
 sufficient. 
 
 A few preachers — alas! for their congregations — ■ 
 are given to this practice. The way they play 
 *' shuttle-cock" with the venerable names of Calvin, 
 Arminius, Wesley, Edwards, Watson, and others of 
 
Hints on Stmday-School Work. 333 
 
 "the Fathers," both ancient and modern, \/ould be 
 fearful if it were not a farce. It seems tolerably 
 clear to us, that every man is not called on to be 
 the discoverer of a new world, or the expounder of 
 a new doctrine. Nor is it every man's mission to 
 destroy what he does not understand. 
 
 We received a letter once from a very young 
 man, unfortunately, for all concerned, a teacher of a 
 Bible-class. Poor man ! poor class ! he was neither 
 learned in the Scriptures nor experienced in grace. 
 He was not himself converted — he himself was a 
 stranger to Christ ! And yet somebody, assuming 
 an awful responsibility, *'gave him a class!" He 
 wanted us to send him books from which he could 
 expound the first chapter of Genesis, in its rela- 
 tions to modern science, and overturn Darwinism ! 
 Others of his class have a strange penchant for try- 
 ing to teach the eighth and ninth chapters of Paul's 
 Epistle to the Romans ! 
 
 5. The Argufying Man. — The last paragraph sug- 
 gests a word or two about the man who has broken 
 up many a Sunday-school, and destroyed the peace 
 of many Churches — the argufying man. The '' Lon- 
 don Globe" once drew his picture to the life: — 
 
 "What renders it so difficult to put up with the 
 argufying man is the circumstance that he never 
 contends for truth, but for triumph. This is plain 
 enough from the dishonest and uncandid way in 
 which he goes to work. He will grant nothing ; 
 
334 Our CiiiLrREx. 
 
 never confesses to the most palpable hit, though 
 you have bent your foil against his pad half-a-dozen 
 limes in as many minutes ; and he never knows 
 when to stop. He is not satisfied with an imagi- 
 nary victory. 
 
 '* Whenever he thinks you are down because you 
 are silent, he gives you a sort of verbal kick, to 
 rouse you for another combat. Loyola was a simple- 
 ton to him in casuistry. He has the trick of escape 
 possessed by that fish which can hide from his ene- 
 mies by exuding a preparation that renders the 
 water around him dark and obscure. Without hav- 
 ing any specific acquaintance with a topic, which 
 may be in your line or bent to understand, he is 
 still ready to contradict a doctor in medicine, or a 
 composer in counterpoint. Fly him, if you can at 
 all with convenience." 
 
 6. The Frivolous Teacher. — Next to the "argufying 
 man," a frivolous teacher is perhaps the most injuri- 
 ous person, or pest, \v\\o can manage to get into a 
 Sunday-school. We knew a frivolous man-teacher 
 once who nearly paralyzed a school for a whole year. 
 Talmage gives us the following sketch of a frivolous 
 woman-teacher : " She sits down before her class ; 
 she is not in earnest ; she has no appreciation of the 
 great work for which she is called. She thinks that 
 it is a great thing to be a Sunday-school teacher. 
 She comes in and says to the class, 'Fine day!* 
 Then she arranges her apparel ; then she gives an 
 
HhiLS on Sunday-School Work. 335 
 
 extra twist to the curl, and looks at the apparel of 
 the children in the class." 
 
 7. Unconverted Persons as Teachers. — We have 
 about come to the co'\clusion that there are some 
 questions which have unanswerable arguments on 
 both sides. Perhaps this is one of them. Such 
 matters must be managed. The pastor and super- 
 intendent — and if they are not on good enough 
 terms to advise together one or both of them ought 
 to resign — can determine in each case. To say that 
 nobody who has not the full assurance of conversion 
 should teach, would be to say too much. To give 
 a class to just any converted person who has a whim 
 to teach would be very unwise. We know some 
 converted people who are not fit to teach : we know 
 some thoughtful, devout persons, not yet converted, 
 but waiting upon God, as did the Roman Cornelius, 
 who have been very useful as Sunday-school teach- 
 ers. But no frivolous man or woman, who can 
 make puns on sacred words, who can sit up and 
 stare around during prayers, whose influence cannot 
 be good, ought ever to be intrusted with young and 
 impressible souls. 
 
 8. TJic Pastor s Relation. — They have been "argu 
 fying" about the pastor's relation to the school for 
 a long time. To us it has always seemed to be a 
 very plain thing — the pastor is the pastor. He is 
 pastor of the Sunday-school for the same reason that 
 he is pastor of the Church. V/ho ever heard of a 
 
336 Our Children. 
 
 shepherd who was shepherd of the sheep but not of 
 the lambs? The duties of superintendent and pas- 
 tor cannot be marked out Hke the rounds of a sentry 
 — thus far, and no farther. Where two right-minded 
 men are thrown together in the management of a 
 Sunday-school they will understand each other and 
 help each other. When they do not, one or both of 
 them deserve censure. Where both parties have 
 the right spirit there will be no disturbance. Where 
 there is continual difficulty between the pastor and 
 the superintendent, and an ever-widening breach 
 between the Church and the Sunday-school, some- 
 body ought to resign, or be moved, 
 
 9. Teaching the Wrong Thing. — The average life 
 of a Sunday-school generation is short — four or five 
 years at most. The children who are now in our 
 schools will soon cease to be children. We have an 
 opportunity now for teaching them the things they 
 need to know ; the truths that may make them 
 wise unto salvation. This opportunity will come no 
 more ; let us improve it. 
 
