Doctrines in the Church-School
By Lenore E. Howe.
“IMPRESSIONS made upon the minds of the young are hard to efface.” Let us thank the Lord that this is so, and ask him to let some of his plain “doctrinal” texts make such an impression upon the minds of the little ones that they shall serve as an anchor to hold them amid the storms and tempests so soon to rage around them. We can well learn a lesson from the Catholics on this point. Often I have known a Catholic neighbor to call her little child in from play that she might teach him the catechism. If they so diligently teach error, should we not even more diligently teach saving truth? If they so faithfully point out the change that their church has sought to make in the law of God, shall we fear to teach, even our little children, the immutability of that law? Why is it that so many of our youth take no interest in the glorious truths we hold? I answer, Because they do not know them; and not knowing them, how can they see their wonderful force and beauty? They have not been taught. Some one has failed to do his God-given duty. “These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” If this instruction had been heeded, we should see fewer, far fewer, of our youth taken captive by the world. While the study of Old Testament history is important and by no means to be neglected, the study of the special truths for this time is absolutely essential if we would have our children with us in the kingdom. There are few children who can not be intensely interested in the beautiful descriptions of the new earth and the holy city, in which they hope to have a home, and surely these subjects are no more difficult of comprehension than the study of the land of Palestine and the holy city of the Jews. Even the subject of the sanctuary engages the closest attention of the children, and fills them with an earnest desire to have their names recorded in the book of life. Through the spirit of prophecy the Lord says: “The third angel’s message, the great testing truth for this time, is to be taught in all our institutions. We shall have to stand before magistrates to answer for our allegiance to the law of God, to make known the reasons of our faith, and the youth should understand these things.” “When properly conducted, church-schools will be the means of lifting the standard of truth in the places where they are established; for children who are receiving a Christian education will be witnesses for Christ. As Jesus in the temple solved the mysteries which priests and rulers had not discerned, so in the closing work of this earth, children who have been rightly educated will in their simplicity speak words which will be an astonishment to men who now talk of ‘higher education.’ As the children sang in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,’ so in these last days, children’s voices will be raised to give the last message of warning to a perishing world. When heavenly intelligences see that men are no longer permitted to present the truth, the Spirit of God will come upon the children, and they will do a work in the proclamation of the truth which the older workers can not do, because their way will be hedged up. Our church-schools are ordained of God to prepare the children for this great work. Here children are to be instructed in the special truths for this time, and in practical missionary work. . . . By them God’s message will be made known, and his saving health to all nations.”