J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. !j {UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. | \-c y f < .- s . / j £ ^ THE RELIGIOX OF CHILDHOOD: OR, CHILDREN IN THEIR RELATION TO NATIVE DEPRAVITY, TO THE ATONEMENT, TO THE FAMILY, AND TO THE CHURCH. J3Y REV. F. G. HIBBAEP, D. P. " Where is the flock that was given thee, thy heantifnl flock ?" Jeremiah tttt, 20. CINCINNATI: PUBLISHED BY POE k HITCHCOCK: FOR THE AUTHOR. . P. TH0MPS05, PRI5TER. 1864. <*$* COPYRIGHT SECURED. X^-2.3 4 PKEFACE 1. The object of this work is twofold — to ascertain the Scriptural doctrine respecting the moral condition of our race prior to responsibility and irrespective of Christian sacraments — and so far it is humbly offered as a contribution to doctrinal theology — and to en- courage the early consecration of children to " God, and their faithful Christian nurture. The practical end is the ultimate end sought ; but in order to it the foundation of Christian doctrine must be laid in un- questioned certainty. The Church must emerge from the misty regions of polemic theology into the calm and clear atmosphere of faith. The authority of the Divine Word must be the ground on which her faith and practice rest. Then, and not till then, may we hope to see uniformity in parental training and Church discipline in regard to the children, and the promise fulfilled, " Their children shall be as aforetime, and their congregation be established before me." Jer. xxx, 20. 2. The ground taken in this work is, that all chil- dren are in a state of favor with God through the grace of atonement, and that this gracious state is not 4 PKEFACE. a simple acquittal from the penalty due to original sin, but also a moral effect wrought in them, the im- partation of a positive "gift," a principle of life, a meetness for heaven, or quickening of their nature. A dispute about words I decline. The meaning in- tended will be best understood by a candid and close reading of the argument. If the word regeneration is to be used at all in reference to the moral state of in- fants, it is to be used only in that qualified sense I have given it in Chapter IV. We do not, however, recommend the use of the term in this application, because, being true only in a qualified or elemental sense, it would be liable to misapprehension and abuse. The only point we propose as being fairly settled by Scriptural authority is, that as the child has a sinful nature some change must be wrought upon it to make it fit for the kingdom of God if it dies, or to prepare it for right, responsible action if it lives, and that that change is of the nature of life, a quickening of our nature, not merely an acquittal from the penalty, or change of legal relation. This is no new doctrine. It has been held in the Church in all ages — modified largely, indeed, by the doctrines of predestination and particular election on the one hand, and of baptismal regeneration on the other. There has been nothing peculiar in the doc- trine of any age of the Church, or of any branch PREFACE. 5 of it — Catholic or Protestant, Lutheran or Reformed, Calvimstic or Arminian — as to the nature or quality of saving grace; all holding it to be of the nature of life or regeneration, whether in adult or infant. The differences of opinion have respected simply the universality of this grace to infants, or its relation to the sacrament of baptism. The Arminians regard all children alike in their relation to the atonement. Whatever comes to one, through Christ, comes to all. Logically and doctrinally they are held to this. The sacrament of baptism is a recognition of their gracious state, not the cause or the appointed channel of it. They also hold to the possibility of the regeneration of infants as well as the certainty of it in those who die. Thus Dr. Olin says : " We all believe that God's grace renews those infants who die and go to heaven before they know how to discern the right hand from the left. This quite dissipates the philosophical ob- jection ; there is no natural obstacle to the work of grace in a child." In Dr. Stevens's life of Dr. Bangs he records the baptism of his infant daughter, Mary Eliza Bangs, and says: "At her baptism such a heavenly influence rested upon those assembled that the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, who baptized her, remarked, ' I had such nearness to God while praying for that infant that I believe the Lord regenerated her soul in the baptismal rite.' " The whole account, b PREFACE. and the after history of the child, are very remark- able. I quote it simply to show that in the opinions of the Methodistic fathers the regeneration of an infant was not looked upon as an absurdity or an impossibility, even of one who lived to grow up. The only question that can arise is, not whether infants are capable of a principle of spiritual life from the nature of the case, but whether all saving grace is of the nature of spiritual life? and whether, as a fact, the Scriptures do teach that all children are actually in a gracious state, a state of salvation, by the atonement? These points are sufficiently ex- panded in the body of this work, where I have en- deavored to present them with proper definition on Scriptural authority, and in their logical sequence. The reasons for undertaking this work, or, at least, for giving it so much of a doctrinal character, will appear more fully upon the perusal of the first chap- ter. It seemed necessary to say so much as that as an apology for undertaking the task. It is to be regretted that the Arminian view — I can think of no better designation to give it just here — on this sub- ject has not received a greater share of attention heretofore with reference especially to its Scriptural foundation. By this test, and this only, we consent to stand or fall. If God has spoken directly upon the subject, his words must decide the question, and PREFACE. 7 the moaning of those words is the doctrine we would adopt. If he has spoken, on the other hand, only indirectly, or by way of laying down principles from which we are left to draw our doctrines by a proc- ess of deduction, still, this light must be accepted as the highest and the only authority legitimate to the case, and the correctness of our logical processes must be the guarantee of our truthfulness of doctrine. We can not admit human opinion, not even that of the early fathers, nor the consentaneous practice of the Church, nor the power of traditional belief, to come in here with any claim of authority to decide the question. We can not rest the question with an appeal to creeds, catechisms, confessions, and pro- tests. The belief or practice of the Church can never prove a doctrine to be true, nor can the contrary prove it false. Traditional faith and practice, reach- ing up to a very high antiquity, may be entitled to very serious consideration before they are rejected; but their truth and obligation must rest solely on the Word of God — the Word to be interpreted, like any other document, history, or code, by the laws of lan- guage. I am the more explicit in laying down these trite principles, knowing the subtile influence of theo- logical systems, and educational belief, and conven- tional habits, in disturbing the orderly processes of the understanding. 8 PREFACE. 3. The effect of baptism on the recipient lias been abundantly difficult to define by those who have been tinged with the patristic idea of the efficacy of the sacraments, or the Augustinian doctrine of election. The Romish doctrine that the sacraments are saving, ex opere operato, need not be mentioned here ; but of the Protestants, some believe that the Holy Spirit and the water of baptism concur, so that the person is uniformly and certainly regenerated, unless some bar be presented to the Spirit's operation — but as infants are incapable of offering an obstacle, they are therefore regenerated at baptism. Others hold that regeneration sometimes takes place, but not always, and there is no method of knowing when the sacra- ment is immediately effectual. By some it is held that the decree of non-election annuls, or holds in suspense the efficacy of the sacrament, but that in elect children it always regenerates. Others have held that baptism has the efficacy to remit original sin, even in the non-elect. Others, still, hold that no moral effect is presently realized by baptism to the infant, but his baptism has the virtue of a cove- nant, or indenture, whereby he is admitted to a claim and heirship of the promise, which is fulfilled only in mature life, when he repents and believes. Another sentiment is, that spiritual regeneration begins at bap- tism, and is finished only at mature age through the PREFACE. 3 personal faith of the recipient. Others again hold that savins "race comes to the child — to all children alike — by the atonement of Christ, and they are bap- tized because they are thus saved. In this diversity no Church, except the Arminian branch, has a set- tled doctrine as to the state of all infants prior to baptism, nor as to the precise effects of baptism on infants. The Church of England regards it as an evidence of true religious liberty of faith guaranteed to her members, that her formularies no where as- sume to decide upon the condition of infants prior to baptism, or of such as die without baptism, or the exact effects of baptism on them, and that they may be so construed as to admit to her communion and fellow- ship alike the opposite extremes of the Calvinistic and Arminian faith. In this wide realm which she has thus left open to speculation, the blades of theo- logical controversy have gleamed for four hundred years, and the combatants are still in the field to de- termine the momentous questions, whether her articles and formularies are to be interpreted from the Calvin- istic or Arminian stand-point, and whether the patris- tic or Frotestant theory of the sacraments shall pre- vail. In the midst of all this conflict of opinion, and this negation of opinion, how grateful to faith and how consonant to all our a priori views of justice and fitness, and of our exegetical scannings of the 10 PEEFACE. Divine and Infallible Word, to be certified that all in- fants are alike, in the sight of God and of redeeming love, in a state of grace, of initial salvation, by virtue not of the sacraments, but of the atonement, of which baptism is the appointed sign and the covenant seal! To settle this point is one object of this book. 4. It can not be disguised that the manner in which the word "sacrament" has been used and defined has contributed largely to confuse and mislead the mind, and to prolong controversy. The word, which is of Latin origin, is not found in Scripture, but belongs to the theological terminology of the second and sub- sequent centuries. It corresponds to the Greek word puffzyptov — mystery — which is used to signify any thing hidden, not fully comprehended, not fully re- vealed, or exhibited only in types and symbols. It is not of the word as a generic title to the two char- acteristic institutions of the Christian religion, nor of its proper theological definition, that I object, but of that technical use of it which has led, and by all laws of grammatical connection must lead, to the doctrine that water-baptism is the established channel and means of regeneration. Hooker, in his Ecclesi- astical Polity, thus defines sacrament: "Tins," says he, "is the necessity of sacraments. That saving grace, which Christ originally is, or hath for the general good of his whole Church, by sacraments he PREFACE. 11 deriveth unto every member thereof. By baptism, therefore, Ave receive Jesus Christ, and from him the saving grace which is proper unto baptism." The regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit, and the outward administration of water by the priest, have been so conjoined as to constitute two necessary and correlative parts of the same transaction. The sacra- ment is thus made to be a unit, comprehending the two fractions, water and the Holy Ghost; and, in the interchangeable and free language of divines, regen- eration is equally a predicate of baptism or of the Holy Ghost; baptism, in sacramental language, being conjoined, "as a means to the end," with regenera- tion. From this rigid construction of terms, this pressing of figurative language beyond its measure, which often amounts to little else than a fraudulent use of language, the subjects of the moral condition of our race anterior to baptism, and of the efficacy of the ordinance, have been often and grievously mis- judged. "What Schleiermacher says — quoted by Ha- genbach — of adopting a theological term not known in Scripture, and then appealing to it as if it were inspired authority, is true: "The common mode of commencing with this so-called general idea, and ex- plaining it, serves to confirm the erroneous opinion that it is a proper doctrinal idea involving something essential to Christianity, and that baptism and the 12 PREFACE. Lord's Supper are of so much importance, principally because this idea is therein realized." To the free use of the word sacrament, as synonymous with the New-Testament use of the word mystery, or as set- ting forth a spiritual and divine truth under an out- ward symbol, we offer no objection — nay, this is our faith; but to the glosses and additions which the- ological controversy has foisted into dogma we do object. In other words, we object to bringing in a foreign term not found in Scripture, and hence not appropriated by the Holy Spirit, as a generic title to the two Christian ordinances, and giving it a tech- nical definition — a definition which rests upon no higher authority than catechistic and symbolic form- ularies — and then arguing from such definition as from a settled theological dogma. It is but an in- sidious method of "teaching for doctrines the com- mandments of men." I will abide by the sacraments as Christ left them, and as he defined them, and I do not object to the use of words not found in Scripture when their theological definitions do not carry me outside the limit of Christ's words. But, however venerable the word sacrament is, we can not take with it all the glosses and definitions of catechists and divines. We take it only to the extent of the import of the original institutions it denotes. It is a sign, and seal, and pledge when received according to PREFACE. 13 the covenant spirit of the ordinance. All beyond this is human addition, not dogma. 5. The progress of opinion, and of revolutions of opinion, is slow, especially where the change pro- poses to uproot a long-established, traditional faith. It must be considered that for twelve hundred years the Church had been misguided in her notions con- cerning the efficacy of the sacraments and forms of worship. The conversion of Europe to Christianity, after the age of Constantine, was not generally a spiritual work, conducted upon the principle of our modern missionary movements, radically changing the individual heart from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; but rather a political meas- ure, changing the forms of the public superstition, but not implanting the clear principles of Christianity by an inward experience of its power to regenerate the soul. Christianity, hence, became a compromise between heathenism and the Gospel of Christ. The Teutonic and Gallic nations could easily part with their old divinities, and adopt the images of Christ and the apostles, of the Virgin Mary, saints, and martyrs in their stead, and substitute for their my- thology the legends of the saints, when the reasons for the change were backed up by the terror of a conqueror's sword, or the largesses of political and temporal good in this life, and eternal life in the 14 PREFACE. world to come. The change of national religion be- came thus often the specification of a treaty -with the chief of a barbarous people. Do men wonder that continental Europe has been so long in coming to the "truth as it is in Jesus?'"' The reason is obvious — they hare never yet been radically converted to God; then* ideas of religion are yet outward. The' prin- ciples of the great redemption, apart from outward ordinances, and the true province and design of those ordinances, have not yet been fully comprehended. The gross sensuousness of heathenism has never been thrown off. - The Lutheran Reformation broke the force of these superstitious chains so far as the Papal authority was concerned; but it were to require too much from a single generation, or from a single im- pulse of reformation, to expect that under the guiding light of the cardinal principles of that Reformation, and from the points of issue with Romanism which gave it birth, and shape, and character, the details of Christian doctrine could be settled, or the shackles of antiquity entirely thrown off. Wherever the Ref- ormation was taken in hand and conducted by Govern- ment, and hence entered more or less into questions of State policy, the separation from Rome, both doc- trinally and ecclesiastically, was more gentle and quiet ; but where the people undertook the work, as in Swit- zerland and Scotland, or where it was the result of a PREFACE. 15 popular conviction of truth, it became more radical and complete. But whoever will look into the genius of those times; the early induction of the reformers themselves into the principles of the scholastic the- ology; the condition of the masses as to general in- telligence ; the inveterate rooting of hereditary preju- dice; the general type and spirit of civilization, of philosophy and science; the sphere and objects of theological study; the method of conducting relig- ious controversy; the partial enjoyment of liberty of speech; and the fact that the symbols of faith, the general types of thought, the fixed forms of ecclesi- asticism, and the "just circumference" of orthodoxy, as now held, were fixed then; in short, that the period of the Reformation was the embryonic stage of the modern Protestant Church — will not wonder that we have retained some things which have come down to us from a Papal antiquity through our ven- erable reformers, or that we have been so slow to detect or openly cast off certain relics of prescriptive authority, where the Word of God alone is our only sure guide. I need only appeal to the history of the controversies on the effects of infant baptism, and the moral condition of infants anterior to baptism, in justification of these remarks. Still, no age since the apostles ever offered a more favorable moment than that of the Reformation for the great work of 16 PREFACE. reshaping the faith and form of the visible Church. It was an age, as Dr. Hagenbach describes it, "of polemico- ecclesiastical symbolism — the conflict of con- fessions of faith." The outline of doctrine was sharply drawn. Men were reverent and earnest in their beliefs, and attached high importance to objective standards, or symbols of faith. The chiseling, and fashioning, and polishing of creeds was in accordance with the genius of the times, and no less impelled by the exigency of controversy. The Arminian principle has the repute of abating the authority of symbolical works somewhat, and giving a new "impulse to exe- getical investigations, to independent hermeneutical labors, and to the speculative treatment of theology," by carrying its appeal more directly to Scripture and reason. To balance a just respect for symbols of faith and traditional authority with the habit of original investigation of the Divine Word is our only safe method. But the danger in coming off from ultra- Church lies in the tendency to go over to anti- Church. The danger in rejecting the Patristic, Papal, and Tracta- rian theory of the sacraments is in passing to the opposite extreme — the lightly esteeming them, the practical neglect of them, or the using them with little faith and reverence. Rationalism is but a re- action of excessive faith — a faith not founded in Rev- PREFACE. 17 elation, .and hence not in principles of right reason. Those two extremes are equally to be avoided — are equally dangerous. Baptism gives visibility to the Church, not spirituality. It is a solemn recognition of the faithful, not the producing nor the instrumental cause of the new life. It is the seal, the visible bond of the covenant. But it does not stand related to regeneration as the formal and authorized date of that work, nor as "the means to the end." The Church has a spiritual character, and an outward, visible, and organic form. The life exists before the organic form ; the thing signified before the sign. I do not depre- ciate the sacraments by denying the inseparability of saving grace to them, nor by denying that baptism is at any time the appointed channel of saving grace to the child. It is not honoring Christ by making more of his institutions than he has commanded; but I honor them when I understand their design and use, and reverently, and faithfully, and with a believing heart submit to them. 6. Although the following work has not been un- dertaken in behalf of any theological system, yet the Arminian view of the subjects discussed is adopted, not from the force of prescriptive authority, as I trust, but from conviction. In the Discipline of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, wherein her articles of faith, rituals, and Church government are fully laid down, 2 18 PREFACE. it is stated that "all children, by virtue of the uncon- ditional benefits of the atonement, are members of the kingdom of heaven, and, therefore, graciously en- titled to baptism ; but as infant baptism contemplates a course of religious instruction and discipline, it is expected of all parents or guardians "who present their children for baptism, that they use all diligence in bringing them up in conformity to the Word of God, and they should be solemnly admonished of this obligation, and earnestly exhorted to faithfulness therein." The doctrine and directions of this brief but comprehensive extract declare all that I have aimed to set forth in the following pages, and happy should I be if what I have written shall contribute to give doctrinal clearness and practical force to the im- portant section on the " Relation of Baptized Children to the Church," from which the above extract is taken. 7. It is proper to state that I have freely availed myself of the aid offered in the elaborate " History of Infant Baptism, by Wm. Wall, M. A.," etc., Oxford edition; and of the equally elaborate and important work on the " Doctrine of the Church of England as to the Effect of Baptism in the case of Infants, by Wm. Goode, M. A., F. S. A., Rector of St. Antho- lin, London." In these works, so broad in their range and comprehension, so ample in their authori- PREFACE. 19 tie?, and so candid and profound in their discussion, not only the subjects of the "doctrine" and "his- tory" of infant baptism, but, by necessary correla- tion, the doctrine-history of the moral condition of infants before baptism, the views of our early Protest- ant reformers, and of the Church of England are fully brought out. In connection with the above I have found in Dr. Hagenbach's Text-Book of the History of Doctrines — Dr. H. B. Smith's edition — some valuable suggestions. I have also taken some extracts from Bishop BrownelTs Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, assuming that not only do the authorities he quotes prove what their own senti- ments are, but, being adopted by him in the light of a " commentary," do also show the meaning he would attach, and which is commonly attached to those por- tions of the Prayer Book for whose illustration he cites them. The German work of Dr. Wiggers, on Augustinianism and Pelagianism, translated by Prof. R. Emerson, Andover, has offered its aid on points involved in that early and most important contro- versy, whose influence reaches down through all ages of the Church to our own times, and still powerfully holds sway over the forms of modern symbolism. The "Confessions of Augustine," from which I have quoted, is the Andover edition, edited by Prof. Shedd, a work at once curious, devout, and profound, and a 20 PREFACE. singularly valuable relic of early times, "which the ac- complished editor has given in an attractive form to the English public. It is valuable as a key to the inner life of theology in the fourth century. It is not necessary here to make further reference to the sources of my information, as they have already been sufficiently indicated from time to time in the progress of this work, which now, with prayer for the accom- panying blessing of God, is committed to the reader. E. (3r. HlBBARD. Clifton Springs, Ontario Co., N. Y., Nov. 4, 1863. CONTENTS. Preface Page 3 CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. Doctrine history — Our argument Scriptural — Doctrine not new — Object practical — Two causes have embarrassed the doctrine of infant salvation — Baptismal regeneration — Early doctrine of the Church — Ambrose — African Church — African Synod of A. D. 418 — Augustine — Tertullian — Fulgentius — Pope Gregory — Peter Lombard — The School- men — Lay baptism in the English Church — Geographical theory of hades — Apology for the ancient Church — Augustine's Confessions— Wickliffe — John Huss — Protestant Reformers — Doctrine of the Church of England — Lutheran Church — Reformed Church — Dr. Woods — Methodist Episcopal Church — Special election — Arminian contro- versy — Dr. Wall on Church of England doctrine — Bishop Jeremy Taylor — Presbyterian Confession of Eaith Pages 27-69 CHAPTER II. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO NATURAL DEPRAVITY. Importance of a right estimate of our moral condition by nature — Infidel theory — Scriptural sense of our corruption — Various theories of depravity and sin — The true statement of the doctrine — Bible ar- gument — Views of Pelagius — Of Augustine — Of Arminius — Peculiari- ties of Biblical psychology — Church of England doctrine — Jeremy Taylor on the doctrine of Christian antiquity — Final statement — President Edwards's views 70-107 CHAPTER III. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. Children are reckoned to Christ — Proof from Rom. v, 12-21 — Proof from Matt, xviii, 1-14— Proof from Matt, x, 40-42 -From Matt. xix ; 14 108-151 21 22 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST CONTINUED. Recapitulation of the Bible argument — Are infants regenerate ? — Various significations of the word — Bishop Hopkins's view — Dr. Wall — Dr. Waterland — Archbishop Seeker — Archbishop Usher — Bishop Bedell — Mr. Goode — Mr. Wesley — Richard Watson — Luther — Chrysostom — Gregory Nazianzen — Ccelestius — Dr. Some — The ques- tion stated — Meaning of yevvaw, gennao — John iii, 5 — Regeneration and life often synonymous — Use of #«m'£w, to illuminate — Dr. Bomber- ger on infant regeneration — Regeneration not baptism — Spiritual — Regeneration and conversion defined — New creation — Children capa- ble of a principle of divine life — Bishop Beveridge — Bishop Daven- ant — Bishop Taylor — Witsius — Dean Comber — Early Protestant di- vines — The subject again stated — St. Augustine — Bishop Taylor — Moral state of infants dying or living, the same Pages 152-197 CHAPTER V. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO THE FAMILY AND CHURCH. SECTION I. NATURE AND FORCE OP THE CHURCH RELATION OF CHILDHOOD. Church relation defined — Object of Church instrumentality — Who are legitimate members — Eph. i, 9, 10 — Faith not essential per se — 1 Cor. vii, 14 — Apostolic Church practice — Post-apostolic Church prac- tice — Nature and force of infant Church membership — Denomina- tional Church membership — Distinction between infant and adult Church relation — Incapacity to fulfill all the duties of the Church relation no bar to membership 198-214 SECTION II. FAMILY CONSTITUTION — ITS VESTED POWERS AND RELIGIOUS END. Two stages of Church life — Family Church— life of childhood — Family a primal Church agency — Origin of the family institution — Historically the oldest form of Church life — Vested powers of the family headship — Three principles in the family constitution : the oneness of husband and wife, authority of the parents and sub- mission of the children — Analogies of nature — Man's higher des- tiny — Duty of exercising parental authority — Scripture precepts — Example of Eli — Of David — Duty to servants and strangers in the family „ 214-239 CONTENTS. 23 SECTION III. FAMILY INSTITUTION, CONTINUED — BIBLE VIEW OF ITS RELIGIOUS END. All things point to a religious end — Marriage has a religious sanc- tity — Our Savior's decision — Doctrine of the Christian Church — Mai. ii, 15 — All covenant grace primarily given to the family — Antedilu- vian apostasy due to family corruption — Old Testament law— Its re- ligious principle binding and vital now — Apostolic teaching — Religion first binding on the parent, and through the parent to reach the child Pages 239-252 SECTION IV. FIRST STAGE OF CHURCH LIFE REALIZED IN THE FAMILY PARENTAL AND FILIAL DUTY. The family a normal Church agency — Proved historically — Proved from the tenor of religious precept to both parent and child — The law of the New Testament as to which parent should claim the religious training of the child, where one is an unbeliever — Rights of the mother — Religious family life among the early Christians — Attempts to overthrow the family institution— Heathenism — Monachism, and celibacy of clergy — Rev. John Fletcher — Communism and Socialism — ■ Rousseau — Foundling hospitals — Robert Owen — Fourier — Christianity our only hope 252-283 SECTION V. THE RELIGIOUS ORDER OF THE FAMILY FUNDAMENTAL TO THE GOSPEL SCHEME — ITS RESTITUTION PROMISED. Our argument stated — Precept of the Decalogue — Reaffirmed in New Testament — Heathenism destroys natural affection — Law oi Triptolemus — Mai. iv, 6 — Quoted by the son of Sirach, showing how deeply the Jewish mind was affected by it — Quoted by the angel as the first reiteration of Old Testament prophecy in the New Testa- ment — Quoted by our Lord — By Peter — Christ defends the family ob- ligations against the traditionists 284-297 SECTION VI. SECOND STAGE OF FAMILY CHURCH-LIFE — TEACHING BY PUBLIC INSTITU- TIONS. Second stage of family Church-life defined — Examples, Passover institution — Unleavened bread — Redemption of the first-born — Monu- ments at Gilgal — General statement of Deut. vi, 20-25 — Of Hezekiah — Of Asaph — Jewish law for admitting a child to the Passover — Point of the argument under this head stated 297-304 24 CONTENTS. SECTION VII. SECOND STAGE OF FAMILY CHURCH-LIFE, CONTINUED — DUTIES OP CHURCH OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. Argument stated — Proved by Christ's charge to the apostles — To Peter personally — Paul's example — John's address to little chil- dren — Irenseus — Solomon — David — Influence of Christian oversight upon the child — Early practice of the Methodist Episcopal Church — John Wesley Pages 304-317 CHAPTER VI. DATE AXD EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. Human responsibility — Three principles laid down — Time for be- ginning religious teaching — Isa. xxviii, 9 — Ps. viii, 2 — Eph. vi, 4 — First effect of infant instruction — Force of the phrase " bringing up " — Greatness of the work — Prevenient grace — Religious suscepti- bility of childhood — Can the child grow up without forfeiting infantile justification ? — Religious capacity of children — De Quincey — Simplic- ity of faith suited to childhood — Of prayer — Of religious experience — Early Christians— St. Basil 318-361 CHAPTER VII. EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY, AND THE EARLY RELIGIOUS CAPA- BILITIES OF CHILDHOOD. All theory to be tested by practice — Example of Jesus — His child- hood life illustrates the possibilities of all childhood, through grace — His character under twelve years — At twelve years — After twelve years — His junior life falls within the capabilities of our nature — Ex- ample of Samuel — Of Timothy — Some of the prophets — Polycarp — Origen — Augustine — Chrysostom — Lady Huntington — Dr. Dodd- ridge — Rev. C. Gridley — Hester Ann Rogers — Bishop Hedding — Force of early training in Papists, pagans, Mohammedans — Charlotte Elizabeth — Cases noted by Mr. Wesley — Cases of personal observa- tion — Rev. Ira Fairbank — Willie Stacy — Daughter of Dr. Thomaa Scott— Children of the millennium 362-390 CHAPTER VIII. DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN THE DEVOTIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL CUL- TURE OF THE CHILDREN. Painful absence of our children from our Church altars and fellow- ships — Want of confidence in the professions of childhood piety — CONTENTS. 25 Rev. Mr. Towsley — Rev. E. Hebard — Children brought up with the impression and belief they are outside the Church's pale — The moral influence of this practice — Reason why the Church is so coy of child- hood profession — Characteristics of childhood piety — God's sympathy in childhood wants and infirmities — Error of testing moral principles by the apparent greatness of the circumstances which develop them — Catechumens of the early Church — Methodist Episcopal Church Dis- cipline — Mr. Wesley precedes Robert Raikes — Some further provision for the children needed — Experience of a pastor — Sphere of the Sun- day school — A new medial provision needed between the Sunday school and the Church — Excellences and defects of the Methodist Episcopal Church Discipline on the subject Pages 391-411 3 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. Doctrine history — Our argument Scriptural — Doctrine not new — Object practical — Two causes have embarrassed the doctrine of infant salvation — Baptismal regeneration — Early doctrine of the Church — Ambrose — African Church — African Synod of A. D. 418 — Augustine — Tertullian — Fulgentius — Pope Gregory — Peter Lom- bard — The schoolmen — Lay baptism in the English Church — Hades — Apology for the ancient Churches — Augustine's confessions — Wick- liflfe — John Huss — Protestant reformers — Doctrine of Church of En- gland — Lutheran Church — Reformed Church — Dr. Woods — Methodist Episcopal Church — Special election — Arminian controversy — Dr. Wall on the Church of England doctrine — Bishop Taylor — Presby- terian Confession of Faith. 1. The history of doctrine is most instructive. It is the history of the human mind in its search after truth, its struggles against error, its aspirations after the higher life, often, too, of its gropings and wander- ings when it has lost the path of Revelation and sound philosophy, and the light of Scriptural exege- sis. Every doctrine now settled in the faith of ortho- dox Christians has been, at some period, the subject of violent controversy, rescued from the hands of er- rorists and the toils of sophistry and faction only by 27 28 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the martyr-like integrity of those who, in all ages, have been raised up to "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." Truths, too, which were once settled in the faith of the Church have been, and still are, subject to the disturbing cur- rents of doubt, induced by new theories of doctrine, or of "philosophy falsely so called." The price of orthodoxy and established faith is "eternal vigilance" in the exercise of the Christian armor "upon the right hand and upon the left." Prescriptive faith is not always the " ancient way," the " way everlast- ing," nor are new views of Christian doctrine always the result of a deeper and clearer insight into Divine things than the fathers enjoyed. A proper respect must be paid to antiquity, but mostly as proving the simple fact that the ancients did understand Holy Scripture in a given way, not as proving that way to be necessarily right or Scriptural. The Holy Scrip- tures alone must be accepted, according to the uni- versal Protestant principle, as the only rule, and the sufficient rule, of faith and practice. The uses and the abuses of an appeal to patristic authority and traditional faith in general, are to be carefully studied and kept in view. And while we thankfully admit that an unbroken chain of orthodox faith has been transmitted to us from the apostles, and this channel of orthodoxy is distinguishable through all ages, yet the Bible only is our test, as it is to us the source, of infallible truth, to which the faith of the Church, both ancient and modern, must be brought. The DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 29 opinions of men, when offered as religious dogmas, can have no value any further than they are grounded upon the "Word of God. In our search for truth, therefore, the first ques- tion that must be asked is not, "What have the fathers believed before us ?" but, " What do the Scrip- tures teach?" All legitimate investigation is, hence, original investigation. Discoveries in religious truth, if such a word be at all admissible, are not advances made upon the original revelations of Holy Scripture, but discoveries made upon our own previous false methods of interpreting Scripture, or our false meth- ods of reasoning from Scripture premises. Holy Scripture, objectively considered, is a system of im- mutable truth, which can neither be added to nor di- minished; but Holy Scripture, subjectively considered, is simply the variable limit of our perceptions and understanding of that truth, and is as variable as the history of theological opinion. We admire the stern integrity of our old Protestant reformers. In the prefatory remarks to the " Order and Form of Baptism, inserted in the Brandenberg and Nuremberg Liturgy of 1553," it is premised that, "in all ecclesiastical usages, we must diligently mark what God has commanded and instituted, and what men have added thereto, in order that we may hold the Divine as the essential part, and diligently prac- tice it; and, on the other hand, judge the human ad- ditions, whether or not they are things indifferent, and if indifferent, whether they are also useful or not, 30 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. in order that what is contrary to God's Word, or otherwise unprofitable, may be done away." The principles here laid down are the only safe guide to the Church of God. If she would be sound in doctrine her theology must be more Biblical than dogmatic, more exegetical than traditional. If she would be evangelical in piety, her faith must rest more on conviction than prescriptive authority, and if she would preserve the ordinances in their primitive effi- ciency, she must beware of all human additions. In the following pages we do not propose to ad- vance any new doctrine unknown to the Church in former ages, but to rescue, if possible, an old and most precious truth from the doubts and obscurities which disputatious theology and a false theory of doc- trine have thrown around it. Our argument is purely Biblical; the Bible alone can settle the question of the moral state of infants. Our references to the his- tory of the doctrine are merely to indicate the track of opinion, not to decide the argument. 2. The doctrine in question is not of merely-specu- lative importance, but is a fundamental truth broadly underlying and giving character to the entire system of evangelical theology. The views which a man en- tertains concerning our race, that is, our common na- ture, prior to all responsible action, will determine his views of the character and office of Christ, and the whole import of the Gospel scheme of grace and instrumentalities. Then, again, the views which one entertains of the DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 31 moral condition of childhood will, more than any- thing else, tend to shape his whole practical system of training and culture of the child. Among evan- gelical Christians how sadly has doubt respecting the extent and efficacy of grace to all childhood enervated faith in the prayers and labors of parents for their offspring, and wrought confusion, distress, and defeat ! In this, as in all enterprises intrusted to human judg- ment and accountability, men must have a settled doctrinal basis to rest upon, and be well assured that their efforts are in the direction of the Divine order and purpose, and the subject of Divine promise and reward, in order that their work may be wrought in the heartiness and perseverance of faith. It is faith that parents need — strong, living, patient, intelligent faith in the TVord and promise of God, in order to fulfill their duty to their children throughout the suc- cessive years and the ever-varying scenes, and wants, and caprices of junior life. They wish their children to be religious, they strive to teach and guide them in Christian paths ; but is their work wrought in faith ? Do they look straightforward to results, promised and assured by the Word of God, with the calm confidence of the husbandman who "ploweth in hope," and "waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it till he receive the early and latter rain?"'' Xothing can give this abid- ing confidence, this habit of faith in the work of bringing up children in the "nurture of the Lord," but broad, and clear, and settled views of the I 32 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. true relation which children hold to Christ and his Gospel. If our practical treatment of children is not in harmony with the laws of their moral and gracious condition, and the Divine plan concerning them, all analogy and all experience assure us that defeat must follow. No good intentions of the par- ent can compensate for a doctrinal error here. The hope of the husbandman is warranted only by an in- telligent and accurate adjustment of his labors to the condition of the earth and the congeniality of external nature. If success is not warranted by the laws of God in nature and providence, his hope is futile, and no honesty of purpose on his part can atone for the blunder and retrieve the fortunes of the year. It is so in all our moral and religious concerns. It is the object of this work to ascertain the Scriptural doc- trine of the moral condition of infants, and the Provi- dential purpose in regard to them, and to encourage faith and labor in their early religious training, suit- able to their condition and Providential destiny. 3. Two causes, more than all others, have con- tributed to embarrass the doctrine of infant salvation, and its salutary moral effects on the culture and des- tiny of childhood. The one is the doctrine of bap- tismal regeneration, and the other that of special election. As to the former, the ancient Christians interpreted the words of our Lord to Nicodemus— John iii, 5 — "Except a man be born of water and of the Holy Ghost, he can not enter into the kingdom of God/' in their literal sense, as denoting, 1st, water bap- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 33 tism: and 2d, the necessity of baptism in order to salvation. The order was construed as peremptory, universal, and literal ; and to the letter of this statute, thus construed, they rigidly adhered. In all their ar- guments on the necessity and efficacy of baptism, this text was the grand starting-point and original author- ity. From the early Church this doctrine passed down through the Papal and Greek Churches, and, with some modification, into the earlier Protestant branches — the Lutheran, the Calvinistic, and the Church of England. The chief exceptions which were made by the early Church were in favor of mar- tyrs, those who died for the truth, who, by some ac- cident, had not been baptized, and those who, having come to some knowledge of Christ, and had formed a purpose of baptism at the first opportunity, may have died, nevertheless, unbaptized. In such cases they did allow that the letter of the law might be waived in consideration of the spirit of the law having been fulfilled. Hagenbach, speaking of the sentiment of the Church on this point, from the eighth to the six- teenth centuries, says : " In opposition to earlier di- vines, later theologians — for example, Bernard, of Clairval, Peter Lombard, and Thomas Aquinas — main- tained that in such cases — as those who by circum- stances are providentially prevented from being bap- tized — the will alone was sufficient." And this judgment of charity has since prevailed. Yet, in regard to infants, a strange perversity of doctrine ob- tained, as shocking to all our sense of natural justice 34 TIIE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. as it was hostile to the genius and letter of Revela- tion. To doom an infant to eternal perdition for want of water baptism, which it was physically be- yond his power to secure, seems to us incredible ; and to do it on the authority of the rigid literality of our Lord's words to Nicodemus, above quoted, is a specimen, among many others, of the faulty and often absurd and puerile theory of Scripture interpretation which obtained then. Many, indeed, were shocked at the consequences to which their relentless interpreta- tion led them, and started back. These, yielding to humanity and natural reason against their own the- ory, invented a middle state — a limbus puerorum — of milder and rather negative punishment, to which un- baptized infants, when saved at all from final ruin, might go. But to " enter into the kingdom of God " without baptism was held on all hands to be impos- sible. St. Ambrose, A. D. 374, referring to Christ's words — John iii, 5 — says, "You see he excepts no person, not an infant, not one that is hindered by an unavoidable accident. But suppose that such have the freedom from punishment — which is not clear — yet I question whether they shall have the honor of the kingdom." "No person," says he elsewhere, " comes to the kingdom of heaven without baptism." The doctrine that infants, dying without baptism, were lost, prevailed in the African Church, says Prof. Schaff, since the time of Cyprian, or A. D. 2$0. In the General Synod of African Bishops held at Car- thage, A. D. 418, they thus enacted in their fourtb DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 35 canon against the Pelagians: "If any one says that because the Lord has said, 'In my Father's house are many mansions,' it is to be understood that there is a place in the kingdom of heaven, or a place any where at all, in which children are happy who leave this world without baptism — without which they can not enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is eternal life — let him be anathema. For since the Lord has said, '"Whoever is not born again of water and the Spirit can not enter into the kingdom of God,' what orthodox man can doubt that he that does not deserve to be a joint-heir with Christ has his part with the devil? He that does not stand on the right hand will doubtless be on the left." Augustine, A. D. 388, says: "Whoever should affirm that infants which die without partaking of the sacrament [baptism] shall be quickened in Christ, would both go against the apos- tles' preaching and also would condemn the universal Church." He says that even the Pelagians, over- borne by the united faith of all Christian people, "do own, without any tergiversation, that no infint that is not born again of water and of the Spirit does enter into the kingdom of God." Tertullian takes it for a standing rule, that "without baptism there is no salvation." Fulgentius, A. D. 410, says of unbap- tized infants : " Whether they die in their mothers' womb or after they are born, one must hold for cer- tain and undoubted that they are to be tormented with the everlasting punishment of eternal fire; . . . to suffer the endless torments of hell, where the devil 36 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. with his angels are to burn for evermore." And in one sermon of Augustine, where he was hardly pressed by Pelagius, that father says: "Our Lord will come to judge the quick and the dead, and he will make two sides — the right and the left. To those on the left hand he will say, Depart into everlasting fire; to those on the right, Come, receive the kingdom. He calls one the kingdom, the other the condemnation of the devil. There is no middle place where you can put infants; ... so that when you confess the infant will not be in the kingdom, you must acknowledge he will be in everlasting fire." At other times he makes a middle state for unbaptized infants, where they " will not be punished with so great pain " as actual sinners. "Who can doubt," he says, "but that infants unbap- tized, who have only original sin, and are not loaded with any sins of their own, will be in the gentlest condemnation of all?" Pope Gregory says, A. D. 600 : " Some are taken from this present life before they have any good or ill deserts by their own deeds : and having not the sacrament of salvation [baptism] for their deliverance from original sin, though they have done nothing of their own here, yet these come to torments; . . . perpetua tormenta percipiunt — they undergo eternal torments." These sentiments obtained for a long time; but about A. D. 1150, Peter Lombard, father of the scholastic theology, taught that the proper punish- ment for original sin, where there was no actual sin, DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 37 was " the punishment of loss — loss of heaven and the sight of God — but not the punishment of sense, or of positive torment." Pope Innocent III afterward con- firmed this distinction, and determined that "the pun- ishment of original sin is being deprived of the sight of God; and of actual sin the punishment to be the torments of an everlasting hell." " And so," says Dr. "Wall, "the whole troop of schoolmen do establish the same by their determination. They suppose there is a place or state of hell or hades, which they call limbus, or infernus puerorum, where unbaptized in- fants will be in no other torment or condemnation but the loss of heaven." This distinction generally prevailed in the Latin Church, though there were not wanting Papists, nor even, in later times, Protest- ants, who revived the severer doctrine of Fulgentius above named. The geographical theory of the invisible world, ac- cording to the schoolmen, embraced heaven and hell according to the common orthodox view. Between these, in a subterranean region, lay the middle state or place, which was further subdivided into — 1. Pur- gatory, which lay nearest to hell; 2. The Limbus Infantum, where those children went who died without baptism; 3. The Limbus Patrum, the abode of the Old Testament saints — the place to which Christ went to preach to the "spirits in prison." This was also the same as "Abraham's bosom." All these apart- ments or regions belonged to the general domain of hades or hell, with very different proximities to heaven 38 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. or hell, and variable degrees of misery or happiness. As for such infants as died before birth, the school- men held that "such an infant being subject to no action of man, but of God only, he may have ways of saving it for aught we know." So necessary to salvation was baptism, in the es- timation of the early Christians, that lay baptism was practiced in cases of imminent danger of death — nay, even baptism by the midwife rather than that the child should die without salvation. Tertullian, speak- ing to dissuade laymen from administering baptism where a bishop might be called, or where delay might not be dangerous, says: "Let it suffice that those make use of this power [to baptize] in cases of neces- sity. For then the adventuring to help is well taken when the condition of a person in danger forces one to it; because he that shall neglect at such a time to do what he lawfully may [that is, to baptize] will be guilty of the person's perdition." 4. The doctrine of the early English Church on lay baptism was grafted directly upon that of the Christian fathers and the Papal Church. In the " Ecclesiastical Laws " of Edmund, King of England, A. D. 945, as quoted by Dr. Hook in his Church Dictionary, it is stated: "Women, when their time of child-bearing is near at hand, shall have water ready for baptizing the child in case of necessity." And in the National Synod under Otho, A. D. 1237, it is directed: "For cases of necessity the priests on Sundays shall frequently instruct their parishioners in DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 39 the form of baptism." To which is added, in the Constitutions of Archbishop Perkham, in A. D. 1279 : "Which form shall be thus: I crysten thee in the name of the Fader, and of the Sone, and of .the Holy Goste." In the Constitutions of the same archbishop, A. D. 1281, it is ruled that "infants baptized by lay- men or women — in imminent danger of death — shall not be baptized again." But in 1575 the administra- tion of baptism in that Church was restricted to the clergy. 5. "We are astonished to hear such doctrines within one hundred years of the death of the apostle John, but our astonishment abates when we consider how inveterately superstition roots itself in the uninformed mind, and that the converts to Christianity were gen- erally, after the first thirty years of the Christian ministry, made up of persons born and bred in hea- thenism. The philosophy of heathenism in that age was generally either atheistic or superstitious as my- thology itself. The tendency of religion was to out- wardness, and it was difficult for the masses to learn to disconnect religion from all necessary dependence upon visible institutions. A purely spiritual religion — one which at once appeals to the highest reflective reason, and at the same time holds outward forms in their due place, giving to them their simple symbolic and circumstantial importance — is at any time the highest moral and intellectual elevation of the soul. Under these cir cum stances it became easy for the early Christians to pervert certain plain Scriptures, 40 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. and to infer from such passages as Acts ii, 38, and xxii, 16, that baptism was by Divine institution nec- essary for the remission of sins ; and from such state- ments as those of John iii, 5, and Titus iii, 5, that, whether in adults or infants, baptism and regeneration were inseparably conjoined. The same error respecting the cleansing efficacy of baptism also often induced the delay of it till later life, when the temptations of youth should be passed, so that sins after baptism might be avoided, or till just before death, that the soul might enter pure and unspotted into the celestial regions. Augustine, in his Confessions, simply illustrates the not uncommon custom within two hundred years of the apostles when he says of himself, in a sickness during his boyhood: "Thou sawest, my God, with what eager- ness and what faith I sought, from the pious care of my mother, and thy Church, the mother of us all, the baptism of thy Christ, my God and Lord. Where- upon the mother of my flesh, being much troubled — since, with a heart pure in thy faith, she even more lovingly travailed in birth of my salvation — would in eager haste have provided for my consecration and cleansing by the health-giving sacraments, confessing thee, Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins, unless I had suddenly recovered. And so, as if I must needs be again polluted should I live, my cleansing was deferred because the defilements of sin would after that washing bring greater and more perilous guilt." So lightly was sin esteemed before baptism in com- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 41 parison to sin after baptism, that the same father states it as a common saying concerning one who sinned before baptism: "It echoes in our ears," says he, "on all sides, Let him alone, let him do as he will, for he is not yet baptized." To such absurd excesses does superstition lead men. Wickliffe, in the fourteenth century, taught con- cerning an infant dying without baptism, "That God, if he will, may damn such an infant, and do him no wrong ; and if he will, he can save him ; and I dare not," said he, " define either part. Nor am I careful about reputation, or getting evidence in the case, but, as a dumb man, am silent, humbly confessing my ig- norance, using conditional words ; because, it is not clear to me whether such an infant shall be saved or damned; but I know that whatever God does in it will be just, and a work of mercy to be praised by all the faithful." He further says that he that affirms that such an infant shall be saved, "puts himself more than needs, or will profit him, upon an uncer- tainty." He also held that such infants, if lost, will suffer sensible, and not simply negative, punishment. Among the errors alleged against John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, early in the fifteenth century, was, that "he held to the salvation of infants who by mis- chance died unbaptized." The relentless tone of sen- timent on this subject among the Papists of this age is to the last degree pitiable. Few dared, even in modest accents, to whisper words of comfort to bereaved par- ents, when their children died without baptism. 42 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 6. The first Protestant reformers made some abate- ment of the severity of opinion in the Latin and Greek Churches. They generally considered, with the ancients, that the due punishment of original sin was everlasting perdition, but accounted that the good intention of the pious parent to give baptism to the child would be accepted in lieu of the ordinance, where, by any unavoidable providence, the adminis- tration was rendered impossible. "Whereas," says Dr. Wall, "the schoolmen and fathers have thought that Christ, at the day of judgment, will proceed by that sentence — John iii, 3-5 — in the manner that a judge, in a court of common law, proceeds upon the words of a statute, having no power to make allowance for circumstances ; the Protestants do hope that he will act in the manner that a judge of a court of equity does, who has power to mitigate the letter of the law in cases where reason would have it." Some supposed a difference would be put between the children of believers and unbelievers, on the ground of the faith of the parent. But the Scrip- tural ground of hope for the salvation of children seems marvelously to have been overlooked. Assuming that the Christian fathers of the first four centuries after the apostles were better judges of the meaning of apostolic institutions, and of the words of Scripture, than we, and, yielding to the force of an ancient, traditional faith in the sacra- ments, the Church of England has unfortunately fol- lowed them in many instances too literally. The DOCTRTXE OF INFANT SALVATION. 43 "whole service for infant baptism in the Prayer Book proceeds upon the assumption that, anterior to bap- tism, the child is unregenerate and ineligible to "the kingdom of God,'"' or eternal life. The same rigid literality of John iii, 5, and the same appointed con- nection of baptism and spiritual regeneration, -which we find every-where in the ancient Christian Church, prevail here. In the Church catechism for candidates for confirmation, the person is asked, "What is your name ?" which being answered, it is again asked, "Who gave you this name?" to which the candidate is re- quired to answer, " My sponsors in baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." The several items of this answer, namely, " child of God," " mem- ber of Christ," and " inheritor of the kingdom of heaven," are not to be understood ecclesiastically or figuratively, but really and spiritually. Thus Arch- deacon Yardly says : " St. Paul styles baptism ' the washing of regeneration' — Titus iii, 5, — because in baptism the Holy Spirit works in us a change some- thing like a new birth, translating us from a natural state in Adam to a spiritual state in Christ; both the water and the Spirit concurring at the same time to this new birth; for as we are but once born into our natural life, so are we but once born into our spirit- ual or Christian life : we are but once baptized and once regenerated — regenerated at the very time when we are baptized." Bishop White says: "Now, whatever comes under 44 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the meaning of the 'child of God,' the Church con- templates as bestowed in baptism." He further says that the expression, "a member of Christ" — in the answer to the second question of the catechism — "goes fully to the sense of a state of acceptance with God." Archbishop Wake, of the last century, says : " Bap- tism is the sacrament of our new and spiritual birth, by the outward washing whereof our inward washing from our sins by the blood and Spirit of Christ is both clearly exhibited and certainly sealed unto us." " Infants," says Dean Comber, a learned and dis- criminating writer of the seventeenth century, "have no other sin but their original corruption, which being remitted in baptism, they are undoubtedly saved. Wherefore, let no parents, who love their own and their children's souls, upon pretense of God's power or mercy, neglect that which is so certainly a means of salvation." . The Tractarian view is thus expressed — Tract 67 — " Our life in Christ is, throughout, represented as coming when we are, by baptism, made members of Christ and children of God. That life may through our negligence afterward decay, or be choked, or smothered, or well-nigh extinguished, and by God's mercy may again be renewed and refreshed; but a commencement of life in Christ after baptism, a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness at any other period than at that one first introduction into God's covenant, is as little consonant with the gen- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 45 cral representations of Holy Scripture, as a com- mencement of physical life long after our natural birth is with the order of Providence." It is true that in the latter part of the same Church catechism it is expressly taught that a sacrament has two parts, " the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace ;" and water baptism, or the mere ex- ternal and administrative part of the sacrament, is carefully distinguished from the inward and spiritual; yet the outward and inward parts of the sacrament are by the same authority conjoined, not only as the sign and the thing signified, but also as to time, and as the means to the end. The sacraments, with their outward as well as inward parts, are declared "gen- erally necessary to salvation," because, says Arch- bishop Wake, "they were both ordained as means whereby to convey their several graces to us, and as a pledge to assure us of them — baptism to regenerate us, the Lord's Supper to communicate to us the body and blood of Christ." There are many, indeed, who insist upon another view, and who, like the devout and evangelical Bicker steth, hold that " we enter into the kingdom of God in spirit, and belong to it spirit- ually before baptism ;" but this is not the doctrine of the liturgy and catechism of the Church of England. Martin Bucer, A. D. 1536, one of the earliest and most influential reformers of the English Church, in a conversation with Martin Luther, speaking in be- half of the reformed branch of the Protestant Church, says: "We simply believe and teach that true regen- 46 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. eration and true adoption into the sons of God are communicated to infants in baptism, and that the Holy Spirit works in them according to the measure and proportion given to them, as we read of St. John that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb; yet, lest we should fall into the opus operatum notion, that we are accustomed so to state these things as to acknowledge that all this is the work of God only, but that the ministration only belongs to the minister." Here also the previous un- renewed state of the child is plainly assumed. So also Peter Martyr, as Regius Professor of Di- vinity at Oxford, and a co-laborer in the reformation with Bucer, both acting under the patronage of Arch- bishop Cranmer, says of baptism, "that it is a sacra- ment instituted by the Lord, consisting of water and the Word, by which we are regenerated and ingrafted into Christ for the remission of sins and eternal salva- tion. Water, as a symbol, is peculiarly appropriate to it; for as by it the filth of the body is cleansed, so by this sacrament the sold is purified" " Baptism," he says, "is nothing else but the sacrament of regen- eration, consisting of water and the Spirit, through the Word of God, from which we have remission of sins and eternal life according to the promise of Christ." But, as Martyr was a Calvinist, he further held that the benefits of baptism extended only to the elect. He says: "If election and predestination concur with the administration of the sacrament, what we do is ratified; if not, it is useless. For our sal- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 47 ration depends upon the election and mercy of God." But of the fact of election he confessed he could not determine positively, and therefore only acted upon the presumption of charity in the case. He says: "We only follow those indications which we can have respecting it; such as these: that young children are brought to the Church to be baptized, and that those of maturer years profess in words that they believe in Christ; which marks, although they are not so certain that they can not deceive, yet they are sufficient for us for making them partakers of the sacraments." This is a candid statement, and assumes, if language means any thing, that children prior to baptism are not only outside of the visible covenant — which we all admit — but are non-recipients of the grace of life. Luther, in his earnestness to avoid the doctrine of salvation by works, and of a superstitious reliance on the efficacy of the sacraments, made the condi- tionally of faith in order to salvation, and hence in order to baptism, to hold good in regard to infants also. In the same conversation with Bucer above alluded to, and in regard to faith in infants, he ar- gued that "as we, even when asleep, are numbered among the faithful, and are in truth such, although we are actually thinking nothing of God, so a certain beginning of faith, which nevertheless is the work of God, exists in infants, according to their meas- ure and proportion, which we are ignorant of." But as to the method in which this work of faith was performed in them he advised against any discussion. 48 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. This " beginning of faith" or principle of faith, Luther seems to hold, existed in them before baptism, and this alone made them eligible to the ordinance, or the ordinance efficacious to them. In the celebrated Augsburg Confession, A. D. 1530, he set forth the faith of his followers concerning bap- tism, "that it is necessary to salvation, and that through baptism is offered the grace of God; and that children are to be baptized, who, being offered to God by baptism, are received into the favor of God." They condemn the Anabaptists, who disap- prove the baptism of children, and affirm that -children may be saved without baptism. In his larger cate- chism, published the year previous, he so qualifies the necessity of baptism in order to salvation as to say: u Without faith baptism profits nothing, although in itself it can not be denied to be a heavenly and ines- timable treasure." "We bring a child to a minister of the Church to be baptized," says he, " in this hope and persuasion, that it certainly believes, and we pray that God may give it faith." The logical force of Luther's teaching would seem to show a moral fitness wrought in the child by God himself prior to baptism, which makes the ordinance salutary ; but his language is far from felicitous. In the Heidelberg Catechism, A. D. 1563, " which is," says Dr. Schaff, "the most generally -received doctrinal symbol of the Reformed Confession," it is asked: "In what way are you admonished and con- firmed in baptism that you are a partaker of that one DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 49 sacrifice of Christ?" Answer: "Because Christ has commanded the external laver of water, with this promise annexed, that I am not less certainly washed by his blood and spirit from the pollutions of the soul — that is, from all my sins — than I am cleansed externally by water, by which the pollutions of the body are used to be washed away." It seems superfluous to multiply quotations to the point in question. The common language of the early Protestants — Lutheran and Reformed — is too strong for the true Protestant idea of the efficacy and in- tention of the sacraments. At times, indeed, they expressed themselves clearly; but even Calvin, at other times, fell back into modes of expression better fitted to a Romish than a Protestant creed. This, perhaps, was due to the extraordinary pressure of controversy and the common education of the times. 7. The modern Lutheran Church on the continent of Europe is but little removed, on this subject, from the doctrine of the Romish Church; while the Re- formed Church, which has generally carried the prin- ciples of the Protestant Reformation further, and has been more successful in extricating the sacraments from the " traditions of men," still adhere to the language of the earlier symbols, and have not even yet entirely escaped the fetters of antiquity. The Rev. Dr. Gerhart, in a carefully elaborated article on the German Reformed Church, published in the Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1863, says : "Those who, as we think, develop the Christological 50 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. principle logically, hold baptism to be not regenera- tion, but the sacrament of regenerating — the means by which the subject passes from the state of nature into the covenant of grace; the covenant being not an agreement existing in the mind of God and in the mind of man, but a spiritual institution, in which God remits sin, and bestows salvation on those who com- ply with its conditions." As expressive of the general sentiment of that Church, he further quotes from a report on the state of religion adopted by the Synod, 1859, wherein they say: "Parents can teach them, [their children,] what it is their joy and comfort to learn, that from their washing in baptism mag and does begin the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and that it is only by wickedly despising and willfully wandering from this grace that they finally perish." Dr. Gerhart further says : " Regeneration is wrought by the Holy Ghost only; but in the sacrament of baptism the internal grace and the external sign — the Holy Ghost and the element of water — are indisso- lubly conjoined. Otherwise the ordinance would not be a sacrament; for this consists of the union of the invisible to the visible — of the supernatural to the natural. It is the Holy Ghost, then, tvho, in the outward transaction, begets the subject of baptism aneiv in the life of Christ." It is easy to perceive that this view differs nothing from that of the Church of England. Dr. Bomberger, however, of the same Reformed Church, takes a more DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 51 liberal view, and holds that all infants are received into the favor of God, and made the subjects of re- newing grace, as soon as they are born, prior to baptism, and through the redeeming love of Christ. "This I believe," says he, "to be the true order of cause and effect in this most interesting case. Little children are most lovely, in whatever moral attrac- tions they display, because they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has fixed his redeeming eye and loving heart upon them from their conception. Though doomed by nature to be born in sin, and sinful, they are destined by his grace to be received into his aims as soon as they are born." He plainly states that "our Lord teaches the salvation of all little children. He has not left them lying to our view, under the dismal mists of uncertainty, concerning their relation to his person, or concerning their eternal doom." "He permitted them to be born into the death of Adam that they might be speedily re-born into the eternal life procured by Jesus Christ." He quotes Lange approvingly in the following words : " Thus are children and the kingdom of heaven designed for each other: the former qualified through grace for the latter; the latter adapted in its nature and pro- visions for the former. Jesus Christ himself is the true patron of little children ; not the archangel Michael, not St. Nicholas, not St. Martin, although the Lord commands all the angels and saints to take charge of them. Therefore, he who was besought only to touch the little ones, took them up into his 52 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. arms, laid his hands upon them, and blessed them.*' Dr. Bomberger urges the baptism of children on the same moral ground of that of adults, "not in order that they may be saved, but because they give us good ground for hoping that they are among those ■who are noiv justified" These views, so Scriptural and rational, show the proximity of the Calvinistic and Arminian schools upon a point fundamental to both. 8. The late learned and cautious Dr. Woods, for many years Professor of Theology in the Andover Seminary, would seem to teach that baptism is to be given to children in order to their salvation. He says : " When we present our infant children for bap- tism, we express our belief that they are the subjects of moral pollution, and must be born of the Spirit in order to be admitted into the kingdom of heaven; and we express our earnest desire that they may ex- perience this spiritual renovation, and our solemn de- termination to labor to promote it by fervent prayer to God, and by faithful attention to all the duties of Christian parents. This seems to me a perfectly natural and satisfactory view of what is signified by the baptism of children. The use of water in this Christian rite is indeed a token of spiritual cleansing; not always, however, as a thing actually accomplished, but as a thing which is absolutely necessary. Whether we are concerned in the baptism of children as min- isters of the Gospel or as members of the Church, we do by this public token express our belief that DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 53 spiritual purification is indispensably necessary for the children who are baptized, and our determination and engagement to do ivhatevcr beloyigs to us for the accomplishment of that important end." To the same effect, also, he quotes Dr. Wardlaw. But if this language be not intended cautiously to evade the expression of an opinion as to the moral state of infants prior to baptism, does it not clearly suppose them to be without saving grace — without the needed "spiritual cleansing" and "spiritual renovation" — and that they are not yet members of the "kingdom of heaven?" What Scriptural ground is there for this timid phraseology? 