Teaching Children

“Come, yo children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord” — Psalm xxxiv. 11.

It is a singular thing that good men froqnently discover their duty when they are placed in most humiliating positions. Never in David’s life was he in a worse plight than that which suggested this Psalm. It is, as you read at the commencement, “A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.” David was carried before King Achish, the Abimelech of Philistia, and, in order to make his escape, he pretended to be mad, accompanying that profession with certain very degrading symptoms which might well seem to betoken his insanity. He was driven from the palace, and, as usual, when such men are in the street, a number of children assembled round him. In ai’tcr days, wdien he sang songs of praise to God, recollecting how he had become the laughing-stock of little children, he seemed to say, “Ah! I have lowered myself in the estimation of generations that shall live after me, by my folly in the streets before the children; now I will endeavor to undo the mischief.” “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”

Very possibly, if David had never been in such a position, he would never have thought of this duty; for I do not discover in any other Psalm that David said, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me.” He had the cares of his cities, his provinces, and his nation pressing upon him, and was but little attentive to the education of youth; but here, being brought into the meanest position which man could possibly occupy, having become as one bereft of reason, he recollects his duty. The exalted, or prosperous Christian, is not always mindful of the lambs; that duty generally devolves on Peters, whose confidence and pride have been crushed, and who rejoice thus practically to answer the question, “Lovest thou me?”

Departing, however, from this thought, let me address myself to the text, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” First, I shall give you one doctrine; secondly, I shall give you two encouragements; thirdly, three admonitions; fourthly, four instructions; and fifthly, I shall give you fiie subjects for children; all taken from the text.

I. First, ONE DOCTRINE. “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” The doctrine is, that children are capable of being taught the fear of the Lord, Men are generally wisest after they have been the most foolish. David had been extremely foolish, and now he became extremely wise; and being so it was not likely that he would utter foolish sentiments, or give directions such as would be dictated by a weak mind.

We have heard it said by some that children can not understand the great mysteries of religion. We even know some Sabbath-school teachers who cautiously avoid mentioning the great doctrines of the gospel, because they think the children are not prepared to receive them. Alas! the same mistake has crept into the pulpit, for it is currently believed, among a certain class of preachers, that many of the doctrines of the word of God, although true, are not fit to be taught to the people, since they would pervert them to their own destruction. Away with such priestcraft! Whatever my God has revealed ought to be preached. Whatever he has revealed, if I am not capable of understanding it, I will still believe, and preach it. I do hold that there is no doctrine of the word of God which a child, if he be capable of salvation, is not capable of receivhig. I would have children taught all the great doctrines of truth without a solitary exception, that they may in their after days hold last by them. I can bear witness that children can understand the Scriptures, for I am sure that when but a child I could have discussed manv a knotty point of controversial theology, having heard both sides of the question freely stated among my father’s circle of friends. In fact, children are capable of understanding some things in early life, which we hardly understand afterward. Children have eminently a simplicity of faith. Simplicity is akin to the highest knowledge; indeed, we know not that there is much distinction between the simplicity of a child and the genius of the profoundest mind. He who receives things simply, as a child, will often have ideas which the man who is prone to make a syllogism of every thing will never attain unto. If you wish to know whether children can be taught, I point you to many in our churches, and in pious lamilies — not prodigies, but such as we frequently see — Timothies and Samuels, and little girls too, who have early come to know a Saviour’s love. As soon as a child is capable of being damned It is capable of being saved. As soon as a child can sin, that child can, if God’s grace assist it, believe and receive the word of God. As soon as children can learn evil, be assured that they are competent, under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, to learn good. Never go to your class with the thought that the children can not comprehend you; for if you do not make them understand, it is because you do not understand yourselves; if you do not teach children what you wish, it is because you are not lit for the task: you should find out simpler words more fitted for their capacity, and then you would discover that it was not the fault of the child, but thp fault of the teacher, if he did not learn. I hold that children are capable of salvation. He who in divine sovereignty reclaimeth the gray -haired sinner from the error o? his ways, can turn a little child from his youthful follies. He who in the eleventh hour findeth some standing idle in the market-place, and sendeth them into the vineyard, can call men at the dawning of the day to labor for him. He who can change the course of a river when it has rolled onward and become a mighty flood, can control a new-born rivulet leaping from its cradle fountain, and make it run in the channel he desiretb. He can do all things; he can work upon children’s hearts as he pleases, for all are under his control.