 The following little story has " a moral : " In Mr. 
 Dales's magazine there is a good story told of a 
 dignitary of the Church of England who, happening 
 to be in London, went to hear the Dean of West- 
 minster at the Abbey. '' How did you like the ser- 
 mon ? " asked the lady with whom he was staying. 
 '' O," was the reply, " it was very good. There was 
 nothing to object to in it; but it was not what I 
 
Hints on Siniday-School Work. 337 
 
 went to hear. I went to hear about the way to 
 heaven, and I only heard about the way to Pal- 
 estine." 
 
 10. Leave Something to the Iinaginatio7i. — Some- 
 people overdo their explanations. They define and 
 explain, and explain and define, till all is lost in a 
 sea of words. Some illustrate and illustrate, with 
 fact, and story, and fancy sketch, till the poor be- 
 wildered child forgets what it is that is being illus- 
 trated. Charles Lamb gives some advice about 
 making speeches that teachers in Sunday-schools 
 may consider profitably. Perhaps, like the Indian's 
 tree, he was so straight he leaned over a little the 
 other way. He says that a speaker should not at- 
 tempt to express too much, but should leave some- 
 thing to the imagination of his hearers. He illus- 
 trates his meaning by telling how he did on one oc- 
 casion when he was called on to respond to a toast 
 to his health. He rose, bowed to the audience, put 
 his hand upon his heart and said, '* Gentlemen," and 
 then took his seat, leaving it to their imagination to 
 supply the rest. 
 
 11. Plodding Teachers. — Would that there were 
 more such plodders in our schools as the one spoken 
 of by the '' Sunday-School Times " in the following 
 extract : — 
 
 " Said a superintendent of one of his teachers who 
 
 had filled her place faithfully for years, but was one 
 
 of the slow, modest, quiet order: 'Yes, she is a 
 22 
 
338 Our Children. 
 
 good sort of soul, but plodding — too plodding. I 
 like a little more dash in a teacher.' ' But how 
 about her class,' asked the friend. * O, her class is 
 always full, and I believe, almost all her scholars 
 have been converted.' " 
 
 What more, O foolish man, dost thou require? 
 Are teachers for ornament, or for use ? For hard 
 campaign work, or for the dress parade of a gala- 
 day? Beware how you undervalue these plain, 
 practical, slow-going ones. They have the Master's 
 work at heart, and in the end the fruit of their 
 labor shall be seen to be fairer, richer, and more 
 plentiful than that of the dashing ones — so much to 
 your liking. 
 
 12. Spastnodic Zeal. — Plodding zeal is better than 
 spasmodic zeal. You can count on it, but you nev- 
 er know when spasmodic zeal will burn out. It is 
 the difference between a good solid stove thorough- 
 ly warmed for a long winter night with anthracite 
 coal, and a sheet-iron stove red hot with a hand- 
 ful of shavings. How soon the red glare fades into 
 darkness when the shavings are gone ! And how 
 soon they are gone ! Give us the plodding tortoise 
 every time rather than the over-confident frivolous 
 hare. 
 
 1 3 . TJie Secret of Sustained Zeal and of Successful 
 Work. — There was a lady teacher in an obscure 
 Sunday-school who was marvclously useful. Every 
 member of three classes successively assigned to 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 339 
 
 her was hopefully converted through her instrumen- 
 tality. Her gifts were not remarkable, and her suc- 
 cess was not understood. By and by, she "was not, 
 for God took her." Then they found a little diary 
 which explained it all. In one place they found 
 the following: — 
 
 '' Resolved^ That I will pray once each day for 
 each member of my class by name." 
 
 Farther on they found this : — 
 
 '■'Resolved^ That I will pray once each day for 
 each member of my class by name, and agonize in 
 prayer." 
 
 A little farther on they found these words : — 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That I will pray once each day for 
 each member of my class by name, and agonize in 
 prayer, and expect a blessing." 
 
 Was it not now very plain to them all ? 
 
 14. All for Love. — Love sustained the good 
 woman and inspired her prayers — love for Christ 
 and souls. Great is the power of love — greatest of 
 all powers. 
 
 The northernmost of poets is the Rev. John 
 Porlackson, in Balgysa, Iceland. Gifted as he is — 
 if he be still living — he remained unknown until 
 1 860, when he was seventy years old. Two German 
 literati visited him, and brought back the story of 
 his wonderful labors. His office as pastor brought 
 him only fifteen dollars a year, so that he was 
 obliged to support himself by working in the fields. 
 
