^ ' *,%' ^o o x » > V k A ^ j. -^ * A A • A A / AAAa'A'a'aAAAA A A A A A " ^ * A ' A ' A " A THE EARLY ^ONWERSION OF P/iildren. BY L. ROSSER, D.D. •X;I'I;I;I;I^X = I = I'I'I;I : I : I;k r ;I;I^;I;I;I;I;I;Z^I-I;X-I;I-Z : I-I : I;I^X THE EARLY CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. ,1 1 0/ BY l:rosser, d.d. i < Printed for the Author. Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Babbee & Smith, Agents, Nashville, Tenn. 1891. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, By Leo Rosser, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. *1 f PREFACE. Although much has been written on the moral training of children, yet I do not remember to have seen more than incidental references to their early conversion. Hence this treatise. I have carefully avoided all subtle distinctions which tend more to con- fuse than explain the subject, and omitted all questions of use- less and tedious controversy. Ashland, Va., 1891. (3) CONTENTS. Chapter I. Paoi Infant Justification 7 CHAPTER II. Early Regeneration 11 Chapter III. Early Regeneration (Continued) 23 Chapter IV. Relation of Children to the Church 28 Chapter V. Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood 32 Chapter VI. Advantages of Early Regeneration 36 Chapter VII. Objections to Early Regeneration Considered 53 Chapter VIII. Obligation of the Church 61 Chapter IX. Appeal to the Church and Parents 70 Chapter X. A New Era 79 Chapter XI. Facts 89 (5) EARLY CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. CHAPTER I. Infant Justification. Infant salvation is one of the plainest truths and dearest doctrines taught in the Bible. It is founded exclusively on the death of Christ, and is inwoven in the code of grace. Probably the clearest and strong- est scripture in proof of infant salvation is the fol- lowing: "As by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the right- eousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. v. 18. ) Here we are at the fountains of life and death to man. Co-extensive with the hereditary evils of the one are the gracious bene- fits of the other. The plain and blessed meaning is: 1. All infants are born in a state of justification. I know not a more glorious doctrine of redemption than this. The guilt incurred by Adam, and all attached to his sinful nature, was unconditionally canceled by Christ's atonement, and consequently is not now at- tached to the sinful nature inherited by his posterity. With the first promise, u the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," Christ pledged prospect- ively atonement for Adam's sin, abrogated absolutely the paradisaical law, and consequently annulled for- ever the relation of Adam and his posterity to that (7) 8 Early Conversion of Childt law. None can be held responsible or condemnable under a law repealed. No man, therefore, is con- demnable or can perish for Adam's sin. The argu- ment is now brief. As by the prospective atonement of Christ, the promised seed, the Adamic law was met, " magnified," and repealed forever, the condemnation of Adam tinder that law was canceled forever, and consequently his posterity can never be condemned for his sin. The atonement of Christ does the double work: it is the ground of the repeal of one law and the enactment of another. All the fortunes of human- ity now follow the second law, that of grace. Had there been no atonement, Adam would have perished without posterity. I never could see how guilt and condemnation could be incurred by an irresponsible, helpless infant, though born morally evil. Reason rejects the dogma and cordially embraces the doctrine of universal and unconditional infant justification through Jesus Christ. You can no more deny the right of the infant to justification than you can deny his right to salvation, and you can do neither without severing his relation to Christ. 2. Infant justification also entitles all infants un- conditionally to initial life, whereby at the earliest responsible age they can repent, believe, and be saved, which shall be considered at length in the next chap- ter. On the ground of infant justification, all infants dying in infancy inherit unconditionally all the bless- ings contained in the atonement of Christ — that is, dying before responsible age, the infant is saved with- out faith; living to responsible age, it is saved by faith. 3. Take another scripture, the first promise of Infant Justification, ( .) grace to the Bible: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's bead 1 will put enmity between thy seed and herseed" What does God mean? He means, first, thai the promised seed Jesus shall atone i\u- and repeal Eorever the law just now enacted, and violated by Adam. Secondly, that the redemptive law shall be instituted for the Adamic law. Thirdly, that the spirit shall now freely and unconditionally impart to Adam initial life, a new principle by which he is made a probationer under the redemptive law, and consequently he feels the germination of hope in de- spair, the stirrings of contrition for the paradisaical sin, and may exercise faith in the promised seed for pardon, regeneration, and restoration. He is not now the subject of utter spiritual death, for antagonism be- tween the two principles of spiritual death and initial life begins. And, fourthly, this antagonism shall continue in his posterity to the end of time. In a word, the transmission of spiritual death and the im- partation of initial life shall both be universal and unconditional. In other words, imagine Adam unrelented and un- restrained by the new, quickening, and controlling principle of grace, and you have total depravity with- out help or hope. Imagine his posterity bereft of this new, quickening principle, and you have total depravity without help or hope. All that Adam be- came in the instant he sinned is, by our unrepeala- ble law of hereditary descent, reproduced in his pos- terity to the end of time. By hereditary descent from Adam, the nature of every man is simple, un- mixed, uncontrollable enmity against God. The new, quickening, and opposing principle of initial life is 10 Early Conversion of Children. from Christ, and is not and never can be inherited from Adam. But what has this to do with the conversion of chil- dren? Much every