I will not stav to establish the doctrine, because I do not consider that any of you are so foolish as to doubt it. But although you belieA’e it, I fear many of you do not expect to hear of children being saved. Throughout the churches I have noticed a kind of abhorrence of any thing like early, childlike piety. “VYe are frightened at the idea of a little boy loving Christ; and if we hear of a little girl following the Saviour, we say it is a youthful fancy, an early impression that will die away. My dear friends, I beseech you, never treat infmt piety with suspicion. It is a tender plant — don’t brush it too hard. I heard a tale some time ago, which I believe to be perfectly authentic. A dear little girl, some live or six years old, a true lover of Jesus, requested of her mother that she might join the church. The mother told her she was too young. The poor little thing was grieved exceedingly; and after awhile the mother, who saw that piety was in her heart, spoke to the minister on the subject. The minister talked to the child, and said to the mother, “I am thoroughly convinced of her piety, but I can not take her into the church, she is too young.” When the child heard that, a strange gloom passed over her face; and the next morning when her mother went to her little bed she lay with a pearly tear or two on each eye, dead for very grief; her heart was broken, because she could not follow her Saviour, and do as he had bidden her. I would not have murdered that child for a -world! Take care how you treat young piety. Be tender of it. Believe that children can be saved as much as yourselves. When you see the young heart brought to the Saviour, don’t stand by and speak harshly, mistrusting every thing. It is better sometimes to be deceived than to be the means of ruining one. God send to his people a more firm belief that little buds of grace are worthy of all care.

II. ISTow, secondly, I will give you two encoueagements, both of which you will find in the text.

The first encouragement is that of pious example, David said, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” You are not ashamed to troad in the footsteps of David, are you? You will not object to follow the example of one who was first eminently holy, and then eminently great. Shall the shepherd boy, the giant slayer, the psalmist of Isi’n,el, and the monarch, tread in footsteps which you are too proud to follow? Ah! no; you will be happy, I am sure, to be as David was. If you want, however, a higher example, even than that of David, hear the Son of David while from his lips the sweet words flow, “Suffer little childi’en to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” I am sure it would encourage you if you always thought of these examples. You teach children — you are not dishonored by it. Some say you are a mere Sabbath-school teacher, but you are a noble personage, holding an Iionorable office, and having illustrious predecessors. We love to see persons of some standing in society take an interest in Sabbath-schools. One great fault in many of our churches is that the children are left to the young people to take care of — the older members, who have more wisdom, taking but very little notice of them; and very often the wealthier members of the church stand aside as if the teaching of the poor were not (as indeed it is) the sy)ecial business of the rich. I hope for the day when the mighty men of Israel shall be found helping in this great warilire against the enemy. In the United States we have heard of presidents, ol judges, men of Congress, and persons in the highest positions — not condescending, for I scorn to use such a term, but honoring themselves by teaching little children in Sabbath-schools. He who teaches a class in a Sabbath-school has earned a good degree. I had rather receive the title of S.S.T., than M.A., B.A., or any other honor that ever was conferred. Let me beg of you then to take heart, because your duties are so honorable. Let the royal example of David, let the noble, the godlike example of Jesus Christ insy)ire you with fresh diligence and increasing ardor, with conhdent and enduring perseverance, still to go on in your mighty work, saying, as David did, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”

The second encouragement I will give is the encouragement oi great success. David said, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me:” he did not add, “PerJiCips I wdll teach you the fear of the Lord,” but “I loill teach you.” He had success; or if he had not, others have. The success of Sabbath-schools! If I begin to speak of that I shall have an endless theme; therefore I will not commence. Many volumes might be written on it, and then when all were written, we might say, “I suppose that even the world itself could not contain all that might be written.” Up yonder where the starry hosts perpetually sing his high praise — up where the white-robed throng continually cast their crowns before his feet — we may behold the success of Sabbath-schools. There, too, where infant millions assemble Sabbath after Sabbath, to sing, “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” we see with joy the success of Sabbath-schools. And up here, in almost every pulpit of our land, and there in the pews where the deacons sit, and godly members join in worship — there is the success of Sabbath-schools. And lar away across yonder broad ocean in the islets of the south, in lands where those dwell who bow before blocks of wood and stone — there are missionaries saved by Sabbath-schools, whose thousands, redeemed by their labors, contribute to swell the mighty stream of the tremendous, unexampled, mcalculable, I had almost said infinite success of Sabbath-school instruction. Go on! go on! So much has been done; more shall be done. Let all your past victories inflame you with ardor; let the remembrance of campaigns of triumph, and of battle-fields, won for your Saviour in the realms of salvation and peace, be your encouragement for fresh duty.