9. The Methodist Episcopal Church, both in her Articles of Religion and her Ritual on these points, has copied from the Prayer Book, but with such alter- ations as to drop out the doctrine of baptismal regen- eration. In her service for the baptism of infants the language shows, indeed, that it was not originally fitted to an Arminian standard of doctrine, though it does not, in its revised form, contradict that standard. Her true doctrine on this subject is found in her standard writers. Her Ritual, while it does not deny, can not be appealed to as proving or assuming the gracious or salvable state of infancy prior to bap- tism; yet this state is constantly assumed by every administrator as the moral reason and ground of bar> tism, while the outward ordinance is accepted as the appointed "sign and seal" of this preexistent grace; just as in the analogous case of Abraham, who "re- 54 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ceived the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteous- ness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircum- cised." Rom. iv, 11. The undue exaltation of the outward ordinances has always operated to disparage divine grace, and work confusion in the relation and symmetry of the cardinal doctrines of redemption. Papal extravagances are only illustrations of the downward progress of sentiment when once the harmony of Christian doc- trine is broken. Give to baptism a saving efficacy, or a necessary connection with the regenerating agency of the Holy Spirit, and the opus operatum theory is a result which the common mind will practically adopt. The beautiful symbolic and spiritual idea will be lost in the physical form of the ordinance. The unedu- cated and sensuous mind will ascribe an inherent efficacy, a mystic charm, to the administration and to the consecrated element. Against this sensuous tendency of the vulgar mind the early reformers had hard work in contending. To emancipate the mind from the superstitions of the Papal Church, and avoid the opposite extreme of con- tempt of outward ordinances, was no easy task. Peter Bucer, A. D. 1536, congratulates the Church that, as the result of a better understanding between the Lutheran and Reformed divines, after a friendly conference, now "each error is excluded on both sides, both of those who seek salvation for themselves from ceremonies without faith in Christ, and of those who so pretend that they seek salvation for them- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 55 solves from Christ, that they hold in small estimation the sacred ministry of the Church." This happy me- dium is the royal path of reason and Revelation, and it is to be regretted that the venerable Protestant re- formers and fathers had not always preserved it with greater clearness and entireness. Baptism is the date of the formal covenant or Church relation of the child, not of the renewing oper- ations of the Spirit upon his heart. Can we thus limit and restrict Divine grace? And consider how completely this theory robs the parent of all motive to a godly training of the child, unless he is a be- liever in infant baptism ! Much as we love the latter doctrine, we can not exclude the godly parent, who conscientiously doubts it, from all promise of grace to the pious instruction of his child. And beyond this, what confusion and distress as to the state of the dy- ing child, dying without baptism, this exclusive theory has wrought, we leave the painful records of history to answer. 10. The doctrine of special election has still more seriously embarrassed the question of the grace of childhood, and operated to disturb the faith of the parent in the work of training. Since the period of the great controversy between Pelagius and Augus- tine, early in the fifth century, in which the moral condition of infants came fully under consideration, the belief that infants not baptized and not foreor- dained and elected to eternal life, will inevitably be lost, became a dogma throughout a large portion of 56 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the Christian world. Whether, with Augustine, hu- man nature was considered as a unit, and that in- fants, therefore, were morally partakers of Adam's sin ; or whether, with others, infants were supposed to inherit the moral character of Adam by natural descent; or still again, whether, in conformity to the most prevalent theory, ancient and modern, Adam was contemplated as in covenant with God, and, by the terms of this covenant, federally represented and acted in behalf of his posterity, and that, therefore, all our race in him became legally liable for all the consequences of his transgression — in either case it became the prevalent dogma of antiquity that infants were liable to eternal wrath on account of Adam's sin, and that baptism, or the decree of election, or perhaps both, became necessary to annul the death penalty, or wash away original sin. Various opinions obtained here, also, as in the case already mentioned concerning baptismal regeneration, as to what was the exact condition of non-elect in- fants dying in infancy ; whether it was one of posi- tive misery, or only one of negative suffering — the simple loss of happiness — and also as to the effect that baptism had on the non-elect, whether to wash away native depravity, as in the case of elect infants, or whether it was wholly nugatory ; whether the chil- dren of believing parents were favored above those of unbelieving, etc. These and similar questions, in which men became entangled by their peculiar theo- logical systems and the exigencies of controversy DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 57 disquieted the mind, and Lad a powerful tendency to put back and disparage the claims and hopes of child- hood. It must be seen, at a glance, that no consist- ent faith in any system of moral nurture of children could be had while the first principles of doctrine re- specting their relation to Christ and his kingdom re- mained unsettled. The great Reformation of the sixteenth century failed to disenthrall the mind from the fetters of pre- scriptive opinion on these points. Two grand forms the Reformation assumed on the continent of Europe ; namely, those of the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches ; and the two principal organs of this won- derful movement were Luther and Zuinglius, who, in the words of Dr. Gerhart, though "of one mind in their opposition to the errors and corruptions of Rome, yet became the types of two tendencies in the- ology, worship, Church government, and practical life." Both these branches of the Protestant move- ment became involved and perplexed with the subtil- ties and doubts of antiquity, in respect to the moral condition of infants, and planted anew, in the soil of Protestantism, the seeds of future and violent contro- versies. The controversy on the relation of infants to the atonement was early transferred to the En- glish Church from the continent, with little abatement of its virulence. The earlier Church of England re- formers were strongly Calvinistic : it was the preva- lent doctrine of the times. The formularies of the English Church were all produced from that stand- 58 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. • point of faith, and, says Mr. Goode, "they remain — ■ speaking generally — as settled by the earlier Calvin- istic school." Bishop Carleton says that up to the time of Whitgift — 1595 — "Bishops and Puritans em- braced a mutual consent in doctrine, only the differ- ence was in matter of inconformity. Then, hitherto, there was no Puritan doctrine known." After the death of Henry VIII, says Dr. Mosheim, "the [En- glish] universities, schools, and Churches became the oracles of Calvinism, which also acquired new votaries among the people from day to day. Hence, it hap- pened that when it was proposed, in the reign of Ed- ward VI, to give a fixed and stable form of the doc- trine and discipline of the Church, Geneva was acknowledged as a sister Church, and the theological system there established by Calvin was adopted, and rendered the public rule of faith in England." The doctrine of Calvinism, says a reviewer in the British Critic for 1842, "gained possession of both Universi- ties ; they were the recognized doctrines of our divin- ity schools; it was thought heretical to doubt them." True, the Arminian element, since the time of Arch- bishop Laud, 1633, has largely come in to divide the doctrinal sentiments of the English Church ; but, says the learned Mr. Goode, "one thing is clear, that to insist upon the necessity of such an interpretation of our formularies as would place them in direct antago- nism to the theological systems of those who drew them up — that is, of the Calvinists — is an act of di- rect and palpable injustice." The consequence of this DOCTRIXE OF INFANT SALVATION. 59 state of things is, that the Church of England affirms nothing in regard to the state of infants prior to bap- tism, nor of the certain effects of baptism on them, but allows the widest range of opinion. 11. The Arminian controversy had the effect to re- produce the question of the moral condition of infants no less than that of the fifth century. A few para- graphs must suffice to indicate the tone of sentiment in the Reformed Church in Germany, as early as the latter part of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. We quote from the Works of James Arminius, 3 vols., Auburn, 1852. In 1605 the deputies of the Synod submitted nine questions to the curators of the University of Leyden, to obtain from each of the theological professors their reply. The third question was as follows : " Does original sin, of itself, render man obnoxious to eternal death, even without the addition of any actual sin; or is the guilt of original sin taken away from all and every one by the benefit of Christ the Mediator ?" In his reply to this Arminius insisted that God could not be angry for original sin born with us, because that seemed to be inflicted as a punishment for the actual sin of Adam, and, as a punishment, he could not be angry at it ; also, to suppose he is thus angry, supposes he acts peremptorily with some men, ac- cording to the strict rigor of the law, and with others according to the grace of the Gospel. This notion that original sin was a punishment, and that there- fore God could not be angry at it, seems to have 60 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. been derived from Augustine, who "looked upon original sin itself as being in some sense a punish- ment of the first transgression, though it was also a real sin." In 1609 the adversaries of Arminius circulated a pamphlet containing thirty-one articles of theology, purporting to be the sentiments taught by that dis- tinguished divine. The thirteenth and fourteenth of these articles were as follows : " Original sin will con- demn no man." "In every nation all infants who die without having committed actual sin are saved." These sentiments, though ascribed more directly to Adrian Borrius, a minister of Leyden and friend of Arminius, were intended to be understood as the doc- trines of the Arminian school, and were widely circu- lated with a view to make Arminius himself answer- able to the public for what was regarded as heresy. In his "Apology, or Defense" Arminius argues that since infants are members of the gracious covenant which God made with Adam and confirmed in Christ; and as by the condition of that covenant none will be condemned who stand steadfast and deal not treacher- ously in it ; and as infants have not thus dealt falsely, though they are yet liable for many of the temporal consequences of Adam's sin ; therefore, infants can not be finally condemned on account of Adam's sin, unless we must suppose that God meant to deal more severely with them than with Adam, or his adult posterity, or even the angels that sinned. Arminius then states that he and his brethren de- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. Gl part from antiquity in two particulars: 1. "Antiquity maintains that all infants who depart out of this life without having been baptized would be damned; but that such as had been baptized and died before they had attained to adult age would be saved. St. Au- gustine asserts this to be the Catholic doctrine in these words : ' If you wish to be a Catholic, be unwilling to believe, declare, or teach that infants, who are pre- vented from death from being baptized, can attain to the remission of original sins.' To this doctrine," adds Arminius, "our brethren will by no means ac- cede; but they contradict both parts of it. 2. An- tiquity maintains that the grace of baptism takes away original sin, even from those who have not been pre- destinated — according to this passage from Prosper, of Aquitain : * That man is not a Catholic who says that the grace of baptism, when received, does not take away original sin from those who have not been predestinated to life.' To this opinion, also, our brethren strongly object." The more prevalent doctrine of the age of Arminius in the Reformed Church was, that children of the covenant, that is, who were baptized, being elected, were saved, but all others are lost, unless, indeed, rescued by the decree of election ; for, says Peter Martyr, " our salvation depends upon the election and mercy of God." But if the decree of election con- curred, the grace of the sacrament was efficacious; children of believing parents, who were baptized, were generally assumed to be in the covenant, of the 62 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. elect, but all others were reckoned outside, as aliens and strangers to grace. Dr. Junius, President of the University of Leyden, and Arminius's honored prede- cessor in that office, affirmed that "all infants who are of the covenant, and of election, are saved ;" while he only assumes in charity, and in advance of the sentiments of his times, that " those infants whom God calls to himself, and timely removes out of this miserable vale of sins, are rather saved." The un- settled state of theological opinion on these points, and the disturbing effect of the doctrine of particular election, manifest themselves clearly in the vacillating tones of Witsius, in his Economy of the Covenants. In one place he lays it down as a dogma that none but the elect are ever regenerated; while in another place he says: "The elect are not all favored with regenerating grace in their infancy;" and still in another place argues confidently that some do " grow up all along with the quickening spirit," from infancy to mature age ; like our blessed Lord, " who in- creased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man," not being able "to declare the time and manner of their passage from death to life." It is to be regretted that the supposed grounds of these va- rious opinions had not been more carefully cited from Scripture by that distinguished divine. Augustine, as we have seen, boldly maintained that all persons dying without baptism were doomed to eternal perdition ; that infants were justly condemned to eternal punishment for Adam's sin, from which DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 63 they wore rescued by baptism and the decree of elec- tion. Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Calvin, says Bishop Taylor, affirmed that children of faithful parents would be saved ; " but Zuinglius affirmed it of all, and that no infant did lose heaven for his original stain and corruption." Pelagius admitted that infants were not fit for heaven in a simple state of nature, and that baptism was necessary to fit them for, and confer a title to, heaven; but that unbaptized children, though unfit for the kingdom of heaven, were not, nevertheless, doomed to hell on account of original sin, but would enjoy a natural beatitude in some mid- dle state. The milder advocates of the Augustinian theory have in all succeeding ages of the Church been repelled by the shocking dogmas of that learned father, and to escape the consequences which his stern system involved, as we have already seen, early invented the fiction of a limbus infantum for all children dying without baptism. " This," says Bishop Burnett, " was dressed up as a division, or partition, in hell, called the Umbo of infants. It seemed to be little more than exclusion out of heaven, without any suffering or misery, like a state of sleep, or inactivity. So," he adds, "by bringing it thus low they took away much of the horror that this [Augustinian] doctrine might otherwise have given the world." But this notion of an intermediate place for unbaptized children was condemned by the Council of Carthage as early as A. D. 418, "on the ground that nothing could be 64 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. conceived as existing between the kingdom of God and perdition." Arminius says: "With respect to the sentiments of the ancient Christian fathers, about the damnation of the unbaptized, solely on account of original sin, they and their successors seemed to have mitigated, or at least have attempted, to soften down such a harsh opinion. For some of them have declared ' that the unbaptized would be in the mildest damnation of all;' and others, 'that they would be afflicted not with punishment of feeling, but only with that of loss.' To this last opinion some of them have added, 'that this punishment would be inflicted on them without any stings from their own consciences.' Though it is a consequence of not being baptized," adds Arminius, " that the parties are said to endure only the punish- ment of loss, and not of feeling, yet this feeling exists wherever the stings or gnawings of conscience exist; that is, where the gnawing worm never dies. But let our brethren consider what species of damnation that is which is inflicted on account of sin, and from which no gnawing remorse proceeds." 12. The controversy on the relation of infants to the atonement has been less virulent in the Church of England than in the Reformed and other Calvin- istic branches of the Protestant family, and it has more uniformly been considered in the former Church, in connection with baptism, than with the doctrine of election. Perhaps the statement of the learned and candid Dr. "Wall, who, on this subject, is high author- DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 65 ity, may fairly represent the doctrine of the Church of England and the tone of the controversy there. " Concerning the everlasting state of an infant," says he, "that by misfortune dies unbaptized, the Church of England has determined nothing — it were fit that all Churches would leave such things to God — save that they forbid the ordinary office for burial to be used for such a one; for that were to determine the point and acknowledge him for a Christian brother. And though the most noted men in the said Church, from time to time, since the reformation of it to this time, have expressed their hopes that God will accept the purpose of it for the deed; yet they have done it modestly, and much as Wickliffe did, rather not de- termining the negative, than absolutely determining the positive, that such a child shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Archbishop Laud's words, we see, are, 'We are not to bind God, though he hath bound us.' And Archbishop Whitgift, disputing with Cartwright, says, 'I do mislike, as much as you, the opinion of those that think infants to be condemned which are not baptized.' But there are, indeed, some who make a pish at any one who is not confident, or does speak with any reserve about that matter." This cautious tone would be very reverent and becoming if the Scriptures had, indeed, left the subject abso- lutely undetermined and doubtful ; but in such a case we see not any ground for assuming, even though it be an assumption of charity, and not a dogma, that any infants are morally eligible to baptism. In the 66 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. case of adults no clergyman of the Church of England would be authorized to administer baptism till satis- factory proof of moral fitness, by repentance and reformation, had been given. But on what ground of antecedent moral fitness is baptism administered to infants? If a previous state of grace is not as- sumed as a fact, there is no warrant for the adminis- tration. If such a state is assumed, then why should it be spoken of as a doubtful and undecided point in the Word of God? Perhaps the Catechism for candi- dates for confirmation should decide this question. It is there asked: "Why, then, are infants baptized, when by reason of their tender age they can not per- form them?" — that is, can not perform the conditions of "repentance and faith." Answer : " Because they promise them both by their sureties, which promise, when they come to age, themselves are bound to per- form." Does this teach that no personal, moral fitness is assumed to preexist in the child as the reason for baptism, and that the ground on which they are thus received is the "promise" made by their sureties, that they will repent and believe " when they come to age?" The language does not seem to admit of another sense. But this is not the senti- ment of a large class of the divines of that Church. Bishop Jeremy Taylor says: "For my part, I be- lieve this only as certain, that nature alone can not bring them [infants] to heaven; and that Adam left us in a state that we could not hope for it. But this I know also, that as soon as this was done, Christ DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 67 was promised, and that before there was any birth of man or woman; and that God's grace is greater and more communicative than sin, and Christ was more gracious and effective than Adam was hurtful; and that, therefore, it seems very agreeable to God's goodness to bring them to happiness by Christ, who were brought to misery by Adam, and that he will do this by himself alone in ways of his own finding out." Yet, pity it is that the same good Bishop and vigorous reasoner should directly add: "And now, what in particular shall be the state of unbap- tized infants, so dying, I do not profess to know or teach, because God hath kept it as a secret." And so, after all, he completely vacillates between the two extremes, and rather favors the theory of a mid- dle state or limbus. What will not an excessive rev- erence for antiquity and presciptive authority do in unsettling the plain word of God ! 13. In view of such facts as the foregoing we can not look upon an inquiry into the moral state of in- fants, their relation to Christ anterior to all education or Christian ordinances, as of merely-speculative im- portance. For though the tendency of sentiment in the Protestant Churches at the present day is to con- cede the universal and unconditional salvation of all infants dying in infancy, on the merits of the atone- ment and without respect to baptism, yet the sym- bols of faith which have come down to the different Churches from the fathers were not ail formed under the mild sway of such a sentiment. On the contrary, 68 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. most of them grew up through sharp discussion under the dominion of a system of doctrine which makes either the decree of election the essential, or the sacrament of baptism the ordinary, condition of sal- vation. Thus the Confession of Faith of the Pres- byterian Church in the United States, in its sixth article, speaking of the sin of our first parents, says : " They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin ivas imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation." In anticipation of this common guilt of our race, whereby all are justly doomed to eternal wrath, it is stated in the third article that "by the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore- ordained to everlasting death. These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished." And in the tenth article of faith it is further said: "Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth. So also are other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some com- mon operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore can not be saved." DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 69 Thus, by the grammatical and logical connection of those statements, there is a non-elect portion of our race, infants and adults, whom no outward means nor "common operations of the Spirit" can bring to Christ and save. Has this no bearing on the faith of the parent in childhood nurture? We beg to say that these stern dogmas emanated from an- other age and another doctrinal condition of society, and could never have sprung into existence from the warm sympathies, and the clearer evangelical views, and the stirring Sabbath-school practices of this age. Still they exist, somewhat abstractedly, it may be, yet not wholly without their modifying influence on faith and practice, in the venerable symbols of an antique faith, accepted and indorsed by modern Churches. 70 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER II. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO NATURAL DEPRAVITY. Importance of a right estimate of our moral condition by na- ture — Infidel theory — Scriptural sense of corruption — Various theo- ries of depravity and sin — The true statement of the doctrine — Bible argument — Views of Pelagius, Augustine, Arminius — Peculiarity of Biblical psychology — Church of England doctrine — Jeremy Taylor on the doctrine of Christian antiquity — Final statement — President Edwards's views. In a treatise like this, where we are brought to inquire into the moral relations and capabilities of childhood, it seems necessary to state the Scriptural doctrine of man's condition by nature at the outset, as well to prepare the reader for the conclusions and practical duties which are to follow as to guard him against that skeptical philosophy which exalts human nature to depreciate the necessity and excellence of grace. All successful, practical treatment of children, whereby they are to reach the highest perfection of their being, must be founded on a just knowledge and comprehension both of their constitutional facul- ties and the moral condition of those faculties by natural birth and inheritance. If man is born into the world under certain moral disabilities, with certain evil proclivities, no system of moral education can be successful which ignores this fact. It must, on the NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 71 contrary, be taken into account, and our judgment of human ability must be made with due allowance for this defect. If a man were to calculate the power of a machine simply on the ground of the abstract laws of mechanics, mathematically educed, and make a practical reliance for the full amount of force thus estimated, he would find himself greatly disappointed in the result as to the actual working of the machine. He would find that from one-fourth to one-third of the power he had calculated was exhausted in over- coming friction, and that the residue of power only could be relied on to produce the desired results. As true is it that in any just method for the moral and Christian training of children, the evil of their nature must be considered. If our system of juve- nile culture makes no account of human depravity, or the wrong condition of our nature, we shall be constantly baffled and disappointed in results. We must know the malignity of sin and the power and office of grace, and the child's relation to each, before we can be prepared to discipline and educate its powers according to both constitutional capability and gracious design. The fundamental dogma of European socialism and communism is, that the nature of man is right, and his external and social condition only is wrong. This is the doctrine of all radical infidelity. The system of education and of society founded on such a belief is obvious. It aims simply to develop what is in man by nature, and to remove whatever external 72 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. and accidental obstructions to that development the artificial forms or accidents of society may have in- terposed. M. Guizot, speaking of the French char- acter of the last century, says : " Hence that other maxim of the last century, that men and things do very well if left to their own course and their nat- ural equilibrium; that evil proceeds not from our nature — our essential condition — but solely from a society badly arranged, arranged for the advantage of the few, who have substituted then will and their interest for the will and the interest of the whole; that it is society that needs a reformation, not man, who does not require it, or at least would not require it if society did not corrupt him; a maxim that has produced the most irritable and the most manifest of modern sores, that incurable impatience of what is, that unbounded restlessness, that insatiable desire of change in the pursuit of a social condition which shall finally secure to men, to all men, all the happi- ness to which they can aspire. This is the condition to which souls have been brought by the eighteenth century." This theory, which has been repeatedly tried in Europe, has proved a' most signal and admonitory failure. God has rebuked the gross sensuality and materialism of such philosophers, as a standing warn- ing to mankind. Society, indeed, is not generally in danger of so gross a misapprehension of truth as characterizes these infidel systems, yet there is a danger which NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 73 lies in various semi-infidel theories, which, if they more plausibly assume a religious garb, are equally hostile to the spirit of true evangelism. If ever we reach the high moral ends proposed in the Gospel, if ever human nature and society realize the Divine beneficence of that scheme of salvation of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the author, it will be by the method which he has ordained, a method which ac- knowledges the sinfulness and helplessness of our nature, and its all-sufficiency only through grace. Christianity is a remedial scheme, and its whole force and fitness depend on the presupposition of the ruined state of man. As the value of medicine de- pends on the antecedent existence of disease, so the total worth of the Christian scheme must be estimated by the actual condition and necessities of human na- ture, making such a scheme necessary. From our views of man, his natural condition and capabilities, must arise our peculiar doctrines concerning Christ, his mediation, his atonement, the Church, human ac- countability, and the means by which human nature is to achieve its exalted destiny. From our views of human nature in its relation to the sin of Adam and the atonement of Christ, must arise our special theories concerning the capabilities of childhood, and the consequent duties of the parent and the Church. We turn, then, first of all, to inquire, What is our state by nature, apart from the free grace of God in Christ Jesus? We shall aim at nothing more than a brief statement, on Scriptural grounds, of the essen- 7 74 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. tial features of this doctrine. We are not writing a treatise on human depravity, but treat of it only so far as it forms a necessary preliminary to our main subject. The condition of man by nature, taking the word nature in the sense of generation, birth, is commonly denoted by the term depravity, a word which it is not easy to define with metaphysical accuracy. There is no one word in Scripture which technically answers to the idea of depravity, unless perhaps it is cpOopd — phtJiora — which is commonly translated corruption. In Rom. viii, 21, it stands in contrast to the state of salvation by Christ, and represents simply our natural or fallen state — "For the creature itself shall be de- livered from the bondage of corruption into the glo- rious liberty of the children of God." The corre- sponding word in the Old Testament is JH1&* — sha- hath — generally translated pit, but sometimes grave, four times corruption — Job xvii, 14; Psa. xvi, 10 ; xlix, 9 ; Jonah ii, 6 — and twice destruction. Psa. lv, 23 ; ciii, 4. The prevailing idea of the Hebrew word is destruction, loss, ruin, not corruption in the sense of. putrescence. In the New Testament the idea of cor- ruption in the sense of impurity is prominent; but the radical idea, namely, that of ruin, destruction, is preserved throughout. When applied to man it some- times denotes the special derangement and abuse of his faculties, as 2 Pet. i, 4 ; ii, 12-19 ; and at others simply the general frailty, mortality, and lapsed state of his nature, without taking in the idea of special or NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 75 actual abases of that nature, as Rom. viii, 21 ; 1 Cor. xv, 42, 50. But in every case it stands contrasted with a state of personal salvation in Christ, and the complete fruition of his redeeming grace. Various theories of human depravity have been set forth. The lowest we shall mention is that which re- solves the cause of sin into a simple negation, the im- perfection of man metaphysically, or constitutionally considered — the "limited receptivity" of mind. Ac- cording to this, error is made to mingle with our per- ceptions of truth, pain with our emotions of pleasure, evil with our attainments of good, simply from the de- fectiveness, privation, or limitation of our faculties, which we have, as finite creatures, placed under such physical conditions of development as naturally depress, excite, limit, and perplex our mental operations. But if tins privation operates to necessitate sin, then God is the cause of it, and man is to be pitied for his misfortune ; if it only makes sin possible, then the cause of uni- versal defection is still left unexplained; it yet re- mains to be shown how the universal defection of man results from a cause which makes such an event merely possible ; that is, how one of the most uniform and settled facts in regard to our race in all ages of the world, comes to result from a mere possibility ; how a fact which in any age might or might not be, comes to be the uniform, characteristic, and inevitable feature of all ages. Besides, as this theory does not assume any evil proclivity in man, any selfish bias against the truth, it would follow that the reformation 76 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. of man from sin and error would result upon full and adequate information, which is not the fact. Man shows himself unwilling both to know and to perform his duty. After clear conviction of duty, it becomes a still more difficult work to persuade to right action. A much more plausible theory is that which makes depravity consist primarily in the wrong condition of the body, or organic nature of man — its appetites and desires. This theory supposes the wrong action of the soul to be due to its connection with and depend- ence on the body, and through it on the external world, assuming that the mind apart from the body, and per se, is not depraved. Much of human expe- rience and of Scripture seems to lodge the seeds of sin in the physical nature of man. Our bodily infirmities, appetites, and desires, and our suscep- tibilities of impressions from the external world, are, indeed, the chief occasions of sin, and the be- setting snares of the soul; but are not sufficient to account for the universal prevalence of the lower laws of our being over the higher, for the " evil that is in the world," the wrong condition of human society, or for the explicit statements of Revelation. This theory naturally identifies itself with sensation- alism, or that system which, adopting a more meta- physical ground-work, resolves the origin of sin into the susceptibility of the mind of being determined by impressions received through, the senses. With the metaphysical school of sensational philosophers, as such, we have nothing to do, and it will suffice here NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 77 to state that, so long as the senses and bodily desires are entirely subservient to the reason and higher na- ture of man, furnishing him, as Muller expresses it, with "a basis of his earthly existence, and the means of his self-activity and sensibility in relation to the world," just so long our physical nature and organ- ism innocently and usefully subserve the purposes of the Creator. But when our external nature assumes an independency, and usurps dominion over the spirit, subjecting the will to the passions, the reason to bodily desires, the whole current of our moral being is perverted. Now, the sensational theory of de- pravity supposes this ascendency of the outward over the inner man — this triumph of sense over the intelli- gence, the will, and the moral feelings, to be the true ration-ale of sin. The sensational side of our being, it says, develops first, and seeks only the agreeable, the self- pleasing ; and the child has already acquired consid- erable facility and strength of habit in seeking the sen- sationally agreeable before the period of reason and reflection arrives to enable it to choose and pursue the morally good, so that 'the preponderance is on the side of the earthly, the perishable, the selfish, and hence arises sin. The metaphysical basis of this the- ory plausibly identifies itself with the doctrine that the mind is dependent for its ideas on objective exist- ence, and the senses are the necessary medium of those ideas. All heathenism, wherever it has attained any philo- sophical development, is underlaid with the doctrine 78 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. of dualism, of the two eternal antagonistic elements of mind and matter. In the Chaldean and Hindoo philosophy in the East, and in that of Plato in the West — which reappeared in the Jewish Church in the form of Essenism, and in the Christian Church under the forms of Gnosticism and Manicheism — this notion of matter and spirit, struggling against each other for the mastery in irreconcilable conflict, reached its high- est manifestation. In this theory spirit is essentially pure, matter essentially corrupt; and the existence of sin is caused by the connection of the two, wherein the latter obtains the mastery over the former. It is easy to see how, according to this materialistic notion of the origin of evil, the whole system of asceticism arose in the Church, making self-mortification, or physical attrition in the Brahminical sense, the condi- tion of the highest attainments of holiness. The whole Papal system of monachism is built on this dogma of heathen philosophy. It will be seen that the above systems of paganistic dualism and modern ethical sensationalism naturally affiliate, and ground themselves upon the common admission that depravity does not inhere in the spirit, but in matter and our physical condition, and affects the spirit only through its connection with matter. In theological dogma they would slightly differ, but in ethics they are the same. It is not consistent with the design and scope of this treatise to go any further into the notice of the- ories on human depravity. It is against the above NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 79 views that the Bible teaches that sin, in the sense of hereditary depravity, is positive, as opposed to a sim- ple negation, affecting our entire being, the soul as well as the body ; that is, however it may be philo- sophically defined, it is the wrong condition of the entire being as compared with the holy law r of God, possessing, aside from grace, a determinate proclivity and potentiality to evil. In the seventh Article of Religion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which is copied from the ninth of the Church of England, "original or birth sin' 7 is defined to be "the corruption of the nature of every man . . . whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually." In the brief statements of the Scriptural doctrine in question which we propose, we must be content with seizing only upon salient points. The essential features of the doctrine being identified, it is easy for the reader to carry out details and illustrations to any desirable length. The sensational theory above noticed, w r ith all others which primarily lodge sin or depravity in the body or flesh, have sheltered themselves under a misapprehen- sion of the Scriptural, and especially the Pauline, use of the term ao.f>~ — -flesh — more than all other exegetical defenses. It is necessary, therefore, to push our in- quiries into the ethical use of this word. The corre- sponding Hebrew to aapt; is *lt#3 — basar — and is used to denote flesh as a constituent part of the 80 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. body ; also the entire body, the human race, the flesh of animals, all animate beings, blood relations, etc. Then, also, it is used to signify man as frail, mortal, perishable. Beyond this the Old Testament, philo- logically, will rarely carry us. The ethical sense of , flesh as a- nature at enmity with God, the very point of the Pauline use of caps, appears only by implica- tion, and must be made out of such texts as the following: Gen. vi, 3 — "For that he also is flesh;" 2 Chron. xxxii, 8 — "For with him is an arm of flesh;" Psa. lvi, 4 — "I will not fear what flesh can do;' 7 Psa. lxxviii, 39 — "He remembered that they were but flesh;" Jer. xvii, 5 — "Cursed is he that maketh flesh his arm." The practiced reader will at once perceive how slender must be the reliance on such passages for the proof that the Old-Testament usage of the word in question carries with it the marked figurative and moral sense of aiq, — phusis" — he adds, " properly signifies origin, birth, from (fuw — phuo — nas- cor; so in Gal. ii, 15, (puaec Woudaxoe — Jews by birth, native Jews; and so, too, in the classics. It is also used both by the Jews and classics to denote the original, inborn, and peculiar properties, attributes, nature of a person or thing." " The first meaning of the word c'jac^ — nature — according to Schleusner, Wahl, and others," says Dr. Woods, "is birth, ori- gin, nativity ; the next meaning is that which belongs to a thing from its origin or birth — native disposition, native qualities or properties of any person." "Na- ture," says Bengel, here " denotes the state of man without the grace of God in Christ." This is ex- actly the idea of the word flesh, as used in Romans viii. Olshausen makes it tantamount to "sinful birth," as if it had read, "and were by sinful birth children of wrath," etc. This he proposes, not as a transla- tion, but as a doctrinal sense, sustained by the mean- 92 THE EELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. ing of the -word, putting it in antithesis to xdptrt — by grace — in verse 5. The sense of the passage would then stand thus : " By nature [sinful birtli] ye are children of wrath ; by grace are ye saved." This is unquestionably the doctrine of the apostle, and dis- tinguishes between the two conditions of natural and spiritual birth, after the example of our Lord — " That which is born of the Jlesh is JlesJi, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And so also John : " As many as received him, to them gave he power to be- come the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John i, 12, 13, and iii, 6. The doctrine of hereditary depravity has never been denied by any branch of the catholic or orthodox Church, but its discussion has, from time to time, led many into unprofitable and foolish speculations as to the law of transmission from parent to child. Such is the controversy between Traducianism and Creation- ism, or the theory that the soul is propagated like the body according to a law of natural generation, and the one that it is created by God and put into the body. From the second century this controversy has had its place in the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches, and among Protestants. "Luther," says Hagenbach, "taught Traducianism, followed by most of the Lutheran divines." On the contrary, Bellar- mine, Calvin, and the theologians of the Reformed Church in general, advocated the theory of Creation- NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 93 ism, retaining at the same time the doctrine of orig- inal sin." Into these speculations, always irrelevant and absurd, we shall not enter. It is enough to know the facts, as the Bible has laid them down, that Adam, having sinned and thereby lost the purity and righteousness of his soul, and the healthfulness and immortality of his body, becoming thereafter subject to deranged and morbid physical and moral action, could not propagate a seed more perfect than him- self. "With singular emphasis it is therefore said — Gen. v, 3 — "And Adam begat a son in his own like- ness, after Ms image" And from that hour it has remained a truth in ethical theology no less than in physiology, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Beyond the simple facts in the case it is worse than idle to push speculation. Psychology and physiology yield no light to r eh eve the doc- trinal mysteries that may attach to the manner in which the human soul and body are formed and brought into the world under the sad effects of the first transgression; yet all Scripture and all expe- rience declare that the evil of depravity is in our nature, born in us, and hence derived by the laws of parentage. "Behold," says David, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psa. li, 5. "Who," says Job, "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Job xiv, 4. This the patriarch says in direct reference to the der- ivation of corruption from our parents. It is worthy of note that the Christian fathers, from Clement, 94 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Bishop of Rome, in the apostles' time, onward, quoted this passage from Job from the Septuagint Greek version, which was then more commonly used outside of Palestine than the Hebrew Scrip- tures — where it reads, "Who is pure from corrup- tion? Not one, although he had lived but one day upon the earth." The theory that depravity is sim- ply the effect of wrong voluntary exercise, a per- mission of free will in each individual case; or that it is due to the influence of bad example and edu- cation, and therefore can be avoided or remedied by the force of personal choice or right social influences and habits, is refuted by all experience, and is not entitled to serious consideration. 5. In Gal. v, 19-21, there are predicates of aap% — flesh — which belong only to the operations of the in- tellective and higher nature of man, operations of the mind as distinguished from the body. In that pas- sage "the works of the flesh" are enumerated, among which are some that belong distinctively to the lower and animal nature, as "adultery, fornication, lasciv- iousness, drunkenness, reveling," etc. ; while others belong as exclusively to the mind, as "hatred, va- riance, wrath, strifes, heresies, envyings," etc. Here are operations which categorically belong only to the intellective and moral nature, and are yet called " works of the odpi; — -flesh" Can any thing be more plain than that the term flesh was understood of the total being of man as apart from grace — his mind as well as his body? If the higher nature of man did not NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 95 partake of the evil effects of the fall, how could dis- ordered bodily desires prevail against orderly mental operation, so that deranged mental as well as bodily action should become the characteristic of man in all ages ? Love of power and love of fame are aspira- tions of the higher nature, misdirected, lawless, cor- rupt, and ruinous passions, originating not in de- praved bodies, but in depraved minds. The mind " hath desires against the Spirit of God " no less than the body. In Eph. ii, 3, where Paul describes the traits of depravity common to both Jews and Gentiles, he says, they "fulfilled the desires [r£c aapxoQ xal twu dtauoccou] of the FLESH and of the MIND," Here aap£ — -flesh — is not used in its figurative sense, but literally, to denote the body and its organism. When- ever "flesh and mind" or "flesh and spirit" or "body and spirit" are thus enumerated and con- trasted, the terms are to be understood literally as of the two natures of man, body and soul, material and immaterial; as in James ii, 26, "the body without the spirit" etc. ; John vi, 63, " the spirit quick eneth, the flesh profiteth nothing," etc. In the entire New Testament, deavoea, here translated mind, never means any thing but the thinking principle, the intelligent soul. To this sense both etymology and usage con- fine us. Here, then, is an inspired declaration that Gentile and Jewish corruptions were brought about by "fulfilling the desires of the mind" as well as of the "flesh" or body. And these literal aapxbz xat 96 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. diavola^ — elesh and mixd — of Ephesians ii, 3, which in their natural state are the fountains of Jewish and Gentile corruption, the seed and soil of all the out- growth of the " body of sin," are both comprehended in the ethical sense of odps — -flesh — as above given. How consonant to this doctrine is the current teaching of both the Old and New Testaments ! Speaking of human depravity, God goes directly to the inner man, the moral and intellective ego — the heart. "Every formation of the devices, or purposes of his heart [137 Hi^'n? **^!] ^ s on ty ev ^ ever y day." Gen. vi, 5. The Septuagint Greek version, which was more in use by the Jews out of Pal- estine in the Savior's time, and by the Christians afterward, than the Hebrew Scriptures, gives the point tersely: " xal nac; tiq ocavozcrac £v ttj xapdla auTOU iTzejus/.coz Ira-caT.ovqpa-aoaq, ra^rjuipa^ — and every one devises in his heart attentively upon evil every day?' Here the fountain of evil is laid in the heart. His cogitations, whenever they take the form of design or purpose — that is, assume a moral char- acter — are only evil. And this J?*) — evil — is of great significance and comprehension. It is the standing antithesis of DID — good — throughout the Old Testa- ment, as in the phrase "good and evil." "Depart from evil and do good." "For as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad" Gen. ii, 17; 1 Sam. xxvi, 17; 2 Sam. xiii, 17; Psa. xxxiv, 14. The good is the state of blessedness and perfection in which God created man, and for NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 07 which he designed him when he pronounced him "very good;" the evil is the quality of badness in which the common nature of man is involved, and wherein every formation of his purposes, all the op- erations of his heart, are " only evil continually." The good and the evil were set before man in the garden of Paradise as the two possible states of his ex- istence — the former as the inheritance of his being as he came from his Creator, the latter as the bitter con- sequence of eating the forbidden fruit of " the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 7 ' Such is the import of the word, and such the condition of the fallen heart. To this same "heart" Jeremiah bears witness — chap, xvii, 9 — that it is " deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" totally deceitful, and in- curably diseased. Its disease is such that in human nature is left no curative or recuperative power, not even power to fathom and comprehend its own depth of deceit and perversity. That the term heart here represents the entire intellectuality of man is proved from the prophet's own words, which follow. "Who can know this heart? "I, Jehovah, search the heart; I try the reins, even to give to every man according to Ins wavs, and according to the fruit of his doings." How pertinently do the words of Christ apply here! " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas- phemies : these are the things which defile a man." Matt, xv, 19, 20. It is this heart which is the real ego, the responsible, individual entity, of which is 9 98 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. predicated in Scripture all the personal good or evil of the character. When the heart is surrendered to God all is surrendered; when that is withdrawn and alienated no work or worship is acceptable. The He- brews were not a philosophic people, and their lan- guage is not adapted to the uses of exact science. Not a metaphysical turn of thought occurs through- out the Bible. The outward physical world and the inward intellectual are alike spoken of in the language of common life, in words borrowed from the observa- tion of the senses. Their knowledge of nature and of mind being phenomenal rather than scientific, their language conformed to their ideas, and became hence simple, and better adapted to general moral instruc- tion than to philosophic discourse — their meaning being apparent from the connection and drift of discourse, if not from the precision of words. The ethical use of the terms "heart" and "flesh" in Scripture can not be doubtful. The sensational theory of depravity has found a semblance of proof in such phrases as "sin in the flesh," (Rom. viii, 3;) "Vile body," (Phil, iii, 21;) and especially the statement, "vopcp r^c d\paprlaz . . . il> rots psXea't — the law of sin in my members," (Rom. vii, 23) — compare also chap, vi, 19 : and also in chap, vii, 5 — "For when we were in the flesh, [iv aapx!,~\ the passions of sin, or sinful affections, \jcadrjpara 6.paprccov\ did work \£v role, pilsacv ■/jpcbv] in our members [our organism] to bring forth fruit unto death." But these may be explained in NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 99 harmony with the foregoing views. The "law of am" may have been located "in the members" of the physical nature by the apostle, because the greatest force of sinful habit and temptation seemed to lodge and to develop there, and the' soul to feel her greatest impotency and servitude from hence. It was the constant habit of the sacred writers to speak of the mind or soul phenomenally, or accord- ing to its sensible effects on the body; as in the phrase "yearning of the bowels" for strong pity, and "bowels" to denote mercy. So also "reins" and " loins " are used to denote the soul, mind, or heart — that is, the seat of the affections, desires, and passions — because under these strong emotions of the soul a physical sensation is experienced in those re- gions. So also the phrase "inward part" is used to denote the soul. Ps. li, 6; see also Job xxxi, 20; Ps. vii, 9, and xvi, 7, and xxvi, 2; Prov. xxiii, 16; Jer. xi, 20, and xvii, 10. In John vii, 38, the word "belly" is used in exactly the sense in which we would use the phrase "inmost soul" — "out of his inmost soul shall flow rivers of living water." The meaning is that from tvithin him, from the depths of his conscious being, shall flow living water. He that would study Biblical psychology — a most im- portant study in its bearing on the ethical and spirit- ual portions of Scripture— must approach it from the Jewish stand-point, through a Jewish glossary; not from the present advanced position of metaphysical science, nor with a modern terminology. 100 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. The bodily organs are the instruments of the mind, and through whatever sensible medium the mind finds its manifestation, it would be natural that the eye of an unphilosophic observer should be directed to such medium, and to locate the mental faculty precisely at the seat of the physical sensation. It is largely by the effects produced upon the physical organism, either by the mind acting from within upon the nerves, or objects pressing themselves upon the senses from without, that we even now become acquainted with the laws of mental action. Nor is it irrelevant to remind the reader that the first lessons of meta- physical science relate to sensation — an important fact in its bearing upon the point in question. It is no wonder, therefore, that the passions of the mind which find expression through the bodily organs should be denominated " the works of the flesh," and spoken of as if they originated in the bodily organs. Thus the habit of sin which had found a uniform expression through the physical members might naturally enough be called "the law of sin in the members." The bodily members are not only the instruments of the soul's sinful activity, but of its punishment also. "The soul," says Bengel, "is, as it were, the king; the members are its citizens: sin is, as an enemy, ad- mitted through the fault of the king, who is doomed to be punished by the oppression of the citizens." But in any wise such phrases as those in question can not be construed against the clear and overwhelming light of the analogy of Scripture as already given. NATURAL DErRAVITY. 101 The early Christian Church, unhappily mistaking the Scriptural antithesis of flesh and spirit for the dualistic antagonism of spirit and matter, as taught by the heathen, and as the Jews had done before them when they had become infected with the pagan philosophy, became enamored of a false asceticism in piety, which, in the language of Hundeshagen, " vir- tually turns the body into a creature of the devil," while the soul is commiserated for its unfortunate companionship therewith. But as Meyer w T ell ob- serves : " There is nothing in the Biblical use of the term to justify the opinion that the flesh [the literal body] — caps — is in itself evil, or necessarily produc- tive of sin." It is the body in its living, animate state — hence as including the soul, and as the instru- ment of the soul — that has this deadly power. "The physical-corporeal life of man, with its center, I," says the author last quoted, "departed from the life of God and isolated itself; and, being no longer sus- tained and attracted by the powers of the world above, is drawn downward — its tendency becomes earthly, worldly, and all its functions partake of this char- acter." But united to God it is controlled by the Divine Spirit. The literal flesh, therefore, is not an efficient or responsible cause of either good or evil, but simply a passive instrument of either, according as the living agent or soul is actuated by the Spirit of God, or the principles of natural depravity. The Church of England, in her ninth Article of Religion, defines original sin or natural depravity to 102 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. be "the fault or corruption of the nature of every man," which he has by natural birth, "whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil." Now, here are four points in the definition: the "fault" — defect or infirmity; the " corruption'' — which is, says Jeremy Taylor, " exegetical of the other :" the loss of " orig- inal righteousness" and hence of all supernatural aids, leaving man to "pure naturals;' 3 and the "inclination to evil.'' The whole definition is then resolved into an "infection of nature," and the sum and essence of depravity declared to be the same as Paul calls ippovypa aapzbz — plironema sarkos — which, says the Article, " some do expound the wisdom, some sensu- ality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh.'"' It is simply translated in our English Bible "carnal mind." All this cautious avoidance of philosophic terms shows how the framers of the Articles felt themselves pressed upon either hand with human speculations, and with the importance, in giving adequate definitions, of keeping within Scriptural phraseology, and not erecting into dogma subjects which lose themselves in obscure depths of psychol- ogy and metaphysics. " That the first ages taught the doctrine of original sin," says Jeremy Taylor, "I do nowise doubt, but aflirni it all the way; but that it is a sin improperly, that is, a stain and a reproach rather than a sin; that is, the effect of one sin and the cause of many ; that it brought sickness and death, mortality and passions; that it made us NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 103 naked of those supernatural aids that Adam had, and so more liable to the temptations of the devil: this is all I find in antiquity, and sufficient for the explica- tion of this question, which," he adds, "the more simply it is handled the more true and reasonable it is." The same author sums up the doctrine of Christian antiquity on this subject thus : "1. Original sin is Adam's sin imputed to us to many evil effects. "2. It brings death and the evils of this life. " 3. Our evils and necessity being brought upon us, bring in a flood of passions which are hard to be bridled, or mortified. "4. It hath left us in pure naturals, disrobed of such aids extraordinary as Adam had, [that is, of original righteousness and its first immunities.] "5. It deprives us of all title to heaven or supernatural happiness; that is, it neither hath in it strength to live a spiritual life, nor title to a heavenly. "6. It leaves in us our natural concupiscence, [sensual desire,] and makes it much worse." What, then, is the sum of orthodox teaching as to the nature and extent of original sin, or hereditary depravity? We can not agree with those who make it to consist merely in the inordinateness of bodily desires. This is one condition of our nature, but does not comprehend the evil. Nor can we agree with those who make the connection of mind and matter, 104 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. and the consequent impressions of the latter upon the former, through the senses, the cause of universal aberration and alienation from God. This also has its influence, but falls short of the real and adequate cause of the disordered action of the moral ego. Nor can we make out an adequate account of human de- pravity by adding to these the frailty, disease, dis- abilities, and mortality of the body. Above all these there is an evil affecting the higher nature, the soul. The soul has lost its original righteousness, its super- natural helps, its holy sympathies, affections, and aspirations. This righteousness was not a develop- ment of constitutional powers, but the gift of God superadded to existence. This the sin of Adam for- feited, not merely for himself, but for the race, for universal humanity. Whether the effect of Adam's personal sin on universal human nature was accord- ing to a law of natural connection, or of federal rela- tion between him and his posterity, we stop not now to inquire. This fact only we affirm, without specu- lating upon the mode of its accomplishment, that Adam's sin had the effect to place his posterity in this evil case. But this absence, or loss of " right- eousness and true holiness," which is the moral image of God, in which man was created, is not merely a negative loss, but implies also the presence of oppo- site qualities of character. The loss of good implies the presence of evil; the loss of humility is the presence of pride; the loss of love, the dominion of the selfish and malevolent affections ; the loss of NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 105 holy desires from the soul, the indwelling of their opposites. President Edwards lays down the case thus : "When God created man he implanted in him two kinds of principles : the one inferior, comprehending all that is simply natural to man, all that is implied in, or necessarily resulting from, and inseparably con- nected with, human nature; and the other superior, comprehending all that is supernatural, spiritual, holy, and divine. These superior principles were given to possess the throne and maintain dominion, the others to be subordinate and subservient. These superior principles depended immediately on man's union and communion with God, or the divine influences of God's Spirit. They were, indeed, the original right- eousness in which God made man. Sin forfeited this divine, spiritual, and holy nature, and this supernatural aid, and left man to the dominion of the lower, or simply natural principles. "As light ceases in the room when the candle is withdrawn, so man is left in a state of darkness, woeful corruption, and ruin, nothing but flesh without spirit, when the Holy Ghost, that heavenly inhabitant, forsakes the house. It were easy to show how every depraved disposition would naturally arise from this privative original." This view agrees with that of Augustine, and has received the general sanction of the Church. A subordinate difference has, indeed, obtained between different theological schools, as to whether this orig- 106 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. inal righteousness of Adam were a gift of God, superadded to simple nature, or whether it belonged to nature. Hagenbach, speaking of this doctrine as it obtained during the first two hundred years of the Protestant Reformation, says : " While theologians of the Roman Catholic Church agreed with the ma- jority of the scholastics in regarding the original righteousness of man as a superadded gift, Protest- ants — Lutherans as well as Calvinists — maintained that God created man in the possession of perfect righteousness and holiness, qualities which, together with his immortality, belonged to his original nature" It is not important for us to enter this controversy, though the Edwardsean theory is the more simple. The distinction lies beyond the province of dog- matics, or positive theology, however, and belongs to the realm of speculation. All agree that righteous- ness and true holiness are the fruit of the Holy Spirit's operation, that God created man in upright- ness and holiness, subject to the higher laws which emanated from this spiritual and holy character, and that by sinning he fell from this righteous state, lost its governing power, and plunged his nature into disorder and corruption. The Assembly's Larger Catechism says : " The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, where- by he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made op- posite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 107 inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called original sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions." The privation of original righteousness must be understood to imply as much as this. Depravity is not a mere negative state. It is human nature thus left to itself by the withdrawinent of Divine and spiritual in- fluence, and by necessary consequence corrupt and at enmity with God, that is denoted by the figura- tive use of oao- — -flesh — in the New Testament, a term which constantly stands opposed to Trus'jtia — spirit — which in its ethical or figurative sense as constantly either signifies the Holy Spirit as renew- ing and governing the heart, or the intellectual nature of man as under the renewing, sanctifying, and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit. Such, then, is man's natural state. Such is the Arminian doctrine upon the subject. Herein we agree with Augustine and Calvin, however we may differ in certain corollaries arising from this doctrine, or on the principle by which the atonement is applied as a remedy according to the Divine plan of grace, not to go back of this to speak of foreordination and particular election. Further arguments in support of these views of natural depravity will be given in the following chapter, when we come to examine Rom. v, 12-21, where they properly belong. 108 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER III. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. Children are reckoned to Christ — Proof from Kom. v, 12-21 — Proof from Matt, xviii, 1-14— Proof from Matt, x, 40-42— From Matt, xix, 14. Such, then, is the condition of our nature apart from grace. But is it left here? And if not, if help is afforded, what is the efficacy of that aid, at what period of our existence does it reach us, and through what channels and to what extent? Is it given to all alike, or is it limited to a definite part? Is it conditioned upon baptism, or any human act; or is it, to all our infant race, a direct and uncondi- tional benefit of the atonement? Does the Bible reckon children simply as in a state of nature, or rather actually in a state of grace? Are they spoken of and treated in Scripture as under the power of Adam's transgression, or of Christ's re- demption? Are they classed with aliens, or with citizens? Are they counted to the Church, or to the world? as the heirs of life, or the children of wrath? as condemned, or righteous? as dead in sin, or as quickened and alive in Christ? as morally eligible to covenant relation to God, or as morally unfit for such privilege ? RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 109 These are grave questions, and we take the ground that children are reckoned to Christ and his Church; that as soon as their distinct entity or individuality is established, as soon as they become human, pos- sessed of a rational soul and endued with the fac- ulties — undeveloped — of moral being, as soon as the ego of percipient existence is formed, so that the capacity for moral happiness or misery becomes a property or a possibility of being, so soon the human soul comes within the all-comprehensive and gracious provisions of atonement. The date of redemptive power and grace to each individual of our race is coincident with the date of existence. If David could say in truth, " I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me" — Ps. li, 5 — with equal truth, and in a sense no less spiritual and pertinent, could he say, " Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb : thou art my God from the womb of my mother." Ps. xxii, 9, 10. " For thou hast possessed my reins : thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. Thine eyes did see my sub- stance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, God !" Ps. cxxxix, 13, 16, 17. What that holy woman, Mrs. Isabella Graham, wrote to her daughter, con- solitarily, on the loss of her child who had died in birth, we say of all : " The Lord is your God, and 110 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. the God of your seed. John the Baptist leaped in the womb when the salutation of Mary sounded in his mother's ears ; he was then a living soul, and an heir of salvation at that moment. If your babe was conceived in sin by the first covenant, he is an heir of grace by the second. . . He is of the travail of the Redeemer's soul; children are God's heritage, the fruit of the womb his reward." The efficacy of this grace is the ground and reason for carrying out the original purpose and plan of God in regard to a race. Had it not been for me- diatorial interposition no child of Adam would have been born, and the consequences of the first trans- gression would have terminated on the first guilty pair. The existence, therefore, of the first, and each successive child of Adam, is a fruit of atonement. But further than this, the grace of atonement has the efficacy to secure instant acquittal to each child from all condemnation which fell upon our race through the first transgression, present acceptance with God, meetness for the kingdom of heaven, the inception of a life of saving grace, and provision for all prospective demands of probation. We now pass to examine the Bible grounds for this view of the gracious state of infants. I. Our first proof is contained in the argument of Paul, Rom. v, 12-21. The main design of this passage lies upon the face of it, and is, as Professor Stuart happily expresses it, " To impress on our minds the certainty of salva- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. Ill tion through redeeming blood, and to exalt our views respecting the greatness of the blessings which Christ has procured for us, by a comparison of them with the evil consequences which ensued upon the fall of our first ancestor, and by showing that the bless- ings extend not only to the removal of these evils, but even far beyond this." As, therefore, the design of the apostle is to discuss the very question at issue, his argument, whatever it is, must be not only relevant to our purpose, but decisive. It must be premised that the entire argument of Paul is based on the comparison above alluded to. He institutes a parallel between Adam and Christ, as the two representative heads of the human race ; Adam as the lineal ancestor, Christ as the Author of spiritual life and hope. The various points of contrast between the two will be sufficiently noticed in the process of our remarks ; but the one grand and fundamental point of resemblance upon which all the relevancy and force of the apostle's argument depends is this — they were both representatives of the entire race, so that their acts, of transgression on the one hand and righteousness on the other , extended in their effects to all the individuals of the race. Destroy this representative relation of the two, as is done by the Pelagian hypothesis, and the passage in question becomes totally unexplainable. The same relation of Adam and Christ to the hu- man family is also affirmed in 1 Cor. xv, 45-49. 112 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. " And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul ; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. . . The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenlv. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." These statements are categorical and definite. All men are reckoned in Adam as of his image, under the effects of the fall, till they are anew enrolled in Christ. By Adam or by Christ, each member of the human family stands represented; by the one as the natural progenitor and destroyer of the race, by the other as the Spiritual Head and Restorer. It is not necessary for us to assert on what law of connection the sin of Adam came to affect all his posterity; the simple fact of such connection and re- lation as made his sin an inevitable curse to all his race is all we need affirm. This the apostle affirms. This representative relation is as universal in Christ as it is in Adam. Any other theory is fatal to the apostle's reasoning. Again, whatever effects flowed from Adam's sin, or from Christ's righteousness, to the human family, flowed to infants, as such, in the first instance. They flowed to our humanity, our common nature, our race, and they reached human nature at the moment it became human. No other application of the argu- ment of Paul is admissible. That the terms zbv RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 113 x6<7/iov, irdvrtxG chdncbzou;, ol xoXXoi — the world, all men, the many, etc. — in this connection, denote the race, need hardly be asserted. They are all terms which stand in contrast with ho; a^Oncb-wj—the one max — the progenitor, Adam, and can mean nothing less than his total posterity. So, also, on the other hand, by the very conditions of the argument, -when these terms stand opposed to the i>b; d^OfKozou '' ' lr t ao 7 j Xotazo'j — one man Jesus Christ — they can denote nothing less than the total race of man. It must be borne in mind that we are now speak- ing of the unconditional benefits of atonement only as they reach and affect our common nature prior to ac- countability. "We are not speaking of adults, or those endowed with personal responsibility; these having sinned by choice, are saved by the same grace only through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But our race prior to personal ac- countability, not having sinned by personal intelli- gence and choice, yet brought by their relation to Adam under the effects of his sin, are reached and rescued, without their personal choice or agency, by the remedial and saving grace of Christ. The paral- lel between Adam and Christ, therefore, as represent- ative heads of the human family, is carried, in the present argument, only to the extent to show what is the unconditional effect of grace upon the infant and irresponsible portion of mankind. The conditional blessings upon adult and responsible humanity are equally glorious; but, being modified as to their re- 10 114 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ception by human agency, do not fall within our plan to notice. We pass, then, directly to the argument. 