REVISED BY THE REV. NORMAN M'LEOD, D.D., GLASGOW. WEEKLY NOS. ONE HALFPENNY.] [MONTHLY PARTS, THREEPENCE PARENTS.* HAPPY as husband and wife may be in each other, there is something yet wanting to complete their happiness, and to fill out the circle of the heart's affections. The babe sleeping in its crib, or opening its large, round eyes in ceaseless wonder at this strange world; the little cherub tottering on unsteady feet, and moving a mother's heart to tear-dewed smiles by its earnest baby-talk; the fair-haired girl, mimicking a woman's ways; the adventurous boy, breathless from school or play to recount his exploits where every childish joy or sorrow has found a sympathetic ear-these are the objects which supply heart-yearnings, and with varying interest break up the decorous solitude of the dwelling where husband and wife abide alone. Who can describe the thrilling rapture of a mother, "remembering no more her anguish for joy that a man is born into the world," as she looks upon her first-born child; or the calm joy of a father, in whose heart is first waked up the sense of relationship to a reproduction of himself? A fountain is opened in the soul, which flows deeper and stronger with revolving years. A tree is planted in the heart, which grows broader and nobler as childhood ripens into youth and manhood. Few are the hearts which do not feel the mysterious spell, as a new-born child is folded on the breast, a gift from God. But how many realise the full solemnity of such an hour, and feel the weight of that responsibility which God is thus imposing? How many feel that they are clasping to their heart a young immortal, fitted for an eternity of joy or sorrow, and whose destiny is awfully involved in their own fulfilment of a parent's trust? How many in that moment dedicate their child to God, and earnestly implore the wisdom to discharge a duty so far beyond all human skill? How many, From a delightful little work, entitled, "God in the Dwelling," by the Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, just issued by Alexander Strahan & Co. No. 42. through the varying cares and pleasures of a growing household, have one constant thought these are God's children, to be trained for Him? Alas! they are all too few; too few even among professed disciples of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Where one is found thus solemnly concerned about the training of his children's souls for immortality and heaven, hundreds are seen, from whose parental conduct you would vainly ask if they know their children have a soul, and must be fitted for eternal life or death. First, there is that large class of parents who, although the professed servants of God, shew little or no solicitude for their children's conversion, but allow them to grow up ignorant of religious truth, neglectful of religious duty, and sometimes in unrestrained, unpunished wickedness. What estimate must we put on the reality of their own belief in the momentous truths by which they profess to be governed? Secondly; there is another class, of whom occasional specimens may be seen, who, while themselves wholly worldly and irreligious, are well pleased to see their children becoming Christians. They have conviction and conscience enough to feel the obligation and desirableness of religion, and can judge and choose aright for other people, but over their own affections the world and sin have too much power to be relinquished. Will they not be condemned out of their own mouth? Their choice for their children will establish in judgment both the reality of their convictions and the extent of their corruption. The third class is the largest of all-parents equally regardless of themselves and their offspring, who recklessly travel in the broad way which leadeth unto death, and without concern behold those who drew being from themselves sporting on the brink of perdition. In what noble contrast with them all stood the leader of Israel, when, before his assem bled nation, he avowed his purpose for himself and children: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The subject we are considering is Family Religion. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY is its corner-stone. God has laid an immeasurable responsibility on all parents for the devotion and training of their children to His own service. For the neglect of this duty no other usefulness can atone.. A higher mission no one need desire. 66 I. We regard this duty, first, in the light of a Divine command. Throughout the sacred Scriptures it is repeatedly and earnestly enforced, both by precept and example. It was most clearly and emphatically pressed on the people of God from the very beginning. In the midst of the wonders done in Egypt, before Israel was yet brought out of bondage, the religious training of future generations was the declared reason of such repeated manifestations of Divine power. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart, and the hearts of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him; and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord." In the book of Deuteronomy, immediately after the reiteration of the ten commandments, Moses adds a spiritual summary of the same: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Then he continues, as if what he next requires were an indispensable manifestation of this required love: "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." Diligent religious instruction of his children, and familiar conversation with them on the things of God, evening and morning, at home and abroad, are here the required duty of a parent. How many fathers and mothers, even of the Christian Church, have fulfilled this duty? Just before his death, also, Moses concluded all his anxious instructions of the people with a similar injunction: " And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel: and he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it." Solomon commands the same duty, accompanying the command with a promise founded no less in the laws of human nature than in the word of God: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." When