III. ISTow, thirdly, I give you three admonitioxs.

The first is, recollect 2c/io77i you are teacldng. “Come, ye cJiildreny I think we ought always to have respect to our audience, not that Ave need care that we are preaching to Mr. So-and-so, Sir William This, or My Lord That — because in God’s sight that is a trifle; but we are to remember that we are preaching to men and women who have souls, so that we ought not to occupy their time by things that are not worth their hearing. But when you teach in Sabbath-schools, you are, if it be possible, in a more responsible situation even than a minister. He preaches to grown-up people — men of judgment, who, if they do not like what he preaches, have the option of going somewhere else; you teach children who have no option to go elsewhere. If you teach the child wrongly, he believes you; if you teach him heresies, he will receive them; what you teach him now, he will never forget. You are not sowing, as some say, on virgin soil, for it has long been occupied by the devil; but you are sowing on a soil more fertile now than it ever will be — that will produce fruit now far better than it will do in after days; you are sowing on a young heart, and what you sow will be pretty sure to abide there, especially if you teach evil, for that will never be forgotten. You are beginning with the child; take care what you do with him. Don’t spoil him. Many a child has been treated like the Indian children, who have copper plates put upon their foreheads, so that they may never grow. There are many who know themselves to be simpletons now, just because those who had the care of them when young gave them no opportunities of getting knowledge, so that when they became old they cared nothing about it. Have a care what you are after; you are teaching children; mind what you are doing. Put poison in the spring, and it will impregnate the whole stream. Take care what you are after, sir! You are twisting the sapling, and the old oak will be bent thereby. Have a care! It is a child’s soul you are tampering with, if you are tampering at all; it is a child’s soul you are preparing for eternity, if God is with you. I give you a solemn admonition on every child’s behalf. Surely, if it be treachery to administer poison to the dying, it must be far more criminal to give poison to the young life. If it be evil to mislead gray-headed age, it must be far more so to turn aside the young heart to a road of error in which he may forever walk. Ah! it is a solemn admonition — you are teaching children.

The second is, recollect that you are teaching for God. “Corner, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” If you, as teachers, were only assembled to teach geography, I am sure I should not interfere if you were to tell the children that the north pole was close to the equator; if you were to say that the extremity of South America verged hard by the coast of Europe; I would smile at your error, and perhaps should even retain it as a joke, if I heard you assure them that England was in the middle of Africa. But you are not teaching geography or astronomy, nor are you tcacliing for business or for the world; but yon are teaching them to the best of your abiUty for God. You say to them, “Children, you come here to be taught the word of God; you come here, if it be possible, that we may be the means of saving your souls.” Have a care what you are after when you pretend to be teaching them for God. Wound the child’s hand if you like, but, for God’s sake, don’t touch his heart. Say what you like about temporal matters, but I beseech you, in spiritual matters, take care how you lead him. O! be careful that it is the truth which you inculcate, and only that. And now how solemn your work becomes! He who is doing a work for himself, let him do it as he likes; but he who is laboring for another, let him take care how he does his work; he who is now employed by a oiionarch let him beware how he j)erforms his duty; but he who labors for God, let him tremble lest he does his work ill! Remember you are laboring for God. I say so, because you profess to be. Alas! many, I fear, even among you, are far from having this view of the matter.