340 Our Children. 
 
 In his miserable hut of earth he had a study (!) eight 
 feet long, six feet wide, and five feet high, the win- 
 dow measuring two square feet. Here he translat- 
 ed, during the long nights of winter, Klopstock's 
 " Messiah," Milton's " Paradise Lost," and other 
 German and English poems, with much good taste, 
 into his mother tongue. All this he did out of pure 
 love of poetry, and without hope of literary fame. 
 
 O that we were all willing to so work for Christ — 
 out of pure love ! 
 
 15. Respojisibility to God. — Dinter, a Prussian 
 school counselor, is reported to have said : "■ I 
 promised God that I would look upon every Prus- 
 sian peasant as a being who could complain of me 
 before God if I did not provide for him the best ed- 
 ucation, as a man and a Christian, which it was pos- 
 sible for me to provide." 
 
 Just such a sense of responsibility to God ought 
 we — parents, pastors, secular and Sabbath-school 
 teachers — to feel in relation to the children who are 
 under our care and influence. What strength, what 
 zeal, what patience, such a sense of responsibility to 
 God would bring us ! We should work 
 
 " As ever in the great Task-master's eye." 
 
 16. Patience and Persistence. — Some are easily dis- 
 couraged. This is unfortunate. It mars both their 
 peace and their usefulness. John Wesley's mother 
 was trying hard to teach one of her children. The 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 341 
 
 child was dull and heedless, and her efforts seemed 
 to bejn vain. Her husband, less patient than his 
 matchless wife, wearied out in only watching the ex- 
 periment, asked her, " How can you repeat that 
 thing twenty times to that child?" Let us think 
 on her wise answer and be ashamed to be impa- 
 tient: ** Because nineteen times are not enough." 
 Besides, had she stopped at the nineteenth effort 
 she would have lost the labor and time already 
 expended. 
 
 17. A Lesson for Pastors. — The following very re- 
 markable statement has been authoritatively made 
 about the elder Dr. Tyng's Church in the city of 
 New York : — 
 
 '' More than fifty ministers have gone out from 
 Dr. Tyng's Sunday-school, and among them are 
 some of the most eminent ministers in the land." 
 
 Now, what is the explanation ? Is it in the pas- 
 tor, or the superintendent, or the Church ? If it be 
 said it is in the Church, or in the officers of the Sun- 
 day-school, the question comes up. How did Dr. 
 Tyng develop such a Church, and call around him 
 and train such colaborers? 'He has been asked for 
 an explanation of his extraordinary success. His 
 explanation is simple, and, as it seems to us, satis- 
 factory; it explains the mystery and shows how 
 we may all succeed : " Personal attention to my Sab- 
 bath-school.'' 
 
 It is not genius, nor any peculiarities of method ; 
 
543 Our Children. 
 
 much less is it any sort of clap-trap manipulations. 
 It is only " personal attention to my Sabbath- 
 school." How much that tells ! He understood 
 the Sunday-school, its place and its value. It is on 
 his heart. He plans for it, prays and works for it. 
 Nay more, he is part of it, its very life zrA soul, as 
 every pastor ought to be. 
 
 1 8. Going through a Snozv-storm. — Some teachers 
 feel very keenly Sunday cold, or snow, or rain, or 
 heat. It seems to hurt more than any other sort. 
 Dr. Tyng is not one of these, as it seems. One Sun- 
 day there was a terrific snow-storm, and nobody 
 was seen on the streets. What did Dr. Tyng do ? 
 Went to his church. Whom did he meet? One 
 poor girl, sixteen years old. What of her? Dr. 
 Tyng, following the example of Jesus preaching to 
 a solitary woman of the Samaritans at Jacob's well, 
 talked the gospel to her. What was the result? 
 She was converted, worked for others, was instru- 
 mental in the conversion of twenty-five of the young 
 people of the Church — among them one of the pas- 
 tor's sons. 
 
 Of Archbishop Leighton, it was said that '* the 
 Lord's day was his delight." One rainy Sabbath, 
 when he was unwell, he persisted in attending 
 church, and said, in excuse foi his apparent rash- 
 ness : '' Were the weather fair I would stay at home ; 
 but since it is foul I must go, lest I be thought to 
 countenance, by my example, the irreligious prac- 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 343 
 
 ticc of letting trivial hinderances keep us back from 
 public worship." 
 
 19. Saving the Lost Lambs. — These stories are 
 very much, in spirit, like what we are told of Dr. 
 Chalmers. When he occupied the chair of Philos- 
 ophy in the College of St. Andrews, he used to 
 gather in his house each Sabbath evening the poor- 
 est and most ignorant of the vagrant children of the 
 neighborhood ; and the biography relates that for 
 that audience he prepared himself, pen in hand, as 
 carefully as for his class in the university. So in 
 wintry weather, though in the face of falling snow, 
 he was often seen walking five miles to fill an 
 appointment for worship with a little rustic congre- 
 gation at Kilmany. And there, to the illiterate cot- 
 tagers, he preached his best sermons. 
 
