Sermons to children

Front matter

SERMONS TO CHILDREN.

BY

NEW EDITION.

Preface

The sermons which are contained in this little volume were addressed to the children of my church. As I knew that they were interested in hearing them, I hoped that they and other children might be interested in reading them ; and therefore I have caused them to be printed. I need not say how highly I shall be gratified, if they are read with favor and profit by those for whose use they are published.

In writing this series of discourses, I endeavored to adapt my style to the age and capacity of my audience, by making it as simple as it could be made, consistently with a due degree of solemnity. I resolved also to dispense with the advantage which might be derived from the introduction of illustrative

VI PREFACE.

stories, as I thought that children were already in possession of abundance of that species of instruction, and that I would rather trust to the ideas presented in a plain didactic form, to fix their attention.

My hope is, that this book may be found an available addition to the Sunday reading of children, from about seven to twelve years of age, in the family, or in the Sunday school.

As I have referred, in the first sermon, to a Catechism, I have appended it to the volume. It is selected from other Catechisms, not because it claims superiority, but because it has been in use in the church to which I minister, for a term of more than fifty years.

I now humbly ask the blessing of our heavenly Father on this book, and on " little children."

December, 1840.

Contents

SERMON I. Page

God created you . .1

SERMON II.

PART II. Q, Does the Bible inform us what God himself is ?

A. Yes ; it teaches us that he is a being who had no beginning, and that he will have no end ; that he is almighty, perfectly wise, and infinitely good ; that he is everywhere present ; and that he never changes in his nature or disposition.

Q. What does God require of us, in order to live and die in his favor ?

A. All that God requires of us is comprehended in these two precepts ; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ; and thy neighbor as thyself.

Q. In what manner must we express our love to God ?

A. By a grateful sense of his goodness to us ; by a constant care to do his will ; and by an entire and cheerful submission to all the dispensations of his providence.

Q. How must we express our love to our fellow-men ?

A. By doing to others, as we should think it right in them to do to us in the same circumstances.

Q. By what methods must we cherish our love to God, and increase our confidence in him ?

A. We must frequently consider the benefits he confers upon us. We must also address ourselves to him in prayer, thanking him for the mercies he bestows upon us, confessing our sins before him, and asking of him whatever he knows to be needful and good for us.

Q. How shall we bring ourselves into the best disposition for performing our duty to God and man ?

A. By a proper government of our passions, according to the dictates of reason and conscience ; by living in temperance and chastity ; and never indulging a proud, malicious, or selfish temper.

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Q. What should we do, when persons affront and injure us ?

A. We should not return evil for evil ; and if they repent, we must forgive them, as we hope that God will forgive us our offences against him.

Q. In what manner should we treat the inferior animals ?

A. We should treat them with tenderness and humanity ; and never torment them or destroy their lives to make ourselves sport ; because they are the creatures of God, and because God has commanded us to be merciful unto them.

Q. Has God anywhere delivered distinct directions, concerning the several branches of our duty to him and to our neighbor ?

A. Yes, in the Ten Commandments, which he delivered to the children of Israel from Mount Sinai.

Q. Which is the first commandment ?

A. Thou shalt have no other gods but me.

Q. Which is the second commandment ?

A. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, 9 or in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them ; for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me ; and show mercy unto thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Q. Which is the third commandment ?

A. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain.

Q. Which is the fourth commandment ?

A. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all that thou hast to do ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter ; thy man servant, and thy maid servant ; thy cattle, and the stranger who is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.

Q. Which is the fifth commandment ?

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A. Honor thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Q. Which is the sixth commandment ?

A. Thou shalt do no murder.

Q. Which is the seventh commandment?

A. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Q. Which is the eighth commandment ?

A. Thou shalt not steal.

Q. Which is the ninth commandment?

A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Q. Which is the tenth commandment ?

A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife ; nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his.

Q. What are those principles which most effectually lead to the observance of these, and all other of God's commandments ?

A. A high reverence of God, and a sincere good-will to our fellow-creatures, joined with a just regard to our own real interest.

Q. What is the best method we can take to guard ourselves from all vice and wickedness ?

A. By being careful not to indulge sinful thoughts ; and by correcting everything which is amiss in the beginning, before we have become accustomed to it, and have formed a habit which cannot easily be broken ; particularly by avoiding the company of wicked persons, who w T ould soon make us like themselves ; and by being, in a more especial manner, upon our guard against those vices, to which our situation and circumstances make us peculiarly prone.

Q. Is any man able to fulfil all the commands of God, so as to live entirely without sin ?

A. No. Our merciful God and Father knows that we are not able to do this, and, therefore, does not expect it from us. He only requires that we repent of the sins we commit, and endeavor to live better lives for the future.

Q. What should a sense of our frailty and proneness to sin teach us ?

A. Humility and watchfulness, and earnestness in our prayers to God, to enable us to resist temptation, and to strengthen and confirm our good dispositions.

Q. Did Christ appoint any outward ordinances as means of promoting his religion ?

A. He commanded his disciples to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name

THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 133

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; and he also commanded them to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of him. This rite is called the Lord's Supper.

Q. What is the meaning of baptism ?

A. The washing of water in baptism probably represents the purity of heart and life required from all who become the disciples of Christ.

Q. What is the nature and use of the Lord's Supper ?

A. By eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of Christ, we keep alive the memory of his death and resurrection ; we acknowledge ourselves to be Christians ; we cherish a grateful sense of the blessings of the Gospel of Christ ; and strengthen our resolutions to live as becomes his disciples.

Q. Had Christ no particular reward on account of what he did and suffered for the good of men ?

A. Because he humbled himself to death, God has highly exalted him, and made him head over all things to his Church ; and at the end of the world he will come to judge the living and the dead. For this hope which was

134 A CATECHISM.

set before him, he endured the cross, and despised the shame of that ignominious death.

Q. What do the Scriptures say concerning the day of judgment ?

A. That Christ will come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, when every eye shall see him ; that he will separate the wicked from the good ; that he will send the wicked into a place of punishment, and take the righteous to a place of happiness, where they shall live forever with himself.

THE END.