The third admonition is — remember that your children v-ant tcacliing. The text implies that when it says, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” That makes your work all the more solemn. If children did not want teaching, I would not be so extremely anxious that you should teach them right; for works of supererogation — works that are not necessary, men may do as they 2)lease. But here the work is necessary. Your child wants teaching! He was born in iniquity; in sin did his mother conceive him. He has an evil heart; he knows not God, and he never will unless he is taught. He is not like some ground of which we have heard, that hath good seed lying hidden in its very bowels; but, instead thereof, he hath evil seed within his heart. God can place good seed there. You profess to be his instruments to scatter seed upon that child’s heart; remember, if that seed be not sown, he will be lost forever, his life will be a life of alienation from God, and, at his death, everlasting fire must be his portion. Be careful, then, how you teach, remembering the urgent necessity of the case. This is not a house on fire needing your assistance at the engine, nor is it a wreck at sea, demanding your oar in the life-boat, but it is a deathless spirit calling aloud to you, “Come over and help us.” I beseech you, teach “the fear of the Lord,” and that only; be very anxious to say, and say truly, “I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”

IV. That brings me, in the fourth place, to four iNSTr.uo-TiONS, and they are all in the text.

The first is — get the children to come to your school, “Come, ye children.” The great complaint with some is that they can not obtain children. Go and get them to come. In London we are having a canvass; that is a good idea, and you ought to 4iave a canvass of every country village, and of every market town, and get every child you can; for David says, “Come, ye children.” My advice then, is, get the children to come, and do any thing to effect it. Don’t bribe them — that is the only plan we object to; it is only adopted in schools of the lowest order; schools of so mean a class that, even the fathers and mothers of the children have too much sense to send them there; but then farmer Brown won’t employ them, or the squire will turn them out of their situations; or if the children don’t go to the school on Sundays, they shall not go on week days. O, that beggarly trick of bribing! I wish there were an end of it; it only shows the weakness, and degradation, and abomination of a sect that can not succeed without using so mean a system. But, except that, don’t be very particular how you get the children to school. Why, if I could not get people to come to my place by preaching in a black coat, I would have regimentals to-morrow I would have a congregation somehow. Better do strange things than have an empty chapel, or an empty school-room. When I was in Scotland, we sent the bellman round a village to secure an audience, and the means was eminently successful. Spare no means. Go and get the children in. I have known ministers who have gone out in the streets on the Sunday afternoon, and talked to the children who were playing in the sti-eet, so as to induce them to come to the school. This is what an earnest teacher will do. “I say, John,” he will say,” come into our school; you can not think what a nice school it is.’* Then he gets the children in, and, in his kind, winning manner, he tells them some stories and anecdotes about girls and boys, and so on. And in this way the school is filled. Go and catch them any how. There is no law against it. You may do what you like in battle. All is fair against the devil. My first instruction then is, get children, and get them any how.

The next is, get the children to love you if you can. That also is in the text, “Come ye children, hearken unto me.” You know how we used to be taught in the dame school, how we stood up with our hands behind us to repeat our lessons. That was not David’s plan. “Gome ye children — come here, and sit upon my knee.” “O!” thinks the child, “how nice to have such a teacher! a teacher that will let me come near him, a teacher that does not say ‘go,’ but ‘come.’” The fault of many teachers is, that they do not get their children near them, but endeavor to foster a kind of awful respect. Before you can teach children you must get the silver key of kindness to unlock their hearts, and get their attention. Say, “Come, ye children.” We have known some good men who are objects of abhorrence to children. You remember the story of two little boys who were one day asked if they would like to go to heaven, and who, much to their teacher’s astonishment, said they really should not. When they were asked “why not,” one of them said, “I should not like to go to heaven because grand-pa would be there, and would be sure to say, ‘get along boys, get along boys.’ I should not like to be along v>^ith grand-pa.” If a boy has a teacher who always wears a sour look, but who talks to him about Jesus, what does the boy think? “I wonder whether Jesus was like you; if he was, I should n’t like him much.” Then there is another teacher who, if lie is provoked ever so little, boxes the child’s ears; and, at the same time, teaches him that he should forgive others, and how kind he ought to be. “Well,” thinks the child, “that is no doubt very pretty, but my teacher does not show me how to do it.” If you drive a boy from you, your power is gone, for you won’t be abe to teach him any thing. It is of no avail to attempt teaching those who do not love you. Try and make them love you, and then they will learn any thing from you.