 20. Helping People out of their Miseries. — Some 
 persons shrink from contact with the very poor and 
 the very wicked. If we learn from Jesus how to 
 work for the good of men, we will find that we are 
 under very great obligations to those who need us 
 most. Great in God's sight is the honor of such 
 work, and great in God's sight will be its reward. 
 Chalmers left a daughter like-minded with her good 
 and great father. A reliable writer says : '' In one 
 of the alleys running off from Fountain Bridge, 
 Edinburgh, a street crowded with drunkenness and 
 pollution, is the low-roofed building in which this 
 good woman is spending her life to help men and 
 
SA4 Our Children. 
 
 women out of their miseries. Her chief work is 
 with drunkards, their wives and daughters. ... In 
 the winter, when the nights are cold, you may see 
 Helen Chalmers, with a lantern, going through the 
 lanes of the city, hunting up the depraved, and 
 bringing them out to her reform meetings. Insult 
 ner, do they? Never. They would as soon think 
 of pelting the angel of God." 
 
 21. ''A Bcatitif^d Field, Sir'' — Sometimes there 
 is trouble in getting the right kind of teachers for 
 our mission-schools in the cities. It is a great mis- 
 take to suppose that ''any body" will do for such 
 work. The trouble is, hardly any body will do. 
 The greater the ignorance, poverty, wickedness, and 
 degradation, the higher and finer the qualities of 
 head and heart that are needed to elevate and save 
 them. A passage in the life of Dr. Thomas Guthrie 
 illustrates our thought, and brings out quite radiant- 
 ly the Christ-spirit that was in the man. They had 
 been trying a long time to get him to come from his 
 sweet little parish at Arbirlot to a great church in 
 Edinburgh. After much persuasion he agreed to 
 go to Edinburgh, on a condition — that some will 
 think strange, that some will not understand at all — 
 on the express condition that he should, as soon as 
 possible, be released from the " Old Gray Friars," 
 and have a parish set up for him among the very 
 poorest of the Scottish metropolis. 
 
 Let us take a glimpse at that field in which 
 
Hints on Siuiday-ScJiool Work. 345 
 
 Guthrie — '' excavating the heathen," as one ex- 
 pressed it — took such dehght. We quote from the 
 "Autobiography and Memoirs of Guthrie:" — 
 
 " The Cowgate of Edinburgh, part of which was 
 included in the parish of Old Gray Friars, lies along 
 a shallow ravine, and its site often brought to Dr. 
 Guthrie's mind the valley of the prophet's vision. 
 The hand of the Lord had set him down, like Eze- 
 kiel, in the midst of the dry bones, and * caused him 
 to pass by them round about,' and the old question 
 rang in his ears, 'Can these dry bones live?' The 
 Edinburgh valley, where he labored, is spanned at 
 one point by George Fourth's Bridge. Looking here 
 through the open work of the railings, the stranger 
 sees with surprise not flowing water, but a living 
 stream of humanity in motion beneath his feet. 
 
 " It was there," writes Dr. Guthrie, "■ where one 
 looks down on the street below, and on the foul, 
 crowded streets that stretch, like ribs, down into the 
 Cowgate, I stood on a gloomy day in the fall of the 
 year '37. The streets were a puddle ; the heavy 
 air, loaded with smoke, was thick and murky ; right 
 below lay the narrow street of dingy tenements, 
 whose toppling chimneys and patched and battered 
 roofs were fit emblems of the fortunes of most of 
 their tenants. Of these, some were lying over the 
 sills of windows innocent of glass ; others, coarse- 
 looking women, with squahd children in their arms 
 or at their feet, stood in groups at the close-mouths: 
 
34^ Our Children. 
 
 [the points where the alleys or closes enter the 
 streets.] Here, with empty laughter, chaffing any 
 passing acquaintance ; there screarning each other 
 down in drunken brawl, or standing sullen and 
 silent, with hunger and ill-usage in their saddened 
 looks. A brewer's cart, threatening to crush be- 
 neath its ponderous wheels the ragged urchins who 
 had no other play-ground, rumbled over the cause- 
 way, drowning the quavering voice of one whose 
 drooping head and scanty dress were ill in harmony 
 with songs, but not drowning the shrill pipe of an 
 Irish girl, who thumped the back of an unlucky 
 donkey, and cried her herrings at * three a penny.' 
 So looked the parish I had come to cultivate ; and 
 while contrasting the scene below with the pleasant 
 recollections of the parish I had just left — Its sing- 
 ing larks, daisied pastures, decent peasants, and the 
 grand blue sea rolling its lines of snowy breakers on 
 the shore — my rather sad and somber meditations 
 were somewhat suddenly checked. A hand was laid 
 on my shoulder. I turned round to find Dr. Chal- 
 mers at my elbow. 
 
