ARE YOU WEANED? by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 16.

ARE YOU WEANED?

By H. A. St. John

BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

SAYS David, “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother; my soul is even as a weaned child.” Ps. 131:2. The Psalmist is here speaking of his moral and spiritual condition, for he says that “his soul is even as a weaned child.” The birth and the weaning of a child are two different events, occurring at different times. The birth is the beginning of its infantile life; the weaning, the end of babyhood and the beginning of childhood, youth, and service. The sinner, when converted, is born again, born of God, a newborn babe in Christ Jesus. By Christ, his father, and the church, his mother, he must be carefully nourished for a time with the sincere milk of the word, for he is a babe. But he should grow thereby, and not remain a babe. Young babes may be a joy and sunshine in a household, but old babes, old enough to be men and women, would certainly be a disappointment and a disgrace. And it is worse than foolish for a mother to wish her darling infant to remain a babe.

The newborn babe takes all its food second hand, or after it has been chewed and digested by the mother, but when weaned it is sustained by the food of its own chewing and digesting. So, likewise, the newborn babe is nourished by the sincere milk of the word administered by the Spirit through the church. But not always should the soul be dependent upon being thus taught, but should grow up and become a teacher. The apostle Paul mentions some who for the time ought to have been teachers, but they were still babes, old babes, who needed to be taught, to be fed, and that, too, with milk.

The unweaned child must needs ever keep near its mother. Likewise the old unweaned Christian babes are ever hanging on the church; they think they cannot live without church privileges and church associations and church instructions, even for a short time. They must ever be fed, but never feed others in return.

Everybody has noticed the universal characteristic of infants to put everything given them into their mouths. Paul tells us that the old babes of whom he wrote did not have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. As the poison would be taken into the mouth by the little child as quickly as food that is good, so these old babes, who were old enough to have learned to discern and reject the evil and accept only the good, were just like unweaned infants. They were carried about by winds of doctrine, listening to, repeating, and thus feeding upon evil reports. Such gossiping, talebearing, faultfinding, accusing Christians need to be weaned and learn that such things are destructive of spiritual growth, health, and development. They need to learn what kinds of food are spiritual, hygienic, contributing to a vigorous Christian manhood and womanhood.

Paul has also stated that these old babes were “dull of hearing.” This is a well-known characteristic of little children. Many important and plain things have often been read and said in the hearing of these old Christian babies, which they never seem to have heard or learned, like the disciples, to whom Jesus stated, and repeated over and over again, the plain story of his tragic death and resurrection the third day, yet when the event came they were no better off than if it had never been told them. They were “dull of hearing.” Jesus says plainly, “If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Overcome evil with good, etc., etc. And yet the church contains many who for the time ought to be teachers of these things, but who themselves need to be continually taught, and who are ever acting just as though such instruction had never been given. Truly they are “dull of hearing.”

Again, little children are void of judgment in the use of money. Likewise many old church members, although they have been in the school of Christ for years, are still in the A, B, C class in the study and understanding of their stewardship. They are almost as careless, as prodigal, as injudicious in the use of means as the little child. They are ignorant, or willfully neglectful, of the plainest instructions of God’s word in the matter of tithes and offerings.

Furthermore, the apostle has told us that another characteristic of old babes, who had not grown up, was the retention of an undue measure of carnality, evidenced by a contention over individual preferences. One said, “I am of Paul;” another, “I am of Apollos;” and still another, “I am of Cephas.” Are those who argue, and contend in this day over their preferences, either in the ministry or out of it, any farther advanced in spiritual growth? I am of Christ, should be the one central thought and all-prevailing ambition, which should swallow up every other preference. The bond-woman and her son, types of carnality, were cast out when Isaac was weaned.

For want of space we cannot consider all the characteristics of stunted, dwarfed, old, or unweaned babes in Christ, but there is one other, made prominent by the apostle, which we will briefly notice in conclusion. He says they are “unskillful in the word of righteousness.” An unskillful physician is one who fails either to correctly diagnose the sick man’s case, or fails to apply the proper remedies. He may fail in both these important particulars. To be unskillful in the word of righteousness would certainly be to be unable

to rightly divide the word of the Lord so as to expose to the sinner his fatal malady, and to lead him to the great Physician for healing.

The professed church of Christ is filled with members who say that they cannot teach, talk, or pray with a sinner; they do not know how. Personally they are not in any sense engaged in leading souls to Christ. They do not know how, nor are they at all disposed to learn how. They are contented to remain feeble, sickly, dwarfed, unweaned babes. They do not realize that it is imperative that they grow up to the perfect stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, and that there will be no starless crowns in heaven. Oh, that these babes would grow up and become nursing fathers and mothers in Israel!