way. First, the total depravity of children is proved beyond doubt. Secondly, the salvation of children is impossible without regenera- tion. Thirdly, their regeneration cannot be the re- sult of any process of a nature totally depraved, and there is no hope of their salvation from this source. Fourthly, the grace of God provided for the salvation of Adam is likewise provided for the salvation of his posterity. Fifthly, consequently the relation of the regeneration of children to the atonement is next to be considered. CHAPTEK II. Early Kegeneration. I shall not stop further to prove that man, by de- scent from Adam, is totally depraved — is evil, and only evil. It never has been and never can be proved that infants are born holy by virtue of Christ's atone- ment — that is, that their unconditional justification entitles them to regeneration, except in the case of those dying before responsible age. Nor shall I stop further to prove that Jesus Christ, " by the grace of God, tasted death for every man," and that " the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, has appeared unto all men " — that is, that every man, under the code of redemption, has a degree of spiritual life uncondition- ally imparted by the Holy Spirit, by which, in due time, he may resist inherited depravity, repent, be- lieve, and be saved. In other words, every man in- herits active initial enmity from Adam, and active initial life from Christ. Antagonism between these two principles begins with their earliest germination in childhood, and continues till one or the other is extirpated in this life. If there is not this partial initial quickening in every man, you might as well offer animal life to a corpse as to offer him salvation. And so all the moral beauty in childhood is referrible to initial life, and on initial life the child is constituted a probationer and held responsible for repentance and faith at the ear- liest age he is capable of repenting and believing. No (ii) 12 Early Conversion of Children. man can any more say that God has given him too small a degree of this initial or spiritual life to over- come moral evil inwoven in him than that he gave to Adam and angels an insufficient spiritual strength for their probation. But initial grace is not regenerating grace. It is not religion. It is the groundwork of moral obliga- tion in man. It is ability to repent and believe in order to be regenerated. And, though no actual sins may have been committed by the morally disciplined child, while such a case would be a rare exception, yet faith, in the proper sense of the term, would be binding on the child at responsible age in order to regeneration. The relation of initial life to regen- eration is seen as follows: 1. Spiritual emotions are awakened with the earliest stirrings of initial life. Confound not intellectual with moral weakness in childhood. If there is any moral power at all in childhood, it is enough as the germ of moral activity. Moral good and evil bud blended, but separate in childhood, how early none can tell; and so, as soon as initial life begins to stir, spiritual emotions are awakened, and there is always moral strength enough to act, and the spirit is always present to guide the submissive child. Thus rever- ence for God, one of the first-fruits of initial life, is aw r akened at so early an age that no one knows when he felt its first stirring. How often you hear at home and in the infant class at Sunday-school, among the first imperfect lispings of childhood, a few broken notes of old familiar songs, and, in some instances, the most difficult pieces sung by the youngest chil- dren how sweetly and admirably! Why should not Early Begem ration. L3 the tirst Btirrings of initial life originate spiritual emotions preparatory to conversion and allnre to ( tod at the earliest age? In theadull these Bpiritual emo- tions load to repentance, faith, and regeneration, and there is no reason why they should not lead to the same blessed results from their earliest incipiency iii childhood. And never let it be overlooked that religious emotions are aroused and excited in child- hood by the Spirit, which are afterward confirmed by reason, and so the matured mind is fortified against doubt, backsliding, apostasy, skepticism, and infidelity. 2. Spiritual ideas may be had at he tearliest age. Who knows when he first had the idea of a God? of sin? of guilt? of a Saviour? of a duty? Let it not be assumed that these truths are above the intellect of the child, for they are not only enjoined by God in the training of children, and inculcated at home and in the Sunday-school, but a knowledge of them is often manifested in earliest childhood. Why, there- fore, should conversion be delayed a moment be- yond the conception of these great truths? What more is required for the conversion of the adult? And forget not that the Holy Spirit can instruct the little child in spiritual truths as well as the philoso- pher, as we shall presently see and shall often see in this treatise. 3. Spiritual conviction may be produced at the earliest age. The Spirit "shall reprove [convince] the world of sin." With the first stirrings of initial life in the heart, intellect, and conscience, the little child may be convinced by the Holy Spirit of sin and a sinful nature. This cannot be denied without de- 14 Early Conversion of Children. nying that childhood has sensibility, intellect, con- science, and a sinful nature. 