 " This great and good man knew that I had ac- 
 cepted an Edinburgh charge, mainly for the purpose 
 of trying what the parochial or territorial system, 
 fairly wrought, could do toward Christianizing the 
 heathendom beneath our feet, and restoring the 
 denizens of the Cowgate and its closes to sober, 
 decent, and church-going habits. Contemplating 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 347 
 
 the field for a little in silence, all at once, with his 
 broad Luther-like face glowing with enthusiasm, he 
 raised his arm to exclaim, ' A beautiful field, sir ; a 
 very beautiful field of operation ! ' " 
 
 21. How the Water Conies Back. — Such work for 
 God no man can do without receiving in his own 
 heart a rich reward. It is not merely in the satis- 
 faction he has in trying to do good, but also in the 
 personal growth in grace which such efforts to bless 
 others foster and develop. It is a Bible principle 
 that he that watereth shall himself be also watered ; 
 and our Saviour said, " It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." Guthrie found it so ; on him and 
 his the light shined '' brighter and brighter unto the 
 perfect day." The Arabs have a pretty proverb that 
 illustrates this idea. They say, " The water you pour 
 on the roots of the cocoa-nut comes back to you, 
 sweetened and enriched, in the milk from the top." 
 
 22. Use your Experience. — What is the use of 
 knowledge, of experience, unless we do some good 
 with it ? The best use of knowledge is the enlight- 
 enment of the ignorant ; the best use of religion is 
 the recovery of the wicked. Mr. Spurgeon has a 
 good word of advice on this subject : — 
 
 " When an experienced Christian merely uses his 
 experience for his own comfort, or as a standard by 
 which to judge his fellow-Christians, or makes use 
 of it for self-exaltation, as if he were infinitely supe- 
 rior to the most zealous young men, such a man 
 
348 OUii Children. 
 
 mars his talent, does mischief with it, and makes 
 himself heavily responsible. I beseech you who 
 have long walked in the way of godliness to use 
 your experience continually in your visitations of 
 the sick, in your conversations with the poor, in 
 your meeting with young beginners, in your dealing 
 with backsliders. Let your paths drop fatness ; let 
 the anointing oil God has given you fall upon those 
 who are round about you." 
 
 23. The Power of Prayer. — Those who work for 
 God in the midst of a wicked world must themselves 
 be kept pure. Purity is as essential to their useful- 
 ness as to their personal salvation. The eloquent 
 James Hamilton has a very beautiful passage on 
 this point : — 
 
 " Among the forms of insect life, there is a little 
 creature known to naturalists which can gather 
 around itself a sufficiency of atmospheric air, and 
 so clothed upon, it descends into the bottom of the 
 pool, and you may see the little diver moving about 
 dry, and at his ease, protected by his crystal vesture, 
 though the water all around and about him be stag- 
 nant and bitter. Prayer is such a protection : a 
 transparent vesture, the world sees it not — a real 
 defense, it keeps out the world. By means of it, 
 the believer can gather so much of heavenly atmos- 
 phere around him, and with it descend into the 
 putrid depths of this contaminating world, that for 
 a season no evil will touch him, and he knows when 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 349 
 
 to ascend for a new supply. Communion with God 
 kept Daniel pure in Babylon." 
 
 24. The Grace of Kindness. — Frederick Robertson 
 tells an incident in one of his letters that shows 
 how we may do good every day, and perhaps every 
 waking hour, if we only have a heart for it. He 
 had been writing to a friend when a visitor was an- 
 nounced. After the visitor's departure he contin- 
 ued the letter by describing the interview. He says : 
 ** I have been interrupted by the visit of a lady of 
 my congregation who came to take leave. She told 
 me the delight, the tears of gratitude, which she 
 had witnessed in a poor girl to whom, in passing, I 
 gave a kind look in going out of church on Sunday. 
 What a lesson I How cheaply happiness can be 
 given ! What opportunities we miss of doing an 
 angel's work ! I remember doing it, full of sad feel- 
 ings, passing on, and thinking no more about it and 
 it gave one hour's sunshine to a human life, and light- 
 ened the load of. human life to a heart for a time." 
 
 25. Life Transfigured. — We all need the inspira- 
 tion of broad views and noble thoughts to save us 
 from despondency, worldliness, and selfishness. De- 
 votion to duty redeems us from sordidness as noth- 
 ing else can. Dr. Chapin has some fine thoughts 
 on this subject. He says: — ■ 
 
 " When a man finds at last that there is some- 
 thing beyond this life to live for, the moment that 
 conception gets into his mind life is transfigured 
 
350 Our Children. 
 
 and glorified into the nobler spheres of action. It 
 becomes always glorious and fresh. Some men will 
 tell you that life is tasteless, wearisome, and exhaust- 
 ing ; in every case they are men who have tried to 
 live in a narrow and selfish manner. Life is trans- 
 figured to every true, loving, brave, and diligent 
 soul. Each man, faithful in his sphere, transfigures 
 it, and makes grand the humblest position. We may 
 say that the act of transfiguration takes place when 
 a man realizes his own soul and its worth and work." 
 
 26. The Ennobling Power of Duty Done. — Harlan 
 Page's motto was this : '' I will try to do some good 
 to every one I meet." This is the true spirit for all 
 who labor in Christ's vineyard. This spirit im- 
 proves all opportunities — great and small. It is 
 faithful for Christ's sake. How it lifts a man up ! 
 How it educates — leads out and up into its noblest 
 and divinest development — the spirit ! We may be 
 sure that — wherever else there may be darkness, and 
 weakness, and death — there is true light, and power, 
 and life in the soul that does its duty. 
 