our Saviour was upon the earth, anxious parents brought their little ones to Him; and when officious disciples interfered, He "was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." He rewarded their pious zeal by taking them up in His arms, putting His hands upon them, and blessing them. He imparted a symbolic significance to the action, and recorded His approval of all future endeavours spiritually to bring little children to Him, when He added, "for of such is the kingdom of God." An action so significantly approved, a privilege so graciously bestowed, must needs carry with it the strongest obligations. To the example of his Master, Paul the apostle, by direction of the Holy Ghost, adds positive command: "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." To these unmistakable precepts may be added the record of two opposite examples, and their respective judgments by God. The fidelity of Abraham in the training of his household was made the subject of special divine commendation and reward. "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him that he will command his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him. But the parental unfaithfulness of Eli brought evil on himself and the household he had failed to correct. "In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house when I begin I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth ; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever." plainly and emphatically does the word of God declare the responsibility of parents for the training of their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Thus The same responsibility is otherwise apparent. II. It is the recognised duty of a parent to promote the welfare of his child, and to fit him for his part in life. This is an instinct of natural affection, and is enforced by universal. conscience. To sacrifice a child's real interests and happiness for any selfish end, is universally considered unnatural and wicked. The pains, labour, and expense necessary to fit a child for his sphere in life are so univer PARENTS. sally regarded the bounden duty of a parent, that their faithful provision finds little commendation, while any neglect is indignantly condemned. This is true of the provision requisite for the body. Who commends a parent for providing food, and clothing, and recreation for his child? He has done that only which it was his duty to do. But he who through indolence, intemperance, or heartlessness, fails to make this provision, is counted "worse than an infidel." It is equally so with the training of the mind. The best education attainable by a parent is only what we expect. The covetousness, indifference, or narrowness of mind which withholds it, is a subject of reproach. The same is true of a child's social position. To suffer him to drop out of the associations of refinement and taste to which he is entitled, and, through want of development, to be fitted for only low-bred society, is an acknowledged violation of parental duty. Nor has it less application to moral character. To seek a child's happiness by the culture of his moral sensibilities, and to fit him for an honourable course in life by wise establishment of moral principle, is the acknowledged duty of a parent. To neglect, still more to debase, him in these respects, is estimated the foulest of wrongs. All these things establish a principle on the basis of common consent. The groundwork of any such common consent must be in man's moral constitution, and so be indicative of the will of the Creator. The principle thus established is, that promotion of a child's happiness, and training him for his appropriate career in life, are the natural and irrepealable duties of a parent. Why, then, restrict the application of this principle to man's lower nature? The highest happiness of that child, even in this world, his sole happiness in the eternal world to come, lie in the right state and relations of his soul. To reverse the soul's corrupt tendencies by spiritual regeneration, to illuminate its darkness by the light of divine truth, to establish peaceful and heavenly affections within it, to remove the just curse of its sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, to cast out its natural fear and hatred of God by love and confiding trust-these are indispensable to true happi ness. These can make one happy amidst bodily weakness and pain, mental inferiority and social discomforts. Without these, health, riches, rank, taste, science, may all lie on a pillow of thorns. How, then, can a parent have done his duty towards the happiness of a child, while the wants of the soul have been uncared for? How incalculably, also, do the soul's immortal nature and destiny transcend all earthly interests! All these are but the scaffolding for the erection of that spiritual temple-but the school-days which prepare for that real life. He is but a ruined fool who has gained the whole world, and lost his own soul. What, then, shall be thought of the 495 parent who has trained his child to do it? For he who has suffered his child to grow up without "the nurture and admonition of the Lord," has as much trained him to lose his soul as he who suffers him to grow up without industry and self-control has trained him to lose this world. The universally-recognised duty of a parent, and the immortality of a child's soul, thus taken together, establish the obligation of the careful, diligent, religious training of a household. III. Additional force is given to this obligation by the fact, that God has made children so subject to good or evil impressions, especially from their parents. All know how impressible is the soul of childhood. All its sensibilities are acute. Its soft clay yields to every touch of the potter. Good and evil alike wield easy and permanent influence. It almost seems as if the child were given up without restraint to the power of early associations. Doubtless, there is some limit to this power. On the one side, the Spirit of grace, by His secret operations, withstands the influence of association with unmingled evil. On the other side, the native depravity