1. The apostle employs the terms life and death to set forth the effects of Adam's sin and of Christ's righteousness upon the human race. Yerse 12 : " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Verse 15 : " Through the offense of one [Adam] the many [the race] have died." Verse 17: "By one man's offense death reigned by one." Verse 21 : " Sin hath reigned unto death." That Odvaroc — death — here denotes moral or spiritual death, as well as the death of the body, is proved from the argument of Paul. To it he opposes, as a direct antithesis, that £tor t — life — which is, through the "gift of righteousness" — verse 17 — a spiritual life; and that Cco^v alwvtov — eternal life — which the " reign of grace through righteousness " secures. Verse 21. Winer says that "to the words, ' as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,'' we should have expected the apodosis, [or prin- cipal statement of the sentence, expressive of the re- sult to be,] ' even so by the one, Clwist, grace hath entered into the ivorld, and by the grace the life' " In the same way are death and eternal life contrasted — chap, vi, 23. Now, this death spiritual of our race, the effect of Adam's sin, is counteracted, and an op- posite state produced by Jesus Christ. The argu- ment is very specific and in point. In verse 15 it is this ; namely, that if o! ttoUoc — the many, the race — had died through the sin of Adam, " much more the RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 115 grace of God and the gift by grace hath abounded unto [robs noAAobf;'] the many" The point of the ar- gument here is the total number affected. The many, the race, died; the many, the race, have received the grace of God and the gift by grace, which restores to life. Nay, " much more " hath this grace " abounded " to them : there is not one exempt case. The grace is not only coextensive with the death, and counteracts it, but it superabounds and overflows. In verse 17 the point of the argument turns, not upon the number affected, but upon the certain dominion of life over the antecedent certain dominion of death; and here, as every-where, the triumph of grace over original transgression is made conspicuous by the intensive form of contrast, tzoXXco fiu/lov — much more; — "MUCH MORE they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." Whatever, therefore, is the effect of Adam's sin upon our race, denoted by the term "death" we find its sovereign antidote and opposite in the effect of the grace of Christ, denoted by the terms " life " and the " receiving abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness" If the "grace" the "gift of righteousness" and "life" do not annul the death-sentence and restore to life, and even go beyond it, the argument means nothing : it is merely a pompous and deceptive hyperbole. But the force of this declaration is not yet ex- hausted. The total number over whom death reigned, through the sin of Adam, are represented as " receiv- 116 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ing abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness." Mark here the force of the words. They have not merely been made eligible to this grace; it is not merely a possibility, an overture, a provision; but a BESTOWMENTj an experience. The word "receive" — rerse 17 — implies this. So. also, the words "gift" and "free gift'' — ydp :( jfm. ocoor^ua — denote tlxe tiring given, and imply the actual bestoicment of the grace or benefit. How else could it be a gift ? The act of conferment enters into the very notion of a gift. Till it is bestowed it is not a gift. The language strongly asserts that the life-giving grace of atonement be- comes immediately available to our humanity. Christ did not die that children, our common race, should become eligible to grace and spiritual life on arriv- ing at mature age, or in the event of natural death; but that they should become recipients of this grace at the moment of their first need — the moment of existence. If it should be objected to this argument, that a gift may be said to be bestowed and received when a valid title is conferred and accepted, we reply, that if the apostle's language is to be thus construed, we must go back a step and change the protasis, or conditional member of the sentence. It would then read : ' ; For if by one man's offense the liability or threatening of death reigned by one, much more they which receive the promise or title to abund- ance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one. Jesus Christ." If the "grace and gift of righteousness" are onlv a title to "life," RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 117 and not a present, personal inception of life, then, also, by the conditions of the argument and the law of antithesis upon which it rests, the "death" spoken of must be only a liability of death, a death in pros- pect, not a personal, present fact and experience. But as no orthodox Christian will assert this, there- fore our argument must stand. 2. In verses 16, 18, the apostle represents the effect of Adam's sin by the term "condemnation:" "The judgment was by one to condemnation;" "By the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to con- demnation" The word xardxpe/ia, translated condemnation, is literally and forensically the sentence of the law; and the strict sense of the apostle's language is, that by the sin — to 7 j ho- — of the ONE [man] the judicial judgment of God was to the effect of passing the sentence of the law — ece ndvTaQ d^daco-ouc, — upon all men. Here, then, xazdxpcaa — condemnation — takes the sense of punishment, because it is a practical en- forcement of the sentence of the law ; and this sen- tence, or penalty, is set forth in the comprehensive word b ddvaro- — the death — in verse 17. It is here that theologians have found the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin, and it can not be de- nied to be the doctrine of the apostle; but not in the sense taught by Augustine, and the men of that school — sin and guilt, in the strictly judicial sense, are not transferable. If the apostle is to be under- stood in the strictly legal sense, we must then sup- 118 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. pose our humanity, while yet comprehended in Adam, and only as comprehended in Adam, was put under the full and actual sentence of the law. Had that sentence heen executed, no child of Adam had ever been born. The moment a living posterity is per- mitted to spring from the first sinning pan, the ques- tion of inflicting on them literally the penalty of the first offense assumes an entirely new aspect, both in law and ethics. In the condition in which they ex- isted at the time, and partook of the first transgres- sion, and in that condition only, were they liable for the full punishment due to it. If it be said that their existence at that time was a simple ideality, we admit it, and so would have been their punishment. But as the personal existence of a posterity was a promise and a prospective and provisional fact, by a kind of legal fiction they are spoken of as parties in the transaction, acting and being liable to penalty. On the supposition of their being born without the provi- sions of atonement, they must stand exposed to eter- nal death; but such a supposition could never have become a reality : eternal justice and eternal mercy alike forbade it. Apart from grace, indeed, eternal ruin must have followed to every child of Adam ; but human nature, in fact, never was left for one moment without grace. The theory of Augustine, therefore, that eternal death might be actually inflicted in jus- tice upon the living millions of Adam's posterity for the first sin, does not follow from the premises of the apostle. As a legal fiction it may be assumed for the RELATION OP CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. Ill) sake of the argument, but as a fact it could never exist. If, therefore, the condemnation here spoken of is understood to apply to the successive, living generations of Adam's posterity, then the only ad- missible sense of the apostle is found in the hypothe- sis that he uses language, not in the strictly philo- sophical, or the "juridico-philosophical" sense, but in the more popular way, to denote that the consequences of Adam's sin have reached us to the extent of nat- ural death, the derangement and preponderance of fleshly appetites, and the disability and injury of our whole nature. In this popular way of speaking God says he is "a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation" — Exod. xx, 5 — because, in his right- eous providence, the children are made to suffer the evil consequences of their fathers' acts. But in the strict, juridical sense God says, " The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son ;" but " the soul that sinneth it shall die." Ezek. xviii, 4, 20. But in whatever sense the words of the apostle may be understood, it is the same as it affects the pending argument. He speaks of our race. Our common humanity fell under the awful xaraxocua — sentence of the laiv. This was the Divine judgment. Now, coextensive with this sentence of condemnation was the " free gift " of Christ " unto justification." And this drxatcotm — justification — is not a mere legal exemption from punishment, not a bare legal ac- 120 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. quittal, but a state of personal righteousness, as the word imports, and as it is elsewhere rendered. Chil- dren are, therefore, hereby accounted as personally righteous through Christ. The same word — ocxauo/m, justification — is used in this same, 18th, verse, and translated righteousness, and denotes the righteous- ness of Christ. "Even so by the righteousness of one," etc. The same word also occurs* in the phrases "the righteousness of the law," in Rom. ii, 26, and viii, 4; and still more in point, as fixing the usage, in Rev. xix, 8, where it is expressly applied to "the righteousness of the saints." The word, therefore, denotes the personal state of Tightness, or approval in the eye of God. In verse 18 the antithesis is carried out more fully, and the moral idea of justi- fication clearly brought to view. It is a baaicoatv fftjiyc — justification of life. "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to con- demnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Whatever that " condemnation " was, as to its legal or moral effect upon our race, it was effectually re- moved by the efficacious righteousness of Christ, and a "justification to life" was bestowed in its stead. And we repeat it, as this "justification of life" was a "free gift" to our humanity, to the race as such, and not to any class or age as such, it must take effect in infancy; that is, it must take effect with each individual as soon as he becomes a partaker of the "condemnation" of humanity. The justifi- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO OHRJ 121 cation covers nil the condemned, and reverses the u judgment" which stands against us at the first moment when it would otherwise take effect This is the conclusion to which the logic and exegesis of the passage bring us. 3. In verse 19 the apostle employs still another term to set forth the condition of Adam's posterity in consequence of his disobedience. They are u 9Wr *-By one man's disobedience the many were :" 8.fMapza>Xol y.a.7z.<77(idr t (jas — were con- stituted sinners, or depraved. In what sense the sin of Adam produced this result, or by what law of connection with his posterity it was effected, we re- peat, it is not relevant to our present argument here to discuss. It is the asserted fact that we are now concerned with. It must be remembered that Paul is here speaking of "the many," the race, as being made sinners by the disobedience of Adam. It was not the actual transgression of "the manv*' which constituted them " sinners,*' as the Pelagian theory teaches, but the disobedience of too fade dsdpcozo-j — the oxe max. The sinful condition of the race is here set down as the result of " one man's disobedience.'' In verse 12 the apostle had 1 that by this same u hoc d^dpcozov — ONE KAN — sin entered into the world;"' and the death penalty, which is in consequence of that first sin, had not been limited to the u one max," but had 1 upon "all men." The word r.d^zz: — all — here, says \Viner. means -all who belong to the genus 122 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. of man;" and the apostle adds that " death passed upon all, for that all have sinned."' Death could not pass upon beings who were in no sense sinners, but it has passed upon the "genus of man" the race, the humanity; therefore the race, the humanity, is sinful. It reaches earliest infancy ; therefore earliest infancy is reckoned in sin through Adam. The grammatical difficulty in the clause, "for that all have sinned," is in the words ty cJ, translated "for that." But without entering the discussion here, we only say that the argument of Paul requires us to understand the words emphatically as causal-conjunc- tive, as Luther, Neander, Muller, Stuart, Olshausen, Yenema, and others do, and read it, "Because all have sinned." And this by the terms of the argu- ment applies to infants. Witsius says that Augustine and most of the orthodox translated the words, "in whom all have sinned;" and he himself adopts the same, and says : " It is certain that ini, when joined to a dative, denotes in; as Matt, xiv, 8 — 'In a charger:' Rom. v, 14 — l In the similitude,' etc." But Erasmus says that when ini signifies upon or in it is joined to the genitive. Witsius admits, in the words "for that" the apostle "gives the reason of that assertion which he had before laid down, that by the sin of one man death passed upon all. This, says Paul, ought not to astonish you, for all have sinned." So that herein TVitsius himself gives up the point, and comes back to the translation, " because all have sinned." RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 12-) In the second canon established against Pelagius by the General Synod of the African Bishops, held at Carthage, A. 1). 418, the Angustinian sense of "in whom" is given, and children are accounted as having sinned in Adam. The canon says: "For what the apostle says, 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death has passed to all men — in quo — in whom all have sinned,' is to be understood in no other way but as the catholic Church, every where diffused, has always understood it. For, according to this rule of faith, even little children, who have not yet been capable of commit- ting any sin in themselves, are thus truly baptized for the remission of sins, that what they derived by generation may be cleansed by regeneration." But the version of Augustine can be accounted for on theological grounds, if not on philological. He was led to contemplate human nature as a unit in Adam, and thus, in the language of Hagenbach, "he considered the human race as a compact mass, a col- lective body, responsible in its unity and solidarity." This led him to the following proposition : that " as all men have sinned in Adam they are justly sub- ject to the condemnation of God, on account of this hereditary sin and the guilt thereof." But the sin of infancy is not the sin of a personal act. Nor must the doctrine of the federal relation of Adam to his posterity, and which has given so widely popular a basis to systematic theology since the time of Cocceius, 1648, be so construed as to make the 124 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. posterity of Adam justly liable for the penalty of his first transgression. It is by an abuse and overstraining of the metaphor of the apostle only that such extreme and revolting consequences are reached. Sin, anterior to any responsible action of the individual, can never create a sense of guilt, nor would God have suffered the propagation of the race leaving infants subject to hopeless wrath, or without a provision for their certain restitution. It is not, therefore, in this sense or to this extent that the race are accounted sinful for the sin of the first man; but they are sinners as being contrary to that holy and perfect nature in which man was created — contrary to the perfect rectitude of the law — pos- sessing a nature alien to God and disinclined to his commands. Venema translates the words in ques- tion thus: " Because all have sinned;" that is, he says, "all are depraved: they partake of the same sin which entered into the world; namely, depravity." In what sense infants are made sinners is thus de- fined by Bishop Taylor: "To be born of Adam," says he, " is to be born under sin ; that is, under such inclinations to it that as no man will remain innocent, so no man can of himself keep the law of God." Bishop Pearson says : " Any corruption and inclination in the soul, to do that which God for- biddeth, and to omit that which God commandeth, howsoever such corruption and inclination came into the soul, whether by an act of his own will, or by an act of the will of another, is A six, as being something RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 126 duaonant and repugnant to the law of God.'' It is this defection of our nature from the originally pure and perfect standard, this aptitude and inclination to things repugnant to the law of God, which is the state of sinfulness in winch we are born — a state con- stituted or brought upon us by the act of the one man, Adam. But to whatever extent, or in what- ever sense infanta are constituted sinners by Adam's offense, to the same extent, and in a sense equally real and personal, are they justified or made right- eous by Christ. "For as by one man's disobedience THE MANY WERE CONSTITUTED SLXXERS, SO by the obedience of one shall the maht be constituted RIGHTEOUS." The antitheses in the fore^oinsr argument of Paul o o o are in every sense complete. The injury done to our nature by the first transgression finds a sover- eign and efficacious remedy through the second Adam. The terms employed are all of marked and well-defined significance in Scripture usage, and the point of the argument can not be evaded. If any man affirm that infants are in a state of sin, con- demnation, or death, by nature, we admit it on the warrant of Scripture; but by the same authority we further affirm they are in a state of justification, righteousness, and life, by grace. " The grace of God and the gift by grace hath abounded unto the many" — the total number who are injured by the sin of Adam. This grace, as it first comes to them, is unconditional, absolute, and efficacious. It comes 126 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. to them, not by faith, not through any human agency, not by the piety of parents, nor the use of outward ordinances, but directly and sovereignly from " the one man, Jesus Christ." It is the fruit of atone- ment, the triumph of redeeming love over the ma- lignity of the first transgression. It does not remove all the personal effects of the first transgression upon the descendant; the seeds of disease and death are still in the mortal body, the nature is yet faulty, prone to evil of itself, with an undue intensity of ap- petite, passion, and desire, or, as Augustine called it, concupiscence — concupiscentia — but the legal liability to condemnation and wrath is removed; and the per- sonal unfitness of the soul as a moral entity involved in the race and ancestry and common nature of transgressors is removed, and a righteousness all of grace provided and imparted, which infallibly lifts our humanity to heaven, unless forfeited in maturer life by the voluntary rejection of its benefits. Such is Paul's doctrine. His argument is complete, it can not be added to or annulled. If the sin of Adam has abounded in evil effects upon our common hu- manity, unconditionally depraving our common na- ture, and becoming the occasion of all actual sin, so has the obedience and grace of Christ super abounded in all saving effects, unconditionally to our infant race, and conditionally upon repentance and faith to all responsible human beings. We say with Clement of Rome, who wrote in the same century with Paul: "Let us consider, therefore, brethren, whereof we RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 127 were made; who and what kind of persons we came into this world, as if it were [as to our depravity] out of a sepnleher, and from utter darkness. He that made and formed us brought us into Ins own world, having prepared for us his ben* re we born." II. Again, we cite Matt, xviii, 1-14, as proof of the gracious state of infants. The entire force and legitimacy of our argument here depend upon the assumption that children proper — children prior to the age of accountability, except in verse 6, to be noticed hereafter, are the subject of our Lord's dis- course throughout. This is the position we take : from verses 3 to 14 our Lord discourses upon chil- dren proper; at verse 15 the discourse takes a turn upon the duties and relations of adult Christians toward each other. This suits the occasion. That occasion was marked and memorable. The apostles had mistaken the character of Christ's kingdom ; had equally mistaken the character of its true members, an»d the duties of its chief ministers ; and had in- dulged in worldly emulations and disputes. To cor- rect all these errors our Lord enters somewhat at large into discourse upon the nature of his kingdom, the conditions of membership, the character and duties of members, and the humility, self-denial, and unworldliness of its true ministers. He begins, as we said, with infant members, and continues to verse 14: he then turns the discourse upon the mutual duties of adult members. 128 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. We earnestly invite the most candid and critical attention of the reader to the several steps of the argument, believing that, however it may lie against his former prejudices and habits of exposition, it de- serves his thorough scrutiny and candid judgment. 1. First of all, then, mark the circumstances in which our Lord introduces the discourse. He " called a little child and set him in the midst of them," verse 2. Mark says — chap, ix, 36 — Jesus "took this child in his arms, and said unto them/' etc. This circumstance determines the very tender age of the child. We may suppose that the Savior held the child in his arms during the entire discourse. The point we make here is simply that our Lord begins the discourse by calling attention to a little child which he actually held in his arms. The discourse began upon children; the moral of the discourse can not weaken this fact. 2. As our Lord commenced the discourse by mak- ing a little child the basis of comparison and princi- pal subject of remark, we must suppose that when, afterward, in the same connection, he uses the term "child" or "little one" he means such a "child," or "little one," as the one which he first presented to view, and which he is still holding in his arms, that same specimen child, unless the nature of the case, or some specially qualifying terms, shall show to the contrary. The point lies here : the words " little child," and " little ones," must be understood either in a literal sense, as denoting children proper, or else RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 129 in a figurative sense, as denoting adult Christian disciples, who resemble children in moral disposition. Now, as our Lord began with the literal application o-f these terms, we must suppose he continues the same throughout the subject, unless it becomes necessary to assume the figurative meaning, in order to make good sense. If no such necessity rise, it is in violation of one of the fundamental laws of inter- pretation to depart from the literal and seek for a figurative meaning. We take the ground that no such necessity exists. For, first, there is nothing affirmed of these " little ones" which may not be affirmed of children proper. Throughout the entire discourse our Lord simply says of them that they are to be "received in his name," and this duty Luke ix, 48, applies directly and literally to children, " Whoso shall receive this child in my name," etc. ; also that these " little ones " are "not to be despised;" that "their angels do always behold the face of God in heaven;" that "the Son of man came to seek and to save " them ; and that it is "not the will of God that one of them should perish." Whence, then, arises the necessity for assuming that our Lord intended adult disciples by the appellation "little ones?" The assumption is not made necessary or relevant by the nature of the case, or the predicates of the subject. But, secondly, the use of the demonstratives dbro^ and toco~jtoz — this and such — is decisive here. Having taken the child in his arms, he says : " Except ye be 130 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. converted and become [d>c ra jrawla] as these little children" etc. — the article here having the force of the pronoun. And again: "Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself [d»c to nacoiov touto'] as THIS little child;" again, " Whoso shall receive one [jzacdiov Toiouzou] such little child;" again, "Take heed that ye despise not one of \_fiapwv tovtcop] these little ones;" and, finally, " It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of [ficxp&v toutcov] these little ones should perish." These are all the in- stances — except verse 6 — wherein allusion is made to the "little ones." Mark here the force of the pro- nouns this, these, such. That nacocov touto — this little child — in verse 4, refers to the identical child which Christ held in his arms, no one doubts. But in the very next verse, and in closest connection with this, our Lord says : " Whoso shall receive one [nawtou tocoutou] such little child, in my name," etc. The demonstrative tocouto^ — such, of such hind — indicates a hind or sort which had already been de- fined. It relates to some antecedent noun represent- ing the hind, sort, or species which the pronoun such here distinguishes. But what is that noun, and what that species? It is the Ttatoiov — little child — men- tioned in verse 4, and which the Savior had called to him and then held in his arms. To assume any other antecedent is to travel out of the text and resort to hypothesis against the laws of grammatical connec- tion. Precisely the same may be said in regard to every subsequent occurrence of toutcov — these. " It RELATION OF CniLDIIOOD TO CHRIST. 131 is a law of the Greek demonstratives," says a living Greek critic, "that ouroc and zoco^zo- refer to an an- tecedent recently mentioned, with which they are coex- tensive, while zotoadz and bos refer to something yet to be mentioned.'.' To understand rzacoiov — little chill — therefore, in the second verse, literally, as all must, and the demonstratives referring to it figura- tively, as some do, is a violation of one of the plainest laws of language. Throughout the connection no other antecedent noun explaining and representing the class, kind, or species to which these demonstra- tives allude appears, except the original xacdiov — little child — introduced by our Lord at the beginning of his discourse. Thirdly, the scope and pertinency of our Lord's discourse more fitly determines the appellation "little ones," to children in age than to adult Christians. He introduces a little child as a symbol of humility and a representative of the subjects of his kingdom, and commences to warn them against offending, reject- ing — not "receiving" — despising, and neglecting the "little ones." Now, we could not suppose that the twelve apostles were in danger of thus treating gen- uine adult disciples, accredited as such, however hum- ble they might be; this would suppose them in a worse moral and doctrinal condition than the evan- gelical history, or our Lord's admonition, authorizes. Luke, indeed, introduces John as saying he " saw one casting out devils in Christ's name, and forbade him, because he followed not them." But John did 132 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. not accept this person as a true disciple. He forbade him, not because he was of humble gifts and preten- sions, but because he doubted the genuineness and orderly character of his discipleship. The apostles were not in danger of contentiously rejecting adult disciples, accredited as such, but their views of the kingdom of Christ at this time were such as that they might have need of these cautious and admonitory instructions in regard to little children. It might not have impressed them that " of such was the kingdom of heaven" to be composed, and their apostolic duty to children might never have once seriously entered their thoughts. But especially in verse 14, unless children in age are intended, the argument becomes insignificant and pointless. For our Lord to say sol- emnly, as the summing up of a most thrilling dis- course, that " it is not the will of God that one genuine adult disciple should perish," would be trifling. But if he means the infant members of our race here, the declaration is in point, and a glorious republica- tion of a doctrine dear to the heart of every Hebrew. It was also in point to admonish them that the new kingdom he was about to set up embraced the sub- stance and prototype of the Old Testament Church touching children. Luke sets down the moral of our Lord's discourse on this occasion thus : " For he that is least among you all, the same shall be great." In this, also, Mark agrees. This is precisely Matthew's statement : "Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. little child, the same is g in the kingdom of 11 . I quote the language of Hernias, who wrote a few year? later than the Evangelists, we may say. •* Whosoever, therefore, shall continue as infants. without malice, shall be more honorable than all of whom I have yet spoken : for all infants are valued by the L si emed first of all:" that is. held in the first rank — the very sentiment of Christ, and worthily express this apostolic father. The in- culcation of humility, and a rebuke of their conten- tious aspirations to be the "greatest." was the point of the m of this discourse about children : but all this in no wise makes against the literal application of the discourse to children as given by Matthew. The literal part, which was dilated, and which Mat- thew has given in its entire connections, became the •f the moral and figurative teaching ; nay, fur- ther, the enlargement of our L:: Pa - rarse, at this moment, upon little children, gave breadth and force to the admonition, as calcu" call them down to humbler themes, and as contrasting the drift of the r's thoughts with that of the disci}" 58, 3. In verse 6. which we have sogg rted was a slight exception to the uniform use of patpmi — little — in this discourse, our Lord still speaks of chil- dren proper, children, we may suppose, of the age of five to ten years, children old enough to form some notions of right and wrong, old enough to •'believe in Christ." And when we consider that faith is one of the very earliest growths of the child's mind, and 134 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. that some knowledge of right and wrong, and of re- ligious relation and duty — to the instructed child — appears quite as early as the above ages, and that these first germs of infantile piety, while they are easily crushed and blighted, are of unspeakable worth to the life and character in later years ; and when, also, we consider that hundreds of witnesses may be summoned from the living, and from the records of the pious dead, whose faith in Christ dates back to the tender age of five or six to ten years, who, as Justin Martyr says of many in his day, "were dis- cipled to Christ in their childhood;'"' when all these things are considered, I say, we offer no force to the sense of words nor the occasion and scope of our Lord's discourse, nor to known facts in nature and in history, by understanding the Savior as speaking in the 6th verse of little children who first begin to learn the lessons of evangelical faith and the answer to prayer. Indeed, what else can he mean, when, with a "little child'' in his arms, and children as the subject of his discourse, he says to the disciples, " Whoso shall offend pva x&v fuxp&p tout&v tcov Tuareoovroiv e*c l/*e] o^ E [ tnat is? 0XE single one] of these little believers in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned, in the depths of the sea.'*' Mark and Luke both relate this incident in our Lord's history, and both keep an exclusive reference to children throughout. Matthew, in this case, as is his custom, brings together more largely than the RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 185 other Evangelists the several parts of our Lord's dis- course, but never once breaks the unity of the sub- ject, or takes his eye oft' from the "little children." It may not be improper to remark that the same child which Jesus held in his arms may have sup- plied the occasion for this solemn caution against offending "little ones who believe." Matthew sa}'s, "Jesus called a little child to him." This "calling" the child would indicate it was of an age to walk, yet his taking it in his arms would still determine it to be in its infantile stage. Now, we know that religious faith manifests itself in child- hood often as early as the age of four or five years. Possibly, in this same child which he held in his arms the first and tender est stage of faith already appeared, which a worldly, unspiritual Church and ministry would overlook, and with careless step be likely to crush in the germ. We make no account of the tradition that this child which Jesus called was afterward the great Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch; w r e only say it is not impossible that he should have al- ready discovered to the eye of Jesus the beginnings of that faith which called forth the peculiar language of verse 6. Be this as it may, a child of tenderest years seems obviously intended — one whose immature powers were inadequate to judge, reason, and pro- tect itself, and for that cause was exposed to the greatest liability to spiritual injury. In fine, through- out this discourse of our Lord the helplessness and dependence of these "little ones" are constantly as- 136 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. sumed, and it is this assumption which gives peculiar point and force to his admonitions. 4. An instance strongly corroborative of the posi- tion here taken as to the meaning of verse 6, is found in Matt, x, 40-42. The whole passage reads thus : "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that re- ceiveth me receiveth Him that sent me. He that re- ceiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall re- ceive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink, unto one of these little ones, a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his re- ward." The question arises, Who is intended by the " little ones" in the last verse? The natural force of the language employed seems to make the under- standing of little children necessary. For, first, the enumeration of persons, or characters, here is so full as to authorize the assumption that our Lord in- tended to cover all classes and grades of discipleship. This we must suppose, unless we take some of the titles as tautological, which can not be admitted. Then, again, our Lord observes a regularly-descend- ing grade, a sort of inverted climax, in the order of this enumeration, which again forces upon us the be- lief that by u little ones" he means children. For instance, our Lord first mentions apostles — "he that receiveth f ou," etc. ; next to apostles he places "prophets" — izpotpfjTiqv — a word in the New Testa- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 137 ment sense denoting a public teacher who speaks under a Divine commission and influence ; then lie mentions the " righteous man" — dixacou — the designa- tion every where given to the adult disciple, or wor- shiper of God ; last of all he brings into the enumer- ation the " little ones" — fuxpwv — who are also "dis- ciple*" — fiadirjral — "Whosoever shall give to one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple" etc. The "little ones," therefore, were "disciples;" they were little children in whom the germs of Christian faith and piety appeared, and who, hence, belonged to the great Christian family. On any other assumption there must be unmean- ing tautology in the words of Christ ; but in this view how beautiful the gradation observed in the class- ifications of the Savior — apostle, prophet, righteous man, little one ! The apostle and p> ro phet represented all official dignity in discipleship ; the righteous man represented all unofficial, genuine adult discipleship; the little one is brought in with characteristic benig- nity by the Savior, as otherwise likely to be over- looked by the proud world, and even by the less thoughtful of the Church. These, also, must be min- istered to " in the name of a disciple" and the con- descending love of God will reward the smallest acts of favor fraternally and religiously bestowed upon them. This view seems further confirmed by close atten- tion to the sense to be affixed to the term dixaco^ — righteous man. If this word, according to its common 12 138 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD usage, denotes a genuine disciple whose tvorJcs attest the genuineness of his discipleship, and who is thus contradistinguished from all others who are not genu- ine, or from open transgressors, then there is no reason for introducing another word, as pcxpbv — little one — to denote a humble disciple, because this would be comprehended in the former word. There was occasion for using two descriptions of official grade of discipleship, as apostles and prophet, because here was a real distinction; but there was no occa- sion for distinguishing between any supposed grades of adult, unofficial discipleship, as by calling one righteous — dixcuoz — and the other humble — fiexpoQ. If, therefore, the former term — dcxato; — comprehended all that is implied in genuine adult discipleship, then it is clear that the latter term — prxobc, — must bear in it some further specialty of signification not in- cluded in adult discipleship, and this would throw us back to the only remaining signification, namely, that of childhood discipleship, which we have adopted. Now, that the word dixaco^ — righteous man — in the passage in question, does denote a genuine adult dis- ciple, is proved from its uniform use throughout the New Testament. I say adult disciple, because the force of the word righteous lies in the idea of obe- dience, conformity to laiv, rectitude of life, and there- fore more commonly implies mature responsibility. Instance such passages as the following: " He send- eth rain on the just and on the unjust;" "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance;" RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 180 "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father;" "He shall sever the wicked from the just;" "There shall be a resurrec- tion of the dead, both of the just and the unjust;" " The just shall live by faith ;" " Abel obtained wit- ness that he was righteous;" "If the righteous scarcely be saved;" "He that is righteous let him be righteous still," etc. Matt, v, 45; and ix, 13; and xiii, 43, 49; Mark ii, 17; Acts xxiv, 15; Rom. i, 17; Heb. xi, 41; 1 Pet. iv, 18; Rev. xxii, 11. Such is the usage of the word in the New Testa- ment. We say, therefore, that the natural force and comprehensiveness of the words employed by our Lord in Matt, x, 40-42, the enumeration of different classes and offices of discipleship, and the descending grade, or inverted climax, observed in the order of this enumeration, all combine to fix upon the word fjuxpcov — little ones — in the passage, the sense of childhood discipleship, the stage of pure and tenderest shoots of infantile piety. And to all this it may be added that such a sense would be in accordance with our Lord's practice on other occasions of bringing children before the notice of the apostles. We say, then, that this passage, as it relates to children, is a parallel of Matt, xviii, 6. 5. Finally, in verse 14 of Matt, xviii, our Lord concludes his discourse in respect to little children, and by a very natural law of suggestion turns to a kindred subject — the mutual relation and duties of adult members of his kingdom. This change of topic 140 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. is marked by every natural indication of language. First, the adversative particle Sk — moreover — stands in its proper place, denoting a transition as well as continuation of thought— "Moreover, I say unto you," etc. Secondly, we meet no more with the recurrence of rioxoiov — little child — or fjuxpwu — little ones — these are dropped from the discourse. But, thirdly, we meet the appropriate title which is every where given to adult disciples, and to such only, the title adefyoz — brother — "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee," etc. And, finally, the whole tenor of duties, cautions, encouragements, offenses, Church powers, and other statements of our Lord, show clearly that he is speaking to adults as such, just as he had been previously speaking of children as such. If, then, in Matt, xviii, 1-14, our Lord speaks throughout of little children, of whose age and ca- pacity the one he held in his arms was a representa- tive — except, possibly, in verse 6 — our next inquiry is, What did he affirm of them? What did he say of them, from which toe may gather information of their moral state? (1.) The fact that our Lord not only makes them the ground of comparison in setting forth the char- acter of a true member of his kingdom, but presents them as models of the genuine spirit and qualities of discipleship, implies that children themselves are legitimate members of the kingdom of God. It is true that genuine disciples are elsewhere compared to "sheep," to the "branches" of a vine, to "salt," to RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 141 " light," and to other objects. In every such com- parison there is a quality of resemblance, though nothing that can imply moral quality or character. The nature of the case sufficiently determines, in any instance, whether a moral or only a natural principle is involved as belonging to the subject of compari- son, as either the proximate or primary ground of similitude. We have not space to dilate this argument, but we prefer to think with Neander, that " Christ could not have used those and similar expressions in commend- ation of what existed in children as an undeveloped bud, if he had not recognized in them a divine im- press, a glimmering knowledge of -God." And, again, the same writer says : " By making children a model, Christ recognized in them not only the undeveloped spirit of self, but also the undevel- oped consciousness of God, striving after its original. The whole transaction — of Matt, xix, 13-15 — illus- trates the tone with which Christ goes to meet the dawning sense of God in human nature." Indeed, it is difficult to conceive by what law of fitness or si- militude one human being who is not a Christian can be set forth as the chosen and standing model of one that is. (2.) But the gracious moral state of infants, their oneness with Christ, is necessarily implied in verse 5 : " Whosoever, therefore, shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me." Luke is still more explicit; he says: "Whosoever shall receive [touzo to 7zacdio>~\ 142 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. this little child in my name receiveth me." Luke ix, 48. Mark says : " ev rwv tocoutwv natdcajv — one of such children" Here, then, to receive a child in Christ's name is an act of such religious import, and so pleasing to Christ, that it is accepted by- Christ as if he himself were received. The act is rewarded as if done to Christ. The point here to be noticed is the identification of children, under the Gospel or redemptive economy, with Christ. If they were not " in Christ" if they were not Christ's, it would be impossible to receive them "in his name" according to the well-known and marked import of that phrase in the New Testament. To receive one in the name of another is to receive him as his per- sonal friend or representative. Stier explains this loving reception for Christ's name's sake thus : " Be- cause Christ has received them, and because Christ will that they be received." The standing idea of the word "receive" where it defines a duty of one Christian to another, or of the Church to individuals, is to admit to brotherhood. It is an act of Christian recognition and fellowship. See the use of the word in Acts xv, 4; Rom. xiv, 1; 2 Cor. vii, 2; Phil, ii, 29 ; 2 John, 10 ; 3 John, 8, 10. But to receive in Christ's name is much more emphatic. Mark decides the meaning of this phrase by direct explanation. In chap, ix, 41, he quotes the language of Christ thus: "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward." RELATION OP CUILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 143 The word- i$e ye belong to Ohrist" are explan- atory of the words "in my name'' To do an act to another in Christ's name, therefore, is to do it be- cause he belongs to Christ. Thus the phrase, in my 7iam<\ is equal to the phrase, in the Christian profes- sion and fellowship, as the New Testament usage and the direct authority of Mark decide. See this sense fully established in the use of this form of speech, Matt, x, 41, 42. Observe, then, here is a duty com- manded, to receive children in Christ's name, and the very terms of this command prove that children be- long to Christ as the spiritual members of his family and kingdom, and our act of obedience to this com- mand acknowledges this fact. As to the question, How is this duty of receiving children in Christ's name to be fulfilled? though it is not our present business to answer, yet it may be observed that children are to be acknowledged by the Church as the legitimate heirs of the kingdom, and entitled to family or fraternal recognition in its visible membership. The virtue of this recognition is to the effect of securing to them all the benefits of Church influence, nurture, and care, which their age and capacity require. But the first official act of receiving children in Christ's name, and recognizing them as of the true Christian family, is by the ordi- nance of baptism, which is the standing sign and seal of discipleship. The direct argument here pending, however, is that the command of Christ to receive children in his name proves, by the very terms of 144 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the precept, their gracious state and spiritual mem- bership. If children had been regarded by Christ as in the light of aliens to his kingdom, subjects of wrath, such as they are by nature and apart from grace, he could never have used such language as this. But all is plain when we consider them as re- deemed beings, and by grace united to, and living in, the heart of Christ. (3.) In verse 6 we are cautioned against "offend- ing" that is, placing an occasion of sin in the ivay of — oxavdaMOTj — one of these little ones ; and in verse 10 we are further cautioned against "despising" that is, lightly esteeming, neglecting them. The despising and offending here are the direct antitheses of "re- ceiving" in verse 5. This caution is enforced by two arguments: 1. "In heaven their angels [the angels of children] do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven;" 2. "The Son of man is come to saye that which was lost." The "lost" here com- prehends the human family; but by the connections of the passage specifically points out the " little ones," in the preceding verse, as its immediate grammatical and logical antecedent. The sequel — verse 14 — as well as the closest connection of the discourse, proves this. The words d.jyzloc abrcov — their angels — we understand to mean, according to the common ac- ceptation, their guardian angels, or then- ministering angels, not the departed souls of children. The apos- tles could not doubt that when the souls of children entered heaven they would behold the face of God; RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 14") but they might doubt that here, in their earthly state, God had such special care of them as to put them under charge of the highest order of angels. The scope of the passage, therefore, would require us to understand our Lord as speaking of the ministering angels of children, according to the Scripture doc- trine laid down in Heb. i, 14, where the angels are said to be all "ministering spirits sent forth to min- ister to those who shall be heirs of salvation." But if the angels are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, and if the higher angels are appointed over children, then children are heirs of salvation; and if then* angelic guardianship is specially honorable, so are they peculiarly precious in the eyes of the chief Lord and Shepherd. But in either construction of this remarkable verse the doctrine is the same as it regards the moral state of infants. Here is a divine care, a distinguished honor, a liberal grace extended to children; therefore let no man despise them or offend them; let them not overlook their claims and rights as being too insignificant for their notice and special care, nor lay in their way, either by any evil purpose or culpable neglect, an occasion of sin whereby they shall be turned out of the way of holiness. It was a religious despising as well as a religious offend- ing that our Lord was speaking against — a thinking lightly of their spiritual wants, their spiritual claims, their spiritual relations and destiny. " The Son of man came to save that which was lost;" therefore think not lightly of their spiritual state and welfare. 13 146 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. They are placed under the guardianship of the highest angels; therefore let not apostles, and ministers, and Churches neglect or offend them. (4.) In verse 14 our Lord says : " Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." This clause fol- lows as a conclusion upon the brief and beautiful parable of the lost sheep, which our Lord throws into the discourse to illustrate the seeking love and care of God. This proves that it was not the sole object of the Savior here to inculcate humility by the ex- ample and symbol of childhood, but to extend the views of the disciples upon the general plan of God respecting children, and the condescending and par- ticular love of God to them. The "little ones'' in this concluding clause are not adult disciples. The pertinency of our Lord's discourse would forbid such an application. It would seem trifling for him to aver, after a most thrilling discourse, in which chil- dren became at once the symbol and subject, that it was not the will of God that one genuine adult dis- ciple should perish. The disciples never doubted this. It was not involved in their original dispute, and was not relevant to the immediate occasion. But for the further rebuke of their high and worldly notions of Christ's kingdom, in which each desired to be greatest, it was seeming and natural for the Divine Savior to enlarge upon the relations of children to the Gospel scheme and the Gospel kingdom as involving their subsequent duty and apostolic care, and the compre- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 147 hensive plan of Christ for extending his kingdom ovei the earth. The bearing of this concluding clause of verse 14 on the duty of attending to the moral culture of chil- dren is obvious; but the point just here to be noticed is, that this passage in its connection directly affirms it to be the will of God to save children. They are in a state of salvation. It is the will of God to save them, and they have not yet opposed that will. If the will of God, the redeeming love of Christ, had not yet, and was not intended to, put them in a state of favor with God ; if all that God in Christ had done for them had not yet had the efficacy to redeem them from under the curse of the law, and place them in the favor of God; if still the}' were left in their native state of depravity, under its power, and had not been brought under the power of grace ; if this were the case, we can not see the propriety of the language used by Christ, nor can we see the relevancy of his cautioning and instructing the apos- tles to give the most special heed to the religious condition and wants of children, while God himself and the " Son of man," who came to save the lost, had not given them the first quickening principle of life, nor brought them under the reign of the kingdom of grace. Such a supposition contradicts the whole analogy of Bible doctrine respecting prevenient grace, no less than the argument of Christ in question. III. To all the foregoing we may add the ever- memorable and blessed declaration of our Lord, re- 148 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ' corded in Matt, xix, 14 ; " Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom OF heaven." Here, also, the strong, demonstrative toioutwp — SUCH — finds its antecedent in ra 7:0.101a — the little children — and the declara- tion is too literal, too direct and unequivocal to admit of doubt as to its meaning, and too precious to be- come the subject of frivolous criticism. Children be- long to the kingdom of God as legitimate heirs and subjects, and if so, according to the universal law of that kingdom, it is because they are made fit for it. And both the fitness and the consequent membership are the free gift and fruit of redeeming love. What our Lord affirms of children here, he affirms of chil- dren as such, of all children, not of any class or par- ticular number. It must be considered that the occasion of this last- quoted passage from Matt, xix, 14, is different from that of chap, xviii, just noticed. In the latter a child is introduced for an ulterior purpose; namely, to in- culcate humility. In the former children are brought to Christ not to become the symbol of Christian dis- cipleship ; not to furnish an illustration of moral teaching to adults ; but that they themselves may be blessed. The occasion began and terminated with the children. But even if we were to admit that in both passages a comparison is instituted between the dispositions of children and those of true disciples, we are bound to apply our Lord's words as positively to children as to adult disciples, otherwise we destroy RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 14!> the ground of the comparison. We can not deny the application of our Lord's words to children proper, ■without sweeping away the basis of the metaphor, and thus annulling the force and pertinency of its moral application to adult believers. On the meaning of the phrase " kingdom of heaven,'' it should be observed that it is a compre- hensive phrase, denoting, in general, the reign or do- minion of Christ, or the grand scheme of the re- demptive economy administered and executed by Jesus Christ. Now, the earthly manifestation of this kingdom is either personal in the hearts of believers, or public and organic in the constitution of the visible Church. The word "church" — exx/^ala — occurs but twice in the Evangelists ; namely, in Matt, xvi, 18, and xviii, 17. The Jewish word bearing a similar import was synagogue. It was not proper that the Christians should adopt a strictly Jewish vocabulary ; this would introduce confusion, and would be incon- sistent with that distinctness and separation which our Lord intended. Neither was it proper for our Lord to introduce prematurely a new name to denote the congregation of his followers. The time of sepa- ration had not yet come. The Old Testament had spoken of Messiah's reign under the figure and title of a kingdom. John Baptist and Jesus adopted this title. But it is remarkable that in Matt, xvi, 18, 19, where our Savior first uses the word "church" he in- terchanges it with the word "kingdom." u Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church, 150 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This "binding and loosing," according to Kabbinical usage, says Stier, is equivalent to " forbidding and allowing," censuring and acquitting. Taking the "keys" here as an emblem of power, authority, we have set forth the doctrine of apostolic investiture, of Church au- thority. The binding and loosing were to be done "on earth;" the "keys of the kingdom" were the keys of the Church, which is the earthly form and manifestation of the kingdom. The Church, here compared to a building founded on a rock and per- manent, was intrusted to the care of those to whom the builder committed the keys. Just here, then, where our Lord first introduces the new word church, he shows it to be the visible representative and earthly form of his kingdom, by making the words church and kingdom interchangeable. And this same use of the "keys" or authority of the Church, in the exercise of discipline, is brought out in Matt, xviii, 18 ; the only other place where the word occurs in the evangelical history. Children are reckoned to the kingdom, the Church ; and let those who have the keys of Church authority and government take good heed that they abuse not then trust in excluding such as belong within its sacred pale. But particularly let it be observed, that when Christ himself, the "Head RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 151 of the Church, the Lord of the kingdom, pronounces with authority that children, such as he could and did take up in his arms and bless, are members of the kingdom, or Church of God, he affirms of them all that moral state which involves fitness for eternal blessedness, and a title thereto. And this, as we have said, he affirms of children as such, not of any favorite class or special number. The words of Jesus are a beautiful response to the voice of the Old Test- ament — "Behold, children are Jehovah's inheritance, and the fruit of the womb his recompense." Psa. exxvii, 3. Glorious reward of the Redeemer's trav- ail — most of our race die in childhood ! 152 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER IV. EELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST— CONTINUED. Recapitulation of the Bible argument — Are infants regenerate ? — Bishop Hopkins's view — Dr. Wall — Dr. Waterland — Archbishop Seeker — Archbishop Usher — Bishop Bedell — Mr. Goode — Mr. Wes- ley — Richard Watson — Luther — Chrysostoin — Gregory Nazianzen — Coelestius — Dr. Some — The question stated — Meaning of yewdu (gen- nao) — John iii, 5 — Regeneration and life often synonymous — Use of <£am£u> {to illuminate) — Dr. Bomberger on infant regeneration — Regen- eration not baptism — Spiritual — Regeneration and conversion de- fined — New creature — Children capable of a principle of divine life — Bishop Beverage — Bishop Davenant — Bishop Taylor — Witsius — Dean Comber — Early Protestant divines — The subject again stated — St. Augustine — Bishop Taylor — Moral state of infants, dying or living, the same — Justification and regeneration mutually imply each other. What, then, is the doctrine of Scripture respecting the moral state of infants ? The ground already gone over deserves to be recapitulated, and the results stated with more special reference to theological opin- ion. We say, then, 1. That children are declared "justified" — freed from the condemnation which fell upon our common humanity by the sin of Adam, and restored to favor through Christ, their second and more powerful rep- resentative. Rom. v, 16, 18. 2. Children are made partakers of u the grace of God and the gift by grace, which hath abounded unto the many." Of this "grace of God," this "abund- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L58 anee of grace and the gift of righteousness," they arc not only heirs, but "receivers" actual partakers, and on this ground only does the apostle confidently declare " they shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." Rom. v, 15, 17. 3. They are "made righteous" through the obe- dience of Christ. The word "make" — xaOiazr^u — means to constitute, to cause to be; children are consti- tuted, caused to be, rigltteous. As truly as they were "constituted sinners" by the sin of Adam, and to the same extent, they are constituted righteous by Christ. The point of the idea here is, that this righteousness is not prospective and anticipatory, or contingent, but present and real. By the Divine act and in the Divine reckoning they are righteous through the merit of Christ, their second representative and Restorer. Rom. v, 19. If they were reckoned in Adam as if they had broken the precept, in Christ and through his perfect righteousness they are accounted as though they had fulfilled it. 4. They are partakers of the " life " which is the fruit and end and distinguishing quality of their justi- fication. " The free gift came upon all men to justi- fication of life." Rom. v, 18. The expression e/c dcxaiwacv £a>9j£ — unto justification of life — stands ex- actly opposed to e^c xardxpe/ta — unto condemnation — in verse 18, and to ~f] aiiojrria iv tuj d avoir w — the sin unto death — verse 21. Here, then, is "sin to death" on the one side, and "justification to life" on the other. Adam brought in the former ; Christ, the glo- 154 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. rious Restorer, brings in the latter. The points of the contrast are strongly drawn. But the point of our present statement specially relates to the words life and death. Do they denote the eternal conse- quences of sin and righteousness beyond the grave? or do they denote the present moral effect of sin and righteousness on the heart and character? The Scriptures every where teach that the life of God in the soul is eternal life begun. The life of grace here is the same, as to quality, as the life of glory hereafter. The " justification to life" is a justifica- tion which restores the dead soul to spiritual life here, and which, according to the tenor and purpose of grace, is to eventuate £?C ^wyv auovcov — in life eternal. On the basis of the same doctrine, our Lord says of the life of grace in the adult, "It is a fountain of water springing up [sfc faiiyv ahoviov\ into everlasting life." John iv, 14. The figure is inexpressibly beautiful. The spring, or fountain, which rises and flows over in the heart of the believer, flows God- ward, to and into eternal life, as a stream empties into the ocean. "Life eternal," says Bengel, "is the confluence of such fountains." The point to be no- ticed here is, that as all such passages as "justifica- tion of life," the "reigning of grace through right- eousness unto eternal life," "a fountain of [living] water in him springing up into eternal fife," establish the ultimate union of the spiritual life in the soul with eternal life hereafter, like the confluence of the stream with the ocean into which it empties ; so the RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 155 quality of the life in the soul must be the same as that eternal life with God, in which it eventuates. And if this "justification of life" comes to infants at all, it proves them suscipients, in the same sense of the principle of true spiritual life. 5. Children belong to the "kingdom of heaven." This beautiful and comprehensive summary of the ■whole doctrine of infant salvation, in the express ■words of Jesus, is decisive of their moral fitness for heaven. Matt, xix, 14. 6. They are to be "received" in Christ's name, that is, as Mark — chap, ix, 41 — defines the words, " because they belong to Christ" Matt, xviii, 5. 7. It is not the ivill of God that "one of these shoidd perish." 8. The Church is warned not to "despise" them, as to their religious condition and claims. Matt, xviii, 10. 9. They are the special objects of Divine care and angelic guardianship. Matt, xviii, 10. Such is the condition of childhood through the me- diation of grace; children come into this world with the imprint of the fall upon their physical and moral nature, but not legally liable for the failure of the Adamic dispensation. They are not born righteous and pure; that is, righteousness is not by virtue of natural generation, nor is purity the effect of natural innocence. Their nature is alienated from the life of God, and inclined only to evil. But aside from nature, and above nature, and counteractive of nature, 156 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. grace comes to them through the sovereign act of the "one man, Christ Jesus." This grace changes their legal and moral condition so as to render them fit for and entitled to eternal life, but does not remove their natural depravity. It annuls the sentence of the law, justifies, implants a principle of spiritual life, brings them under a gracious economy of salvation suited to sinful beings, and puts them upon a new probation; but, as in the regenerated adult, it leaves them with a fallen nature, which, of itself, would lead them away from God, and against which a life-long conflict must be waged. As Augustine says, speaking of the evil proclivity of our nature in children: "Its criminality, indeed, is forgiven ; but itself remains : remains even after baptism." 10. Still the question recurs, "Are infants in a re- generate state ?" This question, which we fear has come to be more technical than intelligible, more curious than edifying, we can not avoid here. But the answer can by no means be given by a simple yea or nay, because regeneration itself is a term which, in historic theology, has come to receive various significations. The answer, then, depends upon the definition given to this word. In the Church of England theology, where this subject is most thoroughly discussed, the sense in which children are regenerated has been abundantly difficult to settle and make plain. The lowest sense that has been resorted to by divines of that Church, is the introducing of children by baptism into a new state as to covenant duties, privileges, and RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 157 blessings. Thus Bishop Hopkins, of the seventeenth conturv, calls this kind of regeneration "external and ecclesiastical." He says: "But here may some say. * If baptism doth not confer a real and internal regen- eration on infants, who partake thereof, how, then, is it that the Church hath appointed a prayer in the office of baptism, wherein we bless God that it hath pleased him to regenerate the baptized infant with his Holy Spirit?' To this I answer, that the baptismal regeneration of infants is external and ecclesiastical, . . . and they are said to be regenerated by his Holy Spirit, because they are regenerated by his public institution." The learned Dr. Wall affirms a similar sentiment with a more chastened phraseology, when he says : " It is plain enough of itself that infants are not capable of regeneration in any other sense of the word, than as it signifies baptism; I mean the out- ward act of baptism, accompanied with that grace or mercy of God whereby he admits them into covenant, though without any sense of theirs." This makes the entire grace of baptismal regeneration, of which alone infants are said to be capable, to consist of " that grace and mercy of God whereby he admits them into coye- nant." In another place he says : " Most of the pedobaptists go no further than St. Augustine does; they hold that God, by his Spirit, does, at the time of baptism, seal and apply to the infant that is there dedicated to him, the promises of the coyenant of which he is capable, namely, adoption, pardon of [original] sin, translation from the state of nature 158 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. to that of grace, etc., on which account the infant is said to be regenerated of [or by] the Spirit; not that God does by any miracle at that time illuminate or convert the mind of the child. And for original sin, or the corruption of nature, they hold that God, by his covenant, does abolish the guilt of it, receives the child in his mercy in Christ, and consigns to him by promise such grace as shall afterward, by the use of means, if he live, be sufficient to keep it under," etc. But in all this phraseology there is an avoid- ance of terms which would involve the idea of a moral effect, or a principle of life, imparted, and the regeneration would seem to be rather formal and con- ventional, than real and spiritual. 11. Others hold to a spiritual regeneration at bap- tism, by the joint operation of water and the Holy Spirit, in the case of all adult persons who receive the sacrament by faith, or worthily; and this is the current doctrine of the Liturgy and standard writers. But in the case of infants there is a diversity of sen- timent. The Augustinian theory, which views all mankind as a corrupted mass, Adam with his pos- terity, infants with adults, and all deserving eternal damnation for original sin, from which some only are rescued by the decree of election, has largely reap- peared in the English Church, and modified their views both of the condition of infants prior to bap- tism and the efficacy of baptism when administered. Perhaps it should be regarded as the more prevalent opinion of the divines of that Church, that the sacra- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 159 ment of baptism is to be viewed in the light of a con- tract, which the baptismal recipient signs at baptism, and the Spirit ratifies whenever spiritual regeneration fully takes place, which, in the case of infants, is held to be at some subsequent date, when they personally believe and perform the duties of the covenant. Thus, Dr. Waterland, a learned divine of the last century, and a strenuous advocate for baptismal re- generation, says, speaking of children : "Their regeneration, begun in baptism, and left unfinished — like an indenture executed on one side only, or like a part without a counterpart — comes at last to be complete; that is, actually salutary, not by a formal regeneration, as if nothing had been done before, but by the repentance of the man, and by the sanctification or renovation of the heart and mind through the Spirit, which had been hitherto wanting." He says, " Regeneration may be granted and received, as in infants, where that renovation has no place at all for the time being." The regeneration of baptism he calls "the renewal of their state to God- ward," while " the renewing also of the heart may come gradu- ally on with their first dawnings of reason." To the same effect Archbishop Seeker says, "It is by no means necessary that a covenant should be executed by both the parties to it, at just the same time ;" and of infants who have been baptized, he says, that when they "ratify the engagement in their own persons," "it then becomes complete;" that is,- complete regener- ation then takes place with its concomitant blessings. 160 THE RELIGION" OF CHILDHOOD. Archbishop Usher, in 1645, says : " The righteous- ness of Christ, and all the promises of grace, were, in my baptism, estated upon me, and sealed up unto me on God's part ; but then I come to have the profit and benefit of them when I come to understand what grant God in baptism hath sealed up unto me, and actually to lay hold upon it by faith." Bishop Bedell, 1630, says : " This I do yield to my Lord of Sarum most willingly, that the justification, sanctification, and adoption which children have in bap* tism is not the same as that which adults have." " You will perceive, I think," says he, " the nature of sacra- ments to be not as medicines, but as seals, to confirm the covenant, not to confer the promise immediately." The learned and candid Mr. Goode says : " In pro- ceeding, then, to examine the baptismal services [of the Church of England] for infants, I commence with the remark that I give the highest sense to the bless- ing spoken of in the prayers and thanksgivings of- fered. I do not believe that the blessing there meant is only an introduction into the visible Church, or any thing less than spiritual regeneration." But then he immediately goes on to show that these spiritual blessings are conditioned upon the pledges and prom- ises made by the sponsors for the child, and that "the baptismal blessing is only to be expected in the case of infants that reach adult age, when what is then promised is performed." Still he admits that " there may be, if it please God, an immediate effect from the rite of baptism in the case of infants. The RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 1G1 seeds of faith and repentance may be implanted by God at the earliest age 3 and adoption into God's family take place in the fullest sense at baptism." But even in these cases it must be observed that, as respects those who live to adult age, " such adoption takes place in the prospective contemplation of the acts of faith and repentance following in their due season." The obscurity and often retractive form of statements in writers of this school are but the nat- ural disturbances which erroneous principles occasion in the processes of the understanding. Had the sub- ject been submitted to a strictly Bible test, with less reverence for the theories of antiquity respecting the efficacy of the sacraments, there would have resulted a clearer and more intelligible phraseology. "When shall Christian theology become more Biblical? Mr. Wesley seems to have admitted the current doctrine of infant regeneration at baptism, and cer- tainly argues against any absurdity in the doctrine. He says, in his sermon on " The New Birth :" " A man may be 'born of water' and not be 'born of the Spirit.' There may sometimes be the outward sign where there is not the inward grace. I do not now speak with regard to infants. It is certain our Church [the Church of England] supposes that all who are baptized in their infancy are at the same time born again ; and it is allowed that the whole office for the baptism of infants proceeds upon this supposition. Nor is it an objection of any weight against tins, that we can not comprehend how this 14 162 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. work can be wrought in infants; for neither can we comprehend how it can be wrought in a person of riper years. But whatever be the case with infants, it is sure all of riper years who are baptized are not at the same time born again." The Rev. Richard Watson, in enumerating the benefits of baptism to infants, says : " It Qjaptism] secures the gift of the Holy Spirit, in those secret spiritual influences, by which the actual regeneration of those children who die in infancy is effected; and which are a seed of life in those who are spared, to prepare them for instruction in the Word of God, as they are taught, by parental care, to incline their will and affections to good, and to begin and main- tain in them the war against inward and outward evil," etc. In both these quotations from Methodist standards it is clearly held that no objection, arising from the nature of the case, or from Scripture doctrine, can lie against the possibility of infant regeneration in the spiritual sense, or the certainty of it in given cases. As to the bearing of the quotations on the efficacy of baptism, the language suits the first or transition period of Methodism, when she had scarcely yet separated from the Church of England, and, in common with the Liturgy and the Churchmen of that age, held a phraseology conformable to that of the Christian fathers. Since that day Methodism has developed more its own peculiar individuality, and a more appropriate and cautious terminology. RELATION OF CHILDIIOOD TO CHRIST. 