 Professor Wilson — Christopher North — in ''Dies 
 Boreales!' thus writes of duty: ''The faculty of 
 beauty lives, and in finite beings, which we are, life 
 changes incessantly. The faculty of moral percep- 
 tion lives, and thereby it, too, changes for better 
 and for worse. This is the divine law — at once en- 
 couraging and fearful — that obedience brightens the 
 moral eyesight, sin darkens. Let all men know this, 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 351 
 
 and keep it in mind always, that a single narrowest, 
 simplest duty, steadily practiced day after day, does 
 more to support, and may do more to enlighten, the 
 soul than a course of moral philosophy taught by a 
 tongue which a soul compounded of Bacon, Spenser, 
 Shakspeare, Homer, Demosthenes, and Burke, to 
 say nothing of Socrates and Plato, could inspire." 
 
 27. Filling our Sphere. — " They tell in Europe," 
 says Dr. W. M. Taylor, '' of a poor man who was 
 confined for many years in a cold, dark dungeon. 
 There was but one aperture in the wall, and through 
 that the sunbeams came for but a few minutes 
 daily, making a bright spot on the opposite side of 
 the cell. Often and often the lonely man looked 
 upon that little patch of sunshine, and at length a 
 purpose to improve it grew within his soul. Grop- 
 ing on the floor of his cell, he found a nail and a 
 stone, and with these rude implements he set to 
 work on the white portion of the wall for the few 
 minutes of every day during which it was illumi- 
 nated, until at length he succeeded in bringing out 
 upon it a rude sculpture of Christ upon the cross. 
 Let us imitate that prisoner. Circumscribed may 
 be our sphere ; dark, indeed, may be our daily lot ; 
 yet, if we love the Lord, and pray to him, and look 
 for his direction, we shall discover some tiny chink 
 through w^hich the sunshine of his guiding Provi- 
 dence shall come. On the spot where its directing 
 light shall fall, let us, with such means as we can 
 
352 Our Children. 
 
 command, hew out, not in cold stone, but in living 
 love, the Hkeness of the sacrifice of Christ. So shall 
 we find our special sphere, and fill it to the commen- 
 dation of the Master." 
 
 28. Our Relation to each other. — " For the body ia 
 not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, 
 Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body ; 
 is it therefore not of the body ? And if the ear shall 
 say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the 
 body ; is it therefore not of the body ? If the whole 
 body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the 
 whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But 
 now hath God set the members every one of them 
 in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they 
 were all one member, where were the body? But 
 now are they many members, yet but one body. 
 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no 
 need of thee : nor again the head to the feet, I have 
 no need of you. Nay, much more those members 
 of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are nec- 
 essary : and those members of the body, which we 
 think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow 
 more abundant honor ; and our uncomely parts have 
 more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts 
 have no need; but God hath tempered the body 
 together, having given more abundant honor to that 
 part which lacked : that there should be no schism 
 in the body ; but that the members should have the 
 same care one for another. And whether one mem- 
 
Hints on Sunday-School Work. 353 
 
 !)er suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 
 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in 
 particular. And God hath set some in the Church, 
 first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, 
 after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, gov- 
 ernment, diversities of tongues." i Cor. xii, 14-28. 
 
 29. The Spirit of true Christian Laborers. — 
 '* Though I speak with the tongues of men and 
 of angels, and have not charity, I am become as 
 sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though 
 I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mys- 
 teries, and all knowledge ; and though I have all 
 faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have 
 not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow 
 all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my 
 body to be burned, and have not charity, it profit- 
 eth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; 
 charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself, is 
 not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
 seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, think- 
 eth no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoic- 
 eth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all 
 things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Char- 
 ity never faileth : but whether there be prophecies, 
 they shall fail ; whether there be tongues, they shall 
 cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish 
 away." i Cor. xiii, 1-8. 
 
 30. Our Final Reward our Present Support.^ 
 
 23 
 
354 Our Childrkn. 
 
 ** When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and 
 all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 
 the throne of his glory : and before him shall be 
 gathered all nations : a.jd he shall separate thcni 
 one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
 from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his 
 right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall 
 the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
 for you from the foundation of the world : for I was 
 ahungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and 
 ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me 
 in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye 
 visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 
 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, 
 when saw we thee ahungered, and fed thee? or 
 thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a 
 stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed 
 thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and 
 came unto thee? And the King shall answer and 
 say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as 
 ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matt, xxv, 
 31-40. 
 
 THE END. 
 
FEEIS M@TI€SS. 
 
 OUR CHILDREN 
 
 By ATTICUS G-. HAYaOOD, D.D., 
 
 President of Emory College, 
 
 1i2mQ. &&4 pag-es, PrioQ^ $i &Q>v Postage paM. 
 
 NEW YORK: IVelson A Phillips. 
 MA.CO.\, GA. : J. VV. Burke & Co. 
 (9T. LOUIS : S. W. B. «& P. CO. 
 
