The children's covenant

Preface

Whatever may be said about the needless multiplication of books, there is real occasion for more literature on the subject treated in this little volume. The importance of the theme seems to be in inverse proportion to the books found written to promote it. Books on the training of children in religion are scarce in America. Is there no need of helps for parents, teachers in Sunday-schools, and pastors, in the greatest responsibility that rests upon them ? Ought there not to be a text-book in the course of ministerial instruction on the practical bearings of this subject? The writer ventures to give some thoughts to the public

4 Preface.

on a subject that has been growing in importance in his mind during a long experience in the ministry. If it shall be helpful in the line intended, or if it shall provoke to a better work, he will be most thankful, and very amply paid.

C. V. A.

San Francisco, CaL, 1901.

Contents

PAGE

I. Intkoductort, ------ 9

II. The Covenant, ----- 16

Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY

It is a frequent objection to Christanity on the part of its enemies that it has failed in its mission. After nineteen centuries only part of the world is Christian even in name. Then among Christian nations how many are utterly unworthy of the name ! The answer is not difficult. Christianity as a system of saving truth can not justly be held responsible for the state of things among nations who have never heard of it, or having heard, have not had time or opportunity to test its value. We must remember that evangelical Christianity has not been since the Apostolic age decidedly a missionary religion until quite recent times, nor very earnest about it then. When nations professing Christianity shall spend one-half as much on missions as they now spend on war, or one-half as much as they spend on vice, the very term heathen will soon be only of use in treating the history of the past.

But this discussion is apart from our theme. We turn to consider that point of the objection which is based on the limited extent to which Christianity seems to affect the lives and characters of those who are found in nominally Christian countries. Why are not all those who are born and reared in Christian lands, and have heard the gospel from childhood, exemplary Christians? The answer to this question has an important bearing upon the subject we have in hand. Let us consider it carefully.

1. The principles of this religion are essentially antagonistic to the usual course of the world. Men's tastes, their habits, their pleasures, their worldly and selfish interests, all unfit them for a ready and cordial reception of the truth. We can not stop to inquire why it is so. but simply to point to the fact which all

Introductory. 1 1

must concede, that it is so, and always has been so. The truth as it is in Jesus has ever to lift against the gravity of human nature. It is still an axiom of Christian doctrine that "The friendship of the world is enmity towards God." Is it any wonder that in a conflict like this many should yield to their lower nature and live beneath their privilege?

2. Again, the work of God on human hearts does not and can not annul man's moral agency. The power to choose the right or wrong is ever his greatest responsibility and his most sublime opportunity. He can reject the truth and turn away from Christ at any step of human life. To have made him otherwise would have been to rob him of his most glorious birthright, and make him a mere machine. It would take from him the image of God and make him at best a creature of fate. While Christianity operates in accordance with the law of God it must often suffer defeat in individual cases. Yet we shall see that these defeats may be reduced to a small fraction of what they now are if proper measures are adopted in the training of children. It must suffice here to say that it can not be right to charge Christianity with the failure of those who refuse to use it according to the plain teaching of the Word of God.

3. We must never forget that each generation starts out as a new field for Christian work. Christian progress can not be by accumulation. The same or similar agencies which make one generation of saints must be continued if we would raise up another. The children of Christian parents are no more intrinsically Christian, than are the children of heathen parents, until the former by personal choice become linked with the Divine plan of salvation. Christian parents can only expect their children to become Christian upon the same conditions that heathen children can become such also. The advantages of being born and brought up in a Christian land, and they

Introductory. 1 3

are great, and ought to be much greater, lie in the superior character of the moral and educational influences there brought to bear on the minds of children in the period of greatest impressibility. Thus the work of evangelizing the world can never be finished. There never can be such a millennium of Christianity as will allow the Church to sit down and do nothing but watch the even flow of Christian life permeating the hearts of all who are born into the world. Human nature would have to be a very different thing from what it now is before such a consummation could occur.

