Sermons for children

Preface

These Sermons were preaclied to tlie cliildren of the congregation in the ordinary course of the ministry. Once a month the week evening service was given up to them. Not the sermon only but the whole service. Their hymns were used ; the prayer was very brief and simple, and the lessons were expounded so as to interest and instruct them.

There was no difficulty in making the first service a success. An announcement from the pulpit on the previous Lord^s Day secured the services of the best advertisers in the world — for in this matter none can compete with the children. They told their schoolfellows and friends, and henceforth it became an easy thing to get some hundreds of children at the monthly service.

Nor did the interest end here. It broke up the monotony of the week evening services. The grown folks liked it, some of whom were not great scholars — for in these very learned times it has almost the charm of novelty to hear a sermon that

VI

PREFACE, is easy to be understood. Parents too came with their children^ and thus in many instances began a regular attendance at the House of God.

By no means least is the benefit that the preacher himself derived from such services. To. try and come down to the level of the little ones, to be gladdened by the sight of so many bright and interested faces, to become a child again in sympathy and thought, and to have the children's love so generously given in return — not many things will check so effectually as this all tendencies to diijrot in the pulpit. And other services will come to share in the simplicity and tenderness of these.

In not a few instances these sermons have been blest to the salvation of the children. All the sermons are aimed at this, and without this they will be the worst of failures. Children can no more be saved by moral essays, than adults. They have sinned, and good works will no more avail for them than for others. It is bad enough to let our neighbour starve for lack of good food ; but what if when our children ask for bread we give them a stone ? They can come to the Father only by the precious blood of Jesus. It surely is an insult to the blessed Redeemer to talk as if He Who bade them come to Him were unable to save them until they are grown up. That religion cannot be so gi’eatly beyond them, of which its Author said — Veriltf I

PREFACE,

Vll say unto yoUj whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.’^

It is hoped that the publication of these sei^mons may tend to a further good. Sunday eveniugs at home with the little ones could scarcely be more profitably employed than in having such a children's service. Observing the order of a service^ let there be plenty of singing, a simple prayer, a chapter read verse by verse all round, and then the children's sermon. So may be created the deepest and most hallowed impressions of the whole life j infiuences that may lead, by God^s blessing, to an early decision for Christ ; or else a portion of goods that cannot be lost in any far country ; memories that shall wake up from their long sleep, and lead the wanderer back home to the Father^s House.

Dear Reader, if the children need to be saved — and they surely do ; and if they can be saved, and, thank God, they can, — shall we be satisfied with anything less ? Is it not our bounden duty to seek their salvation ? The minister, the teacher in the Sunday-school, and the parent in the home, are to work with this definite purpose. Let us tell the little ones not only of Jesus, but of Jesus as their Saviour, to be loved and trusted now. And let us fall at His feet beseeching Him with an entreaty that cannot be refused, — Gome and lay Thine hand u]oon them and they shalhUveJ^

C O N T E N t's .

The Valley oe Decision . . . . J

“ The day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision^ — Joel hi. 14.

“ A strong tower from the enemy." — Psalm lxi. 3.