103 Luther taught, in his service for infant baptism, 1524, a spiritual regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost, in the case of every child who be- lieved — for he held to the notion that children must have true faith to be saved. He directs to be said, after the baptism of the child : " Almighty God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath re- generated THEE BY WATER AND THE HOLY GHOST, and forgiven all thy sins, strengthen thee by his grace unto eternal life." This is the current error of antiquity, to connect the grace of childhood necessarily, or at least gen- erally, with baptism. The doctrine of the early Church is thus stated by Chrysostom, in the fourth century : " It is for this reason we baptize also in- fants, though they are not like others stained with sin, that so holiness, justification, adoption, heirship, and brothership ivith Christ may be imparted to them through Christ, that so they may be members of Christ." Gregory Nazianzen, of the same century, as quoted by Neander, held that "baptism was to children a seal, a means of securing human nature in the germ against all moral evil, by the higher principle of life communicated to it." Hence, he looks upon infant baptism, says Neander, as a consecration to the priestly dignity, which is imparted to the child from the beginning, that so evil may gain no advantage over him. But in no instance does the force of the traditional and prevalent doctrine of the early Church 164 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. appear more absolute than in the admission of Coeles- tius, who, in setting forth the Pelagian creed, wherein it was of the highest importance to his argument to show, if possible, the error of the Church both in re- spect of the practice of infant baptism and its effi- cacy, concedes the whole thus : "Infants must, according to the rule of the uni- versal Church, according to the declaration of the Gospel, be baptized in order to the forgiveness of sins, since our Lord has determined that the kingdom of heaven can be bestowed only on the baptized; and since the powers of nature are not adequate to this, it must be the free gift of grace." From the time of Augustine, and as the fruit of his controversy with Pelagius on the points of pre- destination, free will, original sin, and the import and efficacy of sacraments, " baptism," in the language of Baur, quoted by Hagenbach, " received a higher dogmatic importance. The assertion of its necessity is one of the points of difference between Pelagius and Augustine." Pelagius denied the necessity of infant baptism in order to the forgiveness of sin, but admitted it in order to the obtaining a meetness for the kingdom of God. Augustine held that baptism cleanses children from original sin, and there was no salvation without it. Many of the English divines used language not less severe. Thus Bishop Jewel: "For this cause are infants baptized, because they are born in sin, and can not become spiritual but by this new birth of the water and the spirit.' 9 Bichard Hooker, RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 1*>5 tlie champion of the Established Church in the latter part of the sixteenth century, says : " Baptism is the door of our actual entrance into God's house, the first apparent beginning of life, a seal, perhaps, to the grace of election before received, BUT TO OUR sancti- FICATION HERE A STEP WHICH HATH NOT ANY BEFORE it." Bishop Pearson, in his tenth article on the Creed, says: "Baptism is infallibly efficacious as to this particular, that is, to the remission of cell sins committed before the administration of the sacrament." He supposes, however, that it is "received with all qualifications necessary in the person accepting, and conferred with all things necessary to be performed by the person administering." As children have these prerequisite qualifications, they, of course, are "infallibly" washed from all original or hereditary impurity. In the Church of England service for Infant Baptism, after the sacrament, the priest says : " We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant ivith thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy Church." The doctrine of Dr. Pusey and the Tract- arians is, that "the connection between spiritual re- generation and water baptism is essential," wherever the ordinance is validly administered. The doctrine of the Church of England is, that they stand con- joined ordinarily; that is, always except where the sacrament is received unworthily. The Tractarians — Tract No. 67 — thus settle the point : " One may then 166 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. define regeneration to be, "That act whereby God takes us out of our relation to Adam, and makes us actual members of bis Son, and so his sons, as being members of his ever-blessed Son, and if sons, then heirs of God through Christ. This is our new birth, an actual birth of God, of water and the Spirit, as we are actually born of our natural parents." .... " The view, then, here held of baptism, following the ancient Church and our own, is that we are ingrafted into Christ, and thereby receive a principle of life, afterward to be developed and enlarged by the fuller influxes of his grace." They object to the view of Dr. "Waterland, and say "his statements lead to too outward a view, at least in the case of infants.*' Nor is it easy to see where the Tractarians have herein transcended their own professed standards. 12. As to the moral state of infants prior to bap- tism, the Protestant Episcopal Church has no dogma, but allows a liberty of opinion. One view is thus represented by Dr. Some, of Cambridge University, 1582. He says: "All that die before baptism are not damned, because we are Christians before tve are baptized. . . . The Church doth only mark those with this seal [of baptism] whom they either know, or at least do take, before the administration of baptism, to be God's lambs or sheep. . . . Baptism is not the cause, but the seal of our conjunction with Almighty God." In Henry Bullinger's Decads, which, among bishops and clergy, was of the highest authority in the Church RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 167 of England in the latter part of the sixteenth cen- tury, the author Bays: "To be short, [we baptize in- fants,] bee believe that God, of I grace and mercy in the blood of Jesus Christ, hath cl and adopted them, and appoint f oe heir* qf eternal life. We therefore baptizing infants for these causes, do abundantly testify that there is not first given unto them in baptism, but that the/-' I and confirmed which they had before.'' Again he says: "They therefore -which before by grace invisibly are received of God into the society of God, those self- same are visibly now by baptism admitted into the self- same household of God by the minister of God," etc. "Sacraments, therefore," says he, "do visibly graft us into the fellowship of Christ and his saints, who were invisibly grafted by his grace before ice ivere made partakers of the sacraments.'' Pity it is that so just sentiments, so clearly expressed, could not have been preserved in their entireness, free from the mixtures of ambiguity and of false theories. The Church of England charitably assumes that children are included in the covenant of redemption; and the Calvinistic party assume that baptized chil- dren, dying in infancy, are of the elect, and hence both parties admit them to baptism, but do not affirm their gracious state prior to baptism. This is due partly to the influence of the Augustinian theory of original sin and the grace of particular election, and partly to the theory concerning the efficacy of the sacraments. 168 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Really, on this subject historical theology is no guide. We must go direct to Revelation ; there all is clear; but the stream of Church history has become turbid with the minglings of human invention. That children are in a state of grace, in favor with God, through the atonement, is incontestably taught in Scripture. That the fruit of the atonement as con- veyed to them is not a mere negative good or legal justification, not a mere acquittal from liability to punishment, but a positive and moral good, a princi- ple of spiritual life, is equally clear. This is not the fruit of baptism, nor necessarily conjoined with bap- tism by any order of God, but it is of the direct grace of God in Christ. It is prior to baptism, and the moral ground of fitness on which the baptism of chil- dren rests. And this grace, emanating directly from Christ to the infant, is not conditioned upon its dying in infancy — this is a mere invention of theologians — but comes to all without distinction who are involved in the consequences of the sin of Adam. 13. A fruitful source of misunderstanding on this point lies in the confused ideas respecting spiritual regeneration itself. Regeneration is life — the life of God in human nature. It is a quickening of our nature by the Holy Spirit. Without this life there is no favor, sympathy, and fellowship of God possible. A dead body could taste food and have sympathy with living beings as easily as a dead soul, or human nature without the life of God imparted to it through Christ, could enjoy God, or be susceptible of the RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 169 fruits, exercises, and immunities of Divine fellowship. This is a settled and fundamental dogma of all ortho- dox Christianity in all ages of the world. On this point our appeal must be made to the words of the Holy Scripture. The word reuvdat — grennoo— -which is the word em- ployed by our Lord to Nicodemus — John iii, 3, etc. — to denote the new birth, is used, in its literal sense, to express the beginning of life, and applies indiffer- ently to any stage of natural life, from its first evolvement, the first quickening of existence, to its more advanced stage in actual birth. Wherever it is translated beget — which is about fifty times in the New Testament — it simply denotes rudimental, or embryonic life. A marked instance of its use is found in Matt, i, 20, where rudimental life is clearly denoted : " Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is conceived \jrevvrjdev\ in her is of the Holy Ghost." Here the common English reader is admonished that the word conceived is the same as that translated born, in John iii, 3, 5, but denotes a much earlier and more immature stage of the same life. It is the fact of the beginning of life which the word denotes; any given degree, or any particular stage of it, must be determined by other circum- stances. So also the corresponding Hebrew word 'XT — yMad — is strongly marked by the same char- acteristic laws of usage. More than one hundred and twenty times it occurs in the Hiphil conjugation with its characteristic sense of to cause to bear; that is, to 170 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. beget. A beautiful example of tlie use of the word is found in Isa. lv, 10 : ; - For as the rain conieth down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and causeth it to quicken into life [rn*7in] and to bud, or sprout," etc. Here, evidently, the word denotes the first quickening of vegetable life, as distinguished from the subsequent stage of " budding" or, as the word properly de- notes, sprouting. The seed is first quickened into life, after that it sends forth the sprout. This is the pre- cise signification of jewdoi in all those places where the verb takes a masculine subject, and is accordingly translated beget. It there denotes the beginning of life, quickening. Simple philology, therefore, would authorize us to expect, in the figurative and moral use of the word, as wide a latitude of application as in its literal. So that, in all such instances, as in the case of infants, where the higher manifestations of Divine life are precluded, from the nature of the case, ruchmental fife only should be understood — the life of grace according to the capacity of the subject. When our Lord says, " Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God/*' he affirms re- generation to be a fundamental prerequisite, in all cases, to membership in his kingdom. His words are remarkable. The word " man " — dsdcco-o; — is not in the original; the idea of adult age is not involved in the language. "Except [r«c] any one [that is, every one, whosoever] be born again," etc. The word gives no conceivable idea of discrimination as to age, RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 171 rank, or capacity, but denotes a simple generality, including all and every human being whatsoever. "Except [r«c] any one [of the human race] bo born again;" "Except [Wc] any one [of the human race] be born of water and of the Spirit, lie can not see the kingdom of God." Can any one forbear to col- late the words of Jesus in another place, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." If none can see the kingdom of God except they be born again, or quickened into spiritual life, and if children belong to that kingdom, can the conclusion be avoided that children have themselves been made partakers of that spiritual life ? The words born, born again, begotten, regenerate — all from the same root-word — occur elsewhere in the New Testament in the same spiritual sense. " Be- gotten again" — dvayevvdo) — says Peter, "unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Pet. i, 3. In all such passages does not the date of the heavenly hope exactly synchronize with the entrance of life into the soul? And with- out this " be^ettin^ " where is there an assured or authorized hope of heaven? John declares that those to whom the right or power was given to be- come "sons of God" were those "which were born lyevvdai] not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John i, 13. All sonship in God's redeemed family, all heirship to eternal life, arise from this begetting of the soul anew 172 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. in Christ. All spiritual salvation is of this nature. "Pie hath saved us," says Paul, "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus iii, 5. Salvation takes the form of regeneration — re- neiving. Is there any other? It is true that regen- eration is generally spoken of as being accompanied with certain fruits, certain evidences, which would seem to make it appropriate, and indeed possible, only to adults. But is not any and every descrip- tion of the state of salvation spoken of in the same way ? Are not the fruits and evidences of justifica- tion as inappropriate to childhood as those of regen- eration? Take the words justification, sanctification, salvation, being " in Christ,'' disciple, child of God, or any other term or description whereby a truly- saved soul is designated, and will you find them any less embarrassed with these adult adaptations? any more exclusively fitted to denote infant salvation as distinct from adult salvation ? The Bible is addressed to adults, and the conditions of salvation are gener- ally such as pertain to responsible years; yet its logic and its doctrine in regard to children are suffi- ciently plain. It must be borne in mind that we are not contend- ing about words, but things. Regeneration represents a fact in our moral history — a state of our moral being. Now, it is this fact, this state, that we are interested to know. If any other words of Scripture are used to set forth this same idea, we accept as readily such other, words. If regeneration has come RELATION 01 CHILDHOOD TO GBB1 IT', to be ambiguous in the history of theological eontro- . we are Dot c intentions for the word; fcl having a I its unauthorized use in dogmatic history. Ave .-hall not disown its Scriptural use. But - ij it is the idea, and not the word, we contend for, and this idea is set forth by other terms of Holy Scripture which have become less involved in doc- trinal controversy. The word Ufe — 'cor — both the noun and ver . - with great frequency to signify that spiritual state of fitness for God which it was the end of Christ's death and mediation to produce in us. It is the antithe-is of that death which is declared to be our natural state, or oar state in Adam. It always conveys the same radical idea of yz*\,dco — t. be born — when used in the figurative sense, as in 1 John v. 12 : "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not Ufe" Chap, hi, 14: •• We know that we have passed from death unto Ufe.'' John v, 24: -, He that believeth ... is passed from death unto lij The instances are too numerous to need multiplied citations. We say. therefore, that this word life expresses the nature or quali* that work of saving grace whereby we are fitu heaven ; that it is the standing antithesis of the word death, which is used to denote our unsaved state, or our state of unfitness for heaven ; and that it ooi the specific, radical idea of rewdaa — 1<:» generate, ■n — the w r 1 which our Lord uses, John iii. . we have already seen that "justification of life'' 174 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. has come to our race through Christ unconditionally, anterior to responsibility. If infants are saved at all, they are saved by the life which the atonement im- parts to all who are made meet for heaven. "I am come that they might have life" says He who is the resurrection and the life. 14. This view is further corroborated by John i, 4, 9, where still another word — the word enlighten- ing — is introduced: "In him was life, and this life was the light of men. That was the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." Also, in chap, viii, 12, the words light and life are used interchangeably: "He that followeth me shall have [to (pax; xr^ C<^c] the light of life." In chap, i, 9, the participial form of the verb, kpybfitvov, prop- erly suggests the date of this impartation of the "light of life." It enlighteneth every man "com- ing into the world" or, more properly, "when he cometh into the world." The idea of time is fairly marked. They are the subjects of this "enlighten- ment" " when [as soon as] they come into the world." It is not a mere intellectual teaching that is meant. The word (pcoz'iCco — "to illuminate" — is of very marked significance in the New Testament. It is tantamount to regeneration or the new life. Mark the sense of the word in Heb. vi, 4: "Those who were once enlightened;" and in chap, x, 32: "Call to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflic- tion." So the early Christians were called "the illu- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 17, r ) minated." Justin Martyr, in liis Apology to the Emperor Antoninus, forty years after the apostle John, uses the word illumination — a)u£&] has his state immediately changed." Here the words are used interchange- ably. This is not uncommon in patristic usage. See also the figurative use of the noun ipco^ — light — in such passages as Acts xxvi, 18 — " To turn them from darkness to light;" Rom. ii, 19 — "A light of them which are in darkness;" Eph. v, 8 — "Walk as chil- dren of light'" 1 Thess. v, 5 — "Ye are all the chil- dren of light," etc. This "light of life," this "illu- mination," which places the soul above its natural state, and in contrast with simple nature, dates at the origin of natural life. It should be observed also that the words Tidvza. dvdpcorcov — every man — in John i, 9, are general and abstract terms, meaning every human being, without reference to age, sex, or con- dition. " That was the true light which enlightencth every human being as he cometh into the world." 15. Indeed, to hold to the doctrine of infant salvation on any other ground than that of a moral change, wrought upon them by Christ, is to deny cither the evangelical doctrine of native depravity on the one 176 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. hand, or the sup eraboun cling grace of Christ on the other. For if depravity has at all affected their spir- itual nature, in just so far do they stand in need of a renewal by the Spirit through the blood of the Lamb. Their fitness for heaven must either be af- firmed on the ground of their natural innocence, or of the renewing and sanctifying grace of Christ. The former no orthodox Christian will assert; Pelagius himself did not assert it. On this point Dr. Bom- berger, of the German Reformed Church, boldly says : "If we hold that man's total depravity involves a corruption of the inner sources of man's feelings, thoughts and volitions, of his inmost life, then we must also hold to the necessity of infant regeneration in order to an infant's fitness for heavenly services and enjoyments." And with the qualification we have given of the meaning of the term regenerate, as applied to infants, we can not see how this state- ment is to be refuted. 16. And here we protest against that use of the word regeneration which confounds it with baptism. The two words are not interchangeable by Scripture usage, though we often find them so in the writings of the Christian fathers. The conventional and ritual order of the Church, as Christ established it, must be kept distinct from its spiritual and essential character. Man may administer the outward ordinances, but the Holy Spirit alone forms the heart anew. Nor has this spiritual work ever been placed in dependence on, or in necessary connection with, baptism as to RELATION <»F CHILDHOOD TO CIIK' 177 time. Regeneration and baptism are connected as the type and prototype, the symbol and the sub- stance, the sign and the thing signified : but the Holy Spirit's operations are never made dependent upon the accidents of external ordinances either as to time or administration. What idea can be formed ot % a regeneration which is external and ecclesiastical, as Bishop Hopkins, before quoted, calls it ? Or what can that regeneration be which is begun at baptism and finished at some later period of life, as Dr. Water- land, one of the most chscriminating writers of the English Church, describes it? We do not say that regeneration may not take place at baptism; but we say the two are not dependent upon each other as to time: they are not thus conjoined by any Divine order and appointment. We do not deny that the sacraments are means of grace ; but we do deny that they are, by the order and purpose of God, the authorized channels of regenerating grace, or that they do, by any virtue in them, or by any opus operation, or by any Divine ordination, mark the origin and initiate the work of saving grace in the heart. With our sixteenth Article of Religion we say: "Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only- badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good-will toward us, by the which he doth work in- visibly in ns. and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him." And of baptism we say, in the language of our seventeenth 178 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Article of Religion: " Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Chris- tians are distinguished from others that are not bap- tized, but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth." There is no word in Scripture more technically limited to denote a spiritual work than the word re- generate. It will not pass for sound exegesis to say, with Bishop Hopkins, that infants "are said to be regenerated by his Holy Spirit because they are re- generated by his fuhlic institution" This is not an adequate or an allowable sense of the awful words of Christ, "Except a man be born of water and [is TTve'j/iazoz] of [or by] the Spirit." Mr. Wall says : "Whatever epithets may be common to baptized and unbaptized persons, the term regenerate is not." But this is more than any man is competent to affirm. The word regenerate applies to those who bear the fruits of the new and holy life, and their baptism can be only a matter of inference or presumption. If you would know who are they that are born of God, or what is the usage of the word regenerate in respect to baptism, turn to the apostle John. It is worthy of note that the word in question is not used by any of the Evangelists in its spiritual sense, except John, and seldom by the other New Testament writers. It occurs more in John's writings than in all the others. We find it first in John i, 13, where the Evangelist promptly gives it its spiritual designation — we may almost say its technical sense — RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 179 by the clearest and boldest outlines, "Which bom< not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Here the work of regeneration stands out in its prominence as the work of God, apart from all human connections. The word next occurs in our Lord's discourse to Nicodemus, and only here, and perhaps in Titus iii, 5, is it re- ferred to in any relation to baptism. But that this relation is necessary, or any thing more than that of the type to the prototype, the symbol to the sub- stance, is disproved by the analogy of Scripture doc- trine, and by the tenor of our Lord's discourse. On the other hand, the passages in 1 Peter i, 3, 23, "Begotten ... by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;" "Born again ... by the word of God," might be urged with equal propriety as proving another rela- tion of instrumentality than that of water. If Titus iii, 5, allude at all to water baptism, it may be under- stood, according to the laws of figurative language, and the known use of the genitive, " The washing which denotes regeneration." How earnestly does John in his epistles lay down the traits of the new birth ! But of all the predicates of that state, he never mentions baptism. Mark such passages as these: "He that doeth righteousness is lorn of God;" "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ;" " Every one that loveth is born of God;" "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world," etc. See 1 John ii, 29 ; and iii, 9 ; and iv, 7 ; and v, 1, 4, 18. None of these marks necessarily 180 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. include water baptism, much less affirm it. We, in- deed, suppose such to be baptized because we suppose regenerate persons, being well instructed, submit to the ordinances; but to affirm that baptism is necessarily implied, according to the institution of God, or as the means are implied in the end, is simply begging the question. We protest, therefore, against this con- founding this most characteristic work of the Holy Spirit with baptism, or so connecting the two as to make them, by any Divine order or appointment, coetaneous, the parts of one whole, the fractions of the same unit. We have already admitted that re- generation, in the writings of the Christian fathers, im- plies or often denotes baptism, but we deny that the Scripture use of regenerate implies baptism, more than as a probable fact, never as an essential condition. 17. The doctrine of baptismal regeneration has laid the ground for a false distinction between regeneration and conversion. As, according to this theory, regen- eration can take place only at baptism, ordinarily, or according to the ordinary appointment of God; and as baptism can be administered but once, so it is concluded that regeneration takes place but once. The question arises, What, then, is the hope for him who sins after baptism? As he can not be regener- ated again, how, then, can he be saved ? The answer is, by repentance or conversion. And this conversion can not be tantamount to regeneration, because the latter is appropriated to the one act and time of bap- tism. This theory is derived from early usage and RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L81 teaching, and grows out of an extreme and literal construction of John iii, 5. Thus Gregory Nazian- zen, A. D. l!G0, in his exhortation to dissuade bap- tized persons from falling back into sinful courses, Bays: "There is not another regeneration afterward to be had, though it be sought with never so much crying and tears." Augustine, A. D. 300, says: "An infant does never lose the grace which he has once received, but by his own sinful deeds, if when he grows up he proves so wicked; for then he will begin to have sins of his own, which are not to be done away by regeneration, but by some other way of cure." St. Ambrose says : " There is no regen- eration without water." Yet all admitted that re- pentance and conversion might restore the lapsed soul. This distinction has come down to different Protestant Churches. There would be no practical importance in noticing it here but for the obscurity it casts upon the proper meaning of the word regen- erate, and the seeming aid it lends to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. It is proper, therefore, to say that the difference between regenerate and convert is circumstantial only, not essential. The word con- vert, in its evangelical use, always implies the Divine act of renewing or regenerating. The words arc both metaphorical as used theologically. Regeneration is a restoring to life; it is an act of God upon our moral nature, wherein the soul is simply receptive, as truly as was the new-formed body of Adam when the "Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath 182 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. of life, and he became a living soul." We are no more passive in our first creation than in our regen- eration. Of course I speak now of the simple act of regeneration, which is of God, not of the condi- tions which define the preparatory duties of the adult or responsible creature. On the other hand, conversion is taken from the metaphor of a person's walking or traveling in the wrong direction, and supposes a turning about and retracing his steps, and hence the fundamental idea of the word involves the notion of responsible ac- tivity. The radical idea is that of turning; the idea of renewal or regeneration is supplemented, though always necessarily implied. It is hence that con- version is the more common word employed, both in the Old and New Testaments, where the application is to adult or responsible persons, because this turn- ing of the heart to God in repentance is the grand prerequisite to its renewal. The noun conversion — incarpocprj — occurs but once in the New Testament — Acts xv, 3 — "Declaring the conversion of the Gen- tiles." But as a verb — irccoTpiipco — it is often used, as in the following instances: Matt, xiii, 15: "And should be converted, and I should heal them." Luke i, 16: "And many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the Lord their God." Acts iii, 19: "Re- pent ye therefore and be converted^ Acts xi, 21 : "A great number believed and turned to the Lord." Acts xxvi ? 20: "That they should repent and turn to God." Acts xxvi, 18: "To turn them from dark- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHBIST. L88 nees to light." Jas. v, lit, 20: "Brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him," etc, 1 Pet. ii, 25: "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." The corresponding Hebrew word — 3)£* — has the same meaning, as in Deut. iv, 30 — "If thou turn to the Lord thy God;" 2 Chron. vi, 24— "And if thy people, Israel, shall return, and confess thy name, and pray;" Isa. xix, 22 — "And they shall return even to the Lord;" Jer. iii, 12 — "Return, thou back- sliding Israel ;" Hos. xiv, 1 — " Israel, return unto the Lord;" Joel ii, 13 — "Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." These instances are sufficient to indicate the common usage in respect to these words when employed in a figurative or moral sense. "Regeneration," says Dr. Gill, "is the motion of God toward and upon the sinner; conversion is the motion of a sinner toward God." This is exactly the etymological difference in the two words; but it is obvious enough that in either case God and the sinner meet in reconciliation. In either case the same work of grace is wrought upon the heart. Very similar is the meaning of the word repent — fierauoia) — when used in its more generic sense, as representing the total change of the mind from sin to holiness, with the idea of regenera- tion implied, as in Luke xiii, 3, 5. It is obvious, therefore, that conversion and regen- eration denote one and the same change wrought in 184 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the heart or moral nature, with this difference only, that the former primarily expresses an exercise of personal responsibility in turning to God, with the adsignification of renewing grace implied, and thus applies only to persons capable of responsible action; while the latter primarily expresses only a passive reception of the principle of life, and is in so far applicable to all human beings alike, without respect to age or capacity. The word reneio — dvaxatpow, and dvaxaivcoaez, and once dvaveco, 2 Cor. iv, 16; Col. iii, 10 ; Kom. xii, 2 ; Titus iii, 5 ; Eph. iv, 23— bears rather the sense of regeneration, though it is used only of adults, unless Titus iii, 5, be an ex- ception. But to return more directly to the thread of the argument. 18. The phrase "new creature" — xriac^ — also, is of the same moral signification of the word regen- erate; and how aptly does it include children! "If any one [ee tiq] be in Christ he is a new creature." 2 Cor. v, 17. Here, to be "in Christ" and to be a "new creature" or a "new creation" are one and the same thing. The two modes of description are perfectly synonymous. Are children "in Christ?" The point is settled — then are they "new creatures" Why dispute about words? "What is the chaff to the wheat?" Here is the moral character of their union with Christ settled, if they are in Christ at all. The Scriptures deal not in technicalities, but are plain, open, free, and comprehensive in their language. Our nature is morally dead, and all saving RELATION 01 CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 185 grace is of the nature of life — rat I anew in Christ Jesus, transforming and bringing us back to the image ami fellowship <>f In infants this ch; _ - passively wrought, in a way we can not comprehend, indeed, but yet truly, according to the condition of their moral and intellectual powers, unconditionally, without the in- tervention of secondary causes. In adults it is con- ditioned on repentance and faith, ami is effected through the instrumentality of the "Word of God.'' k * Of his own will begat he as, with the word of TRUTH." James i. 1^. "BoKN AGAIN," says Peter, "by the word oe God." 1 Pet. i, 23. "I have BEGOTTEN YOU THROUGH THE GOSPEL." Says Paul. r. iv. 15. Here is a circumstantiality of the new birth which belongs to adults. "With them, it is preceded by "the putting off the body of the gins of the flesh.*' Eph. iv, 22 ; Col. ii, 11. and iii, 9 : 1 Pet. ii, 9. So, also, the fruits of this same begetting or birth in Christ are, in the adult, mani- fested in the moral dispositions and the outward life, of which infants are incapable. See 1 John ii. _ ; iii. 9: iv. 7: v. 1. 4. 1^. But does all this prove that in infants there can not and does not exist a principle of Divine life, a seminal regeneration, graciously im- parted or begotten, of the same quality or nature, and from the same efficient source of life, as that in adults — differing, indeed, in extent and force, and in the circumstances and conditions of bestowment, but n:»t in essence or efficacy. 10 186 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. With this view accord the sentiments of the old Protestant divines. " Infants," says Bishop Beve- ridge, "have the seeds of repentance and faith in them, which may afterward grow up to perfection." Bishop Davenant, 1639, says : " The justification, regeneration, and adoption of little children baptized confers on them a state of salvation according to the condition oe little children." And again: "From these things any one may see that infants, by baptism, are indeed placed in a state of salvation, but only relatively to thai age and condition of little children" Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 1650, says: "That which is certain is, that the Spirit is a principle of a new life or a new birth; that baptism is the laver of this new birth; that it is the seed of God, and may lie long in the furroivs before it springs up; that from the faculty to the act the passage is not always sudden and quick." The learned "Witsius, of the German Reformed Church, 1680, in his "Economy of the Covenants," says: "After a principle of spiritual life is infused into the elect soul by regeneration, Divine grace does not always proceed therein in the same method and order. It is possible that for some time the spirit of the life of Christ may he, as it were, dormant in some, almost in the same manner as vegetative life in the seed of a plant, or sensitive life in the seed of an animal, or a poetical genius in one born a poet, so as that no vital operations can as yet pro- RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L87 coed therefrom, though they be savingly united to Christ, the fountain of true life, by the Spirit. This is the case with respect to elect and regenerate in- fants, whose is the kingdom of God, and who, there- fore, are reckoned among believers and saints, though unqualified through age actually to believe and prac- tice godliness." Dean Comber, of the seventeenth century, a shrewd writer of the English Church, says : " Since all infants are alike, either all do here [in baptism] receive a principle of neiv life or none receive it; wherefore I see no reason why we may not believe as the ancients did; for God's grace, which is dispensed according to the capacity of the suscipient, is here given to infants to heal their nature, and that he bestowed on them such measures of his Spirit as they can receive" Mr. Wm. Goode says: "Though the early divines of the Protestant Churches did not generally adopt precisely his [Luther's] views, and express themselves as if they considered an infant capable of the acts of faith — which Luther seems to have held — they did speak of an infant as capable of the seed, or PRIN- CIPLE, or incipient stage of faith." He further states : " That as in the natural birth there was life previously, so in the spiritual new birth life — a living principle of faith — must have been implanted to make the birth by baptism effectual to the production of a being spiritually alive." The only error of the old divines on this point was in connecting this ele- ment of spiritual life with baptism; whereas it is the 188 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. direct gift of Christ by his Spirit without reference to baptism. 19. We are fully aware of the difficulty of reason- ing or of using analogies in a subject which, like this, loses itself in inscrutable mysteries of psychology, and hence we venture only to the extent of what we deem the beaten path of exegesis. We offer no dogma beyond these simple truths : 1. That children are in a state of salvation through the atonement; 2. That the effect of redeeming love to them is di- rect, and not dependent upon any outward ordinance; 3. That it is not merely legal and nominal, but, being expressed in such words as justification, justifi- cation of life, righteousness, illumination, membership in the kingdom of heaven, there must also be a moral effect wrought upon them. The extent, manner, and nature of this moral effect we are not called upon to assert, are not able to explain, can not explain it even in adults; but we hold that it has the efficacy to restore children to the favor and kingdom of God. They belong to the spiritual family of God. We see no absurdity in holding that the incipient stage of spiritual life exists in them — that they are begotten by the Spirit unto a life of holiness. An acorn has in it the life of the oak, but not in the same expan- sion and force; yet it is the real vegetable life, and it is of the species of oak-life, otherwise it could never become an oak. " The kingdom of heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, which is, indeed, the smallest of seeds, but when it is grown it becomes RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. IS 1 .) the greatest of herbs.'' The natural child has the natural life of a man, but that life as yet performs not the functions, lias not the force of adult age. So it has reason and conscience, but not in exercise. The manifestations of these belong to another period; their existence is the endowment of human beinjr. Why may not children be subjects of grace, and of the principle of spiritual life, while yet in an unconscious or non-developed age? Augustine saw no absurdity in the idea of God's dwelling in an infant child while the latter remained unconscious of the fact. He says: "And infants, sanctified by the sacrament of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, do belong to his temple; who, though they be regenerated, can not yet, by reason of their age, know God." Again he says : " We affirm, therefore, that the Holy Spirit dwells in bap- tized infants, though they know it not; for after the same manner they know him not, though he be in them, as they know not their own soul: the reason whereof, which they can not make use of, is in them as a spark raked up, which will kindle as they grow in years." So far as the point is involved of the simple possibility and reasonableness of the indwell- ing of the "spirit of life" in the heart of an un- conscious infant, these views can not be gainsayed. Simple consciousness of the fact is not always neces- sary to the fact. Even in the adult believer there are moments, as in times of natural sleep, when the indwelling of God in the soul is independent 190 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. of their consciousness, or their power to know good or evil. We say with Jeremy Taylor: "If there be in chil- dren naturally an evil principle, a proclivity to sin, an ignorance and pravity of mind, a disorder of the affections, why can not infants also have a good principle in them, though it works not till its own season, as well as an evil principle?" Again he says: "If nature hath in infants an evil principle, which operates when the child can choose, but is all the while within the soul, either infants have by grace a [good] principle put into them, or else ' sin abounds where grace does not superabound' — exactly against the doctrine of the apostle." We see no fault in this reasoning. We see no greater absurdity in the doctrine that a principle of spiritual life may be implanted in the infant mind, though not operative till later years, than in the indwelling of a principle of evil which waits the development of the faculties for its practical manifestation. The ferocity and courage of the lion lie dormant in its young till age and growth bring them into action, but are they the less really existent in him? Why is there, in the nature of things, a greater absurdity in the supposi- tion that a good principle, implanted by the Holy Spirit, may be inactive in the infant mind till its ap- propriate time of manifestation? And as to whether this good principle amounts to regeneration, it is not necessary to dispute about words. It is enough to know that it is a principle of life — spiritual life ; that RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. l!»l it answers all the ends of the child's moral being: that it is effectual, prevenient grace, adequate ko the growing wants and the unfolding powers of the child if it lives — adequate to the final claims of its destiny if it dies; is the fruit of the same atonement which saves adult believers, and is applied by the same Holy Spirit which renews and sanctifies them. 20. Again, if the grace which prepares a dying child for heaven amounts to regeneration, there is no proof that the grace which quickens the living child into right responsible action is less. The assumption that it is, is gratuitous, and against all analogy. Arch- bishop Usher, in 1653, says : " Thus baptism to every elect infant is a seal of the righteousness of Christ, to be extraordinarily applied by the Holy Ghost if it die in its infancy ; to be apprehended by faith if it live to years of discretion." But why " extraordinarily " applied in the case of the dying infant? Again he says: " To elect 'infants' baptized, dying in infancy, < the Holy Ghost doth as truly, and realty, and act- ually apply the merits and blood of Christ in the justifying and sanctifying virtue unto the soul as the minister doth the water unto the body.'" Yet, as to those who live, he says : " It is hard to affirm, as some do, that every elect infant doth ordinarily, before or in baptism, receive initial regeneration, and the seed of faith and grace." But why this difference? What evidence have we of its truth and reality? Why should it be supposed that it requires more grace to (he prepared to dwell with God, than to live and 192 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. "glorify God with our bodies and spirits which are his?" Why am I required to be holier in order to go and dwell with God than for him to come and dwell in me? The grace I need to die by is pre- cisely the grace I need whereby to consecrate my living powers to God. If all our responsible being is his, and is thus accepted by him, then it will follow that, "whether we live or die, we are the Lord's ;" and the circumstances of natural life and death are alike indifferent as to then bearing upon the fact and verity of this acceptance. The principle is the same in infants and adults. The grace of en- tire acceptance is the grace that prepares for heaven. What Scripture can be adduced to support the notion that God has made this supposed difference, in the manifestations of his grace, between living and dying children? What reason drawn from experience, from the analogy of providence, or from the nature of the case, can be given? There is none. But as our Lord has declared that " except any one be born again he can not see the kingdom of God," it has been held as a dogma, from the apostles' time till now, that infants as well as adults must be renewed in their nature in order to be fit for heaven; yet, partly from the force of certain doctrinal systems, and partly from the supposed contradiction of the doctrine in the actual lives of most children who live and grow up, many have doubted that the grace given to the living infant amounts to the renewing or quickening of their nature. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. l'J 3 21. If it should be preferred to use tin 4 word justi- fication instead of life or rudimentary regeneration to denote the work of grace wrought upon or in behalf of infants, I fully accept it, with the understanding that the word just ijicat ion be used in its Scriptural sense. I fear a slight deception is unwittingly prac- ticed here by a misunderstanding of terms. Justifi- cation is the constituting and accounting a person just or righteous, according to the rule or require- ment of the law. It has been sometimes used in theology in the simple sense of remission of penalty. In this sense it is strictly a judicial act — an act done for us by God as the judge or lawgiver — changing our relation to law from a state of guilt or liability to penalty to a state of acquittal and protection. In this strictly forensic sense it has been considered as an act or decision passing in the mind of God for and in respect of us, but as being wholly extrinsic to us, and thus as distinguished from regeneration, which has been considered as an act or agency of God in us, operating directly upon our character, and changing the springs of moral action from a sinful to a holy state. This distinction, I say, has some- times been employed in the more precise language of systematic theology, and the ideality has a founda- tion in Scripture. The question arises, then, What is gained by adopting the term justification instead of regeneration as applied to infants? — always re- membering that regeneration as applied to infants is used in its rudimentary sense of being begotten, 17 194 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. quickened. The answer to this must be well pondered, and we say : First. It is a mistake to suppose that justification, in the simple and forensic sense of a remittal of penalty, a release from liability of punishment, is ever applied, in theological language, to one who is not also, and at the same instant, renewed or re- generated. There is no such state of our humanity recognized in theological terminology as that of a judicial acquittal, or I should say a gracious ac- quittal from penalty in conformity to law — separated in fact from, and independent of, the renewing act of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. The distinction is a simple convenience of language to denote the several parts of that one great, I might say complex, act of saving grace, whereby, at the same moment of time, the legal and moral condition of the sinful soul is set right before God. To maintain, there- fore, that justification marks a condition of the soul separate from and independent of regeneration, is in violation of theological language no less than of doctrine. And what is that supposed condition of our nature wherein, on the one hand, by the act of remission or pardon, it is exempt from all liability to punishment; while on the other, for want of re- newing grace, it is unfit for heaven? What is justi- fication without the concomitant act of regeneration? A state of vindication by the law or the Lawgiver, with a moral condition of alienation, estrangement, and antagonism to the Lawgiver ! Here was the RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L95 point where Augustine drove Pelagiua to hia greatest extremity. If the nature of the child is wrong, if by natural birth simply he would be a " child of wrath," then something must be wrought upon and ■within the child in order to fit it for heaven. If no such work is needed, then no fault is in its nature, and their salvation is not of grace. But if such a work is wrought at all, it is essentially a work wrought upon the elements or springs of moral ac- tion, the fountains of our moral nature. The name we give it does not alter the thing. The Arminian doctrine on this point is clearly stated by Richard Watson in his Theological Institutes. He says : " The leading blessings concomitant with justification are regeneration and adoption ; with respect to which we may observe, generally, that although we must dis- tinguish them as beiii£ different from each other, and from justification, yet they are not to be separated. They occur at the same time, and they all enter into the experience of the same person; so that no man is justified without being regenerated and adopted, and no man is regenerated and made a son of God without being justified. Whenever they are men- tioned in Scripture, they, therefore, involve and im- ply each other." After quoting several Scripture passages, the same author adds: " These passages are a sufficient proof that justification, regeneration, and adoption are not distinct and different titles, but constitute one and the same title, through the gift of God in Christ, to the heavenly inheritance.*' 196 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Secondly. The Scripture usage of the word ji cation, as hinted in the last paragraph, always sup- poses and implies the renewal of the heart. A state of justification is a state of personal righteousness before God through the merits of Christ. All the words of this family, whether verb, noun, adjective, or adverb, are strongly marked. The proof is so abundant, and lies so much on the surface, that we shall not prolong the argument. Let any reader of the English Bible take his Bible and observe the use of the words just, righteous, justification, right- eousness, justify, justly, righteously, as applied to men, and he will see that they denote a character, a moral state, constituted and accounted right and accept- able before God. They denote the character, and not simply the legal relations of the person. The Epistle to the Romans will abundantly settle the point. Mark such passages as Titus iii, 7 — " That being justified by his grace we should be heirs ac- cording to the hope of eternal life;" and Rom. v, 1 — "Being justified by faith, w T e have peace with God," etc.; Matt, xxiii, 35— "The blood of the righteous Abel;" Heb. x, 38 — "Now the just shall live by faith;" 1 Pet. iii, 12— " The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous." But it is not nec- essary to enlarge. Evangelical justification — the justification of a sinner in Christ — never takes place without a change wrought upon the moral nature. We say, therefore, we accept all Scrip- tural terms used in a Scriptural sense, but we are RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 197 not at liberty to affix to any terms a technical or restricted signification, and then bring the free and comprehensive usage of Scripture language to that standard. It is hardly needful to repeat that when such terms as the foregoing are applied to children, they are not to be construed in their highest theological sense, as when applied to adults, but only in that qualified or rudimentary sense suited to the condition of children. It is a rule of interpretation that all words must be explained according to the nature of the subject to which they apply. As the mind of the child is not developed into capability of moral action, or responsible character, the effect of grace, wrought upon the susceptibilities of the moral nature, can not be compared to adult experience, but must be measured only by the inverse rule of the evil condition and liability of its nature by the sin of Adam. Paul distinctly declares that by the sin of " one man " (Adam) the race (infancy) was made subject to "death" to "condemnation" and "sin." Here lies the ground-work of the necessity for a change, and that change, by whatever name we call it, must be the opposite of the evil which it coun- teracts and remedies. This is all we affirm, using Scripture terms according to the usus loquendi of Scripture. 198 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER V. RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO THE FAMILY AND THE CHURCH. SECTION I. NATURE AND FORCE OF THE CHURCH RELATION OF CHILDHOOD. Church relation defined — Object of Church instrumentality — Who are legitimate members — Eph. i, 9, 10 — Faith not essential per ae — 1 Cor. 7, 14 — Apostolic Church practice — Post-apostolic Church prac- tice — Nature and force of infant Church membership — Denominal Church membership — Incapacity to fulfill all the duties of Church re- lation no bar to Church membership. 1. In the preceding chapters we spoke of the moral condition of infants; in the present we propose to speak of their Church relation. The object of the preceding chapters was to show what is the state of our common humanity, in view of its relation both to Adam and to Christ, prior to any responsible act of the creature ; the object of the present chapter is to show what is the condition in which, pursuant to the plans of redemption, our infant humanity should be placed, in order that the grace of childhood may be efficacious in guiding the unfolding powers according to the will of God, and that early childhood may come to the personal knowledge of salvation. What we are prior to responsible action, by the uncondi- CHURCII RELATION OF INFANTS. 199 tional benefits of the atonement, lias been considered; but what are the possibilities of our nature by the efficacy of that same grace, under appointed instru- mentalities, through all the developed grades of moral action, is quite a distinct question. 2. The position here taken is, that the Church re- lation in its true force and comprehensiveness defines the external condition in which the child is to be placed, and through the instrumentality of which it is to realize the full benefits of the redemptive grace and econonw. The Church of Christ is a Divine provision and appointment for the preservation, en- couragement, and extension of piety in the earth. It is morally and organically distinguished from all other communities of -men; as none but those who are in a state of actual salvation, or personal acceptance with God, are its lawful members, so all without distinc- tion, who are in possession of this state of grace, are intended for its pale. The offices and instrumentality of the Church are various, but all are appointed for the " edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Wherever there is saving grace to be preserved, souls in a state of grace to be watched over, taught, and edified, there the Church has a duty and an office to perform, and to that limit the lines of the Church relation should extend. The idea of Church is very comprehensive. The religious wants of humanity in the broadest sense, 200 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. in order to the preservation, extension, culture, and maturity of the spiritual life, must be considered, and whatever is required within the sphere of secondary causes in order to meet the same, is provided for in the constitution of the Church. The Church is sim- ply the visible, or militant form of the true family of God. It is the organic relation of all those who are now saved by grace. It gives to the spiritual household of God a visible, and recognizable character, and adapts it to subserve the uses and ends of Gos- pel grace in the world. As the apostle called the Jewish tabernacle a " worldly sanctuary," because it was adapted to the forms and ends of Divine worship by men living in the world, that is, in the mortal body, so the Church is that visible and organic unity of God's redeemed people, which adapts them to sub- serve the high moral ends of the Gospel in this pres- ent world. In this sense it is the worldly form of the "general assembly and Church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven." It takes into membership our humanity in the irresponsible period of its existence, but only as preparatory to the ul- terior ends of efficient, responsible action. With the Church corporately, therefore, we repeat, is vested those Divinely-instituted means by which the life of God is nourished and promoted in the soul, and his kingdom extended in the earth. The life and growth are directly the gift of God, but the instrumental or secondary causes rest with the Church. Here is her responsibility, corporately and severally; like the liv- CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 201 lag organs of the body, her members are to supply those offices upon which nourishment, growth, and extension secondarily depend. The design of God in the constitution of the Church, therefore, proves children to be lawful mem- bers, unless it can be proved that they stand in no saving relation to Christ. The argument stands thus : If they stand in a saving relation to Christ, who is the head of the Church, they are entitled to member- ship in the Church, which is only the mystical body of Christ. The right to the visible recognition of membership grows out of the preexistent spiritual relation, and is guaranteed by the original charter and constitution. 3. The argument is thus stated by Paul in Eph. i, 9, 10: "According to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him." This im- portant passage affirms the purpose of God to recon- stitute the visible Church, or family of God, under the New Testament charter, so that all who stood in the favor of God, whether in heaven or on earth, whether Jews or Gentiles, should be gathered to- gether under one headship, Christ being that head. The apostle here does not intend inanimate things, as the neuter gender, za -u.vza, " all things" might seem to indicate. "The neuter is sometimes found," says Winer, " where persons are signified, when the 202 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. writer would express his meaning in a general way." It is not of things, but of redeemed and intelligent beings, that Paul is speaking. If the things "which are in heaven" denote the angels, as the fathers in- terpreted the phrase, then it would be tantamount to that other declaration of the same apostle, in Col. i, 20 — that all beings in heaven are brought into a CD O friendly union with all redeemed sinners in earth, through the one Christ. And Peter says "angels are subjected to him," 1 Pet. hi, 20; as Paul says "the Church is subject to Christ," Eph. v, 24. But if the " things which are in heaven," refer to the redeemed saints in heaven, then the apostle's state- ment is that all redeemed sinners, all who are "in Christ," whether in heaven or on earth, are consti- tuted one body. Either sense would be equally per- tinent to our argument, but the latter is the more probable, and best suits the connection and the anal- ogy of Scripture teaching, for the apostle is speaking specially of human beings, and that, too, of a partic- ular class, namely : " zd rrdura iu rw Xpcarw — the all [who are] in Christ." These, says he, it is the " mys- terious will and good pleasure of God, which he hath purposed in himself," " avoxeyaXaccDadadac — to bring together under one head" This "head" is Christ, and all who are "in Christ" are to be brought to- gether in one family, and comprehended under this one headship. This is the design of the Christian Church. All who are in Christ have a real and spiritual connection with his body, which is the CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 203 Church. " Christ is head over all to the Church, which is his body." Eph. i, 22. "Christ is the head, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, . . . maketh increase," etc. Eph. iv, 15, 16. " Christ is the head of the Church. . . . The Church is subject to Christ." Eph. v, 23, 24. " Christ is the head of the body, the Church." Col. i, 18. "Of whom [Christ] the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph. iii, 15. That is, saints in heaven and saints in earth. " Christ as a son over his own house [household] whose house [household] are we." Heb. iii, 6. " The house [household] of God, which is the Church of the living God." 1 Tim. iii, 15. This doctrine runs through all the New Testament. Those who are Christ's in a spiritual sense, saved by his merit, are of his "body," his "Church," his "fam- ily,"' his "household." They are comprehended un- der one headship. When Paul would describe the definite limit and number of " the general assembly and Church of the first-born," that is, the New Test- ament Church, he simply says, "whose names are enrolled in heavenP Heb. xii, 23. And this enroll- ment of names in heaven is the registration of names in the "book of life," the true family register, the final test and proof of a fitness for, and title to heaven. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into a lake of fire." Rev. xx, 15. This "book of life" is "the Lamb's book of life," Rev. xxi, 27; "the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 204 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. xiii, 8. It is Christ's register of all who are spirit- ually his. So then, if children are " in Christ," if their names are in the "book of life," if they are "enrolled in heaven," if they belong to the "family" and "house- hold" of God, then have they a real, spiritual, and legitimate connection with the Church of which Christ is the head. And conversely, if they have no legiti- mate connection with that Church of which Christ is the head, and which is his mystical body, it is be- cause they are not "in Christ," not of his "family" or " household," not registered in the " book of life," not in a state of grace, but just where Augustine and Calvin supposed them to be, under "the dominion of death;" so that, unless predestinated and elected to eternal life as only a limited number are, "the de- served punishment will drive all headlong into a sec- ond death likewise, of which there is no end." Nor is faith necessary to Church membership in their case. The idea that the Church is made up only of believ- ers, is as rational and Scriptural as that a family, or commonwealth, is made up only of adults. It is not the personal act of faith apart and by itself that is to be considered, but the spiritual relation to Christ. If an infant without faith can belong to Christ, who is the head, an infant without faith can belong to the Church, which is the body, or community compre- hended and brought together under that head. 4. Again, when the apostle says to the believing husband, or wife, that the two are sanctified to each CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 205 other, so that, although one of them does not believe, yet they are to live together and not separate as the Mosaic law would oblige them if one were a hea- then, he offers the following fact, publicly known and admitted in the Church as proof of the point that the Christian law sanctions the continuance of the union, namely: "Else were your children unclean, but now they are holy." 1 Cor. vii, 14. Here holiness is af- firmed of the children, but it is affirmed on the ground of the faith of one of the parents, and therefore is not a moral holiness, but simply an ecclesiastical, or cere- monial one. As if the apostle had said : " Else were your children [reckoned] as \a.xodapra\ heathen, but now are they [counted] as \_o\yca\ saints, or members of the Christian community." The children, says Ter- tullian, were designated for holiness — sanctitati desig- nate — by baptism. "Every soul," he adds, "is reck- oned in Adam, till it be anew enrolled in Christ, and so long unclean till it be enrolled." " Their children," says Bishop Burnet, " were not unclean; that is, not shut old from being dedicated to God" This bap- tismal holiness, this external admission to membership in the Christian family, is only a conventional recog- nition of a spiritual and preexistent relation to Christ, a relation directly created by Christ. This use of the words unclean and holy, as denoting those in covenant with God — Church members — and those who are not, largely appears in the Old Testament, and often re- appears in the New. (See this point fully discussed in my work on Infant Baptism.) 206 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 5. The principle here asserted is, that the Church relation is based upon a preexistent spiritual union with Christ; and conversely, this preexistent spiritual union with Christ gives the right and eligibility to the outward form of Church relation. The same princi- ple is brought out in the address of Peter — Acts x, 47 — " Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" Here the fitness for baptism, of those Gentile converts, is predicated directly of their hav- ing "received the Holy Ghost." Why should the outward Church relation be withheld from such? Why should the visible sign of discipleship be denied those who have received the inward and spiritual grace? To the inspired apostle it seemed an absurd- ity so glaring that even his Jewish prejudices could not withstand it, and on the force of this simple rea- soning he ventured to do what never before had been done, to set a precedent for all time to come, to inau- gurate a new policy, though he foresaw it would prove a shock to the Church at Jerusalem, and inevitably call him in question before them — to baptize those who had been held and treated hitherto as ineligible to Church relations. The prohibition of baptism is henceforth to all such taken off: " Can any man for- bid water that such should not be baptized?" They have the moral fitness; the water can not be denied. 6. The Christian Church at Jerusalem certainly held to infant Church membership, for they practiced circumcision till at least A. D. 70. Eight years after CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 207 Christ's ascension we find Peter and the whole col- lege of apostles still ignorant of God's plan of Church, which was to embrace Gentiles as well as Jews, as appears in the history of Cornelius. Acts x. Nine- teen years after Christ's death, we find the first gen- eral council — as it is called — at Jerusalem, still ad- herent to circumcision, and only making this excep- tion in favor of the Gentile converts at Antioch, that they would not require it, neither the ceremonial law r , of them. Acts xv. Twenty-seven years after Christ, we find tens of thousands — rroaac juupiadsz, literally "hoiv many tens of thousands" — of Christians in the Jerusalem Church, " and all were zealous of the law" of Moses. Acts xxi, 20. The apostles all remained in Jerusalem and Judea till after the general council, mentioned in Acts xv, nineteen years after the ascen- sion, and the Jerusalem Church, as to doctrine and discipline and Christian faithfulness, was referred to as a model Church — 1 Thess. ii, 14 — and continued to hold this rank till the destruction of the city, A. D. 70. The same also was largely practiced in other Churches, as appears from the Pauline Epistles. Now, that such could be the practice of the Church while a doubt rested on the covenant, or Church rela- tion of children, is simply impossible. The Jewish converts were never called to exclude their children from the covenant when they entered the pale of the Christian Church; the ancient order in this re- gard was not innovated; and hence no controversy appears in the first century as to the eligibility of 208 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. children to this relation, as would have been the case had a shock been given to the ancient faith. And when the first intimations of controversy on this sub- ject did appear, at the close of the second century, it is remarkable that Tertullian, who first opposed the practice, never once objected to it as unscrip- tural, or wanting apostolic authority, but urged the delay of baptism till riper years simply as a pru- dential measure, on the ground that the child was in danger of sinning afterward, and so losing the grace of baptism; and both children and youth, he argued, should defer till they become established in character and fortified against temptation. The whole oppo- sition of Tertullian grew out of the belief, which even at that early day began to obtain, that baptism washed away sin, and hence it was desirable to re- ceive it late in life, when the temptations of the world had mostly lost their power. But whoever will consider the foregoing facts in regard to the Jerusalem Church, and that all the leading Churches during nearly forty years looked up to that Church as a model, and also that the Jewish element largely prevailed in all the foreign Churches, and will take in connection with these facts, also, that no sect or controversy appeared in the Christian Church for many hundred years — till the twelfth century — deny- ing the Scriptural and apostolic authority of infant baptism; whoever will consider these things will be prepared to concede force to the testimony of Origen, who was born about eighty-five years after the death CHIROU RELATION OF INFANTS. 200 of the apostle John, who directly states that " the Church received from the apostles a tradition [or order] even to give baptism to infants." But it is not my intention to go into this argument further than to bring out the point under this section, that infants are eligible to the Church relation. Having stated the fact and ground of such eligibility, we must assume the point as admitted.* 7. A perpetual cause of stumbling to the faith of the Church is, that the nature and force of the Church relation of infants are not clearly compre- hended. The doctrine is often admitted, and then insensibly swept away by some undercurrent of doubt, or practically annulled by some timid and overcautious qualifications. Children are related to the Church spiritually, really, vitally. It is no figure of speech, but a first truth in the Divine economy. When our Lord said that " of such is the kingdom of heaven," he affirmed a spiritual relation. He did not predicate their membership in his kingdom of the simple fact of then- baptism or their circumcision, but of their being redeemed children. Their relation to the "kingdom" arose from their relation to the King, and it applied to all children as such. If children have a spiritual relation to Christ, their re- lation to his Church is that of spiritual members. Baptism is only the sign and seal of membership ; -The subject is fully discussed in my treatise on Baptism, and the statement only, not the full argument, is called for in this con- nection. 18 210 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the spiritual relation, which is the real one, precedes the emblematic and the conventional, and is the moral ground of the latter. So, also, when our Lord says, " Whoso receiveth one such little child in my name receiveth me" — Matt, xviii, 5 — he completely identifies little children with himself and his spiritual family, the true Church. In Mark ix, 41, the phrase "in my name" is ex- plained to mean ''because ye belong to me" This is decisive of the sense. On no other ground could they be "received in Christ's name." And this he affirms of little children, such as one could hold in his arms, as Christ then held that little one. Com- pare Matt, xviii, 2, etc., with Mark ix, 36. Now, this "receiving" one in Christ's name is an act of Church fellowship, a recognition of true discipleship, and draws after it an acknowledgment of all the duties arising out of that admitted relation. Here is no hyperbole, no exaggeration, no strong language that needs to be pared down and qualified till it suits the sentiments of a remiss or a worldly Church; but a literal and glorious declaration of the Head of the Church — a command to now recognize them as legit- imate members of the spiritual commonwealth. It is an instruction officially delivered to the apostles, to be transmitted to the Church through all ages; and for the fulfillment of the same both Church members and officers will render an account to the Master. Of the same import is the official instruction and command : " Suffer little children, and forbid them CHURCH RELATION" OF INTAXTS. 211 not. to come unto me." The quibbling of Tertullian, that they must wait till they are grown up in order r/h\" is unworthy a Christian minister. These children were of an age too tender to come to Christ from personal conviction. They were " brought" to him : and the command to the apostles and to the Church, to " suffer them to come." is a command to "bring" them. It is a duty now as then, and will remain a duty while there are children and a Church of Christ upon the earth. And this duty of "bring- ing" them to Christ, and of "receiving" them "in his name." is a duty to do for them all that their age and wants demand in order to their earliest knowledge of Christ, and their continued enjoyment of the spiritual blessings of the Church. 