Now from this standpoint our vision is opened to the greatest possible problem of Christianity. Let the case be fairly stated. Christ came into the world to save it by a sacrifice of himself. He made it possible that God might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Christ. The value of this salvation to each individual soul depends upon personal acceptance and co-operation. To secure this end there must be instruction and influence. Hence a sacrifice of service. "The work of faith and labor of love" is just as essential as the atonement, though not by any means in the same sense or measure.

This raises the most important question the Church can possibly consider. When and how can this work be best applied by the followers of their Master % There can be but one answer to this question. It must be by the right training of children in the great truths of the gospel. This answer exactly accords with the judgment of wise men in all ages of the world. But while this conclusion seems to be universally accepted, it is by no means so universally acted upon. Is it too much to say that no truth in possession of the Church is so carelessly treated? While constantly quoting,

" Just as the twig is bent, the tree 's inclined,"

our efforts to bend the twig are weak and vacillating. This is especially true of the American

Introductory. 15

Protestant Church. Even formal, unevangelical European Churches do better in this respect than we. There is not only a dearth of instruction for children, there is also a great want of helps for parents and ministers. Not only instruction but inspiration is greatly needed on this subject. Is it not time to awake? We propose carefully to review this whole subject in the following pages, not as elaborately as might be, but as much so as will make the subject practical and profitable. It is hoped that parents, pastors, and Sunday-school workers may be benefited by such an elementary work.

Ctmptrr II.

THE COVENANT.

A covenant is a contract, an agreement. Certain things therein are promised on certain conditions therein named. God made a special covenant with Noah, with Abraham, with Jacob, and many others. Under the New Testament dispensation he has made a covenant with every man. He has promised forgiveness and eternal happiness to all who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

In a sense he has made a covenant with everything that lives. The tree is a promised possibility contained in the seed. The ideal tree is only realized by certain conditions of soil, light, heat, and moisture. Under proper environment the seed will produce the tree, and the tree will produce the seed again. This law 16 is as certain as that of gravity or of any of the physical forces. So reliable is it that our Savior pointed to it as proof of certain great truths in the spiritual kingdom. "Do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles ?" The same law is found in the animal world. No amount of kind treatment or fond petting can take danger out of the nature of a tiger. ISTor can any amount of training put danger into the nature of a sheep. With all the variations we can put into environment of life about us, but slight and slow are the changes we can produce. Why is it not so in man ? But here we find the most wonderful divergencies of character. At the head of the animal world, the glory and crown of creative power, we can see two men made after the same pattern, having the same organs of mind and body, yet one is a Christian saint, and the other a heathen cannibal. Still more wonderful, the second can be changed into the first by the power of God. Grace has many times 'wrought just such a change. Ought we 2 not to believe that human beings should attain the ideal of God's plan as certainly as do his inferior creatures? Is not creation a pledge and promise of an attainment that only disregard of God's law can frustrate ? Ought there not to be certainty in the moral world no less than in the natural? Is it not absolutely true that, if we "train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it?"

This idea that God has a plan in the development of a child, which becomes a pledge and promise of a character certain to be realized if conditions are met, is too important to be passed without further consideration. Cause and effect are just as applicable in the moral world as in the natural. Habits of thinking, habits of speaking, and habits of acting, are but the results of continued application. These are called "ways" in the Bible, and the word is significant of the process. We make paths and roads by repeatedly passing over the same places. We reach the rigidity of a fixed character by a similar process. It is not true that we do not know how a man will act in a given instance. In the highest types of character we are certain how a man will act when subjected to temptation he has long resisted. The history of man furnishes numberless examples of men who would not betray the right in the face of flaming fagots. On the other hand, we know that base men will yield to temptation whenever the opportunity occurs to do so. The reason why men so often disappoint us is that their character is mixed. Their morals are like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image — part of iron and part of clay — not consistent, not wholly of the right material. The reason why there are so many unreliable men in the world is because so few are trained from infancy as they ought to be. Their parents are at fault, their teachers are at fault, their associations are at fault. All these causes often combine to destroy one who otherwise might have been one of the noblest of earth's inhabitants. There is a constant tendency in human character towards permanence. Habits are always more easily changed in youth than in mature years, and more easily changed in middle life than in old age. Christians rarely backslide late in life, while wicked men, even with the help of grace, seldom reform after the age of fifty. Even the disposition to change frequently in opinions and practices is itself a habit formed, and one greatly to be deplored. Thus men may become unstable as water, and, as a consequence, never excel at anything.