The next instruction is, get the children’s cittention. That ia in the text. “Come, ye cliildreii, hearhen unto me.” If they do not hearken, you may talk, but you will speak to no purpose whatever. If they do not listen, you go through your labors as an unmeaning drudgery to yourselves and your scholars too. You can do nothing without securing their attention. “That is just what I can not do,” says one. Well, that depends upon yourself. If you give thein somethmg worth attending to, they will be sure to attend. Give them something worth hearing, and they will certainly hearken. This rule may not be universal, but it is very nearly so. Don’t forget to give them a few anecdotes. Anecdotes are very much objected to by critics of sermons, who say they ought not to be used in the pulpit. But some of us know better than that; we know what will wake a congregation up; we can speak from experience, that a few anecdotes here and there are first-rate things to get the attention of persons who won’t listen to dry doctrine. Do you try and learn as many anecdotes in the week as possible. Wherever you go, if you are really a good teacher, you can always find something to make into a tale to tell your children. Then, when your class gets dull, and you can not get their attention, say to them, “Do you know the Five Bells?” and then they all open their eyes directly, if there is such a place in the village; or, “Do you know the turning against the Red Lion?” and then tell them something you may have read or heard just to secure their attention. A dear child once said: “Father, I like to hear Mr. So-and-so preach, because he puts some ’ likes’ into his sermon — ’ like this, and like that.’” Yes, children always love those “likes.” Make parables, pictures, figures, for them, and you will always get on. I am sure if I were a boy listening to some of you, unless you told me a tale now and then, you would j-s often see the back of my head as my face; and I don’t know, if I sat in a hot school-room, but that ray head would nod, and I should go to sleep, or be playing with Tom on my left, and do as many strange things as the rest, if you did not strive to mterest me. Kemember to make them hearken.

The fourth admonition is, have a care icJiat yoit teach the children.” Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.’’’’ Not to weary you, however, I only liiiit at that, and pass on.

Y. In the fifth place, to give you Five Sunday-school Lessons — five subjects to teach your children — and these you will find in the verses following the text: “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” The first thing to teach is ‘morality. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keel) thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” The second is godliness and »a constant belief i?i God’s oversight. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” The third thing is the evil of sin: “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” The fourth thing is, the necessity of a broken heart: “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” The fifth thing is the inestimable blessedness of being a cldld of God: ‘’ Many are the afilictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.”

I have given you these divisions, and now let me refer to them one by one. Here, then, is a model lesson for you: “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” David commences with an interrogative: “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days?” The children like that thought; they would like to live to be old. With this preface he commences and teaches them morality: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” N’ow, we never teach morality as the way of salvation. God forbid that we should ever mix up man’s works in any way with the road to heaven; for “we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.” But yet we teach moraUty, while we teach spirituality; and I have always found that the gospel produces the best morality in nil the world. I would have the Sunday-school teacher take care of the morals of the boys and girls, speaking to them very ])articularly of those sins which are most common to youth. He may honestly and conveniently say many things to his children which no one else can say, especially when reminding them of the sin of lying, so common with children; the sin of little petty thefts, of disobedience to parents, of breaking the Sabbath-day. I would have the teacher be very particular in mentioning these things one by one; for it is of little avail talking to them about sins in the mass: you must take them one by one, just as David did. First look after the tongue: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.” Then look after the whole conduct: “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” If the child’s soul is not saved by other parts of the teaching, this part may have a beneficial eifect upon his life; and so far so good. Morality, however, is comparatively a small thing.

The best part of what you teach is godliness a constant belief in God — I said, not religion, but godliness. Many people are religious without being godly. Many have all the externals of godliness, all the outside of piety — such men we call religious — but they have no thought about God. They think about their place of worship, their Sunday, their books, but nothing about God; and he who does not respect God, pray to God, love God, is an ungodly man with all his external religion, however good that may be. Labor to teach the child always to have an eye to God; write on his brow, “Thou, God, seest me;” stamp on his books, “Thou, God, seest me;” beseech him to recollect that,

“■Within the encircling arms of God
He ever more doth dwell;”

that the arms of Jehovah encompass him around, while his every act and thought is under the eye of God. No Sunday-school teacher discharges his duty unless he constantly lays stress upon the fact that there is a God who notices every thing. O! that we were more godly ourselves, that we talked more of godlmess, and that we loved it better I