8. But an impression often obtains that the Church membership of an infant differs somehow essentially from the Church membership of an adult believer; that, after reaching responsible years, the believing disciple who was baptized in infancy still requires another process for admission into the Church proper; that baptism, indeed, unites to the covenant, but some other condition is required for uniting with the Church. The difficulty seems to be in determining what relation a baptized child holds to denominational communion. baptism confer the full immunities of denomina- tional Church life? In answering this question we must state that all creeds, symbols of faith, forms of Church government, or special covenant obligations, such as denominational branches of the catholic 212 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Church may adopt, are only their views of Scrip- ture doctrine and duty, and are applied only as prudential tests of fitness for adult membership. They are only so many methods of arriving at the knowledge of that essential fitness for membership which is required of responsible beings as such, and which children enjoy by the unconditional benefits of the atonement, and on the authority of the decla- ration of Christ. These denominational tests do not have the effect to admit the person to a new Church different from that to which the baptized child be- longs, but only to supply an adequate test of adult membership in the old Church, the catholic, New- Testament, Abrahamic Church. Such test becomes requisite only upon a new condition of the candi- date; namely, a condition of personal responsibility. It is a provisional guard upon the purity of the Church in relation to all who are of mature age. The fitness and Church rights of the child, during childhood, are determined on other grounds. But in either case the Church is the same. If denomina- tional ecclesiasticism assumes a higher ground than this, it does so by usurpation against the spirit and intent of the Church charter. We say, therefore, that the child, though admitted to the same Church of the adult believer, and en- titled to all the rights and privileges which its age and capacity require, yet, upon reaching responsible years, should answer for itself, pro forma, and before the Church, touching all fundamental points of doc- CIU-RCII RELATION OF INFANTS. 213 trine, and the obligations of its baptism and Church covenant. The Church relation, during its irrespons- ible life, simply involved the duty of the Church toward it ; but now that same relation involves a reciprocal duty of the child toward the Church. In the former stage it was a simple recipient; in the latter, an active co-laborer and responsible promoter of the common weal. In the former, the Church Assumed an obligation in behalf of the child; in the latter, the child assumes an obligation in behalf of the Church. In the one case the child had a right of membership vesting in him through the uncondi- tional grace of the atonement ; in the other, the same right is perpetuated on condition of obedience, faith, and confession. The only distinction, therefore, arises from the differing circumstances of infant and adult life — not from any difference in the nature or validity of the Church relation. 9. Nor is there any absurdity m this doctrine. The incapacity of the child for all the privileges and duties of Church membership is no bar to real mem- bership. The child is a legitimate member of the family long before it assumes any share in the duties and responsibilities of the family; so, also, it is a citizen, and has the rights of a citizen to the protec- tion of law, as to person, and property, and natural eligibility to franchise and office, long before it is capacitated to act in its own name, or assume the responsibilities of citizenship. The real character of its citizenship does not imply the full and complete 214 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. exercise of all the rights of citizenship, but only in such measure as the wants of the child and the na- ture of the case demand. The analogy to Church relations is complete, so far as the purpose of the argument is concerned; and we say that children are eligible by the grace of atonement to real Church membership, and by baptism are formally declared and initiated members of the visible Church of Christ. Upon reaching responsible years, they should assume the obligations of this relation in their own persons, as they should also be required to show evidence of a personal knowledge of salvation by Christ. SECTION II. FAMILY CONSTITUTION— ITS VESTED POWERS AND RELIGIOUS EXD. Two stages of Church, life — Family Church life of childhood — Fam- ily a primal Church agency — Origin of the family institution — Histor- ically the oldest form of Church life — Vested powers of the headship — Three principles in the family constitution — Analogies of nature — Man's higher destiny — Duty of exercising parental authority — Scrip- ture precept — Example of Eli — Of David — Duty to servants and strangers in the family. 1. We come now to speak of the method by which the Church relation becomes available to the child for those spiritual ends for which it was ordained. There are two stages of Church life, according to the original plan and purpose of God; the first is realized in the family, the family as in covenant with God, and comprehended in the Church as an inte CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 215 gral primal Church agency ; the second stage is that Church life that is assumed upon personal conviction and responsibility. The first is the period of minority, wherein the member is the recipient merely, enjoying the benefits of Church guardianship, instruction, and influences, and is simply preparatory; the second is the period of majority, or full age, in which not only the immunities of Church are enjoyed, but its respons- ibilities borne; wherein the member is not a recipient merely, but an actor. The first is the period of nurs- ery life, the second the period of fruit bearing, as well as nurture. In the natural life, and also the civil life of each man, the same twofold aspect ap- pears. It is the order of nature, of reason, and of grace. The child has a civil life, civil rights, and immunities, before he is of full age; before he comes to the full powers of citizenship ; before the law rec- ognizes the right, in his own person, of property, freehold, or franchise. He has a citizen's life so far as his age and capacity require; so far as the pur- poses of protection, education, and preparation for full citizenship demand. The period of irresponsibil- ity is one of immunity and protection, preparatory to the stage of extended and perfected citizenship, but while this immature period continues, the citizen's life of the child is held and enjoyed in the family. Sim- ilar is the Church relation of infants. Our position is that Church relation becomes available to the child first through the agency of the parent, the parent as in covenant ivith God; and secondly, through the instru- 216 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. mentality of Church offices and ordinances, but all during the family life of the child. In speaking of the family as a primal Church agency, as the nursery of infant piety, as the pre- parative stage of Church life, it will be necessary to go somewhat into detail, and bring out the original constitution and design of this first and fundamental form of the religious social life. It is only by care- ful attention to the constitution, history, and adapta- tions of the family that we shall be able to discover its appropriate place in the grand economy of reme- dial agencies, and its high religious destiny in the visible Church. A fault in our reasoning here would affect all our conclusions upon both the offices of the Church and the moral capabilities of childhood. 2. The family is the oldest and most essential form of social life, instituted with marked formality and solemnity by the Creator himself in the garden of Eden, in man's first estate of innocency. That was a deep truth of nature, which the Creator uttered in respect to Adam. After he had completed all terres- trial arrangements, fixed the orders and species, and spheres of all living creatures, and endowed the first man with a vicegerency over all, yet beholding for this noblest of his works no congenial heart, no suit* able companion, he said, "It is not good for man to be alone." " The being of the man in his loneliness is not good." That old Hebrew word "good" is very comprehensive; as if existence were a blank without it; as if the end of all previous creations CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 217 and arrangements would fail of their true, their no- blest end without it; as if the wisdom of the six davs' work, the beneficence displayed in heaven and earth, in all living things, and in man, the lord of all, were yet a doubtful blessing, a doubtful beneficence, a failure, if the crowning act in the series were want- ing, the final link in the chain omitted, the most per- fect work of God left imperfect, and the glory of creation left inglorious. The constitution of man contemplated something beyond himself, something- yet to be supplied, something necessary to his hap- piness and wellbeing. Sadly is it said of him, after he had given names to all cattle, beasts, and fowl — sadly is it said of him, "But for Adam there was not found a helpmeet for him" — no companionship among all the creatures that had passed before him. The lungs were not more obviously made in anticipa- tion of the office of respiration, nor the eye for vision through the medium of light, nor the ear for hearing through the vibratory motions of the air, than man's social organization and aptitudes for the conjugal and family relations. . And now mark how this deficiency is supplied. God says, " I will make a helpmeet for him." Adam had fully comprehended the capacities of all the other orders of creatures, and amid the profusion of Para- dise he found himself alone. Provision was made for the rest; for him none. The family foundation was not yet laid, the human race not yet provided for. There is a formality, a delay, a particularity, in the 19 218 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. account of the formation of woman, which indicate that in this act the Creator was achieving some pur- pose of vast significance. It was so. God was about to lay the foundation of a race of beings who were to represent him, bear his image, reflect his glory, and vie with angels in the dignity of their origin and ca- pabilities. He was about to fix the order of their social existence. He was about to throw up the guards around the sublimest moral scheme he had ever projected in the eyes of admiring angels ; he was about to constitute the headship, the bond, the just limit and sphere of the family. But whence should come this counterpart of man, who should be his companion and his suitable helper? Wonderful are the ways of God! The devices of his wisdom are simple, suggestive, significant, and harmo- nious. This " helpmeet" was not made of the dust of the earth, as was Adam — that might be too cold and distant as to origin — but taken "from his side!" What could more touchingly indicate affinity, compan- ionship, oneness! Not only was the new-made crea- ture to be a companion in closest affinity with the man, but the very mode of her formation, the very history of her creation, was to be suggestive of the fact. So Adam understood it. " And mark," says a quaint old English author, "woman was not taken from man's foot, to be trampled on by him ; nor from his head, to rule over him; but from his side, to be his companion, and from nearest his heart, to be loved and cherished by him." CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 219 To Ada in the hour was more joyous when this fair image of himself was presented to him, than when he first looked out upon all the lower creation and beheld himself vested with dominion over all creatures. With inimitable simplicity and naturalness it is recorded, that as he accepted from the hand of the Creator this last and beautiful creation, he pronounced what may be understood as the marriage ceremony, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;" and fitly did the great historian and lawgiver, Moses, who recorded this event, immediately add, as completing the sense, and giving sanction and perpetuity to the idea and institution of marriage, " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh." " They twain," says our Lord. Here is the corner-stone of the whole fabric — the oneness of two only. God had made gregarious animals as distinct from solitary, or from solitary pairs; and he had made solitary pairs, but had never bound them together by natural in- stinct, or by positive law, as he now does man and wife. But here the oneness of two is made sacred. This strict monogamy is not only a dictate of human instinct and affection, but is a necessary condition of man's civilization and happiness as a social being, and of his purity and perfection as a moral being. We shall have cause to recur to this important fact here- after. Thus, by the primitive order of God, reas- serted and confirmed by our blessed Lord and Master, the one man and one woman, united, constitute the 220 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. headship of the family — the man first in authority ? the woman a coordinate power as " helper/' in coun- sel, in government, and in responsibility. The ulti- mate and directive power being lodged with the man does not exclude or prejudice the sphere of the woman, for they "twain are one" — one in heart, one in in- terest, one in purpose, one in responsibility, and they can not in any important matter be divided in judgment. The " oneness" applies to the soul as well as to the body; ay, to the soul primarily as the source of all true conjugal oneness ; and the counsels of these two direct and determine the affairs of the little family kingdom, the man being the executive head. Of the spheres of the two we shall have occa- sion hereafter to speak ; but here we say that the fact that they are distinct does not impair their unity of action, nor their effectiveness of action, but secures both, by making the one dependent on the other, in order that through the united agency of both the entire wants of the family may be met and the hap- piness of each and all served. 3. The vested powers of this family headship come next to be considered. Remember, the family was ordained of God, and for twenty-five hundred years was the prevailing, if not only, Divinely appointed social condition of our race; that is, for that length of time — namely, from Adam to Moses — God never interposed by special providence to organize any more general or comprehensive community than is found in the family. There were national compacts formed, CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 221 as the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian, but these, excepting the last, were little else than the forcible agglomeration of tribes by the despotic military force of ambitious conquerors. A tribe is only the union of a number of particular families, descended from a common ancestry, acknowledging their natural parents as chiefs and princes ; and the nations prior to Moses, and for a long time after, were only so many tribes, acknowledging some one conqueror as their lord or master, to whom they paid tribute, and who troubled himself no further with their affairs than to receive their tribute and keep them in subjection. In the days of Moses the first attempt was made to nation- alize the Hebrew families and tribes, and this process of centralization is full of instruction. We shall speak of it in its place ; but just here let it be understood that for twenty-five hundred years the family order was the only Divinely commanded social relation of man. Other relations were permitted; national life was authorized; not, indeed, in the way that it was gen- erally created; but no Divinely commanded social re- lation of man higher than the family is on record. The Church relation was, indeed, commanded, but it was incorporated into that of the family. Abraham's family was brought under Church ordinances and rule, but still only as a family. Abraham was the priest — his family was the Church. Historically, therefore, the first period of the visible Church was its patri- archal or family period. The "covenant," which is 222 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the form and charter of the Church, was with a family as such, and recognized the family relations. This was not accidental and temporary, but fundamental and perpetual. "I will establish my covenant be- tween me and thee, and thy seed after thee, . . . to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee." Gen. xvii, 7. " The promise is unto you and to your children." Acts ii, 39. The covenant, as Maurice well says, is "with a man expressly and emphatically as the head of a family" Remove the relations of parent and child, and you render nugatory the whole tenor, conditions, and design of the covenant. It was in the faithful fulfillment of the duties of the family relation that the promise of the covenant fell due. "For I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abra- ham THAT WHICH HE HATH SPOKEN OF HIM." Gen. xviii, 19. When, in later days, the Church under Moses emerged from its patriarchal to its national character, the family was still recognized and brought out as the true normal element of Church power. Parents and children are addressed as such, and duties laid on them which, while they were of a distinctively Church character, could be performed only within the family relations. In the New Testament the national- idea of a Church is dropped, but its public, corporate, and primitive covenant character retained; yet the family is clearly brought out as the true germinal CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 223 state of the Church, the primitive nursery life of its members. 4. Now, from this most significant fact, as from a stand-point, we pause to contemplate the authority of the family headship. And it is easy to see at a stance that the natural relations of husband and lather must represent all supreme power now vested in the State or Church. He that by natural right and by primeval Divine appointment was placed over the family as its head, would naturally, and did actu- ally, absorb into himself the proper functions of priest and magistrate. This was the common rule — we are not now speaking of exceptions. But, in the days of Moses, we see the patriarchal structure modified by the national establishment. As an instance of which, for example, we see the ex- treme power of punishment of the child taken out of the hand of the parent and placed in the magis- trate. Take a striking instance, recorded Deut. xxi, 18-21 : " If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious ; he will not obey our voice ; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die; so shall thou put 224: THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear." In this remarkable passage, although the power of capital punishment is shown to have been taken out of the hands of the father, yet the ancient authority of the parent is fully recognized, and persistent, stub- born rebellion against it is made punishable as an act of high treason, or any other capital offense. The same enforcement of reverence for parental authority is given in the law: "He that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death;' 5 and again, "He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." Ex. xxi, 15, 17. In all these en- actments of the criminal code of Moses we see the high degree to sanctity, and the fundamental import- ance to society, of the unimpaired natural authority of the parent. The religious use and limitation of this authority we shall speak of in its place. The point we here make is, that the unaltered family compact, as God constituted it at first, with its pa- rental supremacy, is essential to the wellbeing of society, and to the moral ends of all the social re- lations, and that, though national governments, as authorized by God, have absorbed some of the ex- treme functions of the primitive patriarch into those of the magistrate, yet they have thrown around the authority of the parent the most awful guards of penal sanction. Take another instance: In patriarchal times — that is, prior to Moses — the headship of the family was OHTJKCH RELATION OF I M ANTS. 225 hereditary in the eldest born, who was not only pro- prietor and magistrate, but priest also. The priest- hood was a right of the first-born. When God spared the first-born of the Israelites in Egypt, and cut off the first-born of the Egyptians, he thereby claimed for himself all the first-born of the Hebrews by right of the " Passover " act. Thereafter the first-born were counted holy unto the Lord; he could use them as he pleased: they were devoted. This was a pro- vision for the priesthood. And this would answer so long as the Hebrew people retained their nomadic or pastoral habits; so long, that is, as they preserved the patriarchal form of social life. But afterward, when he organized them into a nation, and gave them a code of laws, instead of providing for the national priesthood in this way, God permitted the Israelites to redeem their first-born males by an offering, and in their stead he sanctified the tribe of Levi to the priesthood, and the house of Aaron to the high-priesthood. We make these references in order to show how the sacred rights of the priesthood passed from the head of the family to an order of men set apart for that purpose, from the patriarchal to the national Church, by a cautious policy, a gentle transition, which guarded the authority of the family constitu- tion, and looked with a jealous eye on any encroach- ments upon its primitive rights. Some of the re- ligious functions once belonging to the patriarch are now transferred to a class of men called of God, 226 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. "as was Aaron," to the priesthood. But the re- ligious headship of the family is yet in the parent. To him alone is this charge committed. If some of the priestly functions have passed from him, yet it is only to provide for the wider relation of the Church; while his spiritual authority in the family remains unimpaired — yea, guarded by awful precept and threatening. And thus, also, while the natural power of the parent over the child is modified by the more general powers of the magistrate, with a view to the wider relations of citizenship, still that same natural authority of the parent is retained to him unimpaired within the sphere of the family, and for all the pur- poses which are legitimate to the family domain. In both cases the extreme functions only of the magis- trate and the priest are transferred from the parent to public officers appointed for those ends, while all the demands, both of government and religion, which the child's condition put forth, are fully provided for in the vested rights of the parent. Thus the foun- dations of social and religious life are laid in child- hood. All the duties of mature age are anticipated, the elements of character formed, and the embryo of the nation and of the Church mirrored forth in the family constitution. 5. Thus three primary principles or laws define the boundary of the family constitution ; namely, the oneness of husband and wife, the authority of the parental headship, and the submission of all other members. Destroy either one of these, and CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 227 the family loses at once its order, its efficiency, and its happiness; with these several points secured, and the duties implied in them faithfully performed, the ends of the family compact are made sure. The family is a kingdom in itself, with mutual relations, dependencies, and duties, which blend all separate interests into one, and make it for the highest indi- vidual good of each one to be faithful and devoted to the common weal. The sphere of its responsibility is measured only by the physical, intellectual, social, and moral wants of all its members. To promote all these ends is the grand object and intention of the compact. The perfect oneness of the twofold headship, in affection, interest, purpose, and destiny, leaves no diversity of pursuit possible. One end of activity becomes inevitable, and concentration of en- terprise is easy and natural. The authority of the parents extends to all those matters which involve the development and culture of the body and mind of the children, or which affects their present and prospective wellbeing. The submission of the chil- dren, on the other hand, is the exact correlation of this, the exact counterpart, coextensive with it, and coessential to the ends and purposes of the insti- tution. 6. We say, then, the family constitution is a pro- vision of God for preparing its members, and putting them in condition to fulfill the end of their creation. This, in brief statement, is its object. This economy is analogous to the providential arrangements among 228 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the lower orders of animals. The God of nature has endued the maternal parent among all animals with instinct and affection for providing food and habitation for its young, and rendering it such other assistance as is necessary to prepare it for taking care of itself. Whatever the sphere and habit of life may be for which its Creator intended it, for just that is it nur- tured and prepared while under the parental shelter. It is so with seeds. When by the heat, and moisture, and stimulating properties in the soil the seed ex- pands and bursts, it sends forth the tender plumule for the subsequent stalk, and the delicate radix to give it fixedness in, and to seek nourishment from, the earth. But till this twofold germination shall attain a little strength and enlargement, so that the root can subsist upon the coarser aliment of the soil, it is both fed and sheltered by the dissolving lobe and pulp of the seed. It is a delicate arrangement, but a most instructive one. The seed itself provides for the subsistence of its own evolving life, while in the germinal or earliest stage, till it attains more of a plant-like form, attaching itself to the soil, expand- ing beyond its parental limitations, and drawing its nourishment from a foreign source. So is it with the family. It is the provision which God has made for the children, for their sheltered growth, their training, their discipline, their instruc- tion; in a word, their entire furnishment for the life they are intended for by their Creator, till they shall be able to take their proper places on their own per- CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 229 Bona] responsibility, and fulfill the purposes of God respecting them. But this beautiful arrangement in nature is still further suggestive: it is suggestive of the higher nature of man — his moral, religious, imperishable nature. With the mere animal the force of natural affection lasts only through the preparatory period, till physical strength and organism in the young shall be fully, or at least adequately, developed, to enable them to procure their food, and defend them- selves from danger. But it ceases with the neces- sities of physical nourishment and protection. The hen broods her young; "the eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketk them, beareth them on her wings ;" the mammal, with far stronger affection, nourishes and fondles its offspring, and mourns when bereft of them. But no sooner do the young of all animals attain their physical development than this affection ceases — utterly dies out. No trace of it remains; it has fulfilled its end and purpose. Not so with the human race. Here parental and filial affections never die. On the contrary, age, and growth, and develop- ment but mature, and strengthen, and root more deeply the affections that find their origin in nature; and when death at last separates and removes from sight the mortal and the visible, this holy affection is more hallowed by the hopes of immortality, or writhes in wounded agony, like the king of Israel, crying, "0, Absalom, my son, my son!'' 230 THE EELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 7. And what does all this suggest to us but that a higher office is appointed to those affections than to serve the animal nature or the earthly interests of our children? A higher destiny awaits us, and hence a higher end is to be served by the family constitution. The influence of family is not limited to the period of minority. Long after the child has learned to subsist independently of the parents' toil and care, the love of parents, and the influence of paternal relation, and the memory of early counsels and discipline, remain like guiding stars of his des- tiny. A higher nature develops, which longs, and reaches, and aspires for God and immortality, and the influence of family comes in here to bless or to curse him, and it is in anticipation of these higher wants that the family is chiefly to unfold its hidden stores of moral power, and bless our juvenile nature. The physical and the earthly in man is, indeed, to be sheltered, nourished, and matured; but the intel- lectual, the moral, the social, and the religious are yet higher and nobler interests, standing above all others as tall mountain-peaks lift their heads above the surrounding hills, and, bounding our vision on the horizon, blend in solemn magnificence with the distant sky. It is impossible to look into the family constitution without perceiving this. Every thing points to the higher life to which we are called. All the adaptations and famishment of this most wonder- ful economy terminate here, and only here, in the religious and immortal nature of man. The parent OHCRCH RELATION 01 INFANTS. 231 who fails to recognize this misses the grand aim of true parental life, and loses for his child all the higher blessings of that relation. Alas! in addition to this, what guilt must accrue, and what bitterness of regret must follow ! The lower tribes fulfill the parental office perfectly, fitting their young for their destined spheres and modes of life. Instinct guides them, and they are faithful to its promptings. But man — made in the image of God, ennobled by reason, enriched by revelation, urged by motives of eternal weight, and by affections as undying as the soul — man fails in this his first, his chief duty. The sub- lime adaptations and import of the family relation are reduced to the dead level of animal and worldly interests, and the wealth of an immortal soul's affec- tion and reason, and of a redeeming Savior's grace and truth, are all wasted on the perishable and in- stinctive nature of the child. 0, if we had an angel's trumpet or a seraph's pen, we would awake the slum- bers of those who fear God and believe in his Word, or who love their children with a true affection. 8. It would seem irrelevant to dismiss this topic without urging one other point with more distinct- ness and prominence. We have taken the ground that the authority to govern the family is vested in the parent for religious ends. The point we wish further to urge is, that the exercise of this power and right to govern is not left optional with the parent, but is required at his hands under solemn sanctions of reward and penalty. The parent is 232 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. bound, under moral obligation the most sacred, to exercise this power according to the original design for which it was delegated. The exercise of parental authority and government is often viewed as an op- tional prerogative; always lauded when judiciously put forth, but the want of it viewed rather as a weakness than a sin — rather as an excusable fault than a culpable offense. What we wish to urge here is, that parental authority, put forth with all the wisdom and discreetness the parent possesses, is just as much a religious duty, just as much a matter of moral obligation, as feeding, clothing, and protecting the child — just as much as praying, believing, and bearing the cross. God has not left these awful powers at the option of the parent to use or to neglect. He has interposed express precept, added gracious covenant promise to then faithful exercise, and guarded against neglect by some of the most awful threatenings contained in his Word. The soul of the child will largely be required at the hand of the parent, and the parent is then clear only when he has used faithfully for the salvation of the child all the means the Creator has placed in his hands for this end. We do not just now aim to speak of all the parent can and ought to do, but only of this one point — the right use of governmental authority. First of all, turn to the Word of God, and see the language and tone of Divine precept : Gen. xviii, 19 : " For I know Abraham, that he will command his children and CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 233 HIS household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Deut. xxxii, 46 : " Set your hearts unto all the words -which I testify unto you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law." Prov. xix, 18 : " Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." Prov. xxiii, 13, 14: "Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Prov. xxix, 17: "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest ; yea, he shalt give delight unto thy soul." Prov. xxii, 6 : " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Yerse 15 : " Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." Prov. xiii, 24: "He that spareth the rod hateth his son ; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Prov. xxix, 15 : " The rod and reproof give wisdom ; but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." Isa. xxxviii, 19 : " The father to the children shall make known thy truth." Eph. vi, 4: "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Deut. vi, 6, 7 : " These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart; and theu shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." These passages, with numerous others touching the same point, carry upon the face of them a tone of authority and positive command. 20 234 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. The parent, acting as God's agent, under a dele- gated right and power from God, and for his honor and kingdom, is charged from the lips of the Divine Lord and Sovereign, just as the magistrate and priest are charged, to exercise these intrusted functions faith- fully. All delegated povrer from God — "for there is no power but from God" — as well as all "talents," gifts and offices, are given under the same charge, " occupy till I come." How else could these wise and beneficent ordainments secure the moral ends proposed? Accountability binds all men to the throne and judg- ment-seat of sovereignty. Relax parental authority and there is no security that the commanded duties will be fulfilled; on the contrary, there is a certainty they will not be performed. The child, left to him- self, will never perform them. The parent is not only to teach, as a minister is required to teach a public congregation, or a preceptor a pupil, but also to ex- ercise the authority of family headship, discreetly but firmly, in order to conform his house to the order and observance of religion. The discretion of the parent, not the caprice of the child, is to govern. Religion, indeed, is not harshly to be forced upon the mind. The child is to be commenced with, in earliest in- fancy, and directed by gentle means, according to its capacity and years. Authority may be used without severity, or harshness, or awakening fear and timid- ity, or producing disgust and repulsion. But with tenderness there must be firmness, sincerity, seri- ousness and perseverance. Religion is cheerful, not CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 235 gloomy, inspiring the feelings of reverence, gratitude, benevolence, praise, faith, hope and love, not those of dread, fear, despondency, and aversion; and the wis- dom of the parent, no less than his piety, should manifest itself in the mode of applying instruction and discipline. The chief difficulties arise from irres- oluteness, impatience, and instability in the parent, and from commencing too late in life, when the child has not only fixed habits of disobedience, self-will, and vicious indulgence, but of irreligion also. 9. The first duty of the child is submission, and to this end the first and constant aim of the parent should be directed. Submission is a broad word. It is not only the yielding a point to parental authority, which might be secured from fear alone, but the yield- ing in the spirit of reverence, inward affection, and confidence in the parent's goodness and recitude. It is not always that the child has a perception of the fitness of a command, or has a heart inclined to it, yet by proper teaching and discipline it will learn to submit from motives of personal confidence in the parent, and from a conscience on the moral duty of obedience. If these at any time fail, authority should always be interposed to enforce the rule, mildly but firmly. The authority of all law is represented in the penalty. Law, aside from the sanctions of rewards and punishments, is mere ethics, and promised reward and penalty unfulfilled soon sink the law into con- tempt. The power to enforce obedience upon the unwilling, marks the distinction between simply good 236 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. advice and government, and it is this single circum- stance, namely, the application of authority to en- force good counsel and make it effectual, wherein all the art and wisdom and the nature itself of govern- ment consist. It is just here where God holds the parent responsible — first for the diligent instruction of the child, secondly, for the enforcement of con- formity to such religious duty and habit as belong to the order of a religious household, and the Christian training of the child. The child should be taught religious truth, to pray, to attend upon religious wor- ship, to cultivate habits of piety, to form moral dis- tinctions, to detect and resist temptation, to avoid evil associations, to govern its will, to practice self-denial, to conform to the religious order of the household, to fulfill its duty to superiors, to the family, and to strangers, and to do all under the sanction of religious obligation. In every thing else the parent is bound by the laws of nature and of society to act for the child. Does not the law of God bind him here also? 10. AYe often get a glimpse of the sacredness of duty and the importance of obedience by reverting to the consequences of neglect. The estimates which God places upon obedience, are thrown out in start- ling intimations in the judgments he dispenses upon disobedience. Penalty is always the opposite to the due rewards of righteousness. The excellence and obligation of the precept are put in contrast with the horrors of the penalty. The example of Eli is full of admonition. He was at once the high-priest CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 237 and the chief magistrate of the nation. The vileness of his two sons is recorded in 1 Samuel, chapter ii. For sins which merited death by the law of Moses, he gently reproved them, " and he said to them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons ; for it is no good report that I hear ; for ye make the Lord's people to transgress." The advice of Eli was good, and his admonition pertinent, but it was too gentle, and withal was not backed with authority. The awful judgments of God upon his house are revealed in the second, third, and fourth chapters. God says to Samuel, " I have told Eli that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever." 1 Sam. iii, 13, 14. Awful words! And awful was the delinquency of Eli. He "knew" the iniquity of his sons, and he "restrained them not." Will not parents take warning? The same principle governs the Divine administration over parents now, as over Eli then. King David, with all his goodness, lacked in parental authority, and it brought upon him, through Absalom and Amnon and Adonijah, a train of disaster and disgrace. Of Adonijah, who usurped the throne after Absalom, it is said, " His father had not displeased him at any time by saying, Why hast thou done so ?" These neglects were always visited with characteristic 238 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. judgments, and became the occasions of deep peni- tential sorrow. Absalom and Adonijah, two pet chil- dren, caused his house and kingdom more trouble, tears and blood, than all the other members of his family. They had not learned submission to parental authority in youth, and they dared usurp the kingdom and throne of their father. 11. This authority of the head of the family ex- tends to all members of the household. The religious duty enjoined upon Abraham and his children, was equally required of all the servants and strangers of his household. Gen. xvii, 2, 13. The commandments binding upon "the son and the daughter," were to be equally enforced upon "the man-servant, and the maid-servant, and upon the stranger" residing among them. Ex. xx, 10. The example of David in fash- ioning his household and court, faulty as he was, in some of his own children, is worthy of all imitation. "I will walk within my house with a perfect heart," says he. "He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." See the whole of Ps. ci. The fam- ily is an empire, a unit in its interests, and the authority of the parent is held responsible to God for its protection against corruption from the disor- der and irreligion of foreign elements temporarily brought within its precincts. In this there is noth- ing peculiar to the duties of a parent as a ruling officer; all Church and civil government rest on the same principle — wherever governing power is vested CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 230 for the good of others, remissness and neglect are a broach of trust, positive perversions. In abdicating the post of government, we abandon the good which that government was ordained to secure; we leave virtue defenseless and leave the innocent subject ex- posed to the wiles and the malice of the enemy. SECTION III. FAMILY INSTITUTION CONTINUED— BIBLE VIEW OF ITS KELIGIOUS END. All things point to a religious end — Marriage has a religious sanc- tity — Our Savior's decision — Doctrines of the Christian Church — Mai. ii, 15 — All covenant grace primarily given to the family — Antedilu- vian apostasy due to family corruption — Old Testament law — Its re- ligious principle binding and vital now — Apostolic teaching — Religion first binding on the parent, and through the parent to reach the child. 1. The word of God is sure. All human specula- tions are uncertain, and wanting the sanction of authority even in their clearest results. But when God speaks, the mists of doubt are dispelled, and argument and controversy end. The great Creator has spoken, and lifted the vail of ignorance and doubt from the mind. Man was made for God. Yea, "all things were made by him and for him." He alone is "the beginning and end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega." "For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Union with God, fellowship with him, participation of the moral purity and excellence 240 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. of his nature, . this is the sum of human happiness, the hight of human destiny. To this end all acts of God relating to man have a direct and preordained tendency. Redemption and providence, as well as creation, contemplate this final result. Man was created in the "image of God;" an image, says the apostle, " which is righteousness and true holiness." The "exceeding great and precious promises," says Peter, are given to us, "that we might be made partakers of the Divine nature, hav- ing escaped the corruption of the world through lust." Civil government is the ordinance of God, "for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well." It is part of the Divine arrange- ment for preventing sin, and protecting and promoting holiness. The same is Church government. The same is the whole scheme of " mercy and judgment," which, like lights and shadows, fill up the picture of Divine providence over man. When he chasteneth man, he openeth his ear to discipline, that he may draw back his soul from the pit. When he feeds and comforts him, he would dissolve his heart in gratitude, and awaken the emotions of love. The universe, with its infinite arrangements, points to God. The universe, with its unnumbered millions of voices, and its voiceless utterances from stars and spheres, declares his praise. 2. Now, as this is the end for which all things were made, all secondary and subordinate arrangements equally anticipate this end. If man was made for God, all the heaven-ordained arrangements in regard OHUROH RELATION OF INFANTS. 241 to man, and for man, are for the ultimate purpose and end of securing for him this destiny. When God made man, he superadded to his existence cer- tain other blessings. He placed him in a garden, he fixed his relation to other creatures, he subjected him to law, he gave him a Sabbath, he appointed him to labor, he ordained the family relation. All these blessings, which were secondary to existence, were made subservient to the happiness and ends of exist- ence. They were the auxiliaries of that comprehen- sive scheme of beneficence which the Creator had projected. The family, defining the order and con- ditions of man's social existence, being the first and most awfully guarded, and divinely honored social institution of Heaven for his new creature, was the chief, as it is the most ancient, instrumentality for his holiness and perfection. This truth is not left to inference. We open the Bible, and its clear utter- ances every where meet our eye. 3. Marriage is not merely a social or a civil con- tract, but one of religious sanctity and force. We may form compacts for social, political, or commercial ends, and dissolve them by mutual consent at will, but the union of husband and wife is for life, and can not, on the one hand, be dissolved at will; or, on the other, be entered upon innocently and safely without consideration. Polygamy, divorce, unfaith- fulness to the marriage contract, these are questions of higher moral and religious import than can attach to mere prudential, economic, or civil arrangements. 242 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. But the words of Jesus Christ to the Pharisees put the question of the religious ends of the marriage relation at rest by direct authority. They came to him, tempting him, and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" Now, our Lord's answer to this question is based upon the principle that marriage is not a merely civil but a religious contract. He says : " Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female; and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to bis wife, and they twain snail be one flesh. Where- fore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, THEREFORE, GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER LET NO MAN put asunder." Matt, xix, 3-6. Here is a union established by God himself, and all interference of human authority to dissolve or disturb it is specially interdicted. Our Lord never interfered with civil matters as such. He repeatedly and solemnly dis- avowed any such office or intention. A direct an- swer to the question of the lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar he declined, as he did also any interference to divide the inheritance between the two contending brothers. Matt, xxii, 17; Luke xii, 13. Had marriage been merely a civil institution, our Lord would not have interfered in the question more than with the law of estates. But here is an institution which Divine authority has established, and has defined the only ground or cause of its dissolution wbile the parties are living, and has CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 243 formally prohibited man, in any governmental or religious eapacity, from disannulling it for any other cause than the one specified; and the ground of all this special, positive, and prohibitive legislation of the Savior is, that " God hath joined together in one" the matrimonial parties. Such language does not apply to any merely social institution, or any form of civil government. The contract once made is thenceforth inviolable; because to, disturb it at will, or make it subject to the fluctuations of caprice or inclination, would be to subvert the foundations of morality, and defeat the ends of religion. 4. It is in harmony with the spirit and meaning of the marriage institution as a religious contract, that the Christian Church from the earliest ages has required marriage to be performed with religious ceremony, and by the priest. The State law has, indeed, in different ages and countries, declared mar- riage lawful when performed by the magistrate, rec- ognizing it as simply a civil contract ; but the doctrine of the Church, though in different ages incumbered with much superstition and needless ceremony, has steadfastly preserved the idea of the character and intention of the primeval enactment. 5. An institution thus embodying a religious idea and obligation in its enacting form must contem- plate a religious end. Why has God himself ordained and defined it, excluding man from any right of in- terference ? Why has he thus cautiously separated and distinguished it from all those institutions which 244 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the vested powers of society may of right ordain and change, but that he may secure some high and distinctively moral and religious end? And- this the Bible itself further declares. In Malachi ii, 15, speaking of husband and wife, and of the religious ends of the family relation as originally constituted, he says: "And did not he [God] make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed." Bear in mind that the prophet is speaking of the original constitution of the family headship by the Creator, and he directly affirms that the design of God in this ordainment was religious, and this religious end was to be realized in the children of the united pair, "that he might seek [D'libx JTTfl a seed of God" God might have made myriads of human beings to people the earth, each a responsible agent, as he made the angels, the consequences of whose good or evil conduct, in each individual case, should terminate on himself; but he did not. He who "breathed" into Adam "the breath of life," still possessed the undiminished energy of the creative and life-giving spirit, but he did not at once people the earth with adult beings. This would have precluded the grand scheme of a race of beings whose life, and sympa- thies, and dependencies, and obligations should be blended into unity, and made the strong guards and guarantees of religion. It would have precluded the idea of family. He might have made a plurality of "helpmeets" or companions for the first man, but CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 245 this would have weakened the social bond and sym- pathy of the family, opened the door of discord, shattered parental authority, and defeated the grand religious end. All history shows that polygamy leads to this result. The "residue" of the spirit was with him, but his prolific energy was restrained, and the Creator, excluding all other schemes of human society, shut himself up to tins one, not from a physical but a moral reason. He limited his creative acts to the production of two human beings at first, and con- stituted them "one" in a sense in which no other pairs of animals were one — in a social and religious sense — for the grand and sublime design of securing " a seed from God" that the race of man which was to spring from this primitive pair might be as much in the image of God as their first ancestors at their creation. And now, after the fall of the first pair, the family constitution is still to be the chief means by which the Creator, through redeeming grace be- stowed, shall still " seek this godly seed." How wonderfully does the slow production of our species, under the foster care of the most delicate arrange- ment of sympathies and affections, when sanctified and directed by religion, lead to this godly result! Religion, godliness, then, explains the end and reason of the Creator's plan of family. Its sympathies are more open to religion, and when its relations and affections are sanctified it is more powerfully con- centrative of holy influences. It is thus that the Creator has carefully sought out a godly seed, as 246 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. when one seeks by feeling after the object; so the word t^'pDD denotes to search by feeling out. Here is forethought and design in the Creator; and, as the prophet is speaking expressly upon the subject of the moral reason of the family constitution, we take the passage as decisive of the case. 6. How perfectly harmonious with this original design is the subsequent Church covenant established in the family of Abraham, and all other subsequent enactments, relating to the duties of parents and chil- dren, husband and wife. Starting from this funda- mental, moral idea of the family constitution, all that system of law, and promise, and covenant, and grace to the family, both in the Old and New Testaments, opens to our vision with a most beautiful and sublime symmetry. On this ground the conjugal relation is to be sought, the relative duties of husband and wife are enjoined, and the blessing of God upon the household is secured. If religion is the end of the family constitution, we certainly have a right to ex- pect that the first step in this series and delicate complication of relationships should be sought and taken on religious grounds. The first, grand apostasy of Adam's race sprang from the corruptions of the family, and this again was traceable to the irreligion and mere sensuality of the conjugal relation. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which OHUBCH RELATION OF ESFAKTS. 247 they chose." Genesis vi. 1. % It is thus that God commences to write down the causes of that degen- eracy, atheism, and moral corruption of society winch jht on the general destruction of the world by the Flood. "The sons of G ■>]" is a phrase which, in those early times, denoted the professed worshipers of Jehovah, mainly represented in the family of Seth ; while the " daughters of men" is a description of another branch of the race, mostly represented by the descendants of Cain, who cast off the fear and worship of God. There was an irreligion in these alliances. They were not sought for the glory of God, nor with anv view to the religious wellbeing of the family, but from sensuality, selfishness, caprice, and fancy. Here was the ground-work, the starting- point, of their fearful departure from God. How can children be brought up religiously when husband and wife are not joined together "in the Lord" — nay, when their union is chosen and continued in con- tempt of his claims and his counsels? God set down the corruptions of the earth before the Flood as due, primarily and chiefly, to the derangement and irre- ligion of the family — chiefly and firstly springing from godless marriages, which thrust the claims of religion aside, and thus at the fountain-head perverted the moral ends of the institution. 7. All sacred history holds out a continuous ad- monition on this subject. With what care did the good patriarchs guard against irreligious alliances 1 The twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis is a beautif il 248 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. specimen of the working of that religious principle •which governed them in their family, and social con- nections. In the law of Moses the prohibition upon irreligious marriages of the covenant people with idol- aters was thrown into the foreground of legislation. "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter shalt thou not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods." Deut. vii, 3; Ex. xxxiv, 16. It was the violation of this law which insnared Solo- mon, and is recorded as a leading cause of his defec- tion from God. " For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father." 1 Kings xi, 1-4. The marriage of the good Jehosha- phat's son with the idolatrous daughter of Ahab and Jezebel brought a train of disasters upon his reign, and plunged his kingdom, after his death, into idol- atry and bloody persecutions, and finally brought the dynasty of David to the brink of extermination — the infant Joash, the last male descendant of the royal house of David, being rescued from the common mas- sacre only by artifice. 2 Kings xi, 1-3. With what jealousy the rulers of the returned Jewish exiles watched this question after the Babylonian captivity, may be found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, whose example as governors and teachers of the people in this respect is full of solemn admonition. CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 249 Read the account in Ezra ix and x. A great moral principle underlies this stern Jewish law. And later, in Nehemiah's administration, among the solemn obli- gations to which the people bound themselves, "en- tering into an oath and a curse," after they had read the law seven successive days, w T as a that they would not give their daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for their sons." Neh. x, 30. In vain will it be urged that this was a Jewish law. Be it so. But a principle vital to religion in all ages and among all people is involved in it. It is as true now as then, that if the union of the family headship is formed on principles which indorse and authorize idolatry, or which exclude religion and the glory of God as the ruling motive, the influence of parental authority and example will be disastrous to family religion — perhaps totally destructive of it. How can religion appear in the children, and flourish in the home circle, if not planted in the affections which unite husband and wife? Children of irre- ligious parents may be converted — have often been — but only when they have been providentially brought under better influences outside of the family, and in- dependent of the instrumentality of father or mother. It is not of such instances, or of such possibilities, that we now speak; but of the direct influences of home, and of the home relations, to bring children to Christ. And we say, if this is ever done effectually, and this interest guarded securely, it will be when family religion springs from the united faith, and 250 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. purpose, and zeal of both parents. God must be honored in their union, and then his covenant bless- ing will be upon the fruit of that union. 8. So taught the holy apostles of our Lord: " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it, . . . that he might present it to himself a glorious Church." " Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered." "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord" "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church; . . . therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands." "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the con- versation of the wife." Eph. v, 22-25; 1 Peter iii, 1,7. What clearer proof can be given than from these and multitudes of other passages, that the grand and primal source of family religion, the religious hope and dependence of the family, instrumentally, is to be found only in the oneness of husband and wife in their Christian fellowship, and their plan and order of family arrangements? To religion all the several and particular duties and relations of husband and CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 251 wife, parent and child, point as to a common center. And it is only upon the faithful adherence to this grand idea and purpose that the household is blessed. It is not the measure of wealth, or of worldly honor, or of natural genius, or any such accidents that will determine the happiness of a family, but their faithful adherence to the religious ends contemplated in this relation. We do not now speak of individual happi- ness as such, but of family bliss and prosperity — the joy, and order, and prosperity of a household as such ; and we say it is found only in religion — it is Heaven's fulfilled promise to the pious headship and members of the house. " The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous." " The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just." " The wicked are overthrown and are not, but the house of the righteous shall stand." " The just man walketh in his integrity; his children are blessed after him." "Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." Ps. cxviii, 15; Prov. iii, 33, and xii, 7, and xx, 7; Deut. vii, 9. 9. The blessings of God upon the household are limited to such as keep his covenant. His covenant with Abraham required that patriarch to " walk before God and to be perfect," and that he should " command his children, and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord;" and the promise of that cove- 252 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. nant was, " I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." Gen. xvii, 1, 7, and xviii, 19. In both cases both the obligation and the blessing began with the parent, and through the parent reached the child. This is the ordinary method and appointment of God ; this is the beginning and order of religion in the family; and this family religion is the germ of Church life. SECTION IV. FIRST STAGE OF THE CHURCH LTFE OF CHILDHOOD REALIZED IN THE FAMILY— PARENTAL AND FILIAL DUTY. The family a normal Church r.pency — Proved historically — Proved from the tenor of religious precept to both parent and child — The law of the New Testament as to which parent should claim the relig- ious training of the child, where one is an unbeliever — The rights of the mother — Religious family life among the early Christians — At- tempts to overthrow the family institution — Heathenism — Monachism and celibacy of clergy — Rev. John Fletcher — Communism and social- ism — Rosseau — Foundling hospitals — Robert Owen — Fourier — Chris- tianity our only hope. 1. The whole tenor of law bearing on the family relations, both in the Old and New Testaments, proves that the family is a distinct, normal agency of the Church, for the early culture and confirmation of piety in the child. On this principle alone can the whole Divine code on family religion be explained. Religion limits the authority of parents, and religion limits the filial submission of the child. "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 253 UP IX Till: NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD." So also of the children — "Children, obey your parents IN the Lord." This qualifying clause of the Divine statutes — "tii the Lord" — at once gives sanction and limitation to the law. It marks the end of the com- mandment. The point we now aim to set forth and establish is, that the first stage of Church life to the child is re- alized and provided for in the family — the family, we mean, as in covenant with God, and as comprehended in the Church. Historically the Church of God has two stages — the family and the conventional stage. The first organized Church was in a family as such. The covenant with Abraham recognized his paternal headship, contemplated a posterity of the patriarch, and comprehended a system of family discipline and instruction. This was not accidental and temporary, but fundamental and perpetual. Afterward the Church became national, under Moses, but still retaining its family and covenant arrangements. In the New Test- ament it has dropped the national idea, but retained its conventional form, still comprehending the primi- tive family order. It is still the order of God that the first stage of the Church life shall be developed and fostered in the family. The family is God's ap- pliance for elemental, or nursery Church life. It is still reiterated to the New Testament Church mem- bers. "The promise is unto you and to your chil- dren." "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Part of 254 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. that "promise" was, "I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." Gen. xvii, 7. The constant reference, in the New Testament, to the family, or household, as the recipients of covenant blessings, points significantly to this fact. When our Lord first sent out the twelve apostles to go through the laud of Israel he specially commissioned them to bless households, " hinting to us that whenever it is possi- ble we should embrace men in their family relations, and make it our object to convert not only souls, but families to Christ; even as the apostles from the day of Pentecost." And when our Lord blessed Zacheus, it was a family blessing : " This day is salvation come to this house." "The reference to the house" says Stier, "as the foundation, as of human, so of political life generally, and of the Church to be raised up, begins thus early to occur in the Lord's discourses, and then runs through the entire New Testament." 2. That the first stage of the Church life of the child is realized in the family, and the first benefits of its Church life derived through the family rela- tion — the family, we mean, as in covenant with God — is proved from the fact, that both in the Old and New Testaments, the first religious duties which are to be performed toward the child, are required of the parent, and, on the other hand, the first relig- ious duties required of the child recognize its cove- nant relation to God, at the same time that it recog- nizes its filial dependence on the parents. The first religious duty to be performed to the child CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 255 is to impart instruction and discipline. This, indeed, comprehends the grand duty of the Church toward each individual of its members, whether adult or minor, but in the case of the adult the methods em- ployed are of a nature suited to mature years, such as the public ministry, the ordinances, and the func- tions of public officers, while in the case of the child the God of nature has marked out the instrumentali- ties, and the God of the Bible has commanded that they be through the tender offices of parental rela- tion. "We must here present the reader with a speci- men of Bible precept and provision for the first re- ligious wants of the child, and then show that these precepts, both in the nature of the duties enjoined and the circumstances of the case, imply the cove- nant or Church relation of the parties addressed. Psa. lxxviii, 2-8: "I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he com- manded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children ; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born ; who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his command- ments ; and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn 256 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." These words of the Psalmist are an evangelical ex- position of the authority and efficacy of that law of Moses, which required of the parent the faithful in- struction of the children, as in the words following : Ex. x, 2 : " And that thou may est tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord." Deut. iv, 9, 10: "Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they de- part from thy heart all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy sons, and thy son's sons : specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children." Chap, vi, 6, 7: "And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart : and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." This same is also repeated in chap, xi, 19. Gen. xviii, 19: "For I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 257 and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do jus- tice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Prov. xxii, 6 : " Train up a child in the way he should go." Eph. vi, 4: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your chil- dren to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Prov. xix, 18: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." From these commands upon parents let us turn to consider the correlative duties of children as laid down in the Bible. Lev. xix, 3 : "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God." Deut. v, 6 : " Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath com- manded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Prov. iv, 1 : " Hear, ye children, the instructions of a father, and attend to know understanding." Chap, xxiii, 22: "Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old." Chap, xxxvi, 17 : " The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." Mark vii, 10: "For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death." Eph. vi, 1-3 : " Children, obey your parents in the Lord ; for this is right. Honor thy father and 22 258 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. mother, (which is the first commandment with prom- ise,) that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth." Here the covenant promise is formally annexed and offered, which proves incontestably that the sub- jects of this command and promise were in covenant with God. Col. iii, 20 : " Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord." Prov. i, 8 : " My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother." Chap, vi, 20 : " My son, keep thy father's command- ment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thy heart and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee ; when thou sleep est, it shall keep thee ; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." 3. The foregoing Scriptures are thrown together in this connection as specimens of Bible teaching on these subjects, and that the drift and tenor of that teaching might be brought directly under the eye of the reader. It is a current maxim of Revelation, that " what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law." God speaks to his own people. The " lively oracles" were delivered only to the people in covenant with God. Rom. iii, 4, 19. It was an apostolic, as well as an Old-Testament rule, to restrict their communications to the Churches. They never delivered precepts, and promises, and doc- trinal revelations to the heathen. "For what," says CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 259 Paul, "have I to do to judge [to govern and disci- pline] those who are without? [that is, without the Church.] Do not ye judge them that are within " [the Church?] 1 Cor. v, 12. "To you," says Christ, " it is given to understand the mystery of the king- dom of God, but to them that are without, all things are done in parables." " Walk in wisdom toward them that are without." "Without are dogs and sorcerers/'' See Mark iv, 11 ; Col. iv, 5 ; 1 Thess. iv, 12; 1 Tim. iii, 7; Rev. xxii, 15. It is absurd to suppose God would address himself, as in the fore- going passages, to those who openly set at naught his authority. " Unto the wicked lie saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thy back?" Ps. 1, 16, 17. We say, therefore, God's method of speaking to parents and children proves them to have been Church members. 4. But the nature of the duties commanded, as well as the motives, sanctions, and encouragements held out, directly prove the parties to be in covenant with God. This point deserves a little further notice. " Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord." Here is a motive and a sanction which appeals only to a pure mind, and one who acknowledges his obligation to "please the Lord," having entered the covenant. "Obey your parents in the Lord," says Paul; "for this is right." The words in the Lord are too specific to be misap- 260 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. plied. They are the same as in Christ, and they are decisive of the Christian character and relation of the party addressed. The phrase is of constant recur- rence in the New Testament, and its import is gath- ered from suck passages as the following: "Receive him [Epaphroditus] in the Lord'" "Stand fast in the Lord'" "Be of the same mind in the Lord;" "Who is a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord;" "Your labor is not in vain in the Lord;" "Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord;" "A holy temple in the Lord;" "Now are ye light in the Lord;" "Be strong in the Lord" etc. 1 Cor. xv, 58, and xvi, 19; Eph. ii, 21, and v, 8, and vi, 10; Phil, ii, 29, and iv, 1, 2; Col. iv, 7. The special Christian and Church designation of this phrase is unquestionable. The dative h xopho — in the Lord — denoting rest in a place, is expressive of the state in which the parties addressed were considered to be. Both parents and children were in the Lord; that is, they were so by profession, by formal covenant obli- gation, and were accepted and presumed to be so really and spiritually. The phrase also denotes the limit and end of filial obligation. The children were to obey, in all things consistent with their state and relation, in the Lord. The learned Dr. Stier advances the same view of the import of the phrase in the Lord as applied to children. He says: "Thus the grace of Him that calleth — that the fulfillment may not be behind the type, Rom. ix, 11 — the germ out of which the tree CIUKCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 261 of their Christian life is developed under spiritual culture, is the necessary foundation of Christian education, of their \jzatdajcojia iv Xncazco] nurture in Christ, and not merely their nurture [e«c Kpearbv\ into Christ." The first makes their claim to Chris- tian nurture to grow out of their spiritual relation as already in Christ; the other, in order to bring them into Christ — a difference wide and radical, as the attentive reader will not fail to see. So, also, Prof. Schaff: "It is worthy of remark," he says, " that the apostle makes the children of believing parents an organic part of the Christian congregation in requiring of them obedience 'in the Lord; thus supplying the purest motive for obe- dience, and at the same time duly restricting it. For as parental authority is derived from Christ, and is to be exercised for him, it can only claim obedience where it answers his spirit and will. When, therefore, it commands what is wrong, it comes into manifest conflict with its author, and destroys itself. Then applies our Lord's language — Matt, x, 37 — - 'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.' " Then, also, observe the further sanction and motive of filial obedience — "for this is right" The word dizcuoc — right — denotes what is righteous or just in the sight of God — right according to the Christian standard and code. When it applies to the quality of an act, it denotes what is intrinsically right ac- cording to the law of God; and when it applies to a 262 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. person, it denotes a person accounted right or right- eous before God — one who enjoys the Divine favor, having received forgiveness of sin. This evangelical import of the term appears without an exception in its New-Testament use, wherein it occurs about eighty-one times. On the other hand, parental instruction is to be given under the same sanctions and for the same end. "Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" — the instruction and discipline of the Lord, says Doddridge. " The genitive xu t ocoo — of the Lord" — says Olshausen, "is to be explained by the circumstance that both discipline and exhortation are conceived as proceeding from Christ himself." " Such training and correction as befit the servants of the Lord," say Conybeare and Howson. The tenor of all the foregoing citations, whether from the Old or New Testament, proves the same. Parents and chil- dren are addressed as in the same Church relation, susceptible of the same obligations and motives to duty, and in either case the final end and design of this family instruction and discipline is, "that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." The result being the perpetuity of the spiritual knowledge and covenant bond of God's people, the means lead- ing to it were such as completely fell within the purview of Church duty, which was the point here to be proved. One other point remains to be noticed in this con- CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 263 nection, in order to render the argument under this head complete; the above precepts relating to family religious culture apply to an age of childhood prior to full personal responsibility. The duty of the child to submit to the parent, and the duty of the parent to teach and discipline the child, date at the earliest dawn of reason. The very terms of the command- ments to yield deference "in all things" to the parent, indicate the tenderest years of perceptive and dependent existence. Indeed, the duties are not laid down with reference to any stage of child- hood, but with reference to childhood as such; child- hood, however, as in covenant with God. The "in- struction and discipline of the Lord" with them are to commence at the earliest date of rational life, and proceed according to the wants and capacity of the child till parental responsibility shall give place to the mature individual responsibility of the child. 