4. Genuine repentance may be exercised at the ear- liest age. What is repentance? Under conviction of sin as sin, it is sorrow for sin as sin, confession of sin as sin, renunciation of sin as sin, and prayer for the forgiveness of sin as sin. It is nothing more in the adult. It is all this in childhood. Who that has made careful observation has not seen all this in the penitence of very little children? The tenderness of conscience in childhood! Did you ever think of it? To me the anguish of their first awakening and re- pentance is like what would be the remorse of young sinful seraphim repenting just outside heaven. What a sudden and painful change have you noticed in their consciousness of sinfulness and guilt — the fires of guilt kindling in their agitated breasts, and the gloom of guilt overshadowing their sweet faces. One, writing to Mr. Wesley, says: " When I was five or six years old, I had many solemn thoughts about death and judgment. I wanted to be good, but I knew not how. I was often in great trouble for fear I should die and go to hell. If at any time I told a lie, I was like one in hell. 1 was afraid to be one moment by myself, for I thought Satan would come and tear me to pieces. And so I continued till I was eight years old, when I received a measure of the love of God. I loved Jesus so that I thought I could suffer any thing for his sake." ( " Wesley's Works," Vol. in., p. 356. ) Explain as others may the tears and prayers and cries of children in time of revival, I have no other explanation but the immediate awakening and draw- ing of the Spirit, the same as in the adult penitent. Early Regem ration, 15 Nor can the sincerity and genuineness of their earliest repentance be denied, unless it can he proved that they have not an evil heart by nature and have com- mitted no sin, or, haying an evil heart and having committed sin, that the Spirit cannot convince them of either. You forget that the Spirit can convince a little child both of his sinfulness and sins and ex- cite a corresponding contrition as deep and genuine as in the adult. I have often seen the penitential an- guish of little children at the altar as great as their young hearts could bear and as clear as the most ma- tured minds display. In times of great revival, sud- denly the Spirit, on the basis of initial life and in- struction already received, by a divine charm moves multitudes of children to penitential tears, cries, and prayers. The divine persuasion is so sudden and en- ergetic that in them it seems to be uncontrollable. They hear, they see, they feel, they fear, they tremble, they weep, they yield, they pray, and know as well as you or I what they are about, and they are in the dawn of saving faith and regeneration. 5. Saving faith may be exercised at the earliest age. This is the turning-point of this whole treatise. You fear the children do not know T what saving faith is. I tell you they know more about it than the adult pen- itent does. Justifying faith is supernatural in all cases, old and young. It is the gift of the Spirit in all cases of true repentance. It is not the work of re- flection or reason, and hence is a mystery to the wisest unregenerated philosopher, theologian, or logician. The less a man is a child in humility, docility, and sin- cerity the more difficult it is to believe; indeed, faith is impossible without the absolute submission of 1G Early Conversion of Children; childhood, and Christ says so: "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Do not imregenerate men gener- ally, especially the learned, express their ignorance of saving faith and wonder what it is? But the submis- sive, penitent child encounters no difficulties but nat- ural enmity, which is now in the germ; and sense of guilt, which is less than yours; and ignorance, which is no greater than yours; and this enmity the Spirit slays, and this guilt the Spirit cancels, and this igno- rance the Spirit removes in the instant it gives saving faith. I repeat, saving faith is easier and clearer in a lit- tle child than in the adult. As saving faith has not its origin in the unaided, unnatural reason, heart, and will, but in the co-operation of the Spirit, this co-op- eration in the penitent child is unresisted by the doubts and fears and errors and prejudices, and all other drawbacks to penitence and faith in adult age. The ignorance that restrains and oppresses the adult has no weight with him. Without the timidity, halt- ing, reviewing, reflecting, analyzing, groping in pro- found gloom, which embarrass the adult, he leaves the solution of every difficulty and mystery to the spirit of promise, and is led at once by the spirit to Christ. Away, then, with the idea that the child can- not know what saving faith is. True, he may not un- derstand it as the learned divine does, or as he will when his reflective powers are matured, but he can see Christ as his Saviour as clearly as you can. I say more clearly than you can, and after awhile will un- derstand saving faith doctrinally as well as you, just as he can now see the light of the sun as well as you Early Regeneration. 17 do, and after awhile may understand the laws of ligW and vision as well as you do. And what I hint yon of the blind man, blind From his birth, who denies that Ins child, born with good eyes, can see the lighl of the sun? Why infer from your Spiritual blindness that the Spirit cannot give spiritual sight to your little child? Or, pious parents, why doubt that the Spirit can give spiritual sight or faith to your peni- tent children as well as he did to you? It is not sur- prising that ignorance of spiritual things in parents should cause them to fear mistakes and deceptions in spiritual things in their children. But the fear is groundless. I have observed that those parents who know least of Christ doubt most, if they do not op- pose, the conversion of their children, while the re- verse is true with those parents who know most of Christ; and I add that there are instances on record in which pious little children have led their uncon- verted parents to Christ as a little child may lead a blind philosopher in the right path by the light of the sun. 6. Kegeneration is possible at the earliest age. This follows from the preceding. No one will deny that the child dying in infancy, before the age of account- ability, as is his birthright under the code of salva- tion, is regenerated by the Spirit and taken to heaven. So, as soon as the child reaches the age of accounta- bility, believing, it may be regenerated by the Spirit, though as yet it may not be guilty of any actual sins; for it is conceivable that the first stirrings of initial life, under proper training and the unresisted guid- ance of the Spirit, may prompt the child to give his evil heart to Christ. At this point, let it never be for- 2 18 Early Conversion of Children. gotten, the Spirit can help the child to think, feel, will, believe, love, and obey. " Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God has perfected praise." Now, there- fore, as the child with the earliest incipiency of