YOUTH, THE TEACHABLE TIME.
By Alexander Hyde
It is manifestly much more difficult for mature men to come to Jesus than it is for the young. The latter have more leisure, their habits are not formed, they have fewer established and easily besetting sins to give up; in short, they can easily receive the simple truth in all its simplicity, and with equal ease open their mouths in prayer and exhortation. There is more force than we are wont to suppose in the saying of our Saviour, "Except ye become as little children ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Childhood and youth are the periods for the easy reception of all truth, religious as well as secular. Whoever has undertaken to teach an adult the rudiments of education, has experienced difficulties, similar, though inferior, to those which the preacher of righteousness encounters in teaching men. It is not impossible for a man, who has passed his second or third decade, to learn his letters and make something of a scholar, but it is an herculean task, compared with the effort which a child makes to attain the same end. It would seem at first thought that the mature mind would comprehend and remember the rudiments of language and science with more ease than can the undeveloped faculties of youth, but we have taught both classes and have not found this to be the case. A freedman, naturally bright, once came into our family, and we used our best endeavors to teach him to read, but our success was limited. It seemed almost an impossibility for him to confine his attention to a book. The man of business finds the same difficulty in giving his attention to the subject of religion. He may desire to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him, but his thoughts wander, the docile spirit of a child is wanting, and the language of prayer is not easily learned. It is a great mistake to suppose that a child must be ten or twelve years old before a Christian character can be developed. Timothy was doubtless instructed in the Scriptures by his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois in his earliest years, and received the truth in the love of it in the first dawn of his intellect, and in these latter days we have many examples of similar Christian development. What a heaven on earth would the family be if all children were thus early imbued with the spirit of Christ. We are confident that if there were more Hannahs and Eunices, there would be more Samuels and Timothies.—Alexander Hyde, in Christian Weekly.