LEADING CHILDREN TO CHRIST.
I THANK thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast * revealed these things unto babes. Luke x, 21. "We make Pharisees of our children, unintentionally to be sure, but no less certainly, and then if the gospel ever takes effect upon their hearts, all our work must be undone," remarked Mrs. Herbert when her sister closed the door on her sleeping child. "I don't understand you," said Mrs. Norton in an inquiring tone. "I was thinking of what you had been telling little Willie, and of my own former teachings," replied Mrs. Herbert. "You told him if he was a good boy and obeyed his parents, and said his prayers, he would go to heaven when the time came for him to die." "Well, what else could I say?" asked the mother in surprise. "Tell him the simple story of the cross, teach him his own sinfulness and his entire dependence on Christ for salvation." "But will such teaching answer for one so young, will it not discourage all effort to do right?" "I think not; on the contrary it will cultivate and strengthen the noblest faculties of the mind, while it prepares the way for the gospel." "I'm sure I should not know what to say," remarked Mrs. Norton with a sigh. "I could tell the story of the fall, and explain the plan of redemption somewhat, perhaps, but when I should attempt to apply these truths to his own little self in his childish life, I should fail! What could I say?" "Take your own relations to him as an illustration," replied Mrs. Herbert; "teach him to do right, not to purchase heaven with his good works, but that he may please the dear Jesus who loves little Willie even more than his mother does. This is a beautiful idea to the mind of a child, and certainly the scriptural one. Duty-doing then becomes the privilege of love, not the purchase of favor. How much more noble the motive, and, believe me, the incentive is stronger. Above all, teach your child that all acceptable service must spring from love in the heart. Do not desist until you are fully satisfied that your child is converted." "Converted! Why, Mary, do you think Willie is old enough to be a Christian?" asked Mrs. Norton with surprise. "I do not know," replied Mrs. Herbert; "the time when moral responsibility begins, differs according to the mental development of children, and we cannot say that all children are irresponsible till a certain age, and after that time, all children are accountable subjects of God's government, but I think the period of responsibility, and consequently the age at which children may become Christians, is much younger than many imagine." "As you have no children, of course that opinion is more theory," said Mrs. Norton in a tone which clearly implied her doubts of its correctness. "No, it is not more theory. I have known three, yet, four instances of the conversion of children about the age of Willie; and I never shall forget the circumstances which wrought an entire change in my own mode of instruction as an infant-school teacher." "Early in the spring of 18—I became deeply impressed with the idea that some of my class would die that summer, and that I must be more faithful in my efforts for their immediate conversion. The impression that I should lose some of my flock was not remarkable, for I had a class of seventy-five little children, and it would seem almost wonderful if none did die during the summer. But such reasoning did not relieve the feeling of responsibility. At one of the Sabbath-school teachers' meetings the superintendent was urging upon the teachers the duty of laboring directly for the conversion of their classes, and turning to me he said, 'Mrs. Herbert, though you cannot hope to see immediate results from your labors among such young children, you may expect that the seed sown will spring up and bear fruit hereafter.' Oh! I cannot tell you how this affected me; I replied, 'If I could not labor and pray for their immediate conversion, believing such a work to be possible, I would give up the class at once.' A half smile of incredulity passed over the faces of the teachers, and superintendent, and I felt that with that great burden upon my heart, I was considered visionary, and consequently was shut out from their prayerful sympathy. I also spoke of my feelings in the ladies prayer-meeting with nearly the same result, though the mothers prayed for me, and for their young children, yet evidently with many doubts of the possibility of an immediate answer. I felt shut up to God! But when did divine strength ever fail the humble seeker? The visitors to the infant class were accustomed to speak to the children of the necessity of a new heart, but none had ever explained the subject to their comprehension, and I undertook the difficult task. "Never till then had I the least idea that I was imparting to those tender minds any other than pure gospel truth, but when I attempted to explain to them the entire sinfulness of their own nature, and the utter impossibility of doing anything to merit eternal life, I saw plainly from their perplexed and eager listening that they were seeking to reconcile this with the teaching they had previously received from my lips, and perhaps from the lips of their Christian mothers, that if they were good they would go to heaven. Week after week, with earnest prayer and thought, I labored to present the plan of salvation through Christ, in such a plain and simple manner that every child could understand it, and I was surprised to find how much my own conceptions of the gospel, the plain, simple doctrines of grace, had become enshrouded in the mysticism of a phraseology, which, though perhaps correct in itself, does not convey even to the mature mind, the same impressions that are made by the use of such simple terms as children can readily understand. I became a very child myself in the blessed preparation to teach these babes.", "The hot summer months came on with no diminution of my solicitude, and no apparent answer to my prayers. One day I heard that one of my little ones was dead! So suddenly did the summons come, that though her mother was one of my most intimate friends I had not even heard of the dear child's illness. "Mattie had been a restless child, full of life and vigor; she was very affectionate, and had been well143instructed by a devoted Christian mother, but was she one of Christ's little ones? Only six years old, was she a responsible moral agent? Oh! how I longed to know what, with so large a class, I could not learn at the Sabbath-school. After the funeral, I called on her mother, and, to my great joy, learned many facts which led me to believe that the dear little one was indeed an heir of grace. She was delirious during her illness, but her mother said that for some time previous, she and other members of the family had noticed a change in her. She had been in the habit of secret prayer, and when her little friends visited her, she had been overheard by her mother and sisters talking to them in her simple way of Jesus and her love for him. She often told her mother during the spring and summer that 'she could not stay away from Sunday-school because Mrs. Herbert was telling the children how to get a new heart so they could go to heaven.' And in the Sunday-school when I said at the close of the regular lesson, 'Now children if you will be quiet I will tell you about the new heart,' Mattie's sister frequently heard her say to the children beside her, 'Don't whisper to me now, for I want to learn how to get a new heart.' "How far, or, if in any degree, my effort had been the means of her conversion, I do not know, but I went home cheered and encouraged, and need I say strengthened in the belief of the early conversion of children when properly instructed, and never since then have I taught the little ones that 'if they are good they will go to heaven.'" "Why, Mary, I never looked at the subject at all in that light before," said Mrs. Norton; "I thought Willie quite too young to understand much about these things, and all I had to do at present was to teach him his little prayers, and give him some motives for right doing. But I shall change my course at once, for I believe you are right. Dear little Mattie! If my Willie should be taken away, how precious would be such assurance that he was safe in the arms of Jesus," and the young mother's eyes were suffused with tears. "God help you to lead him to that loving Saviour," said Mrs. Herbert. "Do not be discouraged by the difficulties which you will surely encounter; remember that Jesus himself has said, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.'"—Fam. Guardian.