reason, conscience, heart, and will, under the quickening of initial life and aid of the Spirit, may believe unto re- generation before sin has been committed, surely he may do all this at the earliest time after the guilt of actual sin has been contracted. Happy parents, hap- py children, happy age of the Church, and happy era of the world, when the conversion of children shall be sought before innate depravity issues in actual sin! If this be possible (and the possibility is undeniable), then surely the possibility of conversion at the ear- liest age after actual sin is settled forever. I will put the possibility of the early conversion of children in the strongest light I can. They are born in a state of justification, though with the seeds of good and evil in them — the former inherited from Christ, the latter inherited from Adam. There is no reason why they should ever forfeit justification. In proof: 1. If children are not born in a state of justification, then what becomes of all children dying before they are capable of actual sin ? They cannot be saved, of course, because no one can be saved in an unjustified state. What then? I answer: Dying before the guilt of actual sin has been incurred, and the con- demnation attached to moral evil inherited from Adam having been unconditionally canceled by the atonement of Christ, they are regenerated by the Spirit and taken to heaven — that is, they are regen- erated by the Spirit without repentance and faith, for Early Regeneration, 19 as yrt they are noi responsible for repentance and faith, as yet they know nothing of repentance and faith, as yet have done nothing demanding repentance and faith. Here, then, in the case of those dying in infancy there is not only the possibility bnt the cer- tainty of the earliest regeneration regeneration fe- fare responsibility. 2. Discriminate between a sinful nature and actual sin. The guilt attached to the sinful nature of chil- dren, as already shown, is universally and uncondi- tionally canceled by the atonement of Christ, and consequently condemnation cannot be incurred but by actual sin, which implies responsibility or the op- eration of enlightening and restraining grace. Born, then, in a state of justification, how can the child in- cur condemnation but by his own voluntary and act- ual sin, or resistance of the grace that would continue him in a state of justification and lead him to seek regeneration? The child born in a state of justifica- tion has the divine right to claim, by faith, regenera- tion as soon as he can know it is his right and before any sin has been committed. Teach the child tliis be- fore he commits sin. He is born justified. He forfeits justification only by actual sin. Before he incurs the guilt of actual sin let him claim regeneration by faith, and so perpetuate his justification to the end of life. In other words, dying in infancy, justification enti- tles to regeneration without faith; living to responsi- ble age, faith perpetuates justification, which entitles to regeneration. If the infant, dying, may be regen- erated at the earliest irresponsible age without faith, why may he not be regenerated at the earliest respon- sible age by faith? The possibility of the latter can 20 Early Conversion of Children. no more be denied than tlie possibility of the former. If sin is necessary in childhood, then childhood is not responsible for sin. But sin is not necessary in childhood; therefore the child may be regenerated be- fore he commits any sin, whatever the force of inher- ited depravity, the world, and Satan. 3. Discriminate between justification and regenera- tion in the infant and in the adult. In the adult sin- ner infant justification has been forfeited by actual sin, and is recoverable only by repentance and faith; the infant is already in a state of justification, and dying in that state he is regenerated by the Spirit and taken to heaven. In the adult sinner condem- nation has been incurred by actual sin, which now can be canceled only by faith, which carries with it re- generation; in the child there is no condemnation, for as yet he has committed no sin, and so at the earliest age he can exercise faith, he may seek regeneration by faith. The adult sinner obtains both justification and regeneration by faith; the child, being in a state of justification, obtains regeneration by faith, and so continues in the narrow way. The adult gets back into the narrow way by faith; the child continues in the narrow way by faith. 4. Discriminate between sanctification and regen- eration. Because children are born in sin — that is, with a sinful nature — is no proof that they are in the broad way; for all Christians, with very few excep- tions, as their experience painfully assures them, carry in them the remains of the carnal mind inherited from Adam which they control by grace every step in the narrow way till they are entirely sanctified. Are they in the broad way? God forbid. Why may not this Early !><e regenerated. Samuel was actually consecrated to God as soon as he was k - we med" probably when three years old. l>o you hear? Then you may begin thai ^u))\, or sooner, to train the children Cor God. Let no one doubt this without doubting the word of God, violating parental obligation, denying the capacity, and neglecting the souls of the children. :i And let it never be forgotten that no time for reflection or strengthening the mental powers is re- quired after the first spiritual convictions in the child, or in any one else. Let it never be overlooked that with the first intelligible quickening of initial grace the child, or any one else, by faith, may be regener- ated The mind that can bear awakening grace can exercise saving faith and receive regenerating grace, and sanctifying grace too, for sanctification begins in regeneration. Grant that the mind of the child is immature. That is no valid reason why the mind shall wait a moment beyond awakening grace for mental vigor to receive regenerating grace; for, while you as- sume that the mental powers should have time to strengthen in awakening grace, you overlook a funda- mental truth of redemption that regenerating life is a growing principle too, and so may immediately suc- ceed the feeblest awakening and grow with the growth of the regenerated