"People and realms, of every tongue, Their early blessings on his name!" But, say you, where now are the households which have been converted in a day? and where now the tens, nay, the hundreds, not to say thousands, who have bowed before the voice of a single address? Ah, where indeed! Though the Lord's arm is not shortened, that he cannot save, nor his ear heavy, that he cannot hear, these are questions into which, at present, I must not enter; but certainly they are far from being irrelevant to the ministry of us all ! In the meanwhile, however, and in the midst of such impotency, let it be our wisdom to ascertain principles, and look to individual cases. The scepticism expressed by many, in regard to conversion, may be easily accounted for; some of them affirming, in regard to the heathen abroad, that, until you civilize or humanize men, you need not attempt to christianize them; that you must make them men before you can expect them to become Christians. But what shall we say in reference to the scepticism which as evidently reigns in others, with respect to Children, or young people, whether at home or abroad, while waiting, as they would tell you, till they come to what they choose to regard as the years of discretion? And what is the severe punishment laid up for Parents who labour under such want of Christian foresight-such want of faith and genuine compassion? Why, that these years, for which they idly waited, turn out to be the very years of indiscretion ? This, however, is an old offence; and, alas! it seems but too common to corrupt human nature. You have already seen how the Apostles themselves stumbled; but there is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; it does not feel for man;" and is often cold and indignant even at the young of the species. "And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the Children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! they were sore displeased, and said unto Him-Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ?" No; whatever scribes and chief priests might say then, or men of a kindred feeling think now, the Christianity of very early life is a subject in which you will find no scepticism-no hesitation in the word of God; nay, it is one upon which the Saviour not only looked with a most benignant eye, but he still holds the broad shield of his protection over such early profession of attachment to his name. After having set a little Child in the midst of his disciples, and finished the lesson which childhood, as such, suggested*-you hear him say in conclusion Such a period of life is indeed fraught with instruction to the Christian Parent; for nature as such, whether physical or moral, always repays the labour bestowed upon it. The Saviour himself, who sanctified almost every object for the instruction or encouragement of his followers, here leads the way. When very young, you may therefore most profitably regard them, as appropriate emblems of those qualities which are the effect of regeneration. Then you will discover but little or no disposition to take precedence, or you will see them, regardless of external distinctions, cheerfully associating with their inferiors in rank or years; see them simple, artless, free from guile-without the love of money-without anxious care, yet submissive and very dependent-and, to crown the whole, disposed implicitly to credit either Parent. Let me ask, where you will find such a combination of qualities in those of riper age? How, then, can Parents trifle away those years? Such neglect is like the loss of the spring in Nature. "But 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." Far, indeed, am I from taking this heavenly intimation in any other sense, than the words, in their connexion, seem at once to convey. Nor am I surprised at the language employed for such an offence. What think of you poisoning a fountain, or nipping the bud in nature? Christianity, once possessed by a Child, bids fair to have justice done to it; the least offensive-the most engaging the purest, and, generally, by far the most useful profession of Christianity, is likely to follow. Praise, it seems, by our Lord's reply, admits of degrees-and, it also appears, can, by him, be carried to the highest degree from the lips of children. As an evidence of the Messiah's claims, sufficient even for such a moment, never let it be forgotten, that in the very temple of old, with her priests and her scribes walking around, they were the hosannas of Children, which stilled and drowned the voice of these enemies and avengers. One Child in particular, however, you remember, whose origin and history seem left on record, to illustrate that divine harmony which exists between domestic obligations, and the Christian Ministry, as such. From the days of his infancy he had known the Holy Scriptures; and though Paul rejoiced over him, as his own son in the faith, still he was affected greatly, when he thought of this child's obligations to his Mother and Grandmother! Now when Parental assiduity, and the preaching of the truth, had, as it were, embraced each other, and poured their respec tive blessings on the head of Timothy, what was the consequence? Why, that when but a young man, he was capable of being urged, by his spiritual Father, to reach the very height or acmé of all Christian excellence. 66 "Let no man," said he to him, despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity or love, in spirit, in faith, in purity." An "example" of these things did he urge? But are these all in which the Minister of Christ is to excel? Or is he left to gather, from general terms only, his peculiar obligations as a Parent of Children or the Master of a Family? What then, in these days, were the qualifications for office? Alas! my friend, what reply is ready for the man, for even any man who is able to stand up and say—“ Look to the Children or Servants of that Minister! See how they conduct themselves, and judge how they must have been trained! Grace he cannot communicate, nor do we ask him; but has he been vigilant at home? Has he been patient and moderate at home?-generous, or given to hospitality, and not covetous? Has he, as a sine qua non, ruled well his own house, and had his Children in subjection with all gravity? Whence, then, this lightness-these expensive habits-and this insubordination? How can this man ever expect to make full proof of his Ministry? How can he take care of the Church of God? These, my reader, if we are wise, are not provoking questions. No; they are but the reverberations of Infinite Wisdom, come from what lips they may; and they ought to induce every man, who sustains the office of the Ministry, or the office of a Deacon, frequently to observe, that the Great Head of the Church, as has been already noticed, by glancing at this subject, and fixing the eye of his associated people, at the moment of induction into both offices, intended, while providing for the government of his own Family upon earth, to bring up also that of the Domestic Circle, to the highest possible state of perfection. And O were these Families once but what they ought to be-once but what they might beonce what the great Head of the Church hath actually demanded, and what therefore he must expect from them-then indeed would they prove, in their respective enclosures, like so many "trees of life" in the garden of the Lord. For such a consummation, however, though not a groundless expectation, let no Christian Parent wait. The frame of human society is incessantly giving way; Families are daily breaking up; and the Church universal has yet to pass the scrutiny of an omniscient eye: then must every man's work be made manifestthen must every man bear his own burden, and every man give an account of himself unto God. THE END. |