5. The inquiry may not improperly arise here, What if one of the parents be an unbeliever, w T hich party is the child to obey? We have already ex- plained the restrictive clause in parental right to command, and filial obligation to obey; both are to be done "in the Lord." By the law of the New Testament, and the most ancient and uniform prac- tice of the Church, in a case like the one supposed, the children, as to their Church relations, have been reckoned to the believing party. This law is laid down in 1 Cor. vii, 14, and where the unbelieving party interposes no authoritative bar, the Church 264 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. proceeds on this principle. But the rights of an unbelieving parent are not annulled by his want of personal faith, so long as his actual authority over the child is exercised within the chartered Christian limits. But particularly the rights of a mother, and her influence, ought here to be respected. Whatever the civil law may determine as to the power of the mother, or her want of power over the child, the law of God has laid her peculiar sphere in the nurture of childhood, and her prerogatives there are sacred and undisputable. In 1 Tim. ii, 15, the apostle lays down the sphere and office of woman. In verse 12, the apostle prohibits the woman from the offices of public teaching and Church administrations — "I suffer not a woman to teach, or to usurp authority over the man;" and in verse 15 he defines her sphere, and the duties in the faithful discharge of which she shall be saved — "nevertheless, she shall be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety." The word rexvoyoviaz — child-bearing — includes also the nurture of childhood. Robinson, in his Lexicon, gives the sense thus : " The bearing of children, and so by implica- tion including all the duties of the maternal relation; she shall be saved through the faithful performance of her duties as a mother, in bringing up her house- hold unto God." Bengel says: "The woman's office is here described, in contrast with the duty of teach- ing and governing — the bringing forth and training." And so also Professor Schaff says, the word zexvo- CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 265 yovla — child-bearing — " certainly includes educating them. Woman finds her highest dignity and purest happiness, not merely in being a mother, hut also in fulfilling all the duties of a mother in the Lord and for his glory." Conybeare and Howson, in their " Life and Epistles of St. Paul," say, " did rijz zsxvo- YOviaQ can not mean i in child-bearing,' as in our authorized version. The apostle's meaning is, that women are to be kept in the path of safety, not by taking upon themselves the office of the man — by taking a public part in the assemblies of the Church, etc. — but by the performance of the peculiar func- tions which God has assigned to their sex." Here, then, is placed the sphere of woman, in contrast with public functions, and this being her providential sphere, her rights in the management and nurture of childhood are as absolute as those of the father. This is especially the case with respect to the moral and religious concerns of the child. By the law of God they are specially committed to the mother dur- ing childhood. Timothy's father was a Gentile, but his mother being a Jewess he was brought up piously, and his ancestral piety runs through the maternal line — "the unfeigned faith which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice." 2 Tim. i, 5. It was maternal piety that rescued Timothy from heathenism. Nothing is said of the father in this connection, save that he was a Greek. Acts xvi, 1. The mother, in this case, asserted her right ' to bring up the son for the Lord. 2 06 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. In 1 Tim. v, 10, the apostle again brings the pecul- iar sphere of woman into the honorable foreground of " good works." In describing the prominent fea- tures of character of a holy matron, u a widow, in- deed, who trusted in God, and continued in supplica- tions and prayers night and day," he says: "If she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.''' Fidelity in the training of children was fitly placed in the van of this honorable list, as it was the chief of all: and it was fitly assigned to the mother, as with her, most of all, is the power and right lodged of fashioning the character of the child. Augustine. Bishop of Hippo, in his " Confessions,'' A. D. 300, illustrates this law of the Church, and pays a beautiful tribute to his mother, whose piety and decision prevailed against the example of his un- believing father, so that the family were brought up for the Church. He says of himself, while yet a boy : ' : I then already believed, and my mother, and the whole household, except my father : yet did not he prevail over the power of my mother's piety in me; that as he did not believe, so neither should I. For it was her earnest care that thou, my God, rather than he, shouldst be my father ; and in this thou didst aid her to prevail over her husband, whom she, although she was the better of the two, obeyed, be- cause this was obeying thee, who hast so com- manded.'' His father was a pagan nobleman, and, CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 207 as might be expected from the simple contrariety of their religions, so also from his choleric temper, his harshness, and his unfaithfulness, she suffered much for Christ's sake in her devoted labors for the salva- tion of her house. Her gentleness disarmed his se- verity, and her decision conquered at last. At last her husband, with the children, were converted to Christ. "For what knowest thou, wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, man, Avhether thou shalt save thy wife?" 1 Cor. vii, 16. Augustine beautifully says of his mother : "Finally, her own husband, toward the very end of his earthly life, did she gain unto Thee; nor had she to complain, after he became a Christian, of what, before he was a believer, she had borne from him. She Avas also the servant of thy servants ; whosoever of them knew her did much praise, and honor, and love thee in her ; for through the witness of the fruits of a holy conversation they perceived thy pres- ence in her heart. For she had been the wife of one man, had requited her parents, had governed her house piously, was well reported of for good works, had brought up children, travailing in birth of them as oft she saw them swerving from thee." Christian wife and mother, here is thy example. Firmness in prin- ciples, gentleness in manners, diligence in effort, faith in God, continuance in prayer, patience of hope, and the spirit of love, will conquer at last. We see, then, in the family a perfect religious or- ganization. We see the evidences of forethought and 268 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. design in no common degree. We see provision for a wide and perpetual want, adaptations to ulterior and important ends, around all which the Almighty has thrown up the awful guards of both natural and statutory law. Here, in the family, are laid the solid stones of the Church's foundation, the surest pledge of her perpetuity and strength. 6. The influence of family religion was a powerful auxiliary to the Gospel, both for its spread and per- manency, in the first ages. The household baptisms and household religion so frequently and honorably mentioned in the New Testament, were characteristic, also, of the post-apostolic period. Family worship was a beautiful epitome of Church worship, and sup- plied the juvenile members with ideas and habits of devotion preparative of the period when they should mingle in the public congregation. " These early Christians," says Coleman, in his Ancient Christianity Exemplified, "were examples of devout piety in their families. There, at the domestic altar, they fed the sacred flame of devotion, which burned in their bosom with a triumphant, deathless flame. There they formed and maintained the spirit of pure, deep, and earnest piety. Every master of a family fulfilled, within the walls of his own house, the office of private pastor, keeping up in it a regular course of reading, prayer, and private instruction to all the members of his household. Thus, every private house was, in the words of Chrysostom, '-a church to itself'" After the private devotions of the morning, "the family met CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 269 for united prayer, which Was uniformly accompanied with reading the Scriptures. The recital of such doc- trine and practical sentiments as might best fortify them against the prevailing scandals and heresies of the times, constituted, also, as it would seem, part of their devotional exercises. In the family, as in all their devotions, the primitive Christians delighted to sing their sacred songs." At the table they prayed, rehearsed portions of Scripture, sang praise to God, and the meal being ended, they gave thanks. The day closed with evening prayer, as in the morning. Such was the religious order of the Christian family; and with such pious care and direction the family be- comes the miniature of the Church. " Speak of divine things," says Chrysostom, "not only in the social circle, but in the family — the husband with the wife, the father with the child ; and very frequently renew the subject. Let no man affirm that the child needs not to be addressed on these topics ; for they must be discoursed of, not only at sometimes, but at all times." "Let the child be accustomed," says Jerome, "early in the morning to offer up prayer and praise to God; and at evening again, when the day is past and gone, let him end his labor by bringing his evening offering to the Lord." Such is a brief though inadequate sketch of the order of a Christian family. 7. Would the reader see the counterpart to this? "Would he see the boasted wisdom of man supplant- ing and subverting the wisdom and beneficence of the Creator? If so, he has only to turn to those coun- 270 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. tries where marriage is removed from its religious foundations, divested of its religious character and ends, and the family merged in the nation, or lost in the masses. We will not speak now of the loss of family religion by yielding to a worldly spirit, by fol- lowing the ordinary rounds of fashion, or by sacri- ficing each leisure hour, due to the quiet home circle, to the absorbing and exorbitant demands of business. American wives and children may, indeed, often com- plain — complain, perhaps, more than those of any other nation — that the cares and claims of business have robbed them of the cheerful fireside conversation of husbands and fathers. And the Church of God may complain that the cares of this life are crowding out the services of the domestic altar, and chilling the spirit of family devotion. The haste to be rich has often cast its blight over the fairest hopes of the Church, by leaving no time or relish for the exercises and culture of family religion. But it is not of these adverse influences that we now speak, but, at the hazard of seeming to make a digression from the di- rect line of argument, we invite the reader to a hasty glimpse of the contrast to a Christian family, as proposed in certain false schemes of nature and of religion. The perversity of man has attempted, in different ways and in every age, to subvert or modify the be- neficent order of the Creator. Human devices have been substituted for Divine wisdom. The pretentious claims of philosophy, "falsely so called," have been CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 271 hostile to the institutions of God in nature no less than in religion. But in social life and religion, whatever institution has its root in our nature, or is adapted to meet any of its primary wants, must con- tinue to command the common assent and judgment, to control the common custom, and in the end to tri- umph against the devices of a false philosophy. 8. The common error of all theories, ancient or modern, which have attempted to set aside the family order is, that marriage and the family relation are only conventional arrangements adopted by society for its convenience or benefit; not natural laws, or the immediate and necessary result of natural laws. By these reformers the family institution is looked upon simply as an expedient, somewhat as they look upon a particular form of civil government, or a par- ticular custom of any age, and therefore may at any time be abolished to give place to another structure of society, which, in the opinions of men, might prom- ise a greater benefit or pleasure. In fact, the rela- tion of sexes and the whole social structure are, in the estimation of these men, subjects to be experi- mented upon, and the past experience of mankind and the voice of Revelation are to be treated as the products of darker ages, wherein ignorance and super- stition held sway. But with them the progress of philosophy has now discovered a better path, the laws of nature are now better understood, religion is found to be a myth, and they demand the emancipation of the race from those shackles. From such principles 272 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. of fundamental skepticism on the natural and moral law of the family relation, men have, in different ways and for different ostensible ends, invaded and deranged this social domain. 9. Heathenism, by its theories of polygamy, divorce, infanticide, and general dissoluteness of morals, has always been at war with the original family institu- tion. Whatever system of philosophy, morals, or religion goes to harden the heart and deprave the morals, must in the same degree tend to subvert the family. And hence it is that in all heathen lands, in all ages of the world, a low type of family has ex- isted. Roman morals, as to family life in the time of Christ, and Greek morals at the time of their highest prosperity in letters and philosophy, were deplorably and alarmingly corrupt, and at last undermined their whole social and political life. The laws of ancient Sparta considered children as the property of the State, and the boys were taken from their parents at seven years of age, and brought up at a public table, at the public expense, to be soldiers. This rending of natural ties, when it became the general custom, and the settled State policy, and the characteristic of national education, was well calculated to destroy all natural sensibility. It might make a nation of fero- cious soldiers, but must induce a low type of culture and civilization — two results which Sparta largely realized. Even Plato taught that the most perfect theory of life was free from the impediments which existing laws and government threw across the path, CHURCH RELATION 01 INT AN . 273 wherein the individual was left free to be gui-1 philosophy. His ideal of society was that wherein there was a community of wru 3, children the property of the State. Defective children might, therefore, he exposed. Tims a system of education si structure was proposed as a model, which chilled and annihilated the finest sensibilities of our nature, as well as the fundamental distinctions of morality. In these views he was sustained by some of the greatest names of heathen antiquity, as Aris- totle and Cicero. 10. The Papal Church, from opposite motives — mo- tives of the highest piety — has cast dishonor upon the family relation. This she has done from adopting the principles of heathen philosophy, and she has done it in her system of monasticism and the celibacy of the clergy. Monasticism appeared in the Christian Church in the third century, and in Europe in the following century. It was indigenous in Egypt and the East, but was introduced into Rome niam.lv bv Jerome, author of the Vulgate Latin version of Scrip- ture. Monasticism was founded on that dogma of heathen philosophy which taught the essential and eternal antagonism of matter and spirit, and hence also of the body and soul of man. Matter was held to be essentially evil and perverse ; spirit essentially pure, inclined to sin and corrupted only by its connection with matter. The soul of man beingr purely spiritual as to its essence, and the body be- ing of the gross substance of matter, were, therefore, 214: THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. in essential antagonism, and the soul obtained the mastery over bodily appetites, and hence over the sources of sin, by subjecting the body to mortifica- tions, penances, fasts, and austere self-denials. The complete conquest of sin was to be effected only by absolute self-abnegation and the annihilation of bodily desires and affections. Perpetual celibacy, the living in deserts and caves, and subsequently in monasteries, retirement from the world and its cares, the perpetual recital of prayers, infliction of fasts and penances, solitude and meditation, these were the necessary steps to the highest attainments of the spiritual life. Marriage and the family life were by this theory made incompatible with the highest state of piety and devo- tion. This delusion spread like wildfire in the Church, and soon enlisted its thousands of deluded devotees. In Rome and Italy even, sunk as the people were in the last degree of licentiousness, the enthusiasm kin- dled by this spirit of ascetic Christianity, awakened the ancient heroism of the Roman character, and men and women emulated the honor of this self-immolating life as next in merit to a martyr's crown. It was soon perceived that if celibacy was essential to the highest purity, and to avoid partaking of the "inextinguisha- ble impurity of matter,*' the clergy ought certainly to practice it as due to the superior sanctity of then pro- fession, and accordingly Pope Siricius passed the first law enforcing the celibacy of the clergy in A. D. 385. Though not important to our argument, it is at least- curious to observe the absurdities of error. Truth CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 275 never contradicts itself — error always. The Papal Church holds to seven sacraments; namely, baptism, the Lord's Supper, marriage, confirmation, penance, orders, and extreme unction. By the law enjoining celibacy of the clergy, therefore, it follows, that by conforming to one of these sacraments, namely, mar- riage, the individual morally disqualifies himself for another, namely, priestly orders ; and inversely, by taking orders he is prohibited the other sacrament of marriage. But such contradictions are no obstacles to a faith that defies reason, and makes void the sim- ple Word of God by tradition. The effect of all these monstrous outgrowths of superstition is matter of history. It is enough to say that these outrages upon nature, these insults to the wisdom of God and reproach upon the sanctity of the marriage covenant, have wrought their vindic- tive retribution in the demoralization of the Church and society wherever the Papacy has held sway. The darkest pictures of social depravity the world has ever seen have resulted from contempt of the marriage relation, whether from pretended motives of religion, as in monachism, or from infidelity and licentiousness, as in socialism and communism. Prot- estant Christianity rebukes these revolutionary and demoralizing schemes, and places true piety, virtue, and social prosperity where the Bible has placed them — in self-government, submission to God, and the practice of all social duty — placing the family relation at the foundation both of the religious and 276 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. social economy. '-'Marriage is honorable in all,'' is a Bible maxim. Under the benign sway of the Protestant religion — to use the "words of the learned Milner — '-the family life, the life of the Christian family, has resumed its place as the highest state of Christian grace and perfection.'"' The outbreaks of heresy, in the forms of unchecked licentiousness, which appeared at different times in Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland, under the various titles of "Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit," "Ana- baptists,*' the •'Libertines'' of Geneva, and others, were but the reactionary effects of the system and philosophy of monasticism. 11. It is remarkable how traditional error, which has long been imbedded in philosophy and in re- ligious faith, will still continue secretly to affect the mind long after it has cast off the slough of its putrid and dead form. It is said the pious John Fletcher was under the influence of a belief in the inherent incompatibility of marriage "with the highest sanctity, till one day his eyes were opened by read- ing Gen. v. 21-24: "And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methusalah. And Enoch "walked with God after he begat Methusalah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty and five years; and Enoch "walked "with God; and he was not, for God took him." "When men become wiser and holier than their Creator, so as to believe that the relations he intended for man are not the best CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. li<7 and the purest, and thus make his wisdom and law void by their philosophy, it requires but little dis- cernment to foresee their own ruin, and the mis- chievous effects of their delusion upon others. "Be not righteous overmuch : neither make thyself over- wise. Why shouldst thou destroy thyself':"' Eccl. vii, 16. 12. Communism and socialism in Europe are words familiarly understood. The former professes to in- troduce a community of goods, and an equalization of the physical comforts of life, as a leading measure for the amelioration of society, but always carries with it the theory of the abrogation of the family compact; while the latter aims directly at the recon- struction of society upon a new basis, and, in its turn also, makes the abrogation of the conjugal and family relation a fundamental point. Both are the offspring of radical and avowed infidelity. Socialism is an attempt to construct society upon a plan totally devoid of moral and religious foundations. Its views of the soul and its destiny are pantheistic; the future life is utterly ignored, and the present world is the limit of its philosophy. It assumes that the nature of man is pure, and is to be developed and educated according to innate laws of health and instinct, and conformably to the suggestions of science and the adaptations of external nature. It aims, in short, to make a perfect animal, susceptible of the highest animal and earthly pleasure. The asceticism of the heathen and of the monastic orders cast a reproach 278 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. upon the marriage relation, on the ground that it presented a bar to the soul's highest purity, and brought the spirit into subjection to the body; but socialism rejects the marriage relation because it is a barrier to the widest sensuous indulgence, and brings the body into subjection to the soul. The character of Rousseau, whose writings have made a deeper im- pression upon the French mind and character in this respect than those of almost -any other author, may be quoted in fairness as a sample of the effects of this philosophy on the natural affections. Rousseau lived twenty years with his mistress without mar- riage. Five children who were born to them "were coolly deposited in the foundling hospital." Some of his patrons at length made an effort to identify these children, but failed. They could not be found. Rousseau and his mistress had lost all trace of them, and received the failure of his friends to identify them with profound indifference. Tins is the fruit of socialism, and of all other theories of society which annihilate the family. A foundling hospital for the reception of children ! "Would the reader know what such an institution is? A more decent form of infanticide. A foundling hospital is an institution for the recep- tion and support of deserted children — children either illegitimate, or whose parents have cast them off to avoid the trouble and care of their support. The first dictate of savage nature, in such a case, is to destroy the child. A milder doom is to expose it, in hope CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 279 that Borne one more humane may pick it up and rear it. Foundling hospitals are for the reception of these infant outcasts. " The exposure of children," says Gibbon, " was the prevailing and stubborn vice of an- tiquity." It was common in all heathen countries, even the most polished and enlightened. Of course, natural affection and the love of family must be pre- viously extinguished. In ancient and modern coun- tries humanity has prompted to some provision for these hapless victims of hard-heartedness and sensu- ality. They abound in Europe, the land where Pa- pacy and infidelity have had their sway. In the Papal States, where the power of the priesthood is the highest, the dissoluteness of family morals and the increase of foundlings rival the most infidel por- tions of Europe. Often poverty overbears natural affection, and the parent seeks this public charity, with all its increased ratio of mortality, as a means of support for the child, rather than brook the ter- rors of want at home ; but more commonly a low type of family affection, or a reckless sensuality, are the sources from which these asylums are filled. " The best foundling hospitals," says M. J. Michelct, "may be said to be the cemeteries. In the hospital at Moscow, out of the thirty-seven thousand children received in twenty years, only one thousand were saved; and in that of Dublin only two hundred out of twelve thousand, that is, one-sixtieth. What shall I say of the Paris institution? I have seen and ad- mired it, but its results are not very accurately known. 280 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. In it are brought together two very different classes of children : 1. Orphans who are received there after being reared, and these stand some chance of living ; 2. Foundlings, properly so called, children brought thither at birth; these are sent away to be nursed, and their life is prolonged for some months." The average life of the foundlings, of which, in France alone, in 1856, there were twenty thousand, does not exceed four years. The rest of Europe, generally, is no better. Here is a picture. When the family is annihilated, or its bands loosened and its affections chilled, who, then, will take care of the children? What public institutions shall take the place of family, and sup- ply the offices of parents ? The Christian religion proceeds upon the principle that the Creator has im- planted in our nature laws of social development as immutable as those of animal and vegetable physiol- ogy, and that it is in harmony with these laws alone that any successful and just system of education can operate. The Christian Revelation declares as a fact, that the primary organization of our race was in the family, and this organization is assumed to be pursu- ant to those laws which the Creator had implanted in nature. The child is at first a creature of sensibility and imagination, afterward of reason and conscience. How shall it be developed in its higher intellective and moral nature ? Who shall have the care of those incipient years, when, as the mind and character have not yet attained, but are only receiving, their form CHURCH RELATION OF IXFAX 281 and direction, the most delicate attention? and the skillful foster-care are necessary? Miehelet, grappling with the problem of childhood-culture, well that to turn it to things ict as philoso- phy or mathematics, without injury to the child, '• many years of well-managed transitions are neces- sary — very short and very easy little tasks, diversi- fied with action, but not automatic. Our asyl he adds. " are still far from fulfilling these conditions.*'' Ay, and so it must forever be. No asvlums. no ays- tern of schools or seminaries, can ever supply the offices which the God of nature has lodged only with the parent. The formation of character is the deli- cate office of affection guided by n a -\ich affec- tion, such patience and cheerful assiduity as only the parent has. Simple instruction in science and object- ive truth, being more purely a work of the reason, may more safely be intrusted to other hands, at a later period. But communism and socialism, assuming that man, when in a state of nature, is in a state of chaos, like _ mic matter, and that society must organize itself, propose to make provision for even his in- fantile wants by public institutions or conventional arrangements. Robert Owen, the modern apostle of socialism in England, says: '-The affections of par- ents for their own children are too strong for their 2 nents ever to do justice to themselves, their children, or the public, in the education of their own children, even if private families possessed the ma- U 282 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. chinery — which they never do — to well manufacture character from birth." It is no wonder that men who can utter such sentiments have wearied themselves, like the men of Sodom, in fruitless efforts to find the door of knowledge, feeling about and groping in the darkness of atheism. Fourier complained to the last that none of his disciples, not even the most ardent, fully understood his system in all its complications. How different the simple provisions of God in the family institution ! France itself, though in 1793 she abjured all religion, and declared that the deities of the French people thereafter should be Liberty, Equality, and Reason, and wrote over the cemeteries, "Death is an eternal sleep," can not commit her des- tinies to her atheistic philosophers ; but low as the type of family is in her demoralized population, it can not be totally dissolved either by the arts of sophistry or the lusts of sensuality. 13. These theories of foreign infidelity have been brought to our shores, and earnest efforts have been made to plant them in American soil. We have seen, and still see, experiments made of forming communi- ties upon the destruction of the family relation. Pe- riodicals claiming high respectability have advocated them for their supposed industrial and commercial advantages ; the American people have been invited to test the principles; this country has been con- sidered as offering a favorable spot for the trial of this new philosophy, and American youth have be- come dangerously tinctured with the dissolute theory CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 283 of morals which underlie and pervade the whole. The overthrow of true religion can never be effected without the overthrow of the family, and the breaking down of those guards of morality and piety which God has erected in the relations of that sacred do- main. From heathenism, infidelity, or any false sys- tem of Christianity, we have no hope for the eleva- tion and honor of this institution. Pure Christianity alone can effect this. " God setteth the solitary in families." As the Spirit of the Gospel develops in the faith and consciences of mankind, the finer sensi- bilities of our nature will gain the ascendency; a true and natural social order will arise; and, under the protective influence of religion, our humanity will reach its highest bliss and perfection. But the mis- sion of a modern Elijah is needed "to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers." "Under the influence of sin," says Professor Schaff, "marriage has degen- erated, and Christianity alone restores it to its proper dignity and significance." 284 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. SECTION V. THE RELIGIOUS ORDER OF THE FAMILY FUNDAMENTAL TO THE GOSPEL SCHEME OF REFORMATION— ITS RESTI- TUTION PROMISED. Our argument stated — Precept of the Decalogue — Reaffirmed in New Testament — Heathenism destroys natural affection — Law of Trij)tolemus — Mai. iv, 6 — Quoted by the son of Sirach, showing how deeply the Jewish mind was affected by it — Quoted by the angel as the first reiteration of Old Testament prophecy in the New Testa- ment — Quoted by our Lord — By Peter — Christ defends the family obligations against the traditionists. We have noticed the tenor of Bible precepts bear- ing on the family relations, but there are several passages which deserve a still farther notice. Our argument is twofold: first, to prove that the end or design of the family institution is religious ; and, secondly, that this institution thus organized or con- stituted for religious ends is a normal force and in- strumentality of the Church. A few facts shed a volume of light upon the manifest intentions of Holy Scripture, and show with what earnestness the Divine Mind has labored to impress upon us the religious importance of the family. We recall a passage already quoted. 1. First, it is written in the Decalogue, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Consider that this commandment was not written on parchment with the general code of Moses, but on tables of stone by the finger of CHUROH RELATION OF INFANTS. 285 God. and is part of the fundamental law of nature and of all true religion. In all the subsequent re- iterations of the essential laws of morality and re- ligion, whether of the Jewish or Christian systems, this is repeated. Thus it is repeated by Moses in his Deuteronomy, or the Second Law — chap, v, 16 — and by Christ to the young man, when he would enumerate only the chief of the commandments, the keeping of which was necessary to his entering into life. Matt, xix, 19. Again, consider that the word 1?3 — honor — denotes the acknowledgment of the relation and authority of the parent, and the render- ing due reverence and obedience to the same. It is a general term, covering all duties to parents as such, whether of inward respect and affection, or of outward obedience, support, and protection. But this duty can never be done without a religious recog- nition. The parent is assumed by the Decalogue to be under the law of God, and his most emphatic in- vestiture of authority relates to the duties and obli- gations of family religion. The promise annexed is a covenant promise — a promise never carried outside of the covenant relation. The point of the argument lies here : as the au- thority of the parent is a Divine investiture for re- ligious ends, and hence charged with religious re- sponsibility ; so the "honor" due the parent, as thus invested, is reverence for that authority as religious. Dropping out the religious idea and motive, the "honor" paid by the child never meets the limit 286 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. and measure of the command, never fulfills the end and design of the precept. The spirit and ultimate end of the commandment can be nothing less than what was contemplated in the family institution; namely, religion, and that obedience which fulfills the spirit of the law must fulfill the ends for which it was enacted. Again consider- that, as Paul quotes it in Eph. vi, 2, a this is the first commandment with promise" It is the fifth in the Decalogue, but the first with a promise annexed. A specialty is attached to it hereby. The "promise" is, indeed, couched in words as if only a temporal blessing were intended, but we know that this is only a mode of speaking conformable to Old-Testament usage, whereby a temporal good is granted as the reward of religious fidelity, and a spiritual good typified at the same time, by the earthly blessing. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may he prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Deut. v, 16. Or, as Paul has it, "that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth." On the other hand, " disobedience to parents," and being "without natural affection," are reckoned among the vilest offshoots of heathenism and irreligion, and are one of the powerful causes of social corruption and Divine penal judgments. See Rom. i, 30, 31 ; 2 Tim. iii, 2, 3. Yet even heathen- ism was not always untrue to nature, and to those primary indications of religious destiny which God CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 287 implanted in our social constitution. Plutarch Bays o[' Triptolemns, whose laws were few and simple, that they wore ma inly compressed in the precepts, "Honor your parents; worship the gods; hurt not animals."' Certainly this is a comprehensive creed, and at least shows the comparative estimate placed on filial obligation by putting it in the foreground of fundamental law. In Ezekiel xxii, 7, the "setting light by father and mother" is first in the enumera- tion of the national sins of Judah, which brought upon the land the terrible judgments of God. Now, what does all this teach us but that dis- obedience and disrespect to parents is one of the highest marks of impiety and irreligion? Repeatedly, where the foundations of practical religion are laid, we find this relation of the family specially enumera- ted and guarded. There is no stability or extension of religion in society without it ; but, on the contrary, with the family relation religiously preserved and fol- lowed out, religion is supplied with one of its strong- est defenses and most poAverful encouragements. 2. But a second fact is to be taken in connection with this. The Old Testament canon closes with a remarkable announcement. The last written utter- ance of its last faithful prophet is most ominous and suggestive. " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful •lay of the Lord : and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth ivith a 288 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. curse" Mai. iv, 6. Does this prophecy look for- ward to the restoration of the primitive, religious order of the family? No other construction is easy, natural, and consonant to all the connecting facts. To give the particle ^J£, translated " to" the sense of with, and read it, "the heart of the fathers with their children," as indicating that whole families, fathers and children together, were to be turned or converted, is a possible sense, and would imply the order of fam- ily religion, which is the sense for which we here con- tend. But this gives not the force of the passage. It is well enough translated in the common English; or perhaps we should take its more radical sense of down upon, resting upon, as we find it in 2 Kings xiv, 1: "The king's heart was upon Absalom." This set- ting " the heart of the father upon the child, and the heart of the child upon the father," with reference to religious ends and religious duties; this turning family affections inwardly, as it were upon each other, and thus back into their proper channel, making them subservient to their original ends — namely, to secure u a godly seed;" this is the point of the prophet's ut- terance. Church reformation begins with family ref- ormation. " Every man should build over against his own house." The religious claims of the children must first be looked after. This prophetic utterance of Malachi is of such marked public significance as to have attracted the attention of the wise and good of his nation in later times, yea, of inspired men, and even of Christ him- CHURCH RELATION OP INFANTS. 289 self. In the apocryphal writings of the " Son of Si- rach," the pious writer says of the prophet Elijah, that kk he was ordained for reproofs in their times, to pacify the wrath of the Lord's judgment, before it brake forth into fury, and to turn the heart of the father unto the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob." Ecclus. xlviii, 10. This is evidently a quotation from Malachi, and shows how deeply his words had sunk into the heart of the Jewish nation. And observe, the method in w T hich Elijah conducted his reformation was adapted and intended to bring back the nation to the religion of their pious ances- tors, and to restore the religious order of the family, so that the fathers being right and established in the true worship of God, the children should be taught to walk in their ways. Traditional religion — that is, re- ligion descending from father to son — was the great idea in the mind of Malachi and of the Son of Sirach who quotes him. And in this method, says he, he was "ordained" to "restore the tribes of Jacob." This was literally Elijah's work, thus to restore the lapsed tribes of Israel in his day. But this element of his prophetic commission became the foundation of a most important prophecy uttered by Malachi, as we have seen above ; and this prophecy aw T akened an ex- pectation in the minds of the Jews that before the coming of Messiah — before the "great day of the Lord" — Elijah would reappear, resume his functions as a reformer, and place the families of Israel back in the faith of their ancestors, and restore family 290 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. religion, so that the children should thenceforward walk in the steps of their pious fathers. This particular feature of the expected reformation in Messiah's time was so necessary to the Church, its purity, establish- ment and extension, that it became the burden of the first reiteration of Old Testament prophecy in the opening volume of the New. Of John the Baptist — the second Elijah — and before his birth, the angel said to Zacharias, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, .... and many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke i, 15- 17. " He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to their children," that is, says Bengel, " He shall restore that parental love which had grown cold in the prevailing moral degradation." The passage stands opposed to that neglect and indifference of natural affection de- scribed, Jer. xlvii, 3 : " The fathers shall not look back to their children;" denoting not only a condition of public terror, but a notable and ominous enfeebling of the family ties. It is observable that the words in Luke, " The disobedient to the wisdom of the just," form a parallelism with the words of Malachi, " The heart of the children to their parents." The former are to be taken as exegetical of the latter. Disobe- dience is the characteristic sin of childhood and youth, in that state of society where the religious obligations CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 291 of the family are despised. Where Malachi uses the word "children," Luke uses "disobedient," and instead of "parents," in Malachi, Luke simply has "the just." Both refer to the same great reformation which was to begin with the family — "He shall turn the hearts of the disobedient [children], to the wisdom of the just [parents].'' Now, in this great reformation, this "pre- paring a people for the Lord," this "restoring the tribes of Israel,'' why is the specification of parents and children kept up with such particularity and emphasis ? Why this significant pointing inwardly, into the interior relations and arrangements of the family? That this is the fact the language fully proves. No other sense is adequate to the peculiar force and structure of the words. Indeed, no other sense could meet the point of the prophecy and set forth the character of the reformation foretold, for it was the restoration of that true traditional religion, that religion which should descend from parent to child by the careful nurture of doctrine and discipline, which was the very point and burden of the prophecy. It was this very work of family reclamation which our Lord calls " restoring all things" — "Jesus answered, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things," Matt, xvii, 11 — which the apostle Peter, carrying the prophecy still into the future, as if its perfect fulfillment was to be realized only in the millennial period of the Church, calls " the restitution of all things;" that is, literally, d-oxazacr- zdazcoc, the restoration, or placing back all tilings in their former state. Acts iii, 21. 292 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Here, then, we find the last prophetic record of the old dispensation, and the first prophetic annun- ciation of the new, to contain a description of some great effect, some important reformation, to be wrought upon the family. The burden of the last of the old prophets, as he stood upon the outmost verge of his dispensation, and looked forward through the vista of centuries, to the times of reformation and the long- expected advent of the Messiah, was the degenerate and lapsed condition of the family empire, and the first obstruction to Messiah's coming and reign to be removed, was the restitution of the religious order of the household. In the Decalogue, God had con- ditioned the perpetuity of the Hebrew possessions in Canaan, on the perpetual religious order of the fam- ily : " That thy days may he long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth tliee" was the tenor and scope of the promise made to filial obedience: "Lest L come and smite the land with a curse,'' was the maledic- tion threatened upon family alienations and irreligion. Before Christ could come, or the way for his com- ing be prepared, a great prophet was to arise, the prototype of the illustrious Elijah, clothed "in his spirit and power,'"' "to turn the hearts of the fathers to then children, and the hearts of children to their fathers" — to bring back the alienated and disordered members of the household compact to the primitive design and standard, so that, in the language of Mal- achi, from the sanctified union of the twofold headship of the family, the Divine Author might "carefully CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 293 seek a seed of God." "What else can be the import of these most instructive and suggestive communica- tions ? The perpetuity and wellbeing of the Hebrew nation hung on this condition. The wellbeing of the race, and the stability and triumphs of the Church, depend on it as well. The whole tendency of the Gospel is to realize this prophecy. 3. Still another fact call to mind in this connection. At the time of our Savior's coming, the Jewish peo- ple were notoriously remiss and culpable in their teach- ings and practices relating to filial duty and parental authority. The teachings of their Rabbis had exactly reversed the law of Moses, and defeated the grand design of the family scheme. Family religion was an impossibility in the spirit and natural workings of the "traditions of the elders." Our Lord met it as one of the chief nullifying expedients of the tra- ditionists, the ruling party among the Jews, for set- ting aside the order of nature, and making void the law of God. Hear the burning words of Christ to the Jews, recorded in Matt, xv, 3-9 : "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, say- ing, Honor thy father and thy mother : and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradi- 294 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. tion. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Not only had the law regulating the relation of parent and child been invaded and practically an- nulled, but they had ascended a step higher, and cor- rupted the fountain-head of all family religion and order, by relaxing the laws of marriage and divorce. Our Lord charged them with general religious defec- tion and dereliction, and the tradition which nullified filial obligation and deranged the family compact is advanced into the fore-front of the representation, not only as a specimen of the causes leading to this re- sult, but as being itself a leading cause. As they sundered the bands of parental authority, they re- moved the restraints of youthful discipline, and the first grand reliance of Providence for the religious nurture and admonition of the child. As they dis- solved the obligation of filial obedience, they thereby, by inevitable consequence, weakened the bonds of the Church covenant, perverted their piety, and armed it against both nature and humanity, and thus unsettled the foundations of society. For it must be remem- bered that it was under the pretense and profession of serving God and performing an act of excessive piety, by dedicating the proceeds of their labor to the sacred altar, that they were thus dissolved from the CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 205 obligation of parental support. According to this tradition, whenever a child should make a vow to de- vote his earnings and his means to the sacred treas- ury, or the altar, he could then turn to his father or his mother, and coolly say, kk That money, or earthly Babstance, by which thou mightest otherwise have been profited by me, is now devoted to religious uses; I have made it corbam, or a sacred gift and offering." In such a case, says the godless traditionist, the child is free henceforward from all obligation to support his parents. "Ye suffer him,'"' says Mark — vii, 12 — " no more to do aught for his father or his mother." This whole teaching was a mere craft and policy of the priests and Pharisees of the day, to turn the money of the people into their own pockets. It was part of a stupendous system of indulgences for en- riching and aggrandizing a corrupt priesthood. In the code of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, it was pro- vided that the son was released from the obligation of giving his father food, if the latter had neglected to give him a trade — a provision more creditable to human nature and to religion than the above mon- strous dogma of pharisaic superstition. But how easy to perceive that, with such views of the primary relations of the family, with such slight and contemptuous estimates of the most delicate and wondrous arrangements of God for the early and per- manent piety of the child, which are found in the sympathies and unselfish affections of the parents, religion would be swept away at a stroke, and the 296 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. vilest form of heathenism left in its stead. When the heart has learned to trample on the sacred ties and sensibilities of the parental and filial relations, and to do it from a professed motive to render more exalted and distinguished service to the God vrho made us, it is then that our nature turns to adamant, and the human heart is arrayed in deadly hostility against all true religion no less than against all natural instinct. Hovr different the example of Him who on the cross remembered and tenderly provided for his mother, and has made affection and duty to parents the step- ping-stone of the well-taught heart to the higher and sublimer offices of piety and submission to God ! 4. Such are some of the admonitions we gather from Holy Writ. Let the reader compare the fore- going hints of Scripture carefully, and he will become more and more impressed that, in the eye of God, religion is to begin in the family, is to find its great- est establishment there, and the decline and decay of family religion is the sure evidence of general spirit- ual darkness in the Church, and the precursor of a "smiting curse''* which shall fall with unerring pre- cision on the earth. The awful import of Malachr s words rolled its solemn reverberations through the fallen Jewish Church, who, by their human traditions, had unsettled the relations of husband and wife, par- ent and child, and thus "made void the law of God;'*' and it reaches down to us, and will forever sound its warning tones on the walls of a godless Church and family. "That thy days may be long upon the CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 2\) 7 land,' 1 is the blessing promised; "Lest I smite the land with a curse," is the malediction threatened. Let the Church see to it. SECTION VI. SECOND STAGE OF FAMILY CHURCH-LIFE— TEACHING 3T PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. Second stage of family Church-life defined — Examples — Passover institution — Unleavened bread — Redemption of the first-born — Mon- uments at Gilgal — General statement of Deuteronomy vi, 20-25 — Of Hezekiah — Of Asaph — Jewish law for admitting a child to the Pass- over — Point of the argument under this head stated. 1. We have endeavored to set forth the doctrines that religion is the end of the family relation; that the family is a normal Church agency and element; that the first stage of the Church -life of the child was in the family, wherein the parent becomes the appointed teacher and administrator of discipline — wherein general or first truths of religion are im- parted, and simple habits of piety formed; and that all Scripture precept and teaching bearing on the relations of parent and child prove this, and assume both the parents and the children to be in covenant with God. We now push this same thought a step further, and observe that the Scriptures make provision for the instruction of children, and often address them in a manner to indicate some advance in intellect, 298 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. some degree of responsible judgment and reason — enough to inquire, understand, and remember in mat- ters of the simplest truth — and yet that their age is too tender to be removed from parental oversight and responsibility. The period of which we now propose to speak may be denominated the second stage of the Church-life of childhood, and is charac- terized by two features: Eirst, the child is taught by public institutions and ordinances as well as by simple precept, a fact which indicates that the age of intelligent inquiry and discrimination has com- menced; and, second, that the ministry and Church membership are brought in conjointly with the parent to inculcate the necessary truths and exert the re- quired influence. The view of the developing Church- life of the child, as set forth in these improved and advanced methods of spiritual culture, is not fanciful or incidental, but is, as we shall see, a pervading and ever-repeated form of Scriptural precept and recognition. 2. We will notice first the instruction of children by public ordinances, which supposes the child to be old enough to inquire into and understand their meaning. Take for example the Passover — Exodus xii, 26 — " And it shall come to pass, when your chil- dren say unto you, What mean you by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses." In this precept is com- CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 299 prehended all the import — historical, providential, and moral — of that impressive ordinance of the Passover, and the connecting feast of "unleavened bread." In Ex. xiii, 7, 8, the import of the eating bitter herbs and unleavened bread is distinctly mentioned as a theme of instruction in connection with the Passover lamb. Take the case of the redemption of the first-born, as recorded Ex. xiii, 11-15, and detailed in Num. xviii, 15. The first-born male of man and of beast was to be devoted to God, but the first-born child and the first-born of unclean animals were to be re- deemed with a price, while those of other animals were to be offered in sacrifice. This ceremony taught them that their first-born were forfeit to God by his act of preservation in Egypt, and hence holy; and the first-born children might have been claimed for the sanctuary or priestly service, but God permitted the parent to resume the offspring by the payment of a redemption price. Num. iii, 11-13. Now, God says of this ordinance relating to the first-born : " And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us from Egypt, from the house of bondage ; and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let the people go, that the Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of beast," etc. Here, then, is another institution that had a historic and a spiritual significance, fundamental to the the- 300 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ocracy, which was to be explained to the children so early in life as they should be able to ask, "What is this?" Another great historic fact in the providential his- tory of the nation, recorded in Josh, iv, 4-7, 21, was to be explained to the children by a "sign" or mon- ument when they should be old enough to inquire for the explanation. Twelve men of the tribes were to take each a large stone from the bottom of Jordan, and with them erect twelve monuments on the western side ; " and Joshua spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? then shall ye let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land." Indeed, the external ordinances of the law — its whole typology and symbolism, as well as the written Word — were embraced in the comprehensive words of Moses, in Deut. vi, 20-25 : " And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes ; and he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers; and the Lord commanded us to do all CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 301 these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that lie might preserve us alive as it is this Jay. And this shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us." 3. The peculiarity of the foregoing passages is this, they recognize a certain age and development of the child, sufficient to capacitate it to ask the meaning of external ordinances, before it becomes the duty of the parent to explain them. Yet they are children. Mueh simple truth may have been taught before, but now a more advanced stage of pupilage is reached, a new phase is added to the system of instruction — external ordinances now become the additional helps to learning and edification. Thus says the Psalmist, u One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." Ps. cxlv, 4. "The father to the children," says Hezekiah, "shall make known thy truth." Isa. xxxviii, 19. "Tell ye your children of it," says Joel — chap, i, 3 — "and let your children tell their children, and then* children another generation." Such general repetitions of the parental duty include the system of instruction by ordinances and public institutions, as well as by sim- ple verbal lessons, and by example. In the same way Asaph recapitulates the various departments and methods of instruction by private lessons and by public ordinances, when he says — Ps. lxxviii, 5 — "For he established a testimony in Jacob, and ap- pointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our 302 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. fathers that they should make known unto their chil- dren." 4. It was in pursuance of this twofold method and plan of instruction, that the Hebrews admitted their children to the public participation of the ordinances, after they had sufficiently learned their import and his- tory. They were instructed in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and if they showed an appreciative mind, were admitted to the Passover, the great na- tional and religious test of a true Israelite, at the age of twelve or thirteen years. At twelve years old our Lord attended the Passover with his parents, and joined in the solemn temple service. " When a Jew- ish boy," says Mr. Frey, "has arrived at the age of thirteen years and a day, he is considered a man, fit to be one of the ten necessary to constitute a full member for public worship." The exact age was not determined anciently by an absolute rule; but rather by the mental development, the catechetical profi- ciency, and the moral appetency of the child. Lender the Christian system the same general laws should obtain. When the child has been properly instructed, can appreciate the great idea of the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and gives evidence of sincere faith in the Savior and obedience to his command, he should be admitted to that public ordinance, and all early instruction and discipline should have this in view. The period at which a Jewish child was ad- mitted to the great annual feasts and the temple wor- ship was an epoch in its life, anticipated with devout Clll Kill RELATION OF INFANTS. 303 longing of soul. So should our children learn to reverence the house of God, and to aspire to mingle in the sacred toasts at Jerusalem, "whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimonies of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." The worship of God, as contained in institutions and ordinances, has a history as well as a doctrinal and moral significance. When the child gives evidence of that piety of heart which is in sympathy with the moral import and end of these institutions, noth- ing could incapacitate it for uniting in their solemn and edifvins; observance but a want of intelligent comprehension of their history, their import and de- sign. These should be early and carefully imparted. Then, and then only, is the child prepared to par- ticipate in these holy mysteries and higher services with the public congregation, when it can give an intelligent reason for the service, and show evidence that its heart is in reverent and devout sympathy with its design. The mind early seeks to know the reasons of things, and when it distinctly grasps the ideas of Church, of covenant relation to God, of the moral import of external ordinances, of their simple providential history, and their doctrine, it is intellect- ually prepared to participate in them. This w T as the great principle laid down in the ancient Church, and it is too obvious to reason, too coincident to the spirit and design of the New Testament Church, to require a formal, authoritative republication. The point of our argument here is, that at the age of appreciative 304 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. inquiry the child is to be taught by the historic doc- trine and moral significance of public ordinances ; thus proving that the child is still under Church culture, through the family and parental relation. SECTION VII. SECOND STAGE OF THE FAMILY CHURCH- LIFE OF CHILDHOOD, CONTINUED— DUTIES OF CHUECH OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. Argument stated — Proved by Christ's charge to the apostles — To Peter personally — Paul's example — John's address to " little chil- dren " — Irenaeus — Solomon — David — Influence of Christian oversight upon the child — Early practice of the Methodist Episcopal Church — John Wesley. 1. In close connection with the statements of the preceding section are to be considered the duties of pastors and Church members in regard to children. The point to be set forth here is, that it is made the duty of public teachers, and of members in the Church of Christ, as such, and outside of the family relations, to exercise a tender care for children, to admit them to the fellowship of saints, and to do for them what their" tender years may require in order to their spiritual edification as members of Christ's mystical body. This claim of childhood upon the Church, recognized and established in Holy Scrip- ture, and due to them at a period when they are still sheltered by paternal care and discipline, is the second prominent feature of what we have called CIIURCII RELATION OF INFANTS. 305 the second stage of development in the Church-life of childhood. It is thus by gradations that God has adapted external social conditions, and helps to piety, to the growing wants of the child, till it has ad- vanced from the tenderly sheltered family stage, to the still sheltered but more openly responsible and conventional stage of maturer Church life. 2. We here recall a few particulars noticed in a previous chapter. Some of the passages we are about to quote were there cited to prove that chil- dren were in a gracious state — a state of acceptance with God. We now cite them for another purpose; namely, to prove that ministers and Church members are directly charged with the spiritual and pastoral oversight of children during the period of their fam- ily life. We invite special attention to the argument. We begin with Christ's example and doctrine. The duty of the Church to instruct and look after the spiritual interests of children, is charged by Christ in his teaching and directions concerning them. In Matt, xviii, 5, our Lord says : " Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me." This is tantamount to a positive command to receive them. The converse of the proposition is equally true, "Whoso refuseth to receive one such little child in my name, refuseth to receive me." A more awful warning could not be uttered. In Mark ix, 41, the phrase " in my name" is explained to mean, " because ye belong to Christ" This proves it to be a spiritual and Church act. Luke says — ix, 47, 48 — " Jesus 26 306 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. took a child and set him by him, and said, Whoso- ever receiveth this child in my name, receiveth me." Mark says of the same transaction — ix, 36, 37 — " Jesus took a child, and when he had taken him in his arms, he said, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me." Now, that this " receiving in Christ's name" is an act at once of Christian recognition and Church fellowship, is abund- antly proved from the use of the word throughout the New Testament; that it applies to little children, such as one might hold in the arms, is equally proved. Here, then, we settle one point — the Church is com- manded, under the most awful sanction of Christian rewards, and implied Divine malediction in case of neglect, to recognize and admit to fellowship little children, and, by necessary inference, to do for them all and whatsoever their case requires to be done as members of the mystic body of Christ. 3. The same duty is implied in the warning not to " offend" or " despise" little children. In Matt, xviii, 6, the Savior says — still addressing the apostles on the common duty of the Church and Church mem- bers — "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." And in verse 10 he says : " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones." The word translated despise means not only to contemn, but also to slight, to neglect. Dr. Whitby has shrewdly hit the point of our CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 307 Lord's greatest anxiety in the case, the point around which he aimed to throw up the greatest guards of warning: namely, the and indifference of Church members a< to the moral effect of their treat- ment of the children : " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, as not regarding whether ye / them or not." What is all this but a most solemn warning to the Church, to its officers and members, to receive as a legitimate part of Christ's flock, family, community, or Church, the little chil- dren, and to so adapt Church influences, public and private instruction, as that these little ones shall be preserved and trained up in the ways of the Lord. Beware you do not "offend" them, turn them out of the way; beware you do not "despise'' them, treat them with carelessness and neglect; such negative warnings imply and carry with them all the force of the opposite, positive precept; namely, "receive" them, and fulfill to them all the Christian offices due to their relation to Christ's family, and to their tender age. Blessed Jesus ! Has thy Church remembered thy earnest words ? 4. Somewhat later in our Lord's life occurred the ever-memorable example of his tender regard for chil- dren, when "he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them, and said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven/' The power of these words, and of this Divine example of tenderest beneficence and sympathy, will be felt to 308 THE EELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the latest ages of our race. Christ is the children's advocate, friend, and Savior, and as such they famil- iarly recognized and saluted him. But the special point to be noticed here as affecting our present ar- gument is, that what he did and said on this occasion was for the official instruction of his apostles and of all his ministers. It was the apostles whom he was addressing, reproving them for their opposition to the rights and claims of little children to come to him. What he says of little children's coming to him was in behalf of all children, as such, not merely of those then brought to him. As, also, what he affirms of little children — namely, that " of such is the kingdom of heaven" — is affirmed of them universally as chil- dren, in all generations of the world. Here, then, the chief ministers and planters of the Christian Church, representing that Church for all ages to come, are publicly instructed in regard to one class of its members, and the command to " suffer and forbid them not to come," is a command to bring, and en- courage parents to bring them, to Christ. 5. In John xxi, 15-17, is recorded one of the last commands of the Savior to the apostle Peter, and, through him as a representative, to the other apostles and to the whole Church. Tin-ice he asked Peter, " Lovest thou me?" Thrice Peter answers affirmatively, and thrice the Savior commands him respecting the flock which he was to intrust to his and their care. The occasion was solemn and im- pressive; and now mark the order and import of the QHUEGH RELATION" OF INFANTS. Savior's commands. First. >n 'Feed I M — my lit u the original I means. Secondly, 1 -Take care o T : den (tea not merely to ■\" as the common English reads, but (ah that is, to do all for the flock that it re- quired, whether it were in the way of feeding, or . or nursing, or g : — all that is comprehended in fending the flock. Thirdly, the Savior says, "Feed my sheep." Here is the proper word for feed, and different from the preceding word tend. Now, if we look at the natural proprie- ties and probabilities of the case, does not the first care of a shepherd turn toward the young and tender of the flock ? And in consigning the charge of his flock to an under-shepherd, would it not be natural to commend to his special vigilance and care, the lambs, as being more tender, more exposed to injury, more in need of care ? And after such teaching and example, such sympathy and care for children, as the life of the Great Shepherd had evidenced, would it not be natural to suppose that now, in leaving his Church to the care of under-shepherds. and in giving them charge concerning it. he should enumerate all classes, the adults and the children, the '•sheep''' and the "lambs? 93 Xay, more, would he not be likely to mention the "lambs" first? Is not this the truest working of the truest shepherd's heart ? And how like the u g Shepherd, the Shepherd and Bit ills," do these instructions of Christ to his apos- 310 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ties appear ! That children are here denoted by "lamhs" is so consonant to all the antecedents of the Savior's ministry, so natural to the imagery in an enumeration of the two classes of a flock, lambs and sheep, so suitable to the occasion; and, on the other hand, the supposition that he should leave children out of such an enumeration is so inconsistent and im- probable, that we may assume it as fairly undis- putable that little children are here denoted by lambs. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead the nursing ewes." Isa. xl, 11. This care of the tender young is so shepherd-like, that without it the analogy and the metaphor would totally fail. This command of the Savior, then, is another in- stance where public teachers and pastors of the Church are charged officially with the instruction of children, and it being during their tender age, and while they are yet under parental care, the efforts of the parent and the Church officer concurring, proves that the first stage of the Church life of the child is developed in the family. 6. The example is constantly set us in Holy Writ of prophets and apostles addressing themselves to children, and interesting themselves specially in their instruction and Church training. When Paul says to children, " Obey your parents in the Lord," he speaks to them directly as both children and as being part of the spiritual care lodged in his hands as the pastor CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 311 of the flock. So. also, his command to parents to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," is a direct official interference as a minister of Christ, in behalf of the little children. These com- mands were part of that Church discipline and cove- nant duty which rested upon both parents and chil- dren, and is most conclusively an interference of Church authority for the religious order of the family, and the proper nurture of the earlier stages of Church- life in the child. 