mental powers and by its invigor- ation enable them to discharge their legitimate func- tions through the eternal progress of being. Why may not this growing process of regenerating life be- gin in earliest responsible childhood, as well as at any subsequent stage of mental development? Besides, while you are waiting for the supposed mental vigor, 26 Early Conversion of Children. awakening grace is suspended; and now what appall- ing uncertainty shrouds the future! Iu a word, why should you throw out of the question the growing life of regeneration, the only proper invigorating and con- trolling power, and leave the mental faculties and in- nate depravity to their natural and rapid growth? Why not allow regenerating life a chance in this con - test of growth, more especially when so much depends on a fair start in the race for eternity? Regeneration will carry with it its own increasing strength through the indefinite expansibility of the soul in time and eternity. 3. Parents often look for too much as evidence of conversion in childhood. You expect your converted children to be Christian men and women at once, in- stead of babes in Christ— Christian children. You suppose that all the damage of the defects and neg- lects in previous parental training will now be re- paired and all your trials ended. You imagine that they should show more of religion in the family than you do, and that they should be your standard of piety rather than you theirs. And thus they are crippled, discouraged, and fall away. If any one needs encouragement, or should have patience, watch- fulness, and charity exercised toward him, it is the religious child. In every "babe in Christ" there is much of fear and self-distrust. How many a lit- tle child, like the timid, unobtrusive woman, presses in and touches unobserved the hem of the seamless garment! Of all converts little children are most re- luctant to profess conversion, need encouragement most, and are soonest discouraged. A cold, silent suspicion or doubt of the genuineness of their conver- Early Regi tu rut ion. ii BioD may nip the blessed work in the bud Omit in- struction, encouragement, and the tenderest care at their conversion, when they need help and guidance most, and the omission may be irreparable forever. -I. It is astonishing to what extent tin 4 mind of the child may be developed before he is three year- age: what a "great treasury of knowledge he has; how many persons, places, things he knows; how many comparisons he forms; how many logical conclusions he draws; what skill he has in constructing sentences and making discourse." Dr. Skinner, a celebrated French infidel, profoundly remarks: "Give me the first five years of a child's life, and I will teach it to break every law of God and man." CHAPTER IV. Relation of Children to the Church. 1. The relation of children to the Church may here be considered — a matter of extreme importance and a subject of much controversy. Without entering ex- tensively and elaborately into the discussion, this much is undeniable: Only those who are regenerated are members of the spiritual Church. None are re- generated in unconscious and irresponsible infancy except those dying in infancy, who are uncondition- ally regenerated by the Spirit and taken to heaven. Till death, therefore, they were not in the spiritual Church at all; but, on the ground of unconditional justification, as already considered, dying in infancy, they were entitled to regeneration, and thus their membership in the spiritual Church began at death; and hence the assumption that all infants are born in the spiritual Church is untenable and must be dis- missed from our inquiry. What then? I answer: The regeneration of those who live to responsible age depends on faith; and hereby becoming members of the spiritual Church, they should be formally recog- nized and admitted as such, no matter how early they are regenerated. Thus children should be regener- ated and be old enough to understand and assume the obligations of Church-membership before they are formally admitted into the Church. This, in my judgment at least, is the only wise, true, and safe ground. (28) Relati n of Children to the Church. 29 '2. And this is the ground taken by our ("nine]): "Aa soon as they ( children ) comprehend the respon- sibilities involved in a public profession of faith in Christ, and give evidence of a sincere and earnest de- termination to discharge the same, see Hint they be duly recognized as members of the Church, agreeably to the Discipline." (See Discipline.) A public pro- ion of faith ill Christ that does not imply regen- eration is defective at bottom, however earnest and sincere may be the determination to discharge the responsibilities of the Christian faith; for no one can be in and out of the spiritual Church at the same time, though he may be at the door and knock long and hard for admittance. 3. But you ask: " Is not the baptism of infants a for- mal sacramental recognition of their Church-member- ship?" I answer: No. For infants are not born in a regenerated state; for, I repeat, it never has been and never can be proved that infants are born holy by virtue of Christ's atonement — that is, that their un- conditional justification entitles them to regeneration, except in the case of those dying before responsible age; and the heretical dogma of baptismal regenera- tion has been exploded long ago. But infant baptism does imply that the subject is in a state of justifica- tion, and sets forth the prospective rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the infant subject. And so baptized children should be "faithfully instructed in the nature, design, privileges, and obligations of their baptism." (See Discipline. ) And so when regenerated they come for formal admission into the Church, they are required to " ratify and confirm the promise and vow of repentance, faith, and obedience contained in 30 Early Conversion qf Children. the baptismal covenant," (See Discipline.) Their baptism should be observed as soon as convenient by the Church, and their earliest conversion sought and found, and open, formal membership should follow. -i. Some persons, overlooking the laws and condi- tions of nature and grace, have regarded regeneration in early childhood, in