Heaven itself, if a place, is a place of certainty, not a home of necessity. It is not a place walled in, from which there is no egress. Even the figurative New Jerusalem had its twelve gates of pearl always open. If a soul wanted to wander away, presumably he might do so, though from a point nearest the eternal throne of God. If heaven were offered to the lost spirits in perdition, not one of them would take it. There would be nothing there in accord with the character they had formed. The same law of choice that ruled in the formation of their character here would decide their choice of associations there. The rich man did not wish to be taken to Abraham's bosom ; he only wanted to have consequences of conduct mitigated. This is just what we see all around us. Men do not desire to be saved from their sins, else it were easily granted. They only desire to be saved from the consequences of their sins, an impossibility even to eternal goodness. So God has marked on everything around us the law of fixedness. It is, after all, only the eternal law of order. Now the great formative period for this fixedness is in youth. Here the impress of cause is the most easily secured, here the effect is the most enduring.

But suppose early training has been neglected. Suppose evil habits have been formed. No difference if they are not the worst in human character, only so that they are contrary to God's plan; then suppose that in later years the man sees the error of his way, repents, reforms, and infinite mercy saves him. Is it all made right? Is it as though he had never sinned ? Some say so, yet without reason or Scripture. It is quite as reasonable, but not one whit more so, as to suppose a drunkard, who had lost a limb as a consequence of his habit, should have it restored by becoming a temperate man. It is just as reasonable, and not one whit more so, as to suppose a young man who had by sin neglected his education, should instantly become learned by giving his heart to God. Sin means loss, missing the mark, an eternal mistake. Grace itself can only remove the guilt and stain; the defects, the scars, must endure forever. From such a view we may catch a glimpse of the importance of beginning right and continuing right to the end.

Take another look at this question. Children have rights — God-given rights. These rights are sealed to them by promises in the Word. They will be considered further on. These rights have been well set forth in the following words clipped from the Christian Advocate. The writer's name was not given. His words anticipate points enlarged upon in future chapters, but they are weighty and wise, and it will pay all readers carefully to ponder them:

"Much is said about the duties of children, but little is thought of their rights. Their duties are often strictly enforced upon them, but their rights are frequently ignored. Sometimes this takes place because of ignorance, but chiefly for want of thought. Many parents who desire the highest good of their children, and are willing to make any reasonable sacrifice for them, pay but little attention to their highest rights. Perhaps they do not recognize them as rights at all.

"That children have a right to the support and education which their parents are able to give them, few will deny. If children should be religious, it must be the duty of parents to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If this be so, it must be the duty of parents to take the time necessary for this important work. Can the pressure of business excuse any father from spending sufficient time at home with his children to teach them the Word of the Lord and train them up in the fear of God? Will the social demands of the age justify a mother in neglecting her children ? Can parents turn the religious education and training of their children over to Sunday-school teachers and be prepared to answer for them in the last day ?