 The author, now President of Emory College, Oxford, Ga., wa« 
 from 1870 to 1876 Sunday-School Secretary of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, South. The first edition was exhausted in seven weeks 
 after publication. This book has been most emphatically commended. 
 The venerable Rev. Lovick Pierce, D.D., says in his Introduction: — 
 
 From a well-stored mind and an anxious heart the author offers in 
 this work his observations and experience upon the best interests of 
 our children for time and eternity, upon the obhgations and duties of 
 parents, and upon the opportunities and work of Sunday-school teach- 
 ers. The principles, drawn as they are from the word of God, that are 
 set forth in this volume, are, like the mariner's chart and compass, all 
 important to safe navigation along the perilous coast of time. 
 
 . The book is divided into two nearly equal parts, the first treating of 
 children in the family, and the second of children in the Sunday-schooL 
 The whole is so well done, and the work so eminently practical, thai 
 we lieartily wish a copy of it might find its way into the hand of every 
 parent and guardian, and of every Sunday-school officer and teacher. 
 There are single chapters worth more than the price of the whole book, 
 and some of them we have marked for transfer to our columns. In or- 
 der to secure a more extensive circulation than it would otherwise 
 reach, we hope our friends will see that a copy shall be placed in the 
 library of every Sunday-school in the land. — Christian Advocate. 
 
 It is happily introduced by the venerable and devoted Dr. L. Pierce. 
 The first part of the volume treats of the relation of the family to the 
 early religious culture of the child ; and the second part, of the Sunday- 
 school. Dr. Haygood is a very pleasant wiiter, attractive in style, and 
 full of pertinent illustrations. His theme is as important as it is famil- 
 iar. He has been very successful in presenting it in fresh and imprea*- 
 
PBESS NOTICES. ' 
 
 ivo aspects, and proffers to the Church a most excellent, wholesome, 
 And practical manual. Ministers, Sunday-sciioul teacliers, and parents 
 will find valuable suggestions for the discharge of their several duties 
 to the children, and much inspiration to a more earnest consecration fo) 
 (Ilia vital work of nurturing the lambs.— Zto^t's Herald. 
 
 We commend it as the best treatise of the kind of which we have anj 
 knowledge. It is written in racy, vigorous, popular style. The charm 
 of the book consists not only in the lively style of the author, but in the 
 ftflauence of illustrations, anecdotes, and extracts, with which it abounds. 
 It would be a Godsend to the country if a copy of this book were put 
 into every house in the land, and blessed would be the result if every- 
 body would read it.— T. 0. SuiiaiEits, D.D., Editor of Xaahvillc Chris- 
 tian Advocate. 
 
 It is written in admirable spirit, in clear and forcible style, and 
 should be read by all parents and teachers. It is a book for (.-very 
 household. It is sound, practical, and just such a book as is needed in 
 all our homes, North and South, at the present time.— J. H. Vincent, 
 D.D., S. S. Secretary M. E. Church, North. 
 
 The work before us is a concise expression of that advanced Christian 
 theory which has embodied itself in the great modern Sunday-school 
 movement. While the views expressed are strictly scriptural, and olfer 
 no compromise to the encroaching spirit of worldlincss that too often 
 taints the freest religious thought, yet tliey urge an advanced culture 
 for children, upon a basis that our fatiiers might not have understood, 
 but whicli is made necessary by the advancement of all departments of 
 education and science. In the style of the book we find nmch to com- 
 mend. It is clear and strong. Its cliief attraction to us is its pure 
 An^lo-Saxou force and sweetness. — Atlanta Daily Times. 
 
 We welcome this timely and admirably- written work. Its paper, 
 binding, and typography are all in keeping with the clioice nature ol 
 its contents. It is reiVeshing to look at the clear, clean, heavy-leaded 
 type; btill more refresliing to read the tine, lofty, stirring thought.s 
 which they embody. On tlie early and thorough religious culture ol 
 our children ; the responsibility of parents in relation to this most im- 
 portant work, and the necessity of a more Ciireful and conscientious 
 regard for their obligations in this respect; the sidiere and funeticns of 
 the Sabbath-school, ami the best method of making it available as an 
 auxiliary to fireside instruction — on all these topics, we are acquainted 
 with no work that so cnm]>letely meets the demands of the Church anu 
 the age as this book of Dr. i lay good's. It ouglit to be in the household 
 of every pastor, parent, and Sabbath -school teacher in the laiid. — /At!;. 
 moro Kp)^c*>pal MetfuMhst 
 
PRESS NOTICES. 
 
 The author, Dr. Haygood, id a Christian father, with vivid and well 
 matured conceptions of the delicate and difficult duties, and wide reach- 
 ing responsibilities, which attach to parenthood; and he has written 
 oui of his own heart and experience. As an itinerant Methodist 
 jireacher, his opportunities for marking the excellences and defects of 
 liuiue culture in the average Christian family have been extensive ; and 
 the fruit of his thouglitful and discriminating observations is garnered 
 in this interesting and instructive book. Known as u " Sunday-school 
 man" throughout his whole minLstry, and for five or six years the 
 official head of this department of Church work among us, he is 
 peculiarly well fitted to appreciate the true position of the Sunday-scliool 
 in the instruction and training of the children, and to indicate errors, 
 both of theory and practice, that have been injurious, or that are likely 
 to prove hurtful.— F. M. Kennedy, D.D., Editor of S. C. Advocate. 
 