rare and lovely examples, as the result of a gradual and insensible process of grace, independent of repentance and faith; and some have gone so far as to suppose that the child is not totally depraved, but retains a remnant of life from Adam that in and of itself may gradually and insensibly ger- minate in conversion; and some have gone to the last limit of presumption in the supposition that all chil- dren are born holy. The first deny the conditional- ity of regeneration in responsible childhood, and the second and third deny the total depravity of man — both fundamental doctrines of the Bible, which is a sufficient answer to all three theories. But I shall give more attention to the last. 1. If infants are born holy, then when they become responsible and sin, depravity in them is self -caused, and that, too, under the most unfavorable conditions, and all the Scriptures that trace the total depravity of man to Adam are false. On this theory, every child with his first sin remands himself to the state in which Adam left him, and now initial life is neces- sary to his recovery of holiness. And so nothing is gained by this theory in the case of all infants living and sinning. 2. Nothing is gained by this theory in the case of all infants dying in infancy. If at birth they were made holy by the Spirit, so at death they might have Relation of Childn n to the I ] hurch. . ,; 1 been made holy by the same Spirit En either i they are prepared Eor heaven l>\ the Spirit. S«> noth- ing is gained Eor such as die in infancy, whether they are made holy at birth or at death. .'). It' infants are born holy, then when they become accountable they need not exercise faith to become holy, and bo continuing holy till death, need never be "born again," a privilege which Christ declares no man can claim. 4 Initial life is sufficient, and supersedes the ne- cessity of holiness as the basis of ability and obliga- tion in responsible childhood. 5. Confound not nature with grace. The child is not good, and can never become good by nature. Im- agine no germ of beauty, or grace, or virtue, in him as an emanation from Adam or as a relic of paradise. Where or how nature and grace meet and mingle in man none can tell, but they are never to be con- founded. The light and life and love and hope and sweetness in childhood are from grace. 6. That some children arc converted so early and so insensibly that no definite date of conversion can be fixed, is not denied; but this is no proof that children are born holy, for it is easy to see that in such cases repentance and faith also are not definitely remem- bered. It is not difficult to imagine that the triumph of repentance and faith over innate depravity in such cases was almost without a struggle. O that the whole human race might so emerge into life eternal! O blessed millennium! It is possible. CHAPTER V. Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood. How soon the little child can tell all his heart to Christ! He has no motives to conceal; no love to re- strain; no hate to dissemble; no fears to haunt him; no cares to harass him; no deceit to veil; no errors to correct; no excuses to plead; no prejudices to re- linquish; no besetting, habitual, darling sins to aban- don; no evil habits to overcome; no strong temptations to encounter; no evil associations to sever; no chains of fashion, custom, and public opinion to break; no fetters of pride and shame and worldly show to sun- der; no sensuality to resist; no vices to quit; no crimes to lament; no feuds to settle; no resentments to sub- due; no rivalries, competitions, and jealousies to ex- cite; no injuries to repair or forgive; no distrust or suspicions to indulge; no skepticism, no infidelity to renounce; no keen regret and remorse to depress; no hardness of heart like a rock in his way; no second self to rend from Satan and the world; no perplexity about the mysteries of conversion and redemption; nothing to withhold from God but his young heart, and that he gives with a sincerity, willingness, and faith next to the promptings of original innocence, and with an ease, I venture to say, next to that of a pure seraph, for as yet innate enmity to God is so feeble that it is most easily restrained, overcome, and slain by the Spirit. O ye who are bound from head to foot with these (32) Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood. 83 Btrong manacles, how can ye "be converted and be- come as a Little child M withoul an efforl st ronger I ban that required to break the chains of the felon in his cell, and next to thai required to Liberate the alien angels? The little child has but to Btep back into the narrow way, if indeed as yet he is out of it; what a Long and dismal journey have you to retrace! He is hut a few steps from the solid shore; but you, how far adrift on the stormy sea and driving toward that other shore! He can kneel at his mother's side, his little hands in hers and his head in her lap, and soar to heaven with her words of faith and hope and love; but your lovely, precious, pious mother sleeps in her grave, her pure spirit above, and none, none like her, can ever teach and help you in prayer. He at the first signal enlists for training and discipline in the camp of Christ, to fight under his banner for life; you have fought so long and obstinately under the flag of Satan that you think it more ignominious to yield than to hold out till outlawed by justice and slain by death. He can look back a short distance to the innocence of the cradle and the nursery; but what great, black mountains of guilt shut out your vision! He can bend in adoration at the feet and lean his head confidingly on the bosom of Jesus; but what power can drag you from devotion to Satan? All the voices of heaven are sweet and distinct to him; but to you they are distant, faint, and dying, and other and terrible voices approaching. Life and eternity are open before him, and he is about to start; you are near the end of a weary, wandering, wicked, wasted, woful life. O what would you give or do or suffer to be a child again! His heart trembles, yields, and 3 Early Conversion of Children, melts into penitence and love on the gentlest touch of Christ's finger; yours is now so hardened by the scars of the sword of the Spirit