ENCOURAGEMENTS TO FAITHFULNESS. 279 year, for the next ten years, who should become a faithful minister of Christ, how soon would the world be converted, and the millions of her inhabitants unite in singing the praises of redeeming love, and pardoning mercy! CHAPTER XIV. ENCOURAGEMENTS TO FAITHFULNESS. DISCOURAGEMENTS are inseparable from every attempt at being useful. I had thought of devoting this chapter to the consideration of those which attend the faithful teacher in the Sunday School. But they need not be pointed out, nor dwelt upon: they will come of their own accord; but the wisest way is to think as little of them as possible, and to resolve that they shall never retard or stop our efforts. The world is at war with the kingdom of holiness; and in whatever shape effort is made to reclaim it from the dominion of the prince of the power of the air, there will be obstacles and difficulties. Ever since the first promise, that the seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head, it has been So. It is a part of the moral discipline through which the people of God must pass. No class of active, devoted Christians has ever met with so much opposition, as did the Apostles and early Christians. But they neither stopped nor turned aside for such opposition. About one hundred and twenty disciples, after the death of their Master, were gathered together for prayer, and the Holy Spirit descended upon them; and then they all spake with tongues, and preached the Gospel to the people of many different languages. The consequence was a great excitement: a crowd collected; some mocked, and then Peter preached to them a sermon, with an application, and three thousand were converted. Then they had time enough for prayer and religious duties, and money enough for benevolent purposes; for each "sold his possessions, and parted them 280 PETER JOHN-STEPHEN. to all men as every man had need, and continued daily with one accord in the temple." Then the lame man was healed; a crowd collected; Peter preached another sermon with an application, and five thousand were converted. The high priest and nobles are alarmed and indignant at all this excitement; they seize Peter and John, and demand of them by what authority they did so; and then Peter preached the Gospel faithfully to the high priest and nobles. The Apostles are commanded to hold their peace, are threatened and dismissed; and they immediately return to their work of preaching to the people. Again they are seized and imprisoned; but an angel releases them, and they continue to preach. A third time they are taken and beaten; but they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer, and without delay resume their work. The excitement spreads and increases; Jerusalem is filled with their doctrine; the opposers are in great perplexity what measures to take to stop it; till at length, in a paroxysm of popular fury, Stephen is seized and stoned to death. Here we may suppose there was a pause: the disciples probably met to consider what should be done, and to pray for Divine guidance. Imagine them assembled, many countenances indicating anxiety and alarm. At length one speaks-"Oh! the torrent of ridicule with which we are assailed! how shall we ever stand before it?" Another remarks, "I can bear the ridicule very well; but they tell such falsehoods about us, they will utterly ruin our reputation, and destroy all our influence among the people." A third feels it most deeply that they should be hated for the good which they were doing, and that these falsehoods are invented to make them odious on account of their usefulness. A fourth cannot bear the thought of being charged with wrong motives, and having all his efforts charged to the desire of building up a party. A fifth feels himself disheartened PRAYER MUST BE EXERCISED. 281 because their success is principally confined to the poor, -that none of the great and the rich, the priests and nobles, lend them their name and influence, but do all in their power to crowd them down. A sixth is disturbed that there should be so much noise and excitement, such a tumult that there can be no living in the city, if these efforts should go on. Another regrets the disunion of families occasioned by their preaching; and another points to the blood of Stephen, and hints at a little more prudence, lest they should all be massacred together. Now what shall they do in all this trouble? They kneel down and pray together; they continue for some time earnestly engaged in the exercise; and the clouds begin to clear away, the heaviness is removed from their heart, they are in an entirely different atmosphere. Now one and another begin to recollect the words of Christ, how he had foretold that all this would happen in just this manner;-how he had commanded, warned, and encouraged them; promised them a mansion in his Father's house; he had gone to prepare a place for them, and send the Comforter to be with them till his return. And now they have only to do their duty, and leave the consequences with their Master. They see things in an entirely different light, their despondency is all gone; they go again to their work with more resolution and earnestness than ever. Such was the spirit of primitive Christianity; this is the spirit that should animate us in all our well-directed efforts for the salvation of the soul. Let those who engage in teaching and raising up Sunday Schools, meet opposition and discouragements in this way, and the cause of Jesus Christ can never suffer from the efforts of men. I must now proceed briefly to mention a few motives which God, in his providence, holds out to the Sundayschool teacher to be faithful and untiring in the cause in which he has engaged. 282 FAITHFULNESS ITS OWN REWARD. 1. The teacher will himself receive benefit in proportion to his faithfulness. The providence of God seems to design the Sunday School to be the place where the teacher shall have all his Christian graces continually called out and exercised. The man who is faithful in his station as a Sundayschool teacher, can hardly fail of having his Christian character improved. Are you naturally proud? Who is not? You must here associate with ignorance, stupidity, prejudice, and, it may be, with filth. Like your Master, you must associate with the poor. Your intellect must be exercised by coming down to the capacity of the child. You must visit the poor, listen to their tales of sorrow, sympathize with their condition, put yourself in some measure on their level, and encounter any prejudices, however vulgar, which they may entertain. Can this be done without calling the grace of humility somewhat into exercise? Are you naturally selfish? You must go to your school, and visit the families, at the time appointed, let the weather be what it may, your own ease and comfort making what demands they may; you must enter the dwellings of sorrow, of woe, of wretchedness; you must forego seasons of visiting, social interviews with friends, leisure for reading, thinking, and, on the Sabbath especially, even a part of your hours of secret meditation and devotion in the closet. It is a constant call for self-denial; and you cannot be happy without its exercise. Do you in any measure lack patience? You will meet with the stupid and the dull, whom you must instruct; with the stiff-necked and the stubborn, with whom you must bear and forbear; with ingratitude which at times seems too much for poor human nature to bear... You will have to follow your scholars from week to week sometimes discovering that they are wearied with your teachings, sometimes that they would gladly get away THE GRATITUDE OF THE SCHOLARS. 283 if they could. Can you do all this, and endure all this, without a patience constantly increasing? "Are condescension, affability, meekness, gentleness, goodness, long-suffering, Christian love, that hopeth all things, endureth all things, required? They are all called into daily exercise, and all, if asked of the Giver of all goodness, will freely be given, and abundantly strengthened and increased, by the blessed Spirit of consolation, until every precious stone in the diadem of Christian graces be set in its place, and burnished, and made fit, for Christ's sake, to be added to those which evermore shall burn and blaze around the throne, and brighten and brighten, throughout eternity, in the pure and holy splendours of the glory of God and of the Lamb." Thus, they "that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. 2. The faithful teacher will have the thanks of his scholars in after life. thirty or forty recitations These self-denying labours great Head of the church: Few teachers are aware how long they are remembered, and, if faithful, with how much affection, by their scholars. More than twenty years ago, a lady, in a destitute neighbourhood, opened in her own house, what she called a Sunday School. The Bible and the Catechism were recited by a number of children who united in the school. This teacher was a mother, and often has been known to hear with an infant in her arms. were not overlooked by the Those who attended her school grew up altogether unlike others in the same neighbourhood, who did not attend. The moulding of their minds and the forming of their characters seem to have been done by her, and that too, in some instances, when the almost omnipotent example of parents was directly opposed to her influence. Three of her scholars were the daughters of profane and intemperate parents. Such was the hold which this |