of the heart holds out against every accumulation of good impressions. But although these limits do exist, and are fixed somewhere in every case, they are quite hidden from view, both in position and effect, by childhood's visible associations. They serve to account for those exceptional cases in which good comes out of all evil, or evil defeats all good. But the result, as a rule, is according to the advantages or disadvantages of early training. Many cases, moreover, which seem to be exceptional, do in reality but exemplify the rule. How often, when one whose whole early training seemed to be evil, is notwithstanding, converted and brought out a decided and shining Christian, will it be found that some one heavenly influence had been left to plead for God, some trickling spring, drop by drop reaching the hidden root of a plant which blooms, apparently by miracle, amidst rock and gravel. How often, when in the very garden of the Lord, no care or culture can save the withering vine, will it be found that the secret worm had left in its very germ the poisoned sting insuring ultimate decay and death. Almost at the mercy of early influence, the soul has thus been left by its Creator. Rather, by these early ministries it is that the unseen God has chosen Himself to work upon the soul. "He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy ministries of love upon the youthful heart. "And whom He will, He hardeneth" by youthful abandonment to snares of sin. by Most of all does this apply to the influence of parents. Susceptible and eager of impression from every quarter, the child still turns with native instinct to its father and its mother. Thither, as naturally as it seeks nourishment from the breast, it looks for the tuition of its ignorance and the example of its conduct. Inquisitive of all, it here seeks authoritative response. Imitative everywhere, here is its natural standard of comparison, its final court of appeal. Father! mother! have you ever thought of the eternal influence on your children's souls of even the gesture, the glance, the tone of voice, which their keen senses note, and lay up in memory for imitation? Would God have thus formed the child, had he not designed this fearful power to be used for good? Can so momentous a trust be received without proportionate responsibility? No responsibility can rise higher than that which accompanies the gift of children. No other relation deals so closely and effectually with the destinies of souls; and, therefore, in the very susceptibilities and affections of our children the finger of God hath written the solemn admonition: "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." How awful the account of those who have habitually broken this commandment! What a meeting, when they face their children at the judgment bar of God! but it stirs not, feels not. It is dead. Corruption has claimed its prey; and hell stands guard around the portals, lest it should be delivered. What can be done for such a soul? With God nothing is impossible; but miracles are few. And how seldom is heard in this sepulchre of the soul the voice that can bring forth "him that was dead, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes." When one looks over a Christian church, and sees the same seats occupied year after year by those whom no arguments can persuade, no appeal arouse, no vision entrance, hope dies away, and the gay assemblage seems transformed into a funeral of dead souls. Yet each encoffined soul that sits before the preacher, a living mourner at its own burial, was once a tender, gentle child, whose sensitive conscience might have been aroused to a sense of sin, and whose affectionate heart might have been won by the voice and smile of its Redeemer. Originally plastic clay in a parent's hands, whereof might have been fashioned "vessels of honour, meet for the Master's use," but now, spoiled, misshapen, useless, they lie hardening in the gospel furnace, "vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction." Think of this, ye parents, and feel the solemnity of your position! Think of this, and realise the responsibility which rests upon you! Think of this, and enter into faithful covenant with God, like him of old: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Such are the responsibilities of parents. Such a sacred trust has God committed to your hands in every child whose birth brought love into your dwelling; saying, as He gave the treasure, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me; and I will pay thee thy wages." How have you discharged that trust? Have your purpose and labour been to bear them with yourselves in faith's pilgrimage to a better country? or have you been dragging them down with yourself to the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched? What heavier millstone about the neck will sink ungodly sinners in the lake of fire than lost children's souls? What brighter jewel will adorn the crown to be laid at Jesus' feet than children taught to know and love a father's God? IV. This responsibility is made still greater by the fact, that if children are not trained up to serve the Lord, they become almost impervious to subsequent religious impressions. Even where parental fidelity has not been blessed in youthful conversion, it must not be esteemed without effect. It has left a groundwork for later influence, a preparation for future culture. It has sown seeds which some future ploughshare may throw up to the surface, and subject to quickening influence. It has " offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears," which are registered in heaven, and will not remain for ever unanswered. How great the difference to be discerned in the unconverted adults of any congregation, between those who were blessed with early religious training, and those who were not. A familiarity with the word of God, a power of comprehending religious truth, a susceptibility of conscience, a perception of the obligation and value of piety, and a hope and purpose of its ultimate attainment, are found in the one case which do not exist in the other. Is there a more truly pitiable