that the almighty blade rebounds with every stroke, as if it struck a rock. He can now awake in the image of God, as if he had been born amid the flowers of Eden or awaked a cherub in heaven; but you are so penetrated and deformed by sin and guilt that, stripped of the ap- pendages of this life, you would seem to have been born in the bottomless pit. He, converted and dying, becomes a young heir of glory; you, unconverted and dying, become an old heir of perdition. He, converted now, after a long life, will leave earth with few re- grets and soar to the highest heaven; you, unless con- verted, will close a long life with black despair and descend to the lowest hell. Is it not easier to crush, the serpent in the egg than to untwist his horrid, rigid coils, and rend him full grown from his gasping victim? Is it not easier to extinguish the spark than to quench the expanding blaze ? Is it not easier to arrest disease in its incip- iency than to cure it in its last stages or when the con- stitution is worn out? Is it not easier to avoid debt through life than to avert insolvency near the close of life? Is it not easier to make a whole day's journey or do a whole day's work by beginning at sunrise than by delaying till meridian or till sunset? Is it not easier to enter the narrow way in childhood than to turn from the broad way in old age? How often when awakened does the presence of the multitude hold back the adult like the grip of death, while the young are insensible to this influence ! What entanglements of unlawful pursuits do the young es- Regeneration Easiest in Earliest Childhood, 86 cape, from which bo many grown persons when pow- erfully impelled to repenl 6nd it nexl to impossible to extricate themselves! How often have I Been this, rarely witnessing an example of deliverance. How often do you hear hardened, aged sinners Lamenting on a death-bed: "I remember when a child I often wept on hearing about Christ, his love for poor sin- ners, and his death to save us. I was taught to read the Bible and to pray. I saw some of my intimate friends beginning in their young days to be Chris- tians; but I am now unpardoned, hardened, and un- prepared! " In a word, the will can control but cannot change the heart! While it cannot prevent the stirrings of unbelief and enmity in the natural heart, and may restrain them, it cannot change the heart. But it can bring the heart to Christ to be changed, and the act of the will that does this trustfully is saving faith. This act is easiest in childhood, without doubt, and the earliest in childhood the easiest; the latest in life the hardest. CHAPTEE VI. Advantages of Early Regeneration. 1. The foundation of personal piety and usefulness is laid deepest and firmest in earliest conversion. It is a maxim of all ages, "the child is father to the man." Children at an early age give indications of their future trade, calling, or pursuits. Solomon says: "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right" The con- science is active early, therefore, and the best founda- tion that can be laid for life is in early conversion. The constitutional law is: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not de- part from it." Follow this law strictly, and there will be no exception to it — not one. Do this till he is a man, and he is established for life. Every exception is referable to some fatal defect or neglect in early training, and the greatest neglect is that of early con- version. No amount of training, without early con- version, is enough to insure the infallible fulfillment of the laws and promises made to childhood. You compromise the central principle of the law and the the conditionality of its fulfillment when you overlook early conversion. You may even efface the blessed effects of early conversion by stopping short in pious discipline, by allowing the influence of others to neu- tralize your own, by the non-concurrence of one of the parents in religious training, by not always setting the right example, by not praying for God's help, by (36) Advantages of Early Regeneration* ->7 " indulgence and severity thai destroy parental au- thority" and influence, or by conformity to the spirit and practice of the world. Train righl from early conversion to manhood, and your child will be saved. L say will be, for he is as yet a free agent, and will not depart from it. Parents and the Church, aim at the earliest conversion of the children. This is the high- est end. You will not accomplish much but vanity if yon do not accomplish this in the beginning. "All the wise men in the world agree that the first impres- sions made upon us in our tender years sink the deep- est and last the longest. If good precepts and prin- ciples are early impressed and fixed, they will be so many lights set up in the minds of children to direct their conduct through this maze of life; to guide them in the ways of truth and in the paths that lead to everlasting happiness." (" Delany's Sermons," Lon- don, Vol. I., p. 75. ) 2. Early conversion avoids the extreme hazard of a late repentance. I say further on that early conver- sion is the best guarantee against backsliding and apostasy. I now say it averts the incalculable evils and perils of procrastination. Evil habits of heart and practice germinating in childhood and youth, unless anticipated by early conversion, will erelong be almost uncontrollable. What a world of evil, trial, and difficulty are most men now enduring from habits laid in early life! And not the least evil is the advantage which these give to Satan in temptation; they are the strong and invisible cords by which he leads sinners at his will. When once the child has passed the dependent and impressible period, in which principles are inculcated and character and oS Early Conversio&bf Children. habits formed for life, if all arc evil what hope is there remaining for his subsequent conversion? On the power of early habits the profoundest thinkers have displayed their best abilities. And did it never strike you that of all habits that of procrastination on the subject of conversion is the most easily acquired and the most obstinate? that the process of spiritual hard- ness is most rapid, and secret as rapid, and obstinate as rapid? In what a short lime, and by