7. In 1 John ii, 12, 13, the beloved apostle thus addresses little children, in connection with all the grades of age among the Church members : " I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father." That this gra- dation of classes is founded on the natural age, is evident, both from the appellations used, and from the descriptions of character given. That the terms "fathers" and " young men" are to be taken literally, as distinctive of natural age, no one doubts. Why, then, should the term "little children" be taken meta- phorically? It can not be done without violence to the laws of language. Then, also, the descriptions of character are different. The "fathers" had known Christ "from the beginning" of the promulgation of the Gospel — then about sixty years. The young men 312 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. were " strong," and had " overcome the wicked one," the " little children" simply "knew the Father," and "their sins were forgiven." Beautiful simplicity of faith and experience! A child under ten years, and often of five or six, could know this, as did Samuel, and Timothy, and Polycarp, and myriads of others. But the words nmdtov and rexpeov, though translated "little children" alike in both verses, are seen to be two different terms ; and though the words simply and apart from all circumstances would not require any distinction as to age to be marked by a translation, yet when we consider, first, that to suppose they denote one and the same class of Church members, the apostle is made to deal in the simplest and most unmeaning tautology; and, secondly, that he gives each a separate and distinct description of experience, which indicates a difference of age, we seem required by the principles of just interpretation to understand them as denoting distinct classes; that is, classes, though both very young, yet distinguished by age and advancement. The rexuca, " little children" of verse 12, simply had "their sins forgiven for his name's sake." They were as "new-born babes" in Christ, without any experience but the simplest experience of their "first love." But the xcudta, "little children" of verse 13, had "Tcnoivn the Father" It does not say how long they had known the Father; certainly not "from the beginning," as the "fathers" or old men had, but for some little time. They had some historic experience beyond their first love. In the CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 313 14th Terse the apostle contents himself with recapit- ulating the "fathers" and the "young men," not mentioning again the "children," as, having noticed them once categorically, their age did not seem to require that any thing further should be said to them by name in the drift of such a discourse as he was then giving to the Church. And this distinction of different ages is in perfect keeping with Jewish divi- sions of human life. In Jewish phrase an infant was under three years of age, a child from three to twelve, a youth from twelve to twenty, a man from twenty and upward. This enumeration of the beloved apos- tle reminds us of a similar one by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, who flourished about seventy years after the apostle. He was the intimate companion of Poly- carp, who was John's disciple, and through him be- came familiar with the personal history of that apostle. Iremeus says : " Christ came to save all persons by himself; all, I say, who by him are regenerated to God ; infants, and little ones, and children, and youth, and elder persons." One is led to suspect that the Bishop borrowed from the apostle. Both speak of little children, but the apostle addresses them as part of the Church. Here, then, were grades of mem- bership from infancy to old age; grades of age from three to twelve, and from twelve to twenty, spe- cially marked and publicly addressed by the apostle. Observe, too, that this Epistle of John was "gen- eral" — not addressed to one local Church, but to the universal, catholic, Christian Church. This proves 27 314 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. that the distinctions, here noted as to ages and classes, were not local and exceptional, but universal through- out the Church; and the great influence which John's writings had in the Churches, and the open, confident tone of his address, not only prove that these distinc- tions were well understood at the time, but must have had a powerful influence to sanction and encourage childhood Church relations. 8. Solomon, the wise teacher, often addressed the young, and even the children. " Hear," said he, " ye children, the instructions of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender, and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thy heart retain my words." Prov. iv, 4. Can these tender al- lusions to paternal affection and counsel be mistaken? They are reminiscences of early childhood, and he is speaking to children who are yet blessed, as he had been blessed, with the tender love of the mother and the early counsels of a father. It is the king, the philosopher, the pious teacher, recognizing the rights and claims and necessities of the early life. Nor is it inconsistent to suppose David addressing children proper, when he says : " Come, ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Ps. xxxiv, 11. Why should we not suppose children are meant in such addresses, where nothing in the connection contradicts it? 9. Thus it appears that the Church, as a covenant CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 315 body, with its public teachers and ordinances, is to cooperate with parents to train up the children, at a period too early, and an age too tender, to allow them to engage, upon a personal profession and responsibil- ity, in the public Church service. But this twofold agency of Church and family is to be employed to pre- pare them for full Church privilege, when their first stage of Church life under the family shelter is passed, and they are of age to be classed among the temple worshipers. We can not conclude this section without urging upon pastors and Church members this most import- ant duty. It is not expected of them that they will officiously interfere with the internal affairs of other households, but in all well-disposed communities and families there are interchanges of Christian offices toward children which may be given without offense and with great profit. A kindly word of encourage- ment to a child of another family, a plain conversa- tion in love upon personal religion, a few questions for instruction, a recognition, perhaps an admoni- tion or caution, will have a powerful influence in giving sanction to parental training and home culture. These evidences of religious oversight and care have another effect upon the child's mind; they suggest to the child that he has in some sort a public reputation to maintain, that he is an object of interest outside the home circle, that he has friends abroad, that friendly eyes are upon him and friendly hearts yearn over him, and that the Church is his best friend 316 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. beyond the precincts of home. These thoughts will have a tendency to check and restrain sinful inclina- tions, to give him a sense of reputation, an impression of the value of character, a respect for Christian in- stitutions and Christian profession, and to strengthen the good principles of his heart and the promptings of his conscience. Christian people never know the value to children of cultivating their confidence and esteem, and using that favorable sentiment for their religious edifying. These duties can not be finished and dismissed in formal routine of Sabbath school labor, or on set occasions. They are the daily and constant care of the Church, to be performed as mo- ments of opportunity occur, in the family or social circle, in the rounds of business, upon the highway, or in social worship. The Methodist Episcopal Church, from her first organization in 1784, has constantly asked the ques- tion of all her ministers, when brought up for admis- sion to the pastoral ministry, "Will you diligently instruct the children in every place?" This is among the solemn interrogations made at the door of ad- mission to the pastoral office. Long before the date of her Church organization, her preachers, then under Mr. Wesley's directions in all things, carried out his instructions to them in regard to children, to con- verse with and teach them from house to house, and faithfully to catechise them on fundamental points of doctrine. Many years before Robert Raikes inau- gurated the modern system of Sunday schools, by his CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 317 humane efforts in behalf of the wretched children of Gloucester — 1781 — .John Wesley had had a vigorous scheme of religious instruction, specially appropriated to children, throughout his societies in England and America, and his preachers were drilled to this im- portant work. His older "Minutes of Conferences" contain the germs and outline of a comprehensive sys- tem, and show how deeply and Scripturally he saw into the true method of reforming the world. _ 318 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER YI, DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. Human responsibility — Three principles laid down — Time for be- ginning religious teaching — Isa. xxviii, 9 — Ps. viii, 2 — Eph. vi, 4 — Pirst effect of infant instruction — Force of the phrase "bringing up" — Greatness of the work — Prevenient grace — Religious suscepti- bility of childhood — Can the child grow up without forfeiting infantile justification? — Religious capacity of children — De Quincey — Simplic- ity of faith suited to childhood — Of prayer — Of religious experience — Early Christians — St. Basil — Case of irreligious children, who are religiously brought up, considered — The covenant to be trusted — Ex- ample of Hebrew nation trusting the covenant — 18th of Ezekiel — David's dying song. 1. We proceed now to speak of the time of be- ginning, and the efficacy of an early and faithful use of the appointed means for the salvation of responsi- ble childhood. Responsibility is a plant of slow growth, and is susceptible of advancement or retard- ation almost indefinitely. It is the joint product of the growth of the moral and intellective powers, con- sidered in connection with providential dispensations, and its earliest manifestation is always in the least perceptible degree. It should be the first object of all instruction and discipline to develop in the child a just sense of accountability to God, and to parents as the Divinely appointed sponsors and guardians of the juvenile mind. In the process of our discussion * DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 310 under this head we shall recognize the following principles : First. The unconditional grace of the atonement bestowed upon infancy remains in force till the child comes under a new condition of moral life — the condition of responsibility. Secondly. The law of responsibility in the creature, in so far as it obtains, modifies the Divine administra- tion ; the bestowment or continuance of saving grace in such a case, and all measures of increase of such grace, being secured thereafter only by a right exer- cise of the responsible powers. Thirdly. There is no stage of human responsibility in which a state of present salvation and acceptance with God may not be actually possessed, and the realization of this state by the child — where it does exist — will be in proportion to its intelligent conscious- ness and right instruction. We have noticed heretofore that children are to be cared for and nurtured not only by parents, as being in covenant with God, but by the Church; not only taught by the word, but by public religious ordi- nances. The appliances for training a child up in the Church and for the Church are, -parental care and instruction, pastoral teaching and admonition, Church sympathy and influence, and the public ordinances of religion. These have been brought to light in the preceding argument. We now turn our attention to the time of commencing these earnest religious and Church instructions. 820 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. We have already stated that the various commands to instruct children are intended to take effect at the earliest manifestations of perceptive consciousness, «nd the child is to be taught the different truths, and the different ordinances of religion, according to its progressive power of reason. But there are Scrip- tures which indicate so clearly the age at which this specific Church training should commence, that the point deserves a special notice here. Not that any absolute time can be fixed for such beginning, but a general date has been so often hinted in Scripture, at which the public responsibility of the Church and of parents is recognized, that it is important to con- sider it. 2. We may fairly assume that the ancient Church law on this subject was referred to, if not formally laid down, by Isaiah, chap, xxviii, 9 : " Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? They that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts" And that the period for Church instruction is here indicated is further proved by the verse following, wherein the characteristic method of teaching little children by repeating the same thing over and over again is mentioned; "for," says the prophet, "precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little." This is the process with children. And in the very next verse the same method of teaching is again re- ferred to; namely, the teaching "with a stammering DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 321 tongue? that is, with a syllable or a sentence at a time, and, as to orthoepy, with imperfect and hesi- tant enunciation, just as foreigners would attempt to speak a strange dialect, or as a nurse would teach a child to talk by frequent repetitions of sound, and simple, imitative articulations. This the Hebrew word y^ — togehg — translated stammering in verse 11, in- dicates. Bishop Lowth supposes the scoffing Israel- ites to retort upon the prophet in verses 9 and 10, as if they would say: "What! doth he treat us as mere infants just weaned? Doth he teach us as little children, perpetually inculcating the same ele- mentary lessons, the mere rudiments of knowledge; precept after precept, line after line, here and there, by little and little?"' But whether we regard them as the words of the prophet, complaining to the people of the child-like manner in which he was forced to teach them on account of their stupidity and inaptness — as Paul afterward complained of his Hebrew brethren, "For when for the time ye ought to teach others, ye have need that one teach you again the first principles," etc., Heb. v, 12-14 — or as the words of the unbelieving scoffers, who ridiculed the prophet's earnest, simple, and faithful manner of inculcating truth; in either case the argU- ment is the same as it affects the point in question. In either case the historical allusion, which is the ground-work of the whole passage, is to the well- known custom of commencing early with children — as early as they were "drawn from the breasts" — 322 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. as early as they could learn truth by simple, oft- repeated utterances, and of "teaching them knowl- edge," and making them to " understand doctrine," by "little and little," by repeating "line after line." The note of Dr. A. Clarke on Deut. vi, 7, would seem to imply that Moses had in his mind the same tender age of childhood at which this teaching should be begun and prosecuted, requiring the same process of frequent iteration. " Thou shalt teach them dili- gently — shinnantam, from shanan, to repeat, iterate, or do a thing again and again; hence, to ivhet or sharpen any instrument, which is done by reiterated friction or grinding." This is the method of re- ligious instruction prescribed by the law of Moses. The same word, the same lesson, is to be repeated again and again, that by repetition the memory and understanding may be fully impressed. The basis of the comparison rests on these two grounds : the time of infantile instruction, namely, when "weaned from the breasts;" and the method of it, namely, "line upon line, here a little and there a little," etc. Now, it is the date to which attention is here called. As early as the child was weaned it was the subject of special and ever-reiterated religious instruction. The "line upon line" process was then commenced. A specialty, therefore, attached to the efforts put forth to prepare it for its destined public Church relations. Can any thing be more true to life, more affecting and admonitory, than these descriptions of infantile instruction ? DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 323 And as the prophet thus fixes the time for special instruction at the period of weaning — "those that be Weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts," Bays he — it should be further observed that the Hebrew mother nursed her child three years. The mother of the seven noble young martyrs who fell under the tortures of the tyrant Antiochus, besought her last son not to shrink from the terrors of death for his religion, but to be courageous. " 0, my son," said she, "have pity upon me that bare thee, and ij'U-r thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age, and endured the troubles of education. . . . Fear not this tormentor; but, being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren." 2 Mac. vii, 27, 29. We quote this to show the period of infancy, and the early date and earnest tone of Hebrew education. But although the nursing terminated at three years, yet "the sows," says Professor Jahn, "remained till the fifth year in the care of the women ; they then came into the father's hands, and were taught not only the arts and duties of life, but were instructed in the Mosaic law, and in all parts of their country's religion." Mr. Wesley urges : " Instruct your children early, plainly, frequently, and patiently. Instruct them early, from the first hour that you perceive reason begins to dawn. Truth may then begin to shine upon the mind far earlier than we are apt to suppose. And whoever watches the first openings of the understanding may, 324 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. by little and little, supply fit matter for it to work upon, and may turn the eye of the soul toward good things as well as toward bad or trifling ones. When- ever a child begins to speak, you may be assured reason begins to work. I know of no cause why a parent should not just then begin to speak of the best things, the things of God; and from that time no opportunity should be lost of instilling all truths as they are capable of receiving." Again he says : "In this plain and familiar way a wise parent might, many times in a day, say something of God, particu- larly insisting, 'He made you; and he made you to be happy in him; and nothing else can make you happy.' We can not press this too soon. If you say, 'Nay, but they can not understand you when they are so young,' I answer, No, nor when they are fifty years old, unless God opens their understanding. And can he not do this at any age?" 3. The age for teaching children, and the efficacy of that early training, are aptly brought out in the prophecy, recorded Ps. viii, 2 : " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength [established praise'] because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still [mightest restrain, cause to desist] the enemy and the avenger." The general sense of this prophetic declaration is obvious enough. God, whose glory is above the heavens, who made the visible heavens, the moon and the stars, this great and glorious God will put his enemies to silence by the praises which he will establish upon infant lips. DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 325 The moral of the passage is tantamount to the dec- laration, "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty ." 1 Cor. i, 27. But the point which concerns us is the literal involve- ment, in the fulfillment of this prophecy, of infantile instruction in the things of God, the liberal enlight- enment of early childhood, so that the praises of God shall be permanently established — so the word indicates — upon the lips of infancy. If there is no literality in these predicted praises of childhood there is no meaning to the passage — it is but an utterance of blind rhapsody. But if there is a literality to the prediction, if a great and glorious truth lies here, then all that we plead for is established, and it shall yet be a distinguishing glory of Messiah's kingdom that " Infant voices shall proclaim Their early blessings on his name." But we are not left to inferential reasoning to es- tablish this point. The Savior of mankind and the Advocate and Defender of the rights of children, has forever settled it. Toward the close of his ministry an incident occurred, ever memorable and precious in the annals of fulfilled prophecy and Church history, which relieves this remarkable passage from the Psalms from all ambiguity and doubt. The Savior had entered Jerusalem meekly, yet in the triumph of a conqueror ; he had purged the Temple ; he had cured the lame and the blind, when a scene presented itself as offensive to the proud Pharisee as it was 326 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. grateful to the soul of the meek Lamb of God. Chil- dren, evidently in large numbers, appeared in the Temple, and recognizing their Friend and Savior, spontaneously praised him, "crying and saying, Ho- sanna to the Son of David !" The " chief-priests and scribes " were " sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say ? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea ; have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise T' Matt, xxi, 15, 16. The answer of Christ shows that these children were of very tender age, undoubtedly below the common age for temple worship. From 2 Chron. xxxi, 16, it appears that male children of the Levites entered the house of the Lord at " three years," or after weaning. This admission of the male children of the Levites at so tender an age was especially practiced at times when the Levites re- ceived their distribution of the tithes, and it would seem to have been practiced as a sort of polling of the families, each member having a claim. This circum- stance is sufficient to account for this number of chil- dren in the Temple at this time — an occurrence other- wise altogether unusual. But mark the fulfillment of the prophecy, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise!" It was a prediction of Gospel days, a dis- tinguishing glory of the age of Messiah. That was to be the bright day of the Church, when its enemies were to be confounded, restrained, and put to silence, not so much by the power of logic, as by the praises DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 327 of infant lips; when earliest childhood should be so enlightened and sanctified that praise should not be fitful, and fickle, and evanescent, but be established, be founded, as the prediction means, upon their pure and infant lips. And it was most fit that in Christ's day and ministry this prophecy should be renewed, its literalness explained, and its first-fruits of fulfillment reaped. But do not these events shed a light upon the conventional obligation of Church members toward the children? Is there no instrumentality to be em- ployed in the accomplishment of this glorious victory of Christianity against infidelity? Is "the enemy and the avenger " to be silenced, and the Church have nothing to do ? Is earliest infancy to be instructed and "established" in the praises of God, so that infi- delity shall be supplanted, defeated, and put to silence, and the Church have no responsible instrumentality therein? Remember, it was children in the Temple, children publicly praising Christ, children in covenant with God, children early taught and early impressed, whose example thus fulfilled the spirit of that ancient prophecy, and recalled the Savior's mind to it. " They that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God." Psa. xcii, 13. It is this Church planting and Church culture which bring the early fruit, and the fruit which shall remain. Childhood has yet a destiny to reach and a glorious work to perform for the Savior in the re- generation of the world. But this is not the work of one generation. When childhood shall be able to 328 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. trace a pious ancestry back through many genera- tions, and when this shall become general, then will the earth begin to show signs of return, morally, to its Eden-like state. 4. But this same truth is taught by all those pre- cepts which require of the parent the early and con- tinued training of the child. Take, for example, Eph. vi, 4 : "Ye parents, bring them up in the nur- ture and admonition of the Lord." The question is, At what age of the child does this parental duty take effect ? When is the parent to begin ? It should be considered that the first effect of infantile instruction is to lodge in the memory the forms of truth, and form in the life the habits of religion. It is thus that what may be called the mechanical powers and prin- ciples of action in our nature are to be trained be- fore the reasoning faculty and the moral sense are sufficiently developed to become our guide. What is thus committed to the memory will become material for the simpler offices of judgment, and afterward for the reflective reason and conscience ; and what is at first mechanically formed in the habit of life will come to receive the sanction of developing intelligence as the approved path of duty. But the moment of commencing this religious training is the moment for it to take effect according to the capacity and wants of the child. This is obvious from the tenor of the precept. At first it has little relation to the intelli- gent comprehension of the child ; but as reason and a sense of obligation develop, the provisions of grace DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 329 meet the case, and arc sufficient to make the child u wise unto salvation." This we must suppose, or else assume the opposite; namely, that, owing to cer- tain conditions of our nature in childhood, there are times when present salvation and acceptance with God become an impossibility — times when grace can not reach to countervail and correct the wayward tend- encies of our nature. Truth lodged in the mind, and habits carefully formed in the life, according to the age and capacity of the child, may, therefore — we speak of the simple possibilities of the case — be- come thus effective at the first moment of responsible action ; and if so, by parity of reasoning, at any suc- cessive moment up to mature years ; always assum- ing that saving grace to the child, as to the adult, is according to the religious use of its measure of re- sponsibility. This command, therefore, to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," is a command to begin with them at the earliest mo- ment that they are susceptible of this nacdeca xal voudzcia z'jpiou — training and instruction of the Lord—and to continue it thereafter without intermis- sion. Both the date and terminus of this duty and labor of religious "bringing up" are clearly marked by the terms of the command. The word exTpsipeze — bring them up, train them up, educate, nourish them — as a precept, covers all the period of childhood, or minority, not exempting one day or hour. Its sense is more fully brought out in its Septuagint use, and the corresponding Hebrew word 773, gadal — to grow, 28 330 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. nourish, bring up. See such passages as Gen. xxxviii, 14; 1 Kings xii, 8; Job xxxviii, 18; 2 Kings x, 6; Isa. i, 2 ; and xxxiii, 4 ; and xlix, 21 ; and li, 18 ; Hos. ixj 12. We offer this simply as an illustration of the entire code of precepts, both in the Old and New Testaments, covering this branch of parental duty. And so we would understand Prov. xxii, 6 : "Train, initiate, dedicate a child at the entrance of his path." The obligation of the command, "Thou shalt teach thy children diligently," etc., dates at the earliest susceptibility of instruction in the child, and terminates only at the point where the mature re- sponsibility of the child supersedes parental control; and through all the intermediate points of this period this instruction is appointed as the instrument of saving grace to the child. Let not the parent shrink back in discouragement at the prospect of so great and difficult and continued labor. The promise of grace to parent and child runs parallel to the precept throughout. "Never leave off, never intermit your labor of love," says Wesley, " till you see the fruit of it. . . . And suppose after you have done this, after you have taught your children from their early infancy in the plainest manner you could, omitting no opportunity, and persevering therein, you did not presently see any fruit of your labor, you must not conclude that there will be none. Possibly the bread which you have cast upon the waters may be found again after many days ; the seed which has long re- mained in the ground may at length spring up into a DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 331 plentiful harvest." " The will of a parent," he says, "is to a little child in the place of the will of God. Therefore studiously teach them to submit to this while they are children, that they may be ready to submit to his will when they are men. But in order to carry this point you will need incredible firmness and resolution ; for after you have once begun, you must never more give way. You must hold on still in an even course ; you must never intermit your at- tention for one hour ; otherwise you will lose your labor." 5. The child does not grow up religious by a law of natural development. The elements of religion are not in his nature, needing only education, and right social influences, to bring them forth to ripe- ness. Religious instruction and discipline do not rest upon the aptitudes of nature for their promise of success, but upon grace antecedently bestowed. Pre- venient grace is a fundamental truth, never to be set aside as a condition of successful instrumentality either in the adult or child. In the child, prior to accountability, all prevenient grace is saving grace; in the adult, prior to regeneration, it is assisting grace. This saving grace in the child, as in the adult, never increases but by use, and use implies accountability. It is like the life of a seed as distin- guished from the life of a plant. The enveloped life of the unplanted seed retains only its normal condi- tion, but the developed life of the planted seed ex- pands through new, and beautiful, and progressive 332 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. forms of existence. " The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field." Mark the two points of the analogy: 1. A "seed," possessing a principle of life; 2. A genial condition, " which a man took and sowed in his field." The similitude would utterly fail if this latter circumstance were wanting. It is not the "seed" merely, but the seed " sown," the seed brought into congenial contact with external nature, suited to its germination and growth, which illustrates the life, growth, and perfection of the kingdom of God. "For so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knew not how. For the earth bringeth forth of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Beautiful similitude ! "I have PLANTED, ApolloS WATERED, but God gave the IN- CREASE." Changing the conditions of the metaphor somewhat, Peter says : " As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." If the grace of infancy never comes forth to maturity, let the Church and the parent, to whom belong the planting, the watering, and the pruning, well consider it. God gives no "increase" but ac- cording to established laws. " They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." The one talent never increased, be- cause never used. 6. On the metaphysics, or mere abstract possibil- DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 333 ities of the question, whether a child can grow up in a justified state, without ever forfeiting its infantile state of grace, we have not hitherto proposed to enter, considering the question in that form more cu- rious than wise, more speculative than practical. Mere hypotheses, or speculations not involving solid practical results, nor forced on us by any Scripture doctrine, we avoid. Standing on the immutable dec- laration of Christ, we say: "Except [r«c] any person be born again — born [_ix nvevfidTos] by the Spirit — he can not enter into the kingdom of God." And, stand- ing on the ground laid down in this argument, every where recognized in Scripture, we say that this grace, denoted by regeneration, justification, life, member- ship in the kingdom of heaven, is available to our humanity, according to its wants and capacity, at every period of its existence. " Who," says Hoff- man, " can say how early the first dawning rays which precede the morning light of the spiritual day, enter the infant soul?" "With what age or year," says Stier, " does the susceptibility to receive the Holy Ghost begin? or, to put the same question in another way, Who that honors the word of Scripture can unconditionally deny to childhood this suscepti- bility, after Luke i, 15? or, still otherwise, Did not the sacred youth of Jesus, holy from the beginning in the Spirit, obtain a sanctification for human nature in its earliest age?" Yea, we put the argument in still stronger light, and say, if any one period of our life is more susceptible of grace than another, it is l 334 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. that of childhood; and if the faithful use of religious instrumentality has greater promise of success at one period than another, it is that of our earlier con- sciousness. The child may sin and repent without any greater forfeiture of its antecedent, unconditional justification, than the adult believer incurs who is "overtaken with a fault" and is "restored." Sin and grace in such instances are both in proportion only to the moral development of the child. The parent, in laying down the obligation of repentance to the child, is not required to go back of its per- sonal consciousness. It should, indeed, be taught to confess the sinfulness of its nature, like David, who, says Calvin, " commences the confession of his de- pravity at the time of his conception." Psa. li, 5. It should so confess, because this fallen nature is the perpetual occasion of departing from God, and in itself offensive to his holiness, and in yielding to it we seem to adopt and approve it, and thus make it, in a sense, our personal offense. Yet, as Jeremy Taylor says, "No Church did ever enjoin to any cat- echumen any penance, or repentance, for original sin." We do not affirm, therefore, that the child may, much less that any child ever actually did, grow up without forfeiting, at any time, its infantile justi- fication in Christ. We would not affirm such con- tinued sinlessness to be a fact in the case of adult believers. Our argument does not require it. In reasoning on these subjects men must beware of the opposite extremes of affirming too much for human DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 335 nature, on tlic one hand, so as to contradict the facts of human experience; or too little of Divine grace, on the other, so as to contradict the doctrines of redemp- tion. We must not make sin to be a necessity, at any stage of human life; this would be to make it no sin; nor must we, on the other hand, at any time, exalt human nature above the constant liability to sin. Equally absurd is it to suppose that, either in children or adults, a sin which is aside from the tenor and aim of the life, and promptly confessed and re- pented of, argues against a prior state of grace, or an immediate, effectual restoration. The learned Witsius, an oracle of Calvinistic orthodoxy, two hundred years ago, was bold to affirm that children might grow up in continued favor with God. " It often happens," he says, " that this principle of spiritual life, which had discovered its activity in the most tender childhood, according to, and sometimes above the age of the person, grows up by degrees with the person, after the example of our Lord, who 'increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man,' and of John the Baptist, who 'grew and waxed strong in spirit.' Such persons make continual pro- gress in the way of sanctification, and grow insensi- bly into a 'perfect man,' unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We have an illustrious example of this in Timothy," etc. Again he says : " But it would be very wrong to require these who, being regenerated in their infancy, have grown up all along with the quickening spirit, to 336 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. declare the time and manner of their passage from death to life. It is sufficient if they can comfort themselves and edify others with the sincere fruits of regeneration, and the constant tenor of a pious life." These statements, in the frank and confident tone in which they are advanced, indicate that they were not at variance with the current sentiments of the age. "Many parents," says Mr. Wesley, "presently see the fruit of the seed they have sown, and have the comfort of observing that their children grow in grace in the same proportion as they grow in years." This was spoken of earlier childhood. We see no impropriety in holding, nay, we see not how it is possible to deny, that wherever children do depart from Christian duty and morals, having intelli- gent consciousness of the fact, they may be so ad- monished, instructed, and encouraged to repent, pray, and believe for forgiveness that they shall be restored, and the injury done by sin repaired, just as in the case of an adult believer to whom the blessed apostle John says : " These things write I unto you that ye sin not; and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." 1 John ii, 1, 2. The point, therefore, I would insist upon here is, that men do not waste their time, and multiply needless points of issue, upon the mere speculation, whether a child can grow up without ever forfeiting its first acceptance with God, but to see to it that they early DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 337 and faithfully apply themselves to lead the child to Christ for the personal evidence of its acceptance, teaching it meanwhile what kind of fruit in the out- ward life is suitable to such a state. This personal knowledge of acceptance the child is capable of at- taining as early as it can know actual sin, and while it continues liable to actual sin it continues capable, so far as its natural faculties are concerned, and so far as the provisions of grace are concerned, of the evi- dences of personal salvation. And I see no ground for any dogma beyond this. 7. There is no more common error, or one that more constantly disturbs our practical faith in the culture or conversion of childhood, than the one of misjudging the real capacity of children for religious truth. The moral turpitude of their faults is often overrated, as if to be judged of by a standard of adult responsibility, while their religious exercises are ac- cepted with cautious distrust, as if they were merely the offspring of the imitative instinct, or the evan- escent bubble of the hour. The eccentric, yet dis- criminating Thomas De Quincey, on this point has well said : " Here, for once, I shall trespass on grounds not properly mine, and desire you to observe in St. Mat- thew, chap, xxi, 15, ivho were those that, crying in the Temple, made the first public recognition of Chris- tianity. Then, if you say, ' 0, but children echo what they hear, and are not independent authorities!' I must request you to extend your reading into verse 16, where you will find that the testimony of these 338 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. children, as bearing an original value, was ratified by the highest testimony, and the recognition of these children did itself receive a heavenly recognition. And this could not have been unless there were chil- dren in Jerusalem, who saw into truth with a far sharper eye than Sanhedrims and Rabbis." Again he says : " But coming back to the case of children, I maintain steadfastly that into all the elementary feel- ings of man children look with more searching gaze than adults. It is clear to me that children, upon elementary paths, which require no knowledge of the world to unravel, tread more firmly than men, have a more pathetic sense of the beauty which lies in justice, and according to the immortal ode of our great laure- ate, [on the 'Intimations of Immortality in Child- hood,'] a far closer communion with God." 8. The simplicity of religious doctrine and experi- ence is well adapted to childhood. How simple, for instance, is faith! We speak now of faith in the ab- stract. The tendency to believe is a gift of nature. The child never doubts till experience has taught it that deception, and falsehood, and danger beset its path. Faith is the gift of nature ; doubt, the fruit of the sad experience that falsehood and treachery are in the world. We speak now of credulity, or a dis- position to believe, as a provision and endowment of our being; but we say further, that this ground-work of constitutional aptitude of faith is in favor of early religion. The child who by natural predisposition be- lieves its mother, and learns to doubt only as the effect DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 339 of repeated abuse of that confidence, may be taught to believe in Jesus as the Savior of the soul, and by grace enabled thus to believe. The exercise of faith in the one case — we are not speaking of mere instinct, but of faith — considered simply as an act of the mind, is no more difficult, and of necessity involves no higher intellectual development than the other. The disposi- tion to believe is a power for good, imparted to the child for its safety, and put into the hands of the parent for the same end. As a simple, constitutional power, when rightly called forth and under a gracious guidance, it meets all the necessities of early religious duty, and proves that the child is capable, through grace, of an early religious experience. Nay, further, the child is not only capable of faith, but believes far more readily and earnestly than the adult. It is less affected with habits of sin, habits of doubt, habits of false reasoning, pride, self-interest, and a worldly mind, and we venture the statement that it more read- ily connects events with their religious and' providen- tial end than the adult. Is it not so? The child is not incumbered with any theory of secondary causes, and hence refers things directly to God. It sees God in nature more readily than the adult, and in human events the natural office of conscience, as by an intu- ition, discovers the hand of a rewarding Providence. Its simple philosophy is soon expended in its efforts to trace the causes of things, and the mind is left in the realm of mystery, under impressions of awe and rever- ence, where thoughts of God, his power and agency, 340 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. come in to supply the want. The dew-drop, the rain- bow, the thunder-storm, the cataract, the gentle snow- flake, the tiny flower, the starry heavens, the solemn night, the rising and setting sun, with all the in- numerable phenomena of nature, bring to its mind thoughts of God. So readily does the mind connect Go,d with the facts of nature, when rightly instructed, and so early and naturally does conscience refer hu- man events to the rewarding goodness or justice of God, that many philosophers have contended that the knowledge of God is innate in the human mind, and have spoken of a " sense of God," as though it were a constitutional endowment of our being. But neither have we any "natural sense of God," nor is this knowledge innate, but these moral experiences and exercises of the mind prove only how early Divine grace operates to enlighten and lift up the soul to God, and how efficacious, through the Holy Spirit, may be the careful teaching and culture of childhood. Even the glimmerings of traditional knowledge which fall upon the heathen mind are powerful to awaken relig- ious faith and conscience, and though misdirected, and often monstrous in their crude notions of right and WTong, yet prove how readily the religious sense in man responds to any teaching concerning God, the future life, and moral obligation. 9. And is not prayer equally simple, and equally within the comprehension and capabilities of the child? Prayer is asking. "Ask and ye shall re- ceive." How early does the pressure of infantile DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 341 want urge to this exercise of asking in regard to the numberless items of natural necessity or convenience! Ifi prayer to God any more complicated or difficult? Jesus has taught us that it is not. The child that can ask its parent for a momentary good, can be taught to pray to "Our Father who is in heaven" for spiritual good. And if we, "being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children," even though they are of such immature age as to form their reqeusts very imperfectly; nay, if we give to them even more readily, and certainly, and instantly for the very rea- son of their tender years; "how much more shall our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him;" and, we may add, how much more readily and surely to children, for the very reason of their inability to express all their wants ! But prayer is not merely a verbal expression of want, not merely the " simplest form of speech that infant lips may try," but it is " The soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed." The child has thoughts, fears, desires, longings, aspi- rations far above the power of words to express ; and who can estimate how clear to the heart of the Savior are those longings for light and knowledge in refer- ence to that mysterious world unseen, that heaven, that way of God of which a glimmering dawn only has as yet broken upon the mind? The desire to bo fit for that heaven^ to go at length and dwell with * 342 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. that Savior, stirring the earnest depths of the child- ish mind, and finding no words to give it form and utterance, may be as acceptable to God, and as effect- ual to the ends of prayer, as the prolonged supplica- tions of a Samuel or a Daniel. I see the little one as it wanders in childish pas- time through wood and field, plucking the wild flower, looking out upon the face of nature, or up into the deep-blue sky, or at the glorious orb of day, or list- ening to the music of sweet birds, and I observe in its sunny thoughts the flitting ideas of God, of heaven, and of angelic life to come. I mark, too, the rising desire, the unexpressed wish, while memory calls back some maternal teaching, some Scripture words, or some poetic verse, which suggestive nature without and the Holy Spirit within have recalled to mind ; or I see -that child impressed with fear at the awful storm-cloud, the tempestuous elements, the thick darkness of night, the sight of impending danger, the inroads of death into the family circle, and within I watch the anxious inquiry rising, "Am I prepared to meet God?" I see the wish, the desire, the hope, the fear struggling together, while mystery inwraps the subject in doubt. The heart would fain believe, but the thought fails to attain clearness and fixedness. Can Jesus look with indifference at these infant trials of faith, and hope, and love? That anxious child would part with all its little stores and treasures to obtain a knowledge free from doubt that God was its friend. Who shall be the ministering angel now to relieve DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 343 this infant mind? Who now will take this lamb in his arms? Who shall speak words of instruction, comfort, and assurance? The confidence of the child turns to the parent. Love turns to the same source of help. The parent, or some other dear and trusted friend whom Providence may have raised up, must now speak for God. The voice of such a friend is to the child the voice of God. The judgment, intelli- gence, faith, and hope of such a friend now supply to the child the offices of personal knowledge and faith, and the infant mind, thus reassured, rises to hope, confidence, and joy. How else could it rise? These are the appointed means. The heart prays more than the lips; the disposition to pray and be- lieve is greater than the guiding power of thought. "God looketh at the heart." "A contrite heart he will not despise." 10. The faith of little children in prayer is illus- trated to the observation of every mother, in every household where religion is made a primary concern in the education, not merely in formal lessons, but in daily and lifelike examples. Mrs. Judson, in one of her familiar letters, gives the following account of her little son : " While we resided at Rangoon," says she, "the children became great cowards, and when we came over here [at Maulmain] I was obliged to take great pains to break it up. One night Edward, who slept in a little room by himself, called out that he was ' afraid] and would not be comforted. I have never taught them a prayer to repeat, because I do 344 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. not like the formality, but I assist them in discov- ering what they need, and then have them repeat the words after me; so I prayed with little Edward, kissed him good-night, and left him apparently satis- fied. Pretty soon, however, I heard him call out as though in great distress, ' Dod !' The poor little fellow had not sufficient acquaintance with language to know what to say next; but this uplifting of the heart evidently relieved him, for in a few minutes after he again called out, '0 Dod!' but in a tone much softened. I stepped to the door, but hesitated about entering. In a few minutes he again repeated '0 DodP but in a tone so confiding that I thought I had better go back to my room, and leave him with his great Protector. I heard no more of him for some time, when I at last went in and found him on his knees fast asleep. He never fails now to remind me of asking ' Dod to tate tare of him ' if I neglect it, and I have never heard him say a word since of being afraid." The following instance was authentically related to me by a lady: In one of the towns of the far West a farmer sent his little daughter of six years with a younger brother after the cows. The sun was shedding his clear beams over the landscape, and, though near the close of day, the birds and the flowers were still so attractive as to lure the little pair thoughtlessly into play, till the approach of nightfall warned them home without time to get the cows. The father, as a discipline to them, sent them DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 345 back. They returned, but had not gone far before gray twilight cast its darkening shadows over wood and field. From timidity they grew at length thor- oughly afraid; and, as the shades of evening thick- ened, the younger asked his sister how far she thought they were from home? In her fright, and unused to measuring distances, she answered, "Ten miles." He asked if there were any wolves in that part. She said there were. At this the little fellow began to cry. They went on, hand in hand, a little further, when she, animated with a sudden courage, said to her brother, "Now, we'll stop here and pray; for I 've seen mother, when she was in any trouble, pray to God for help; and we'll pray to God, and he'll send an angel to take care of us, or else he will send some one from home to fetch us back ; so do n't cry now." At this they both kneeled down, and the sister first confessed their sin of disobedience in not getting the cows the first time, and then prayed to God. When they arose she comforted her little brother, and assured him that God would take care of them. Presently a voice from behind in the dark called them. It was the well-known voice of the father. "There," said the sister, "I told you God would send some one to take care of us." The father had, indeed, sent them back as a correction, but had followed unobserved in the distance, and had ap- proached at length near enough to overhear this last conversation and prayer. Here are simple prayer and faith as truly exercised and as acceptable to God 346 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. as the faith of Abraham. Sorrow for sin, contrition, repentance, confession, gratitude, praise, and whatso- ever belongs to prayer and worship, are as easily comprehensible by the child as simple petition. The analogues of these devout exercises are found in the social relations. What the child does religiously toward God is but a spiritual and sanctified direction of the faculties in a class of actions which it early learns to perform in the social and moral relations to the parent and family. 11. The conscious fruits and experiences of saving grace in the heart all relate to the simplest affections and emotions. Is the religion of Jesus love to God? The child is fully capable of the affection of love, and may very early receive the evidence of love to God. Those perceptions, affections, and emotions which are not dependent on knowledge of science, knowledge of the world, or high mental culture, the child may attain, and these are such as belong to the province of religion. "Love, joy, and peace" are fruits of the Spirit, and may enter into the in- telligent consciousness of the child very early, though always only in proportion to the development of in- telligent consciousness. But it is an error to suppose that the real piety of the child, and the actual power of that piety over the conscience and life, are in pro- portion to the power of the child either to express its feelings, or to give a reason of its faith and hope. Equally absurd is it to judge of the genuine- ness and power of piety in childhood by a standard DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 347 of uniformity of gravity and propriety in manners and opinions, such as befit discreet and mature age. Truth enters the mind of the child as its natural and healthful aliment enters the stomach, only in a simple and elemental state, and its outward life is as rudi- mental as its inward perceptions of truth and pro- priety. But is it less acceptable to God for its greater degree of imperfections ? Not if the child is judged by the same law as the adult, of whom before God it is said, "It is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not." An angel might mark as great imperfections in the adult Christian as we discover in the child. The knowledge of pardon is simple and within the child's comprehension. How early does the child learn the distinction between an injurious act of the intention and a pure inadvertence! In the case of the latter it pleads the simple defense, " I did n't mean to do it," and feels self-assured of the moral validity of the plea. But in the case of the for- mer, when consciousness of intention possesses the mind, if sorrow and penitence are indicated at all, it promptly asks and obtains forgiveness, and the con- science never rests till that forgiveness is obtained. But how promptly does the heart quiet itself, and the conscience rest, when the word of forgiveness is spoken and the assurance of reconciliation received! Such exercises are familiar to the earliest moral and intelligent life of childhood. No class of moral exer- cises dates earlier. And is not the infant mind 348 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. equally capable of such exercises in relation to God and to religious distinctions? True, God is invisible, and the duties and rewards of religion do not so read- ily impress the senses or the instinctive nature, as do the relations and interests which are merely human and perishable. But here comes in the higher reason of the parent to teach and to guide, and through its leading the feebler reason of the child may take hold of God and religious truth, and by prayer and confes- sion obtain pardon. The child learns to raise itself above the earthy and material by the lifting, sustain- ing, and directive process of parental help, like the vine which fastens to the sturdy tree, and climbs to hights which its oivn strength could not support. The child depends upon the parent for teaching as to ac- ceptable prayer, and in its first essays needs the ap- proving and encouraging voice of the parent to give its own faith assurance that God has heard and ac- cepted that prayer. If it should seem absurd in the eyes of any that the child needs to be taught how and when to believe God accepts its confession and prayer as a support to its own faith and assurance, we have only to say that we affirm no more of the child's dependence and of the parent's sponsorship in this case than the whole analogy of natural and Providential arrangements corroborates. The feeble faith of the adult convert often requires the counsel and aid of maturer Christian experience in order to its better assurance and to enable the mind to judge of doctrine and of mental exercises. DATE VXD EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 349 12. Such was the method pursued by the early Christians. "Their tender solicitude for the religious instruction of their children," says Coleman, "is one of their most beautiful characteristics. They taught them, even at the earliest dawn of intelligence, the Sacred names of God and the Savior ; they sought to lead the infant minds of their children up to God by familiar narratives of Scripture, of Joseph, of young Samuel, of Josiah, and of the holy child Jesus. The history of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and holy men, whose lives are narrated in the Sacred Vol- ume, were the nursery tales with which they sought to form the tender minds of their children. As the mind of the child expanded the parents made it their sacred duty and delightful task daily to exercise him in the recital of select passages of Scripture relating to the doctrines and duties of religion. The Bible was the entertainment of the fireside. It was the first, the last, the only school-book almost of the child; and sacred psalmody the only song with which his infant cry was hushed, as he was lulled to rest on his mother's arm. The sacred song and the rude melody of its music were, from the earliest periods of Christian antiquity, an important means of impressing the infant heart with sentiments of piety, and of imbu- ing the susceptible minds of the young with the knowl- edge and the faith of the Scriptures." Says Basil, of the fourth century, quoted by Coleman : " Leave to your children God for their inheritance, and you leave them an inestimable treasure. Be it our effort and 350 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. our desire, then, not to leave to them an inheritance, but to leave them in possession of personal piety. Preach the name and doctrine of Christ on all occa- sions. Let every master of a family know that this solemn duty rests upon him in regard to all his house." 13. There is a point so nearly connected with the preceding train of remarks, and so naturally suggested here, that it seems improper to omit it. The ques- tion will arise in the parent's heart often and anx- iously, "What if, after all my care and faithfulness, my child grows up irreligious? What if he shows a distaste for religious things, and refuses my counsel and my prayers ?" This, indeed, is a serious, as it is certainly a legitimate question. But such an event should not baffle the faith and patient effort of the parent. You have all the analogies of experience and observation to assure you of the inestimable gains of an early, godly training. It is according to all the known laws of mind and of human character that such training should be effectual. You have, above all, the express and oft-repeated promise of God that it shall be. That promise is incorporated into the covenant, wherein you have entered as a party to fulfill its stipulations, and to become the recipient of its blessings. " I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." "The promise is unto you, and to your children." We say to such a parent, struggling against doubts and fears, bearing up under distressing anxieties ; we say, " Cast not away, therefore, your DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 351 confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Ac- oeptahle prayer and obedience do not always receive an immediate reward. The prayers and alms of Cor- nelius — Acts x, 4 — had long been before the throne as a '* memorial" before they received their full and appropriate answer and reward. In this, as in all our acts of piety, we must fulfill the will of God, and then commit the case "to Him that judgeth right- eously," waiting his time and order for all results. God only can "give the increase," after all our plant- ing and watering. "Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long pa- tience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts." Providence has many ways to check our thoughtless- ness and correct our waywardness. And consider, memory, reflection, and conscience will have an in- creasing power over the child as reason develops. Your claim on Divine grace is yet valid, by the terms of the promise, so long as you are faithful, patient, submissive, believing. 14. But it may still be asked, " Suppose my child grows up in all the ways of piety, till he becomes a youth, and then, as he begins to act more fully for himself, turns away from his early instruction and forsakes God?" It must be admitted that these are sore trials to parental faith and affection. They seem to be contradictions of the covenant promise, and the 352 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. hopeful promise of childhood piety seems now blasted. Still, these instances furnish no valid ground for re- linquishing faith in the efficacy of early training. Individual responsibility in the youth must always modify the Divine dispensations of grace, and can never be set aside or destroyed. No promise of blessing on faithful childhood nurture must be so con- strued as to set aside the conditionality involved in the freedom of the will, and the moral responsibility of the soul, when it has reached maturer years. When the youth reaches a period of life in which school, business, or society calls him away from home, he then comes in contact with the influences of opin- ion, customs, examples, and associations at variance with his early teaching and habits; and as they are novel, and bear the stamp of fashion and the author- ity more or less of public sentiment, the temptation to doubt the propriety of his early training, and yield to the current of surrounding customs and sentiments, becomes powerful indeed. The mind seems like a boat caught suddenly in counter currents ; after a few unsteady, vibratory motions, it yields to the strongest and is borne away in its direction. The passions of youth are strong ; experience at that age furnishes no guide; the world flatters and allures; gayety, fashion, and pleasure attract ; wit and beauty scintillate a false light; the illusion is often complete, and to the youth- ful mind the world, as it stands in spirit opposed to God, often seems real and substantial. The greatest trial of character, ordinarily, which the well-trained PATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 353 child will ever experience, is just at that point where it first comes in contact with the world outside the home circle, and is called to act in new scenes, under new trials, against new temptations, unaided by the light of any personal experience, and with a yet un- tried responsibility. Nor can parents guard this first advent into society with too much prayer and caution. To avoid it is impossible. Our children must live in this world, just as it is, with all its mixtures of good and evil, with all its snares and by-paths of sin and error. They must, sooner or later, sustain the re- sponsible relations of society, and their righteousness will be in fulfilling them according to the will of God. Let not the parent, therefore, despair at any ap- pearance of defeat in early fife. There is a school of providence into which all must enter as they come to years. Xot one is exempt. As the child goes out from under the guiding hand of the parent, he comes more directly under the unseen guidance and discipline of that Heavenly Father, who will remit no care or labor to rear the character which your earlier prayers have begun. The youth soon makes a history for himself, and that history will inevitably become the theme of his reflection, and the occasion of rous- ing sensibility, conscience, judgment, and the memory of parental instruction. The reflective reason and conscience are of later growth, but are the most pow- erful and effective instruments of the Holy Spirit in turning the soul to the wisdom of the just. " The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting 354 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. upon theni that fear him, and his righteousness UNTO children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them." Ps. ciii, 17, 18. 15. The principles by which God dispenses grace and judgment to men are the same in all ages and to all persons, to communities and to individuals, to kings and to the humblest poor, differing only in the extent and circumstances of their application — not in kind nor in the certainty of their operation. At a time when the Hebrew nation had lapsed from the religion of their forefathers, and were suffering a long and gloomy exile for their sins — their country and altars desolated and forsaken, and a cheerless night hung on them wherein no star of hope had yet arisen — their pious men turned their thoughts back upon those happy days when the people wor- shiped God, and the national covenant was confirmed in David. Their comfort and their hope now arose from the verity of that ancient covenant. There was no joyous sunlight in all their political sky; but there was still a resting-place for faith in the ancient promises of God. God had said to David : " When thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. ... I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men ; but my mercy shall not depart away DATE AND EFFICACY OF EAIILY TRAINING. 355 from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee." 2 Sam. vii, 12- 16. Now, it was in the gloomiest hour of Israel's backslidden and suffering people that their holy bards called to mind this covenant promise, and hung the nation's hope thereon. Thus they sung: "For the Lord is our defense; And the holy one of Israel is our king. Then thou spakest in vision to the holy one, and saidst, . . . I have found David rny servant: . . . My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him. . . . He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, My God, the rock of my salvation. . . . My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, And my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my laio, And walk not in my judgments ; If they break my statutes, And keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness That I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, And as a faithful witness in heaven." Ps. Ixxxix. Christian parent, smarting under the anguish of disappointed hope, and wounded love, and baffled 356 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. faith, is there not here a ground of solace? "Hope to the end for the salvation" of your child. Fall back upon the covenant, and plead its faithful promise, and wait in faith. Even if you live not to see the fruit of all your prayers and toils in the conversion of your child, or if he die far away from you, and you have no knowledge of his last hours, still trust in a covenant-keeping God. Say, as did the pious Isabella Graham, of her wayward son who was lost at sea, and from whom no tidings were ever received, of whom the anguished mother said, on receiving his last letter to her, "I have no tidings of his returning from his sinful course, or fleeing from the wrath to come, by taking hold of the hope set before him:" say with her, in the spirit of a loving faith, "And one I know nothing of, more than that I cast him on the Lord, and look for mercy." Yes, "cast him on the Lord, and look for mercy." God has methods by his spirit and his providence, which we know not of, of bringing wandering souls to himself; and whether any fragment of their last history ever reach us, yet we may confidingly plead, " Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope:" Thou hast said, "My loving -kindness will I not take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." This, indeed, is an extreme trial and triumph of faith which I have supposed, but it goes not beyond the warrant of history. How often has the fond heart of the parent been relieved of its anguish by a token, all wonderful, of God's faithful mercy to a DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 357 wandering and lost child! Even a prodigal son may vet return to his father's house, and the father rejoice orer him that " was dead and is alive again.'' Like Abraham, he may receive his lost child from the dead *• a.< in a figure." For twenty years the pious Monica, the mother of Augustine, pursued her lost son with prayers, and tears, and earnest entreaties. In boyhood, that is, between the ages of four and twelve years, he gave evidence of piety, and, as he himself said, " believed," and earnestly desired baptism, which his mother deferred from a wrong view of the efficacy of the ordinance, and of the danger and heinousness of sin after baptism. At fifteen he plunged into all the excesses of folly and vice which were common to the youth of that day. According to his own ''Confes- sions," he was a leader in youthful dissipating sports and corruptions. As he advanced in learning and oratory, he attracted public attention by his talents, and in the heat and pride of his ambition he cast off the Holy Scriptures, and attached himself to the heathen philosophic school of Manes. He arose to distinction in Africa, and afterward in Italy, by his learning and eloquence; but all this while his devoted mother, not flattered by his literary fame, as was the Christian mother of David Hume, who was thereby lured from the faith and ruined by her son, but con- tinuing in prayers, and fastings, and entreaties, fol- lowed her wandering child. At last, in his thirty- second year, disgusted with the emptiness of the heathen philosophy, self-reproached for his personal 358 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. vices, standing at the head of letters and oratory in reputation, he was brought back to Christ. His after- life was as marked by its devotion to God as his former had been by its errors and aberrations. When his conversion was accomplished the work and mission of that faithful mother were finished, and in the holy triumphs of the Cross she left the world. Christian mother, may not God do as much for you? Or, if your child dies far away from home, may you not trust a covenant-keeping God that some memento of his repentance may yet reach you to soothe your heart's pain? The young, impetuous Archibald Mar- shall, the younger brother of Isabella Graham, left home and went to sea. He was afterward lost upon the ocean, and for several years no knowledge of him could be obtained. He had left home a wayward youth. At length a pious woman of Paisley, who kept a boarding-house, one day found one of her boarders reading Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Glancing her eye on the blank leaf of the book she saw the name of "Archibald Marshall." On inquiry, the stranger told her that he got that book from a young man on his death-bed as a token of regard; "and I have reason," added he, " to bless God that he ever was my messmate." That dying young man was the same — the long-lost Archi- bald. He had been converted, and had brought his messmate to Christ. The good lady well knew the Marshall family, and quickly informed them. Thus the faithful mercy of God toward an erring child of PATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAIN : the covenant was evidenced, and the he rrow- jely com: f this unlook - faithful merer in answer to prayer. But should no such fragment reach you of the recla- :i and hopeful death of your child, still God has thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive: and let thy widows trust in me." Jer. 11. We must not break the covenant, nor cast its promisee as worthless. "His faithfuln; unto all gener 16. The eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel is a most solemn and awful declaration of the possibility that a child of the covenant may be lost. Of the man who ist and doeth that which is lawful and right, who hath walked in statutes, and hath kept his judg- ments to deal truly." even of such a one the prophet •If he beget a son that is a robber, a shed- der of blood, and that doeth the like to any of these -. and that doeth not any of those duties. . . . he shall surely die: his blood shall be upon him." u Behold." say- Qc ". •• all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine : THE SOUL THAT 5INNETH IT SHALL LIE." Yet. though individual responsibility is an unalterable of the moral government, showing the possibility of breaking away from the most faithful and earnest parental discipline and affection, the truth of God still remains, and the law of his covenant remains, that his blessing is upon the house of the righteous, and the contrary is only the exception, brought about by per- 360 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. sonal obstinacy and impiety in the child. The dying song of David is inimitably touching in reference to this very point, and shows the mingling of sadness and hope, the confession of God's justice to individual sins, with a vigorous and lively faith in his covenant promise. After describing the character of a just ruler, a true theocratic king of God's covenant people, he says : "Although my house be not so with God; Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things, and sure : For this is all my salvation, and all my desire, Although he make it not to grow." 2 Sam. xxiii, 5. The "although" here marks the painful exception to the piety and prosperity of his house: "Although my house be not so with God. . . Although he make it not to grow." Sadly did the dying monarch re- member Absalom here. " The first note from the harp of the dying king," says Dr. Macduff, "is a note of sadness. He begins on the minor key — ' Although.' At that moment a ray of memory darts across the past; gloomy anticipations, not regarding himself, but others, come looming through the future. "With faltering voice he begins his song, ' Although my house be not so with God.' An old commentator makes the quaint remark on this verse, ' There is an although in every man's life and lot.' r ' But David rises quickly to brighter scenes, and by the strong visions of faith beholds grace superabound- ing over sin, God's faithfulness over human frailty and disobedience. By the strong grasp of faith he places DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 361 himself upon the firm footing of the well-ordered and sure covenant : " Yet he hath made with me an ever- lasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.'' Ah, it was this covenant that sustained him ! " This .11 his salvation and all his desire." "Yet" — al- though my house be not so with God — "Yet. 9 ' Here hope and faith regain their footing. This "yet" is like a rock of safety to the wrecked mariner — like a cool water fountain in the parched desert. "Although my house be not so ; yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant." Blessed contrast! God is faithful, though man is unfaithful. " The although^ of life." snys the author last quoted, "are generally qualified by some yet. There is something to balance our griefs, some counterpart comfort. . . The bitter cup has its sweet drops; the dark night has its clus- tering stars of consolation and solace; the Valley of Baca has its wells of joy; the warm, and green, and sunny spots of the wilderness outnumber the dreary." Christian parent, if the sad memories of thy house, or the doubtful omens of the future, force thee in tears of sorrow to record the "although" look once again to the covenant of mercy and grace, "ordered in all things and sure ;" behold the bow of promise spanning the dark cloud, the bow of God's covenant, and grate- fully, and hopefully, and joyfully record thy "yet" to the praise of God. 31 362 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. CHAPTER VII. EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY, AND THE EARLY RE- LIGIOUS CAPABILITIES OF CHILDHOOD. All theory to be tested by practice — Example of Jesus — His child- hood life illustrates the possibilities of all childhood through grace — His character under twelve years — At twelve years — After twelve years — His junior life falls within the capabilities of our nature — Example of Samuel — Of Timothy — Some of the prophets — Polyearp — ■ Origen — Augustine — Chrysostom — Lady Huntington — Dr. Dod- dridge — Rev. C. Gridley — Hester Ann Rogers — Bishop Hedding — Force of early training in Papists, pagans, Mohammedans — Char- lotte Elizabeth — Cases noted by Mr. Wesley — Cases of personal ob- servation — Rev. Ira Fairbank — Willie Stacy — Daughter of Dr. Scott — Children of the millennium. 