CHILDREN AND THE CHURCH.
By Christian Observer
THE Bible gives us some very striking instances of regeneration in infancy. The history of the child Samuel shows that his piety was but the sprouting of the stem and the budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit from the seed implanted by divine grace in his soul in infancy. God first inspired and then accepted Hannah's vow, and the tiny lad, asked of God and then given to God, was saved and consecrated by Him. The angel said of John the Baptist, before his birth, to Zacharias, "And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." Paul reminds Timothy of the fact that "from a child" he had "known the Holy Scriptures," and that his assurance and persuasion of the truth of God came from the instruction of his mother and grandmother. His progress in childhood was but a growing up into the observance of the things commanded in the Holy Scriptures. His great duty was to continue in the things taught him in infancy. Here was an old grandmother in whom unfeigned faith dwelt, a sweet mother having the same faith, and a pious son possessing the like precious gift of God. Such Christians are among the very strongest, wisest, and most devoted and useful and consecrated of our church-members. Mr. Spurgeon said that of the many hundreds of children who joined his church, not one had to be excommunicated for bad conduct. The Saviour gives childhood the advantage, as to entering the kingdom of heaven, over manhood, because of its susceptibilities to gracious influences. We may readily believe that these very susceptibilities are largely the result of a work of regeneration wrought in babyhood.