how trivial an act sometimes, may the heart and conscience sink into deepest insensibility! Every step of resistance of early religious convictions and impressions is at- tended with a ratio of danger no archangel probably can calculate. The conversion of him who has passed the period of youth is extremely doubtful. He who unpardoned has passed from the pious influence of home will hardly ever be converted, or, if converted, will rarely ever be much in religion. And the salva- tion of him who is slumbering in carnal security and prosperity, who is already a slave to the spirit and practices of the world, who is insensible to the means of grace, who has endured heavy chastisements with- out repentance, who has resisted strong and repeated stirrings of the Spirit, who has passed through many revivals without conversion, or is depending upon morality for salvation, or has grown old in sin, is ex- tremely improbable and next to impossible. It re- quires not inspiration to foresee that the chances of conversion after the period of youth diminish beyond all possible calculation. Who can look on the rising cloud of despair and venture a step toward its light- nings? I throw the whole weight of improbability of a late repentance into the scales in favor of conversion Advantages of Early Regeneration. 39 in childhood The hopeful, impressible period of childhood can never return, for a man can never bea child again. And now an- ing is perfectly overwhelming and ErightfuL Bow few are converted beyond the period of youthl The greal body of the Church was converted in childhood or youth. About one in ten is converted beyond twenty years of age. This is the ratio I have made in more than twenty thousand conversions, and 1 be- lieve the rule holds good in all the great revivals now. Go through your congregation, city, town, or neigh- borhood, and the inference is that but one in ten of the unconverted over twenty years of age will ever be saved! To me the saddest spectacle this side the judgment is a generation vanishing amid decay and ruins and struck with judicial spiritual blindness. I fear I have no gospel for the old dead generation waning around me. It is like the ghastly valley Ezekiel saw, but with no Spirit to resuscitate it. I seem to see the Shekinah lifted and hovering in the dim heavens and about to vanish forever. I seem to see the dreadful word of abandonment written on the wall behind the pulpit, and to hear the sounding wings of the depart- ing cherubim. Do I not hear, or am I mistaken — " Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone? " Do I not hear, or am I mistaken — " Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion?" Have I not heard — "Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee?" O ye dead formalists, lukewarm professors, insensible backsliders, saints of the world, and gospel- 40 Early Conversion of Children. hardened sinners, are all your hopes buried in the past, and are all your fears on reluctant wing into the black future? Have I no more a gospel for you than I have for the dead in the grave-yard and the damned in hell? O God! is my commission to preach the gospel ended with the old dying generation wherever I go? When I cry out, "Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days," do I but in- voke the silent heaven as if no God was there? And when I bend over the pulpit and shout, " A wake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light," is it but the blast of the gospel trumpet at the mouth of hell, startling the damned, but to which not a response or echo is returned? In my imagination I follow you to the death-chamber, the resurrection, the judgment, and the lake of fire, and turn away with the treasures of the gospel to the y&ung and rising generation. Ah! I know many, many among the rich and great and cultivated of this earth to whom I preached in " halcyon days," but whom I never expect to see in heaven, like the many, many whom I have lived long enough to see die without hope! 3. If this be true (and it is true), then it is also true that failure of regeneration at the earliest age possi- ble mast be followed by irreparable loss to the child. Not that regeneration may not take place at a later stage in childhood or in after life, but the loss in holi- ness and usefulness sustained by any, the least delay in regeneration in childhood can never be repaired ; the soul then can never be what it might have been. What fond, pious parent has not seen an amiable child un- folding from early infancy with every beauty of initial .1 (vantages of Early Regeneration, 1L grace almost angelic, giving the mosi encouraging promise of an early conversion and a life of eminent holiness and usefulness, but who, alasl by the ueglecl of earliest regeneration and the secret, insensible, and gradual force oi Lunate enmity amid the irritations and sinful associations of childhood, bas been enticed so Ear from Christ that the early promise fades, and waning hope gives place to increasing alarm for his future? Ah! that lovely child, who might have been the best saint out of heaven, may become the worst sinner out of hell! At most, though converted at a later stage in childhood or youth, and though he may spend a long and illustrious life in the service of God, he will have suffered a loss time and eternity cannot repair. O parents, see in that babe the noble being he may become from the earliest conversion, and calculate your fears and his fortunes by the delay in his con- version. Neglect conversion in childhood, and there is no principle, law, or promise in redemption ; no power, law, or force in the mental constitution; no energy, law, or turn in divine providence; no new principle, truth, or measure possible in the universe and eternity on which you can recover the lost ground. Lose this ground, and all your conquests will be doubtful, in- complete, superficial, if not evanescent. The solid mass of unregenerated humanity will roll on under its innate resistless momentum, hardly retarded at all by the feeble resistance of regenerated manhood. Satan, with the combined evil forces of the past and present at his command, stands ready to meet and mold the rising generation according to his will — to preoccupy the ground and fortify himself in perma-