"If it is the duty of parents to train their children for the kingdom of God, is it not their duty also to see to it that they shall not be burdened with lessons in school and out of school, so that there is no time left for this great work? Have children no rights which the State is bound to respect? Shall parents stand by in silence and allow their children to be burdened with work which makes religious education impossible and make no protest? Not a few children have no time to attend religious service in the house of God except on Sunday. Many of them have no opportunity to hear religious instruction at home because of a pressure of school work. What becomes of the rights of the children in this case ? Who shall protect and defend the rights of the children if parents do not? The welfare of the State depends more on the moral and religious training of the children than on their intellectual training, yet the State makes no provision for their moral and religious training. In some cases it makes it difficult, or impossible, for them to secure such training. In deference to the views of infidels, atheists, and others the Bible is cast out of the public schools, and all school books are stripped bare of everything that might tend to build up and strengthen moral character, and the children's time and strength taxed to the utmost with secular studies. What becomes of the rights of the children in this state of affairs?

"Children have a right to the companionship of their parents. The obligations of fathers to their children are the highest obligations. They can not be set aside for others which are not so important. If parents have no time to spend at home with their children, something is wrong. The first duty of every father is in his home. The father who spends much time with his children, delights in their society and their sports, can bind them to him with a chain of gold and ever after influence them in almost any direction he may choose.

"Children have a right to a noble manly and womanly example and character in their parents. They learn early to look upon God as a Father. If they see in their earthly father nothing but selfishness, unkindness, injustice, and hardness, they will turn away, not from him only, but from their Heavenly Father also. If parents knew how much their example and spirit have to do with the religious life and faith of their children, would they not watch and pray daily that they might walk in wisdom toward their own?

"In an excellent volume on 'Christian Nurture' Horace Bushnell has a chapter on 'The Treatment that Discourages Piety/ in which he points out the various ways in which parents unintentionally discourage their children in their early attempts to live a godly life. Surely children have enough discouragements in their own natural hearts and in this wicked world without having an added discouragement from their own parents. They have a right to encouragement from their parents. They need it. It is a part of the Divine economy of the family life that they should have it. They love approbation. They are stimulated to meritorious endeavor by words of encouragement and approval, especially from their parents. If these are withheld, if in their stead they receive only censure, criticism, reproof, and harsh treatment, or neglect, they are disappointed, discouraged, and defeated in their worthy efforts to live well.

"As a rule, children are not restrained unduly by their parents in this day. The danger lies in the opposite direction. Abdication of authority on the part of the parents and overindulgence of the children are the curse of many a home. This is an age of training. Young people are being trained for almost everything. K"o one can hope to command the respect of the people whom he serves, or achieve success in his calling, without thorough training for his special work. There is one department of life, and that the most important of all, for which there is no trainingschool. Who has ever been trained for the holy office of parent ? Men and women are trained for teachers, physicians, lawyers, ministers, soldiers, engineers, pilots, and almost every calling and sphere, but no one is trained for fatherhood or motherhood. Is it not time that fathers and mothers should make their holy calling a special study?

"What the Church needs, what the country needs, are fathers and mothers who know the obligations of their position, recognize the rights as well as the duties of their children, and hold themselves ready to defend and maintain those rights at any cost."

We conclude this chapter with the thought that there need be little or no other danger to the child than that which grows out of defective training. God's covenant for good covers all else. This is an astounding truth. We ought to stand before it in profound amazement. We ought to read in it our most sublime responsibility. Children are placed in the hands of parents to be made in the image of their Creator. The means are within their reach that will almost surely secure that result. We need not put in the word "almost" if all men were wise and good. But with all the drawbacks growing out of the condition of the world about us, parents will rarely fail if true to their heavenly calling. The subject will now be considered from the following points of view: God's will concerning the children as seen in his Word; his will as seen in the possibilities of the family relation; his will as seen in the possible work of the Church.

Chapter III. GOD'S COVENANT, OR BIBLE TESTIMONY

To know the mind of God in reference to the claims of children we must turn to his written Word for instruction. And here it will be well to notice the influence of the Old Testament on the people who have made it their only revelation through so many generations. Among the Jewish race we find, even in our day, a striking manifestation of love and care for childhood. The family bond is rarely found elsewhere in such marked degree. The Chinese are doubtless most like them in this respect. See in either case what persistence of ideas, how hard to bring about a change ! In the former case, see also what peculiar excellence has marked their character. 81

Let prejudice say its very worst, the Jews are a wonderful people. Would that Christians might study the Book acknowledged by both as Divine, for inspiration and instruction on this important subject.