object than the man who had no youthful instruction in the things of God, and has reached mature age without having FOR Some time past Mr. James's health had been moved to seek in Christ the salvation of been failing, chiefly through the infirmities of his soul? All his spiritual senses have been age, accelerated, no doubt, by a long course of lost through want of use. His soul can constant labour, and intensified by the wearneither see, nor hear, nor taste, nor feel. He ing force of that "care for all the churches," is quite unconscious that he has one. Within which specially characterised him. His own his active body and vigorous mind it lies consciousness of an exhausted constitution entombed as in a living sepulchre, preserved had been often betrayed by declared anticiunto the second death. Fires of divine ven-pations of coming death during his more regeance sweep by it, zephyrs of divine love breathe over it, glory, honour, and immortality open in boundless prospect before it; JOHN ANGELL JAMES.. cent public appearances. When the Congregational Union assembled at Aberdare, he was obliged to content himself with a patri JOHN ANGELL JAMES. archial message to his brethren by the mouth of the Rev. Thomas James; and, when the Evangelical Alliance, of which he was the first president, met the week after in Belfast, he, by letter, requested an interest in the prayers of its assembled members, in terms, the remembrance of which, will make the intelligence of his decease not less sorrowful, but less surprising, 497 the following interesting and touching words occur: "I think it probable that with these few notes on dear Knill's life and labours, I shall lay down my pen, which has written much; would God it had written better. But while I say this, I am not without hope, yea, I may add conviction, that it has in some degree written usefully. In some humble degree I have aimed at usefulness both in my preaching and writing, and God has, to an amount which utterly astonishes and almost overwhelms me, given me what I have sought. It seems a daring and almost presumptuous expression, but with a proper qualification it is a true one that usefulness is within the reach of us all the man who intensely desires to be useful, and takes the proper means, will be useful. God will not withhold His grace from such desires and such labours. Oh! my brother, how delightful is it, notwithstanding the humbling and sorrowful consciousness of defects and sins, to look back upon a life spent for Christ. I thank a sovereign God I am not without some degree of this." Mr James's death was, however, at the last, very sudden and unexpected. He had been indisposed and feeble for some ten days, and the watchfulness of anxious and trembling affection had discovered that his physical infirmities were perceptibly and rapidly increasing. But on the Sunday morning previous to his death he had preached an eminently characteristic, and, as we are informed, vigorous discourse, at the Edgbaston Chapel; and in the evening he was present at Carr's Lane. Indeed, in the midst of all his physical weakness, his mental vigour seemed to remain unimpaired, and he wrote and studied as usual up to the hour of his last seizure. The sermon he intended to preach at Carr's Lane Chapel, on the next Sunday evening, was prepared. The dread, perhaps the morbid dread not of death, but of pain-which he had previously experienced, seemed, during the past fortnight, to have passed entirely away. He was cheerful and happy, under the consciousness that his end was approaching. He talked much of heaven, and seemed to anticipate, with great satisfaction, "the rest that remaineth for the people of God." The gloom which had previously sometimes clouded his mind, especially when he thought of leaving his afflicted daughter, had entirely passed away. During the week his friends were struck with the elevation of his religious joy, and were not without their fears that the end could not be far off. On the Friday, however, he seemed stronger; and a lady, who happened to be staying with him, read to him in the evening the whole of the Missionary Chronicle for the month, to which he listened with an interest at which we cannot wonder, when we see that a large part of it refers to China. In the course of the day he penned several letters, in one of which, addressed to his brother, the Rev. Thomas James, of Lon-noured servant of Christ. Had he lived much don, he wrote thus: As he was about to retire to rest he became indisposed, having apparently been attacked by indigestion, and Dr Evans, an eminent physician residing next door, was called to his aid. He prescribed for his venerable friend, and assured his family there was no need for alarm. When Mr James was about to seek his bedroom, Dr Evans wished to assist him up stairs-a trouble which Mr James was very unwilling to give; but when the doctor persisted in proffering his aid, he turned to him affectionately, and quoted the text "Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these, thou hast done it unto me." During the night he was restless, and frequently sick, but slept from half-past four to six o'clock in the morning. Then he awoke, and it was plain that the time of his departure was at hand. He lay calmly for a little while, held out his hand to his son, who, with his medical advisers, was standing at his bedside, and then again sank into a slumber, which in a few minutes became the sleep of death. So peacefully passed away this ho longer, it is almost certain that he would have been destined to protracted martyrdom, as latterly he had been afflicted with a most distressing malady, which time would have aggravated to torture. All this he has been mercifully saved. A post-mortem examination has disclosed partial ossification of the heart, and proved that death was actually caused by the rupture of a small vessel in that organ. Mr James was twice married, first to Miss Smith, the daughter of a physician, and secondly to Mrs Neale, a lady who was honoured with the special friendships of Rowland Hill and Matthew Wilks. He has left one son and one daughter to mourn their bereavement. |