 There is remarkable freshness, directness, point to €very sentence. 
 There is nothing stilted, nothing dry, and yet nothing undignified. 
 There are passages of poetic beauty. There is stinging satire in the 
 book. There is bold arraignment. There is, above all, genuine unction. 
 I do liope every father and mother will get tlie book, and every Sunday- 
 Kchool teacher and superintendent ; and 1 do not think any sensible 
 preacher will consent to be without it. — Pacific Meihodlat. 
 
 The author does not deal in theological .speculations about childhood- 
 he is not betrayed into the advocacy of any fine-spun theory, as have 
 been so many modern writers on this theme. Rather, he treats his sub- 
 ject in the light of facts of observation and experience, and in the light 
 of God's word, and so reaches practical conclusions as to duties and 
 privileges, as they relate to our children and to ourselves. It is, indeed, 
 a book that will at once instruct and arouse— a book for all parents to 
 read, and likewise all Sunday-school workers. — Western. Methodist. 
 
 We have read it with interest and profit, and can cordially commend 
 it to all our readers. It is a book for the times. No one who has 
 charge of children in the family or the Sunday-school can fail to bu 
 profited by this book. — Riclimond CJiristiau Advocate. 
 
 It is not a sectarian book; it is not a book specially for the lejirned 
 or the rich, though God knows how greatly many of these need such a 
 book; nor is it a book specially for tlie unlearned and the poor; it is a 
 book for alh It is suited to every age, to all climes, to all people,— 
 St. Louis Christiiui Advocate. 
 
 We doubt vei-y much whether any work so full of practical wisdom 
 and sound evangelical truth has ever appeared from the pen of a South 
 em Methodist author. If it were placed in every family in the land, 
 and carefully read, it would create a perceptible moral upliflin;:.— 
 llolatoH Methodist. 
 
PBESS NOTICES. 
 
 Wo most sincerely commend to every body this valuable addition tr» 
 i.>ur Churcli literatm*e. — W. G. E. Cunnyngham, D.D., S. S. Secretary 
 AI. E. Churclu South. 
 
 It is a book which every parent and Sunday-school teacher might 
 read to advantage, and the theme is one which none of them can afford 
 to undervalue or ignore. — Sunday -School Tiniea. 
 
 The author gives a very broad treatment to the question of giving re- 
 ligious culture to children. Dr. Haygood's book is an admirable one. 
 It is both stimulating and instructive.— iV'tz^ionaZ S. S. Teacher. 
 
 The volume is one that will be helpful to all Christian parents and 
 teachers. — N. Y. Observer. 
 
 The volume is timely, and should be placed in the hands of every 
 
 parcjit. — Texan Pi-eshyferian. 
 
 It discusses, from scriptui'al stand-points, and with able and thorough 
 arguments, the entire fields of the family, the home, and the Sunday- 
 Hchool. It is a book of Gospel power. It guards the home as angels 
 w ith flaming swords guarded the original paradise. It is a genuine friend 
 to the father and the mother. If this work could find its way into every 
 household, and become a text-book for young and old, the next genera- 
 tion would stand on a grandly higher plane of enjoyment, usefiilness, 
 and honor. — Alexander Claek, D.D., Methodid Recorder. 
 
 . A most delightful book for all persons who occupy the responsible 
 [)Osition of traincns of youth.— i\^, W. GJiristian Advocate. 
 
 It treats the whole subject of the religious education of the young, at 
 liome and in school, with great fullness, and with a union of practical 
 •^onse and fervent piety which will insure the confidence of readers and 
 l.olp them.— Dr. Talmage, in Christian at Wo^'k. 
 
 We have nothing but words of commendation to bestow upon the 
 >ok.— iVeu) Orleans Christian Advocate. 
 
 SOLD BY 
 
 NELSON & PHILLIPS, New York. 
 J. W. BURKE & CO., Macon, Ga. 
 L D. DAMERON, St. Louis, Mo. 
 A. H. BEDFORD, Nashville, Tenn. 
 T. L. D. WALFORD Richii.ond, Va. 
 D. H. CARROLL, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 HITCHCOCK & WALDEN, Cincinnati, 0. 
 " Chicago, III. 
 
 " " St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 JAMES ROBISON, Agt., Pittsburgh. Pa. 
 R. J. HARP, New Orleans, La. 
 The AUTHOR, Oxford, Georgia. 
 
 ipW° It may lit* ordered tlirougli any Bookseller. 
 
Date Due 1 
 
 A!i<25'53 
 
 
 
 
 , . -' 
 
 
 
 
 AP ?;, T'^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^iismM 
 
 n^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
Hill 11)1 nil ilirii'irn iM'.'n,'''"'"''^^-Sp^e' L,, 
 
 2012 01040 2412