Abraham, ever held in such high esteem by the Jews, was made the friend of God and taken into the secret counsels of the Most High, because it was seen that he would do his duty by his children. "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the ways of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken concerning him."

Moses, the great lawgiver, was a remarkable illustration of what may be done in childhood to determine the character of a man in mature years. It was comparatively a short time that his mother could teach him the religion of his people, but "all the learning of the Egyptians" could never erase it from his mind. When he was forty years of age, in the very maturity of a sound mind, he chose the people that were oppressed and persecuted rather than "the treasures of Egypt."

When the law of the Passover was fixed, it was carefully provided that this ceremony should have its due weight on the minds of children. God knew how naturally parents put off the work of instructing their children, waiting for riper years when they foolishly think it will be time enough; so he instructed Moses to say, "When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this ? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage ; and it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast; therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem. And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes; for bystrength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt." Here we see the value of the spectacular in religion. By its use the Roman and Greek Catholics get an enduring hold upon their followers. Protestants may well reject the errors these ceremonies convey; but are there not other ways of producing impressions that may contain truth ?

In Deuteronomy we find these words of authority: "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons, specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach them to their children." The same duty is enjoined yet more emphatically in another chapter of the same book: "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou 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." These teachings may be followed through the historical, poetical, and prophetical books of this ancient record. The lesson is taught by inference from example, by direct instruction, by the judgments pronounced on those who failed in duty, and by wise sayings declared. But we turn to the Xew Testament.

The most important teaching of our Savior in regard to the claims of childhood may be found in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew. Let us note the following points:

1. In answer to the question, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" he points to a little child, not as absolutely the greatest, but as a specimen of what the kingdom of heaven involves. They were to look down, not up, if they would be truly great in this king- 'dom. It was by the way of humility, not by the way of ambitious aspirations, that they could hope to be great in the estimation of God. But if we are to become like little children to be members of the kingdom of heaven, it must be true that they are members already. They must also be great in his sight. This conclusion is made more clear by the lesson that follows:

2. The Savior shows the estimate in which he holds these little ones, "Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me." Could language more forcibly convey the thought that it is indescribably pleasing in the eyes of our blessed Lord that we should gather these little ones into his fold, instruct them in the things of God, and thus make them acquainted with their loving Savior?

3. Then follows a warning. Let us carefully heed it: "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." Some have supposed that because the expression is used, "which believe in me," that this statement pertains not to children, but to such as are capable of exercising an intelligent faith. Such a view robs the words of their most beautiful and suggestive meaning, while it utterly misapplies the remark. Jesus was talking of children, "little children," also styled "little ones," and there is nothing in his language to indicate a transition to any other class of persons. But see what he really meant, for on that meaning rests a practical lesson of faith. These little ones came to him ; they were not afraid of him. He took them up in his arms, and they lovingly lay in his bosom. Suspicion was written on the faces of nearly all of those with whom he had intercourse. Even the apostles were vacillating in their faith. How gratefully the loving Savior accepted the faith of these little children ! Here was faith, genuine faith. Not an apprehension of what or who he was — this is not now necessarily a saving form of faith — but a trust, a fearless trust, a consciousness that in his arms they were safe. Is not this saving faith evermore? How fortunate that Jesus used it as he did! How unfortunate that we should seek to evade the true significance of the remark ! How our hearts go out to the precious Shepherd of Israel as we thus conceive of him receiving these little ones and drinking in the joy that came from reading the love they bore him, as seen in the smiles that brightened their faces ! Christians, he is the same to-day as he was then, and when we receive them as he would were he present in bodily form, surely we are receiving him.