1. Ix further illustration of the period at which infantile piety may take root, and at which the faith- ful "nurture and admonition of the Lord," through parental instrumentality, may take effect, we offer a few examples illustrative of the point. If the doctrines we have advanced be true, it is reasonable to demand and expect that they will stand supported by facts. They relate to facts in human nature and history, and the mind naturally inquires whether they stand supported or contradicted by authentic history. All practical truth must be estimated by its actual in- fluence on life and character. Experience is the test of the value of all ethical philosophy or doctrine. EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 363 Docs the history of our nature, when brought under religious culture, substantiate the foregoing doctrines respecting the religion of childhood? Out of the multitude of instances which faithful history has re- corded, a few only can be given. We begin, as we obviously •should, with the infant life of Jesus. '2. Ever precious is the example of Jesus in its bearing on the question of the salvation of childhood. u Christ took upon him our nature," says the good Bishop Taylor, " to sanctify and save it, and passed through the several periods of it, even unto death, which is the symbol of old age ; and, therefore, it is certain that Christ did sanctify all the periods of life. Why should he be an infant, but that infants should receive the crown of their age, the purification of their stained nature, the sanctification of their per- sons, and the saving of their souls, by their infant Lord, and their elder brother?" Irenseus, A. D» 167, beautifully says : " Christ came to save all persons by himself; all, I mean, who by him are regenerated unto God — infants, and little ones, and children, and youths, and elder persons. Therefore he w T ent through the several ages ; for infants being made an infant, sanctifying infants ; to little ones lie was made a little one, sanctifying those of that age, and also giving them an example of godliness, justice, and dutifulness ; to youths he teas a youth," etc. This argument is not fanciful. Did not the ex- ample of Christ in adult age furnish us with a model, and are we not commanded to "follow his steps?" 364 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Does not the example of his personal and social vir- tues, and his holy obedience to the Father's will, illus- trate the possibilities of our redeemed and renewed adult nature, and become the pledge to us that the faithful disciple " shall be as his Master?" If the adult example of the holy Jesus is binding on adult disciples, is not the infant example of the infant Jesus binding on children? If the holy life of the man Jesus shows us how men should walk and live, does not the holy childhood of the child Jesus show us how children should live? Is not all the life of Jesus set before us in its successive periods, and in its entireness, that human nature, in all its successive periods of growth, and in all its conditions, might be encouraged and comforted ? Yerily, the children have a portion here. The Savior could not overlook them. In the 5th chapter of Romans Paul distinctly lays it down that Christ is our representative — our second Adam — and that his obedience and righteousness be- come the procuring cause of unconditional " justifica- tion," "righteousness," and "life" to our common humanity, our infant humanity. This is the common doctrine of the New Testament. He is our perfect representative. He assumed our nature in behalf of our race, of all our race, our race in all its modes and stages of existence. " Forasmuch, then, as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." What he did, he did for our common nature, infancy included by necessary consequence. EXAMPLES OP EARLY PIETY. 365 Now, if this be so, all that part of his life which relates to childhood is a precious pledge of grace to childhood, and an illustration of the possibilities of sanctified childhood. Let us, then, for a moment look at the lessons taught by the few hints given of his earl j life. (1.) His character w T as progressive, like his years, in his early life. He was a perfect child before he became a perfect man. He assumed all the stages of human life in their perfect form. It is said of him, at and after the tender age of forty days, " And the child grew, and w T axcd strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon him." Luke ii, 40. " This," says Olshausen, " is precisely the idea of the Messiah in his human development, that he presents each stage of life pure and unsullied by sin ; yet so as never to obliterate the character of the stage itself. He was completely a child, com- pletely a youth, completely a man; and thus hal- lowed all the stages of human development ; but noth- ing incongruous ever appeared in him, which would have been the case if utterances of a riper age had escaped him in childhood." What a beautiful ex- ample for the encouragement of little children ! How early in life do the " grace of God" and heavenly " wisdom " reach us ! How early our children may be the subjects of such grace and wisdom ! True, we have no authority for supposing that our children may have grace and wisdom in equal measure and perfection with the infant Savior ; but they can have 366 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. the same "grace" and "wisdom," and the same " strength of spirit," in kind or quality, as is here denoted. The blessed Savior illustrates the privilege, and duty, and possibilities of childhood, when fully brought under the influences and instrumentalities of his redeeming economy. We can not deny this with- out denying, by necessary consequence, the whole doctrine of the substitutional and representative char- acter and office of Christ. Christian parent, have you considered this ? Does your faith now lay hold of this precious truth, and plead it in behalf of your in- fant child? Does your heart melt and flow out in tearful and holy gratitude to the Divine Father for the gift of the infant Jesus, and the example of his sanctified childhood, that your own dear offspring might also be " partaker of his holiness ?" (2.) The next record that is made of the child Jesus is on reaching his twelfth year. His parents annually went up to Jerusalem to the Passover-feast ; and when he was twelve years old — "a period," says Keander, "which was regarded as the dividing line between childhood and youth" — and so, according to the Jewish custom, came under the yoke of the law, and was called "a son of the law," his parents took him to the feast. It was at this time that he had the ever-memorable interview with the Jewish doctors. The whole account should be read. It runs thus : "And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, EXAMPLES 01 EARLY PIETY. 367 the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Jo- seph and his mother knew not of it. But they, sup- posing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey ; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doc- tors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him w T ere astonished at his under- standing and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them." The tarrying of Jesus behind his parents and the company must not be construed as a neglect or re- missness of filial duty on his part. He had a higher relation to the Divine Father than to Joseph and Mary, and he was, in this act of tarrying in the Temple, doing his " Father's business." His reply to his mother — "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" — w r as a gentle monition to them that the claims of his true Father were para- mount to theirs, and he "must" yield to them. Then, again, how perfectly childlike his whole de- meanor in the Temple, and how perfectly suitable to 368 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. a holy and devout child! He was not teaching the doctors of the law, nor was he disputing or arguing ; but simply " hearing them, and ashing them ques- tions." This was suitable to his years. He never appears out of character. A beautiful harmony and fitness pervades all his life. Consider, also, this was in the Temple, his Father's house, among the doctors of the Jewish law, whose duty it was to expound the law of Moses. His questions were, indeed, wisely put ; "all that heard him were astonished at his under- standing and answers ;" but still his whole attitude and demeanor were perfectly childlike, those of a learner suitable to his years. Is not the blessed Jesus herein an example to all children? One point further is ever precious in its exemplary influence on childhood. At this early age the Savior felt a holy constraint, an urgent, impulsive necessity, arising out of his love to his Father and for his holy will, to be even now about his Father's business. " I must be about my Father's business." Here, indeed, as Stier well says, "we recognize a dawning sense of his Divine mission in the mind of Jesus," yet without in any wise doing away with the peculiar form of the spiritual life in the mind of childhood. He had now only reached the earliest stage at which he was accounted, under the law, entitled to full Church privilege, and his earnest heart aspires to that active life of obedience which he was called to fulfill. Can any child of twelve years, properly taught in the his- tory of Christ, and in his relation to Christ, fail to BXAMPLBS OF EARLY PIETY. 369 receive the impression this act of the Savior was in- tended to give ? AVill not the desire to imitate this example awaken in the breast? And will it not re- prove the thoughtlessness and remissness of undutiful childhood ? "Why should not our children be in the Temple and at the Christian Passover at twelve years ? The Savior has honored and sanctified that sge. (3.) From the time Jesus was twelve years old till he was thirty, all that is recorded of him is found in Luke ii, 51, 52. After the interview with the doc- tors just recorded, Mary and Joseph returned home, and it is said "Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them" This com- prehensive sentence — "was subject unto them" — shows that he fulfilled the command of the Old Testament, " Honor thy father and thy mother," and also of the New Testament, " Children, obey your parents in the Lord." In verse 52 it is said of him, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man." Lovely example! So may all chil- dren follow him herein, as truly as older Christians can follow him in his maturer life. Christian mother, would you not choose this for your child above all riches and honors of this world? And do not think these infant virtues of Jesus, because they belonged to a holy and perfect being, are therefore inimitable and altogether above our reach. We shall presently see how Samuel and others attained to a sanctified childhood. But just here remember that, though 370 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. Jesus was not a sinful being like your child, yet through all his childhood he undertook no act of a miraculous character, and never assumed any thing above the possibilities of redeemed human nature. He was a perfect child, perfectly human — sin always excepted — and the virtues which adorned him were only those which belong to sanctified humanity and the innocent relations of our nature. His life falls within the sphere of our humanity, and is our hu- manity's highest honor and richest inheritance. O ye parents who love the Lord, fail not to bring the life and example of the "holy child Jesus" clearly and familiarly before your children ! Teach them to love, revere, and imitate. 3. The case of Samuel is in point here. His mother had asked him of the Lord, and had prom- ised to " give him to the Lord all the days of his life." 1 Sam. i, 11. Mark these two facts — this son was asked of the Lord, under a promise of life-long consecration. Here was a religious estimate placed on the gift of a son, and a religious rendering back to God that earnestly sought gift. "Lo children are a heritage of the Lord," says Solomon. Psalm cxxvii, 3. And when this son of many prayers was born his name was called Samuel — that is, asked of God — because, said his grateful mother, U I have asJced Mm of the Lord." True to her promise she brought him up for God. At the time of the yearly sacrifice his mother went not up to Shiloh ; " For she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child - F EARLY PIETY. 371 be wi . 1 then I will bring him. that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide forever. . . . And when she had weaned him, she took him with her, and brought him unto the house of the Lor ... young" V a - 22, 24. When Hannah had ieFa birth and tion : I that "he [Samuel] se 28. "And Elkanah weir to Ramah to his hone : did min Mi ' Chap, ii, 11. "But Samuel ministered unto the Lord, being a child." 18. "And v mud grew before the ." Chap. ii. 21. "And Samuel grew, and the Lord h him. and did let none of his words fall to the ground : and all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord."' Chap. iii. 19. 20. A more lucid instance is not upon record of the :ig of God upon infantile consecration and in- struct n. The piety of Samuel reaches back to earliest childhood. "When he first appeared in the sanctuary at Shiloh, "he n Lord there/ 3 showing that it was no new or uncommon thing, but is mentioned as if it were, and as we know it was. a familiar part of his early Mbit while in his mother's care. His pi< a constant growth, dating far in the twilight of earliest chiklhoo oting in the instructions he received while yet under five • 4. The case of Timothy is no less clear. Paul says 372 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. to him, " And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." 2 Tim. iii, 15. The word translated child is ftpeyoc, — brephos — infant — not the usual word for child, clearly pointing to the age of three years old and under. From earliest conscious reason, he had been taught the holy Scriptures, taught them, that is, as far as his years and capacity could receive them, known them in those teachings which were suited to his wants. We know from Acts xvi, 1, that Timothy's mother was a Jewess; and we learn from 2 Tim. i, 5, that the " unfeigned faith" that was in Timothy, "dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice." The pious maternal ancestry of Timothy had secured for him an early instruction and discipline in the Word of God, and his training, which had proved so effectual to establish him in the true and " unfeigned faith," began while he was yet an in- fant in his mother's care. 5. Those instances wherein persons have been de- clared as sanctified from the birth, evidently imply the earliest and most faithful and continued nurture. We know it is the order of God to work by means, and wherever we find remarkable instances of piety and devotion to God from childhood, we may confi- dently infer that the instrumentality of parental nur- ture and discipline has been faithfully applied. We are not authorized to suppose the contrary. We know, indeed, that God is a sovereign, and can bestow grace in different measures, talents in various number, EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 373 advantages in greater or less degree; but among a people who have the Bible, the ordinances, and the covenant, it is not his order and plan to choose, and raise up from infancy, holy men, without the instru- mentality of early instruction, discipline, and habits of piety. We speak this to indicate the general law of Providence in the scheme of redemption. Gra- cious exceptions there are, as a Hezekiah from the house of Ahaz. and Josiah from the worthless Amon; but it is not of the exceptional or possible cases that we are now speaking, but of the ordinary rule of Providence. Now, in conformity with this principle, mark in- stances like the following: Isaiah says, chap, xlix, 1, " The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name." So also in verse 5. God says to Jere- miah, chap. i. 5, Before thou wast born "I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." And hence Jeremiah was actually called while yet young and of tender years. " Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold I can not speak, for I am a child," verse 6. This certainly indicates a tender age for the pro- phetic office, and reminds us of the early call of Sam- uel ; i; and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli." and it was at this age that God called him and made known to him his first prophetic mes- See 1 Sam. iii. Of John the Baptist it was Id by the angel, that "he should be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb,''" Luke 374 THE EELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. i, 15. We find also various examples of established piety at the ages of fifteen and seventeen, which speak volumes on the point of infantile and early training. Joseph could stand alone in Egj T pt against the most crushing adversities and seductive tempta- tions. Daniel and his three brethren could take a martyr-like position at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, in relation to diet and such things as involved obe- dience to the law of Moses. David exhibited a hero's faith when but a " ruddy youth," a " stripling," go- ing forth to meet Goliath. Such instances of early establishment in faith, in doctrine, and in habits of conscientious duty, argue a previous training from in- fancy, such as the Old Testament every where enjoins. 6. The blessed martyr, Polycarp, was a glorious example of the power of early instruction and the sanctification of childhood. Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna. When ninety years old, he was brought to the stake for no other crime than that of being a Christian. The Proconsul of Asia Minor would gladly have saved him out of veneration for his gray hairs, his simple life, and his* great public influence, and at the place of execution again urged him to recant. " Swear," said the Proconsul ; " curse Christ, and I release thee." To which the venerable man replied, " Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath done me nothing but good; and how could I curse him, my Lord and Savior?" The Proconsul still urg- ing him, Polycarp replied, "If you would know what I am, I tell you frankly, I am a Christian." When' EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 375 at the stake, and all tilings ready for the execution, before the lire was lighted, he thus prayed, "Lord, Almighty God, Father of thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we have received from thee the knowledge of thyself; God of angels and of the whole creation; of the human race and of the just that live in thy presence; I praise thee, that thou hast judged me worthy of this day and of this hour, to take part in the cup of thy witnesses, and of thy Christ." Polycarp was the disciple and intimate friend of the apostle John, and suffered martyrdom A. D. 167, having enjoyed the personal instructions of John about twenty-three years. Of these dreadful perse- cutions of the Church in Smyrna, the blessed apostle had forewarned them, at the same time commending their faithful piety. Polycarp himself was probably the "angel of the Church" addressed, and probably to him apply John's words: "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich.) . . . Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Rev. ii, 8-11. In the annals of Christian martyrdom'a more spotless and illustrious example than this of Polycarp is not found. But the point which here concerns us is, the early date of his Christian life and profession. u Eighty and six years have I served him" says this old man of ninety. At four years of age began his Christian life ! Pre- 376 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. cious example ! And this " angel of the Church of Smyrna" is no more than all should be, in the early date and life-long consistency of his Christian piety and profession. This it is which gives strength and purity to character. Sanctified childhood will bring a manhood of maturity and an age of ripeness in the things of God. 7. Origen, who was born in Alexandria eighteen years after Poly carp's death, and who became one of the most learned and influential of the Christian fathers, was early instructed by his mother in the Christian religion, and to her he owed, under God, both his religion and his greatness. She it was who controlled and disciplined his passions, and educated him with the pious care which a Christian mother alone could bestow; so that at the tender age of eighteen years he was raised to the dignity of Presi- dent of the School of Alexandria. Eusebius says " the Christian doctrine was taught him by his fore- fathers," which Rufinus translates "his grandfathers and his great grandfathers." Who can fail to trace the extraordinary qualities of this man to his early and thorough childhood education in the Christian religion ? 8. Augustin is another example of the efficacy of early training. " A truly pious mother," says Nean- der, had seasonably scattered the seeds of Christian- ity in Augustin's heart while yet a child. The in- cipient germs of Ms spiritual life were unfolded in the unconscious piety of childhood. Whatever treas- EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 377 ■fee <>f virtue and worth, the life of faith, even of a soul not trained by scientific culture can bestow, was set before him in the example of his pious mother." Such was the beginning; of a life ever memorable and honored in the page of Church history. At the age of thirteen, it is true, he relapsed, but was reclaimed afterward, and stood forth one of the greatest lights of the Church. 9. So was Chrysostom — A. D. 347 — blessed with infantile Christian training. "His pious mother, An- thusa," says the author last quoted, "who, being left a widow, devoted herself entirely to his education, was to him what Monica was to Augustin. But the seeds of faith sown in his infant mind were not, as in the case of Augustin, long kept in check by the pre- dominance of wild passions ; and without experiencing such violent storms and struggles in his more gentle soul, he was enabled to develop himself with a quiet and gradual progress under more favorable influ- ences." "His Christian life and character had not been the result of any violent crisis, but from his early youth it had developed itself under the influence of a profound study of the sacred Scriptures, and of pious friends and associates surrounding him with a gentle atmosphere of Christian excitement." 10. Lady Selina Shirley — afterward Lady Hunting- ton — even in very early infancy — says her London biographer — was of a serious cast. When only nine years old, while standing at the grave of one about her age, she was so impressed with eternal things 32 378 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. that, "with many tears, she earnestly implored God on the spot, that whenever he should be pleased to take her away he would deliver her from all her fears, and give her a happy departure. She often after- ward visited the grave, and always preserved a lively sense of the affecting scene she had there witnessed. Though no correct views of evangelical truth had hitherto enlightened her ladyship's mind, yet even during her juvenile days she frequently retired for prayer to a particular closet, where she could not be observed, and in all her little troubles found relief in pouring out the feelings of her heart to God. When she grew up and was introduced into the world, she continued to pray that she might marry into a serious family." From these germs of piety which rooted in her earliest childhood, though not encouraged by early evangelical nurture, she became one of the most re- nowned for piety and extensive usefulness of the illus- trious characters of the last century. "Her tender age exhibited a fine dawn of her mature excellence," and her childhood aspirations after God were grati- fied and realized a thousand-fold in a long life of holy fellowships and almost unparalleled influence and activity. 11. The amiable and learned Dr. Doddridge says of himself: "I was brought up in the early knowledge of religion by my pious parents, who were in their character very worthy of their birth and education; and I well remember that my mother taught me the history of the Old and New Testament before I could EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 379 read, by the assistance of some blue, Dutch tiles in the chimney-place of the room where we commonly sat : and the wise and pious reflections she made upon those stories were the means of enforcing such good impressions on my heart as never afterward wore off." At the early age of thirteen he was called to bury his father, his faithful mother having been called away previous to that time, and he wrote: "God is an immortal Father. My soul rejoiceth in him. He has hitherto helped me and provided for me. May it be my study to approve myself a more affectionate, grateful, and dutiful child." Such was the beginning of a life and character lovely as the beloved apostle's, and honored by much learned and useful labor. 12. In reading religious biography we not unfre- quently meet with instances similar to the following, which we take from a recent religious journal: "Rev. Chauncey Gridley died in the city of Hudson, New York, November 26, 1860, aged eighty. When but five years old he experienced religion, and never wholly lost the fruits of that change. In his fifteenth year he was powerfully blest, and ever after * walked with God.'" Beautiful record! Many similar cases we could quote from personal knowledge. "When but five years old he experienced religion!" 13. Equally clear is the testimony of Hester Ann rs. She says: "I was early drawn out to secret prayer; I believed God was the author of all good, of all happiness; and sin the cause of all misery and pain. If, therefore, I wished for anything I had not, 380 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. I asked God in secret to grant "it to me. And in any pain of body, or in any of my childish grief, I fled to him for ease and comfort; and it would be incredible to some how often I have received manifest answers to prayer when not more than four years old, and how my tender mind has been comforted. I was deeply affected, and had very serious thoughts of death for some time, and after seeing the corpse of a little brother of mine, who died of the small-pox when I was five years old, I took great delight in the Bible, and could at this time read any part of the Old or New Testament, always asking questions so as to ob- tain understanding of what I read. I do not remem- ber ever going to bed without having said my prayers except once; I was then diverted by a girl, who told me many childish stories, and so took up my atten- tion that I forgot to pray till I was in bed; and then, being alone, I recollected what I had done, and con- science greatly accused me." In this tender con- science and with these habits of religion she might have been brought up without the interval of fashion- able folly which she afterward records, had she been vigilantly guarded by judicious, maternal counsel through all the years of her childhood and youth. 14. The late venerable Bishop Hedding began the habit of secret prayer when he was four years old, and continued it for several years; and had he been blessed at that age with parents experimentally acquainted with the Christian religion, under their faithful teaching and pious example would doubtless BXAMPLBfl OF EARLY PIETY. 381 have grown up in that habit, and, like Timothy, have known Christ from a child — coming to the personal evidences of a change of heart when his understanding became sufficiently developed. 15. The force of early habit, where it is exact and rooted in the religious conscience^ is like a second instinct. We have seen it developed in the history of superstition upon a wide scale. Why are the children of pagans pagans? and why are the chil- dren of Papists Papists? Why do the children of Mohammedans uniformly believe in the Koran? The answer is found in their early education; it is the influence of traditional faith and early training. We find no large exceptions among them in favor of a skeptical class as among Protestants. The child of the Papist, the Mohammedan, and pagan is early fortified in the dogmas and habits of its religion, so as to become proof against all the ordinary in- fluences of proselytism. Why can not Christian Protestant children be equally confirmed in truth and the habits of piety? Admitting that our nature is depraved, and "of itself inclined to evil continu- ally," and hence more susceptible of a religion which lays no restraint upon the selfish passions and desires, yet is not grace supplied to counteract this evil? And where sin "abounded" may not grace "much more abound?" Does not the atonement make pro- vision for these wants of our being, and "the Spirit help our infirmities?" A garden left to itself will produce only weeds; but with culture will it not 382 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. as well produce good things? And so "will the grace of God bless and reward parental faithfulness in the offices of holy instructions and discipline. 16. What might not right culture and assiduous care effect, by the grace of God, in the childhood of such a mind as that of the earnest, ingenuous, and gifted Charlotte Elizabeth ? "To a period so early as the middle of my fourth year" says she, "I can revert with the most perfect, most vivid recol- lection of my habitual thoughts and feelings." Could she not at that age have attained to a distinct expe- rience of the evidence of saving grace had she been familiarly led in that direction? When only seven years old she became so wrought up with the mar- tyr's enthusiasm, by poring over the pictures and pages of an old folio of Fox's Book of Martyrs, that she earnestly asked her father if she too might not be burned to death for her religion as those mar- tyrs were? Yet at the same time she says: "Of spiritual knowledge not the least glimmer had ever reached me in any form, yet I knew the Bible most intimately, and loved it with all my heart, as the most sacred, the most beautiful of earthly things." Brought up amid the vivid historic associations of the bloody persecutions of the Protestants by Queen Mary, and under a system of instruction adapted to develop the strong sympathies and doctrinal points of the Reformation, she said : " This I know, that at six years old the foundation of a truly Scriptural protest was laid in my character." She adds : " The KKAMPLES OP EARLY PIETY. 383 Word was my delight many a year before it became my counselor. . . . Religion, however, did at this early period of my life become a very important concern in my eyes. Our mother had taken infinite pains to assure us of one great truth — the omnis- cience of an omnipresent God; and this I never could for a moment shake off. It influenced us both in a powerful manner, so that if either committed a fault we never rested till, through mutual exhortation on the ground that God certainly knew it, and would be angry if we added deceit to another error, we had encouraged each other to confession. We then went, hand in hand, to our mother, and the one who stood clear of the offense acknowledged it in the name of the transgressor, while both asked pardon." With a mind so ingenuous and so susceptible the foundations of religion were early and strongly laid; yet for want of spiritual instruction and example she did not come to an experimental knowledge of the Savior till ma- ture years, and when she at last sought and found pardon in Christ it was not by human instrumentali- ties, but by calling to mind, upon a bed of affliction, those many Scriptures which she had committed to memory when a child, and which the Holy Spirit now caused to become to her the "power of God unto salvation." Millions of children are as sus- ceptible of early faith and piety as she; and who shall answer for the long delay of their conversion, perhaps their final failure in coming to Christ? 17. Among the numerous references to early piety 384 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. to which Mr. Wesley's attention was- called are the following, noted in his Journal. He says: "I buried one who had soon finished her course, going to God' in the full assurance of faith when she was little more than four years old. In her last sickness — having been deeply serious in her behavior several months before — she spent all the intervals of her convulsions in speaking of or to God. And when she perceived her strength to be nearly exhausted, she desired all the family to come near, and prayed for them all, one by one, then for her ministers, for the Church, and for the world. A short time after, recovering from a fit, she lifted up her eyes and said, ' Thy kingdom come,' and died." 18. At another time he said: "I inquired more particularly of Mrs. N. of her little son. She said he appeared to have a continual fear of God, and an awful sense of his presence, that he frequently went to prayer by himself, and prayed for his father and many others by name. That he had an exceedingly great tenderness of conscience, being sensible of the least sin, and crying and refusing to be comforted when he thought he had in any thing displeased God; that a few days since he broke out in prayer aloud, and then said : ' Mamma, I shall go to heaven soon and be with the little angels, and you will come there, too, and my papa ; but you will not go so soon ;' that the day before he went to a little girl in the house, and said : ' Polly, you and I must go to prayers. Don't mind your doll, kneel down now; I must go EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 385 to prayers, Grod bids me.' When the Holy Ghost teaches/ 9 adds Mr. Wesley, "is there any delay in learning? This child was then just three years old! A year or two after he died in peace." 19. Again he says: At Sheffield "I was glad of having an opportunity of talking with a child I had heard of. She was convinced of sin some weeks be- fore by the words of her elder brother— about eight years old — dying as a hundred years old in the tri- umphs of faith. I asked her abruptly, ' Do you love she said, 'Yes, I do love him with all my heart.' I said, 'Why do you love him?' she an- swered, 'Because he has saved me.' 'How has he saved you ?' she replied, ' He has taken away my sins.' I said, ' How do you know that V she an- swered, 'He told me himself on Saturday, Thy sins are forgiven thee, and I pray to him without a book. I was afraid to die, but now I am not afraid to die; for if I die I shall go to him.' " Many such instances are recorded. Mr. Wesley had confidence in the piety of little children, and often met them in schools and groups for conversa- tion and religious instruction. The Methodist Disci- pline, in its specific directions concerning the pastoral oversight and teaching of little children, long before the system of modern Sunday schools was known, - its own testimony of the Scriptural insight of that great man into the religious capabilities and des- tiny of childhood. Mr. Wesley preceded Robert Raikes in this field of Gospel renovation by many years. o5b THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 20. Some years ago I was in company with two other gentlemen and a lady, when the conversation turned upon early piety, and the question was started as to the date when each obtained the evidence of salvation. The result showed that one was con- verted at eight years of age, two at nine years, and one at ten. The lady had come to the personal evi- dence of salvation at nine years. Her habit of relig- ion dated earlier than memory. She had long been a most useful and reputable educator of youth, two of us were ministers of the Gospel, and the other was a physician as widely reputable and useful as any man of his profession in the State of New York. And how many such discoveries might be made of early religious experience if the inquiry should go round ! 21. The late Rev. Ira Fairbank, a respectable minis- ter in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Western New York, was converted to God when a child under eight years. He was lying in his little bed at night while a prayer meeting was going on in an adjoining- room. He lifted his heart to God with them, alone upon his little cot in the dark, and God heard and blessed him. He grew up a Christian, became a re- spectable and useful preacher of the Gospel, and in the honors of his gray hairs, respected and beloved, he was called to his heavenly reward. We buried him with many pleasant memories and sweet hopes. 22. Willie Stacy was the son of Rev. Thomas Stacy, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now cf Clifton EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 387 Springs, Now York. Ho was a beautiful boy, cheer- ful and frolicsome, loving and tenderly loved. He was taken violently sick in 1850, from the effects of which he never recovered. Overhearing his mother say one day that she feared he never would get well, he quickly slipped out of the room, and his mother, soon following him, found him weeping. She sat down by his side, and soothingly inquired the cause of his grief. He told her he did not want to die; he was afraid to die. His mother told him of the Savior's love, and kneeled and prayed with him. From this time he was known very frequently to go away and pray by himself. Some weeks passed, when one day his mother coming into the room saw such a change in his countenance, that she asked him : " My son, what are yoti thinking about?" "Of the goodness of God," was the reply. "In what respect, my child?" "In forgiving me all my sins," he said. From that day till the hour of his death he continued to evidence the reality of the great change professed, being patient in suffering, and raised entirely above the fear of death. As his mother one day read to him of the resurrection of the body, he clasped his little hands and exclaimed: "0, then, I shall not be lame in heaven !" Once he wept, and said he did not want to be always lame; but afterward earnestly prayed to be forgiven of his momentary impatience. It was a solitary instance. When a friend asked him if he did not want to get well, he replied: "No, I would rather die and go to heaven." "But you do 388 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. not want to be buried in the cold, dark grave?" In a moment he replied: "I am not going there. It is only this body." "But you do not want to go to heaven and be away from your mother ?" " But," said he, "mother is coming too." As his end drew near he selected his pall-bearers, and wished the choir to sing the hymn, "Thou art gone to the grave," etc. The contents of his money-box he gave to the Home of the Friendless. As his sufferings increased with the progress of the disease, his father asked him if he thought he should get well. He answered : " No, but I shall soon go to heaven." " Why are you so sure of going to heaven when you die ?" He replied with confidence: "Because Jesus Christ has forgiven me all my sins." After a severe paroxysm of pain his mother asked him what he was thinking of? He re- plied: "Mother, I do not think. I am only happy because God loves me." In this triumphant frame he died, aged seven years and three months. 23. Dr. Thomas Scott's eldest daughter died at four and a half years old. She was brought, through earnest prayer and instruction, to a distinct knowl- edge of the forgiveness of sins. His view was, that children are capable of regeneration and the fruits of it, as early as they become sinners by actual and willful transgression, and being convinced that his little daughter had reached that stage, he sought God in prayer on her behalf with much agony, and applied himself to faithful, and earnest, and affectionate ad- monition, and the child was thus brought to Christ, EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 389 and gave intelligent testimony of a real change. The account is too long to transfer to these pages. 24. But while I record these instances, which might he easily swelled to a volume, and are here given only as a specimen of the early power of grace, I would not have it inferred that all children of such tender age must give the same evidence of regenera- tion, or pass through the same mental exercises, in order to be prepared for heaven. Each child, as each adult, has its own peculiar gift, and its own measure of capacity. Till the child has forfeited its first justi- fication in Christ it is in a gracious state of accept- ance. The Savior folds it to his arms as the Shep- herd does the lamb. Let not the parent feel distressed or anxious for the safety of the dear little one, be- cause it may not have the same distinct exercises as others. Teach the child to pray, to trust in Jesus for pardon and acceptance, for preservation from sin, and everlasting life, and believe that till willful trans- gression has rejected and forfeited the unconditional grace of the atonement, the child is a member of the kingdom of heaven. Yet watch the beginning of re- sponsible action, and let no sin, however small, or however disguised by childish mirth and playfulness, be allowed to pass without calling the conscience into healthful and salutary action. 25. But we must close these monographs of infant piety. The truthful records of eternity alone will disclose the countless millions of the redeemed who date their spiritual exercises in earliest childhood. 390 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. And if ever the Church shall reach the ultimate grace of the new covenant, which the prophet foretold, it will be when " all shall know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest of them." Jer. xxxi, 34. Isaiah could not complete his glowing picture of the millennium, the period of the Church's greatest exten- sion and triumph, without the exaltation of childhood. The ferocious spirits of men, who, like wild beasts, had destroyed the earth, should not only be subdued and harmonized, but " a little child should lead them." Isa. xi, 6. The figure has a basis of reality. The directive influence of society should thenceforward be the humility, the gentleness, and the tractableness of childhood. Sympathy with childhood should melt and subdue the harsh temper of cruelty, selfishness, and ambition. The happy state of the Church, and of society, in the eye of that same prophet, was when "all their children should be taught of the Lord, and great should be the peace of their children." Isa. liv, 13. May the Lord hasten it in its time ! DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 391 CHAPTER VIII. DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN THE DEVOTIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL CULTURE OF THE CHILDREN. Painful absence of our children from our Church altars and fellow- ships — Want of confidence in the professions of childhood piety — Rev. Mr. Towsley — Rev. E. Hebard — Children brought up with the impression and belief they are outside the Church's pale — The moral influence of this practice — Reason why the Church is so coy of child- hood profession — Characteristics of childhood piety — God's sympathy in childhood wants and infirmities — Error of testing moral principles by the apparent greatness of the circumstances which develop them — Catechumens of the early Church — Methodist Episcopal Church Dis- cipline — Mr. Wesley precedes Robert Raikes — Some further provision for the children needed — Experience of a pastor — Sphere of the Sun- day school — A new medial provision needed between the Sunday school and the Church — Excellences and defects of the Methodist Episcopal Church Discipline on the subject. This work was not undertaken as a mere doctrinal discussion, and I can not now conclude it without some further appeal in behalf of childhood Church rights. Why are not our children more frequently seen at our altars of prayer, our sacramental tables, and in the walks and fellowships of Church life? Why are the youth of our age so fearfully drifting away from the Church? Why are the early promises of grace so often blasted, and the unexampled bless- ings lavished upon our children so often perverted from their right channels, or at least defeated in their 392 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ends? To assume to answer these questions perfectly would be beyond our wisdom, and is certainly not our present proposal; but a few suggestions seem called for. 1. It is an evil among us that the Church even yet lacks confidence in the stability of early con- versions and early professions of piety. An impres- sion still obtains that children should be held some- what aloof from Church membership, and kept back from the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper till an age of more mature discretion. The early Christians often kept back their children from baptism under the belief that baptism washed away sin, and, as it could not be administered but once, it was desirable to receive it near the close of life, or at least later on in life, when the temptations of the world had mostly lost their power, and the character had be- come established. Similar to this is our timidity and caution in regard to receiving children into the Church. We fear many things. We fear they have entered upon their Christian profession without con- sideration, impulsively, and that they will turn back on the first approach of trial. But, admitting that many of these professions are evanescent and spuri- ous, are not adult professions often so ? The kingdom of heaven is "like a net cast into the sea, and it gathered of every kind." Let it be so. The fish- erman nevertheless casts in his net, content if the balance of the draught is in his favor; and so let us. The Church should work for early conversions, and mtv 01 Tin: CHURCH. 393 have confidence in early conversions. And, allow that children are easily turned out of the way, our well understood this when he said in behalf of these very children, and in defense of their imperiled interests, "It were better for a man that a mill- stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea, than to offend one of these little believers in him.'' But are not adult converts often as capricious as children, without their docility or gentleness? A few months ago we buried the Rev. Mr. Towsley, of Canandaigua, Xew York. He was known as "the children's preacher," and one of the most effective and earnest laborers in that department we have ever known. When about ten years old he professed conversion, and his motlrer took him to the session to be examined for admission into the Church. The first question asked him was, "Well, Lorin, had you not rather be out skating than here*:*' The question implied distrust either of his sincerity or his ability to judge of his own mental convictions, and grieved young Towsley deeply. After examination they considered the case in council, and then told his mother they were satisfied the boy was a Christian, but advised that he defer joining the Church till he was older. The consequence was that the child, turned back thus upon the world, fell into sin, and, after a reckless life of several years, was reclaimed at sixteen. But his bitter experience gave a powerful impulse to his earnest labors for children in after years. 894 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. The Rev. Elijah Hebard died in Geneva, New York, a few years since. He was an aged minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, an excellent divine, a good preacher, and a devout and useful laborer. His attainments in theological and Biblical literature were uncommon. At about twelve years old he presented himself at the door of the Church for admission. The preacher declined to receive him, thinking he was too young. In fact, it was not believed he knew enough to be converted. He took the refusal meekly, but still would speak in social meetings till he was requested to desist from this also — his gift not being considered edifying. Through the influence of his excellent mother, and his elder brother Robert, who afterward died a missionary in Canada, he was still encouraged to live in the way of Christian duty, out- side the pale of the Church, till he had reached an age and maturity sufficient, in the eyes of Church officers, for membership. When we see such timidity and worldly cautious- ness in admitting children to the sheepfold of the Savior, we are ready to ask, For what and for whom was the visible Church of Christ instituted? Was it for the weak, the "least," the helpless, or only for the wise and the strong? True, this barbaric idea of Church is passing away, but we have not yet fully escaped from the fettering prejudices of our fathers. What would be thought of a shepherd who should put the little lambs outside the fold, exposed to the rough vicissitudes of weather, and the more DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 395 perilous rapacity of ravening wolves, till they had attained maturity, or till it should be ascertained whether they were sure to live? Is not the Church the sheepfold of Christ? This want of confidence in the piety of children, this bringing them up out- side the Church-pale, this giving to them the impres- sion and belief that they are not of the Church but of the world, and educating them and indoctrinating them in the principle and sentiment that discreet age is as necessary as piety as a condition of Church membership, all this has driven our children from our altars, and alienated them from the religion of their fathers. We have held them aloof from Church sym- pathy and accountability, and have taught them to reckon themselves as belonging to the world, and they have grown up in this belief and estimate, and it has served them as an excuse for living as the world, and following its vain customs. On the other hand, how diiferent would be the influence of the opposite policy of reckoning them with the saints, and as accountable to Church authority, and subject to Church discipline, through all the period of child- hood life. The belief of such Church connection, and the assumed principle of such Church account- ability, would be itself a power over the child's mind to restrain from sin and incite to duty. I do not say that the child must be kept in the Church by the simple virtue of its baptism and its religious education, without respect to the evidences of its personal piety; but I say the Church should have 396 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD.. more confidence in the genuineness and stability of childhood professions of piety, and take them to its bosom, in good faith and in full membership, at any age when they are capable of giving the Christian evidences of personal faith in Christ and acceptance with God. 2. One reason why the Church is so coy and dis- trustful of childhood profession is due to the error of judging them by too high standards. Our tests are too intellectual, and have too much reference to the higher proprieties of life, and are not enough shut up and limited to the moral aspects of the case. Our ideas of the solemn propriety due to childhood profession often befit a recluse better than a happy juvenile worshiper. The child's mind is not capable of continued solemnity, or more than momentary sorrow. It may seem fickle and thoughtless, but its buoyancy is the blessed heritage of its years, and the condition of its physical health and growth. Heavy burdens would crush it, and care would stint and wither the mental faculties. Its nerves, bones, and muscles all declare that childhood is not the period for physical burden-bearing, while its mental development equally evinces its incapacity for any serious pressure upon its opening faculties. The child is first a creature of sensibility, memory, and imagination. The reasoning faculty comes later on. Activity, not reflection, is the characteristic of its years. It perceives a point, apprehends a simple truth, and memory retains it, long before the reason DUTY OF THE CIIURCH. 397 Can trace out causes, connections, and corollaries. It is but the germ of manhood, the opening bud of the after fruit. Religion in the child is sincere and real, but it must be cheerful to suit its lithesome nature. The playthings of a child are the text- books of its physical education. Its thoughtlessness is but the rapidity with which it passes from one thing to another without indicating the formal links of connection, and without the art of concealment; or it may be simply its incapacity to trace connec- tions and results by a process of reasoning. It has no experience to guide it; the world is to the child a beautiful mystery, an attractive charm to the senses, and its guileless heart confides and follows not from perversity, but innocency and truthfulness. It passes from the serious to the gay and playful with ease and rapidity, from the same causes, 3. Why should we require children to be otherwise than consistent with their years ? " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child." How else could a child think, speak, and understand? The wisdom and duty of the Church are not to attempt the futile work of making children think and act like adults, but to adapt the means of grace and the offices and fellowship of the Church to them. The tests of childhood piety are to be found within the sphere of their own personal and social life. Their trials, their fears, their hopes, their temptations, their mani- festations of good or evil principle, arise from circum- 398 THE KELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. stances which appear trifling to us, but they are real to them. They live in a world altogether their own — it is the sphere in which God has placed them — and within that world of ephemeral interests and emotions the Church must enter with its sympathizing heart, its appreciative understanding, and its guiding hand. Does not God enter into sympathy with childhood? Does not Jesus pity their unreal fears — comfort them in their little trials arising out of their daily sports and pastimes? Does he not answer their prayers touching these things, and mark with pleasure or disapproval the moral feelings they indulge under provocation ? Addison seemed almost inspired to utter a great truth when he wrote : " To all my weak complaints and cries Thy mercy lent an ear, Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learned To form themselves in prayer." But David goes further back, and dates the Divine care and notice of us at a still earlier period: "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, Grod ! Surely thou art he that didst bring me into the world ; Thou didst make me lie secure upon my mother's breast; I was cast upon thee from my birth ; Thou hast been my God from my earliest breath. For thou art my hope, Lord Jehovah ! Thou hast been my trust frOm my youth ! Upon thee have I leaned from my birth ; Thou art he that took me out of my mother's womb." Ps. cxxxix, 16, 17 ; and xxii, 9, 10 ; and lxxi, 5, G. (Noye's Translation.) DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 399 If these expressions contain any doctrinal truth at all, do they not teach us that God is attentive to all the minute events which affect our earliest life, and that he respects the feelings and prayer of a child in the matter of a toy as truly as those of a man in the concerns of a fortune? And, if this be so, does it befit the profession of the Church of Christ to ignore the events of childhood as tests of piety, or to place a light estimate upon childhood profession, be- cause the mind at that age is affected with trifles, and may be turned out of the way of holiness by- trifles? It is a fatal error in ethics to judge of the moral importance of an act by the apparent magni- tude or the abstract importance of the incident or occasion which called it forth. An apple might suffice to test the moral integrity of Adam. The ritualistic system of Moses attaches severe penalties to acts or omissions which would appear trifling when measured by New Testament standards. And it is an eternal rule of ethics, "He that is unfaithful in that which is is unfaithful also in much." "We must judge of children by their own standard of thought and appreciation, and never take them out of the sphere of accountability wherein God has placed them. The question to-day remains but imperfectly solved, whether the Church will come down to the capacities of children in the adaptations of her instrumentalities and oversight. We are not now speaking of parental duty in coming to the child's capacity, but of Church duty. Outside the family circle the child is to fall 400 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. within the sphere of Church life, and the question is, How will the organic body of the Church come to regard the child? What shall be its appropriations for the specific end of transition from the religious life in the family to the wider sphere of conventional Church life? 4. The early Christians reckoned their children as catechumens, or candidates for Church membership. It was a relation in many respects similar to the period of probation for six months prescribed by the Methodist Episcopal Church for all her candidates for membership. The catechumen, whether child or adult, was put upon a course of instruction and discipline preparatory to full membership. The duration of this preparatory period was variable, according to the pro- ficiency of the novitiate, but generally ranged from eight months to three years.* This provision was deemed a necessary guard upon the purity of the Church. In the first age of the Church the apostles received members directly by baptism, upon a brief and simple confession ; but afterward, in taking con- verts from Judaism and paganism, fresh and untaught from their superstitious associations, it was judged prudent to pass them through a preparatory course before admitting them to the bosom of Church fel- lowship. This custom arose in the latter part of the second century, reached its culminating point in the * In the Constitution of the Apostles three years are prescribed ; in the Council of Illiberi, A. D. 673, two years ; by that of Agatha, A. D. 506, eight months. (Coleman's Ch. Antiquities.) DUTY OF THE CHURCII. 401 fifth century, and then gradually declined; but, though modified as to form, has continued down to this day in its essential features. Now, the point I wish to make here is, that this preparatory stage of instruction and discipline, for which we have the example of the Church for several hundred years, and which, in a modified form, has continued in the Church through all ages, might be so modified as to suit the wants of childhood life. The catechumens, though not admitted to all the priv- ileges of the Church, were yet under Church disci- pline. The Church had power to inflict on them cen- sure and disabilities. Their period of probation, or pupilage, could be prolonged, and their baptism, to such as had not been baptized, could be deferred. They might die under this Church sentence, which was, indeed, regarded as a serious calamity. Mean- while, the Church was not so fully responsible for their delinquency as for its full members. The errors or the scandals of the catechumens did not stain the reputation of the Church, because the Church held them still in a state of candidacy, or as they were sometimes called in the Latin Church, "pupils, begin- ners, novitiates, learners" There was a Church con- nection, involving a Church profession on the part of the candidates, a Church oversight and responsibility on the part of the body of believers, which distin- guished them on the one hand from the non-profess- ing world, and on the other from the full privilege of the "faithful" the "enlightened," the "perfect" the 34 402 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. " initiated" as they were called — that is, of the or- ganic body of the saints. It was the transition period of Church life. Is not this a definable, recognizable, and, so far as its essential features are concerned, a Scripturally authorized state? Reason, experience, and Scripture unite to commend and enjoin such a Church provision. 5. The Methodist Episcopal Church prescribes a pe- riod of six months' trial for all her members. During that period the candidate is required to inform himself as to her discipline and doctrines, and at the expiration of the term, being satisfied with the Church, and the Church being satisfied with his profession and walk, he being baptized is eligible to admission. But dur- ing this period of trial the probationer, if baptized, is entitled to all the spiritual privileges of the Church, the Lord's Supper included. It is on the score only of ecclesiastical right and eligibility that he is dis- abled. But this probationary period is suited only to adults. There is no adequate provision for children here. It is true the language of her Discipline does not restrict the period of trial to six months. It says of baptized children "who give evidence of a principle and habit of piety, they may be admitted into full membership in our Church, on the recom- mendation of a leader with whom they have met at least six months in class," etc. But usage generally restricts the period to six months, and certainly the probationary period is not a provision for all the years of childhood life. We admit them to probation L DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 403 only when they shall "give evidence of a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins," and the very mention of "six months'" trial supposes the candidate already at an age suffi- cient for full membership. Now, as the Church de- clares that, anterior to this probationary state, " all children who have been baptized are placed in visible covenant relation to God, and under the special care and supervision of the Church" should not the Church make some "special" provision for their "care and supervision?" Notwithstanding the above noble and most opportune declaration of childhood Church relations, is there not still wanting a method or system of Church oversight better adapted to children as such, to all children, and not merely to those of an age to come out and make public pro- fession? Between the family religious life and the public Church life of the child, is there not a transi- tional period to be provided for, in which the more delicate appliances of Church instrumentality and privilege may be brought effectively to bear upon the early conscience and forming character? It is just here that Churches mostly fail. The child, though baptized, is still brought up under the impression and belief that it sustains no Church accountability, and it is practically treated as if it were outside the Church's pale. If it sin and go astray it is not a Church, but a purely parental care. No Church voice is called forth, no Church censure incurred. In this, are we not behind the post-apostolic Church? 404 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. In speaking to these points I fear, when I open my lips, lest I should not only offend against the wisdom of past ages, but the generation of God's living saints. The Methodist Episcopal Church has done nobly. Her antecedents are marked and honorable in this respect. She has incorporated the Sabbath school directly into her ecclesiastical and spiritual economy, and brought it under the eye and super- vision of her authority. This is right. The chil- dren are a trust left us by the Divine Lord and Savior. She has also inserted in her Discipline a special chapter in behalf of children, and their rela- tion to the Church. Mr. Wesley anticipated Robert Raikes by sixteen years. The epoch of Sunday school organizations dates about three years later than the personal labors of Mr. Raikes, in 1785, when the " Society for promoting Sunday Schools through- out the British dominions" was organized. But in 1766, nineteen years previous, Mr. Wesley had laid down a regular plan of instruction for children, re- quiring the preachers "to spend at least an hour twice a week with the children of the societies, wher- ever ten of them could be assembled." Jt is to be feared that our labors have not had the same direct- ness and earnestness in bringing them to Christ and the Church as this great man contemplated. The Sunday school is a most glorious harbinger of the millennium, but it can not meet all the spiritual, espe- cially all the Church, wants of childhood. 6. If we were to venture upon. more specific sug- DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 405 gestions, wc would say the children should be gath- ered into class meetings and prayer meetings and separately met. These meetings should be led by the best female minds in the Church. Women are more capable of this than men. The female mind is more patient, affectional, analytic, imaginative, ac- curate in detail, lively, perceptive, and intuitional. God made woman to develop and manage the early reason and conscience. I speak only of the general law of distinction ; there are always exceptions. These meetings should be an integral part of the Church institution. They should be short, cheerful, largely, colloquial, and familiar. The child should know that its name is on the catechumen's record, that it is already planted in the nursery of the Church, that it has a connection with the Church, and is the subject of Church approval or censure. But names should not be stricken from this list of " beginners" hastily. The penalty of delinquency should not be excision, but a prolongation of the period of trial. It is not a period for severe Church requisition. Delinquencies here do not affect the Church vitally, as in the adult membership. This stage of the catechumens — we call it by this name for want of a better just now — might be made to include the present six months of probation in the Methodist Episcopal Church, or it might be anterior to it. Children and youth might be taken directly from the catechumen's list into full membership, upon the recommendation of the leader with whom they 406 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. had met at least six months in class; or the Church provision might require them to be transplanted first into the probationer's list, and then into full mem- bership. The simpler method, however, and one that would equally answer the end and spirit of the pres- ent probationary rule, would be to transfer them direct from the catechumen's list to full membership in the Church. The discretion of the Church would always be a sufficient guard against imprudent or hasty transfers. The danger lies not on the side of premature transfers, but on the side of unreasonable and untimely delays. 7. A worthy and faithful pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church told me recently that he had been so impressed that the children should be brought under more thorough Church supervision, that he appointed an evening of the week to meet them for prayer, conversation, and the recital of religious ex- perience. He took their names in a book and ex- plained to them that it was not receiving them into the Church, but only to keep account of their attend- ance, and to enable him better to look after them, adding that they might join on trial in the Church if they proved themselves worthy. These children he met for eight months. His usual method with them was to ask them questions, to indulge in conversation, to call on them to recite their personal religious exer- cises and experience, and to devote a portion of the time to prayer. The meetings grew in interest, and the children grew in knowledge and in grace. They DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 407 improved also in their habits of devotion, and their ability to speak of Divine things. At length the time came for bringing them forward and presenting them for membership on trial in the Church. Twenty were thus presented, of ages varying from ten to eighteen years, and at an average age about thirteen years. They had been gathered in solely as the fruit of that special evening of prayer and labor. Their reception into a higher Church relation was an event of great interest to the Church, accompanied with special power upon the hearts of the people. Many w r ept w T ho were not accustomed to weep. The Lord's Supper was administered, and the Church was re- freshed as with a revival, through the silent, patient working of this simple instrumentality. Here is the hope of the Church. The children must be early turned to the sanctuary by efforts suited to their age and capacity, and persevered in till they reach ma- turity. A young student for the ministry of another denomination, who, by courtesy, attended a class meeting of the pastor above referred to, at which a large proportion of these children were present, was greatly affected with the rehearsal of their experiences, and the perfect adaptation of the class meeting to the wants of the young, and remarked afterward that he had covenanted with God while sitting and hearing, that when he should become settled over a congrega- tion he would adopt that method of training the children. 8. It must not be forgotten that devotional exer- 408 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. cises are distinct from doctrinal teaching, and the child needs help and direction in the one as much as in the other. The early Christian Church made the department of worship a distinct branch of the train- ing and culture of the catechumens. Our Sunday schools can never supply the want of children in this respect. The child must learn to pray and express its religious states in social meetings by actual exercise. The forms and proprieties of worship are learned, and become familiar by simple instructions and by practice. The spirit and morals of Christianity are more clearly brought before the mind in the place and exercise of worship, mingled as it should be with familiar questions and instructions. In order to this children must be by themselves, with one in whom they confide, whom they love, and to whom they can freely commit the secret and sacred exercises of then- hearts. 0, if pastors, and parents, and Churches knew their power, and opportunity, and duty here, they would enter at once this most fertile field of prepared soil, and, with a diligence that knows no rest, " in the morning sow their seed and in the even- ing withhold not their hand." The Sabbath school has its legitimate sphere. Nothing can supersede it, nothing can compensate the want of it. But it can not, from the nature of the case, supply all the higher wants of the child's mind. The time allotted for the weekly exercises, the number and miscella- neous character of those present, the variety and rapid succession of the duties, all go to preclude the DUTY OF THE CHURCII. 409 possibility of meeting all the wants of the child. The faithful teacher may find much opportunity of personal conversation, but it is in brief moments, in the midst of other duties. The element of Bible in- struction must continue to be the staple of our Sun- day schools. The element of devotion can be but imperfectly introduced, while the opportunity of per- sonal culture in spiritual and experimental religion must occupy but a secondary place. Between the Sunday school and the Church there is still wanting a provision, a medial institution, which -shall combine in itself the moral culture of the Sunday schools and the devotional and experimental characteristics of the Church, and by blending the two, secure the culmina- ting fruits of the one, and prepare for the sublime enjoyments and relations of the other. 9. The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church has not, indeed, prescribed this specific form of service for the children, but it has clearly lodged with the preacher the power and prerogative of ap- pointing it. One of the questions put to the preacher as conditional of his reception into the pastoral min- istry is, "Will you diligently instruct the children in every place?" And one of the rules laid down for the pastor is, "To publicly catechise the children in the Sunday school, and at special meetings appointed for that purpose;" and it is made his duty, in his quarterly report, "to state to what extent he has publicly or privately catechised the children of his charge." It is also made the duty of pastors " to 35 410 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. preach to the children," and to "enforce faithfully upon parents and Sunday school teachers the great importance of instructing children in the doctrines and duties of our holy religion." The whole tenor of the Methodist Discipline on this subject goes to show the earnest care of the Church, and that she has aimed to lay before her pastors and members the full outline of their duty, and to lodge with the pastor the power to do all that is requisite to the godly teaching and edification of the children. Yet it appears obvious that the Church has not consid- ered the importance of a distinct provision for the children, separate from the ordinary existing Church means of grace, such as the institution of a prayer and class meeting, wherein the children can be met apart, and where the object is personal culture in worship and religious experience. This, however, the pastor has power to appoint at discretion, and the only advantage of a Church rule in the case would be to make the practice uniform and universal. Preaching to children is specifically required, and though widely practiced is not universal, and is not sufficiently frequent. "When shall we learn that the hope of the Church is in the children, and that to this most remunerative field our unsparing toil should be given. In turning our attention to the children we do not neglect the adults. In feeding the lambs we shall feed the sheep also, and in taking them in our arms to the Savior we shall most effectually draw the parent thither, and subdue the pride and obstinacy DUTY OF THE CnURCII. 411 of the old offender. "A little child shall lead them." Many a revival, which has caused the stout-hearted to how before the power of the Spirit like the waving harvest before the strong wind, has originated in the Sunday school, and through the instrumentality of converted children. But with more tillage and cul- ture the soil that now yields "thirty-fold" would yield " some sixty and some an hundred-fold." The age is marked by no omen more hopeful than that of its devotion to the religious wants and nurture of childhood; and the Church will have no weightier item in her last account than this of her care for the children. And in that great day when the Lord and Shepherd of souls shall ask, " Where is the flock that was given thee, the beautiful flock?" may each parent, and each teacher in the great army of Sunday schools, and each pastor of the Lord's flock respond, "Behold, I and the children the Lord hath given me!" Mi Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township. PA J6066 (724)779-2111 ^ -