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Lessons from Past Experiences

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 13, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 50.

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Lessons from Past Experiences

By GEO. O. STATES

—No. 10
GEO. O. STATES
As I attend our Sabbath-school at the present time, I often think of the advantages our children have over those of us who lived in the early days of our message. I shall always remember the first Sabbath-school I ever attended, and how the teacher simply took his Bible and opened to the chapter, and then explained verse after verse, and gave us all a chance to ask questions as we passed along. We did not have any of the helps we now have. The lessons brought out from the Word have always remained, and frequently when reading them over, my mind goes back to the days long ago.
It was very seldom in those early days that we had preaching, for we all believed the Lord was soon coming, and were anxious for the few messengers to put in their time in going into new places and giving the truth to those who had never heard it. Once in a great while we had a minister, and it was truly a feast for us to listen to the present truth.
To the best of my memory every Seventh-day Adventist always had family prayers night and morning, and especially at night all members of the family took part, and as the parents and children prayed for the messengers who were out in new fields, that the truth might be presented in its purity and search out the honest hearts, the Lord did certainly come near and greatly bless in our family devotions.
We expected nothing else than that as soon as the children were old enough, they would be baptized and unite with the church, and many of our active ministers of to-day are simply some of those children who grew up under those influences.
My heart has been made sad many times as I have visited churches in my own conference, where I have lived most of the time for over twenty years, to find, in some families, all the children that were brought up in the truth drifting into the world and making no profession of the truth. As I see these things, I can but believe there is a reason for it, and I know there must be a lack somewhere. The Lord’s people are spoken of as a “holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”
Brethren, if our children are not in the truth, there certainly must be a reason, and we do well carefully and prayerfully to study what may have been that reason.
“We are living in an unfortunate age for children. A heavy current is setting downward to perdition, and more than childhood’s experience and strength is needed to stand against this current, and not be borne down by it.”
“Parents, help your children. Arouse from the lethargy which has been upon you. By earnest prayer and living faith, great victories will be gained. Some parents have not realized the responsibilities resting upon them, and have neglected the religious education of their children. In the morning the Christian’s first thoughts should be upon God. Worldly labor and self-interest should be secondary.”
This counsel was first given us over forty years ago, and it is certainly timely, for it is a fact that in many homes of those who profess this truth there is not so much time spent in prayer as there once was. If the downward influence was so strong over forty years ago, how must it be now when we are just that much nearer the coming of Christ? I know the timely counsel of my mother has had much to do in holding me in the hour of temptation, and as I think of the many earnest prayers in behalf of us children, I know that the hour of family worship has been a wall about my whole life. This is a duty that we as a people owe our children in this degenerate age.
Cedaredge, Colo.