The third lesson is — the evil of sm. If the child does not learn that, he will never learn the way to heaven. None of us ever knew Vvhat a Saviour Christ was, till we knew what an evil thing sin was. If the Holy Ghost does not teach us “the exceeding sinfulness of sin,” we shall never know the blessedness of salvation. Let us ask his grace, then, when we teach, that we may evermore be able to lay stress upon the abominable nature of sin. “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut oiF the remembrance of them from the face of the earth.” Don’t spare your child; let him know what sin leadsi:o; don’t, like some people, be afraid of speaking the consequences of sin plainly and broadly. I have heard of a father, one of whose sons, a very ungodly young man, was taken off in a very sudden manner. He did not, as some would do, say to his family: “Yf e hope your brother has gone to heaven.” No; but, overcoming his natural feelings, he was enabled, by divine grace, to assemble his children, and say: “My sons and daughters, your brother is dead; I fear he is in hell; you knew his life and conduct, you saw how he behaved: God snatched him away.” Then he solemnly warned them of the place to which he believed, and almost knew he was gone, begging them to shun it; and then he was the means of bringing them to serious thought. But had he acted, as some would have done, with tenderness of heart, but not vrith honesty of purpose, and said he hoped his son had gone to heaven, what would the others have said? “If he is gone to heaven, there is no need for us to fear, we may live as we like.” l!^o, no; I hold it is not unchristian to say of some men that they are gone to hell, when we have seen that their lives have been helhsh lives. But it is said: “Ccm you judge your fellow-creatures .^” ISTo, but I can hnow them by their fruits; I do not judge them or condemn them; they judge themselves. I have seen their sins go beforehand to judgment, and I do not doubt that they shall follow after. “But may they not he saved at the eleventh hour .^” I do not know that they may. I have heard of 07ie who was, but I do not know that there ever was another, and I can not tell that there ever will be. Be honest, then, with your children, and teach them, by the help of God, that evil shall slay the wicked.

But you will not have done half enough unless you teach carefully the fourth point — the absolute necessity of a change of heart. O, may God enable us to keep this constantly before the minds of the taught — that there must be a broken heart and a contrite spirit, that good works will be of no avail unless there be a new nature, that the most arduous duties, and the most earnest prayers will all be nothing, unless there be a true and thorough repentance for sin, and an entire forsaking of it through the mercy of God. Ah! be you sure, whatever you leave out, that you tell them of the three Rs, Ruin, Regeneration, and Redemption. Tell them that they are ruined by the fall, and that if they are redeemed by Christ they never can know it until they are regenerated by the Spirit. Keep before them these things; and then you will have the pleasing task of telling them.

In the fifth place, the joy and blessedness of being a Christian. Well, I need not tell you how to talk about that, for if you know what it is to be a Christian you will never be short of matter. Ah! beloved, when we get on this subject, our mind cares not to speak, for it would riot in its joys, and revel in its bliss. Oh! truly was it said: “Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and whose sin is pardoned.” Truly was it said: “Blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord, and wdiose hope the Lord is.” Always lay a stress upon this point, that the righteous are a blessed people — that God’s chosen family, redeemed by blood and saved by powder, are a blessed people here below, and will be a blessed people above. Let your children see that you are blessed. If they know you are in trouble, come with a smiling face, if it be possible, so that they may say: “Teacher is a blessed man, although he is bowed down with his troubles.” Always seek to keep a joyous face that they may know religion to be a blessed thing; and let this be one main point of your teaching, though “many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth allhisbones: not one of them is broken.” “The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.”

Thus I have given you these five lessons; and now, in conclusion, let me solemnly say, with all the instruction you may give to your children, you must all of you be deeply conscious that you are not capable of doing any thing in the child’s salvation, but that it is God himself .who from the first to the last must effect it all. You are a pen; God may write with you, but you can not write yourself You are a sword; God may with you slay the child’s sin, but you can not slay it yourself Be you therefore always mindful of this, that you must be first taught of God yourself, and then you must ask God to teach, for unless a higher teacher than you instruct the child, that child must jierish. It is not all your instruction can save his soul: it is the blessing of God resting on it.

May God bless your labors! He will do it if you are instant in prayer, constant in supplication; for never yet did the earnest preacher or teacher, labor in vain, and never yet has it been found that the bread cast upon the waters has been lost.