Address to the Children 2

II. I next lead you to consider MY own Jubilee. As the Jewish festival was celebrated every fiftieth year, it has become a custom to apply the word Jubilee to any event that occurs in a fiftieth year; hence, the fiftieth year of my ministry is my Jubilee. Yes, my dear children, it is very true, and I record it with gratitude to Almighty God, I have been fifty years a minister in this town. I preached my first sermon on the 8th of September, 1805.

Fifty years! What a large portion of my life! I dare say it seems to you, in looking forward to fifty years, a very long period. But to me, in looking back upon it, it seems a very short one. It seems but yesterday I came here, a young man, and now I am an old one, in my seventy first year. How justly have the sacred writers described the rapid flight of time, and the shortness of human life, by the most expressive figures; and how true and solemn is the language of Paul, "Time is short." Do improve your time well, for infancy has already, with some of you, grown into childhood; childhood, with others, is grown into youth; with others, youth will soon grow into manhood; and manhood soon sink into the decay of old age. Recollect, that what the youth is, whether good or bad--that the man is likely to be. I thank God that he saved me at the age of sixteen; and if you ever become a Christian, it will in all probability be while you are young.

Having lived in Birmingham, as a minister, for fifty years, I have spent 2,600 sabbaths, and must have preached, here and elsewhere, far on towards 10,000 sermons; and have reason to bless God for the help and success he has given me. What multitudes have been born and died, even of those that belong, or once did, to this congregation! How many of your parents I have buried, and have little doubt that many of them are gone to be with Christ, in that blessed world where there is no more death! Make it your determination to be followers of those, who, by faith and patience, inherit the promises. Seek, that when you die you may go and dwell with them in heaven. You are very happy with them on earth, how much more happy will you be with them in Paradise!

Many of you I have baptized, as well as your parents before you. Have you been baptized with the Spirit, and have you devoted yourselves to God? How many, by my ministry, have been truly converted unto God, and have become holy men and women, useful members of society, and ornaments of the church! During my pastorate the Lord has added to the church nearly two thousand members, a large portion of them have been transferred to the church in heaven, though the greater number still remain. Will not you, my dear children, desire to be one day numbered with God's people, and maintain the cause of Christ in this place when your parents are numbered with the dead?

To the children of the Sunday-school, I would say, Bless God for the privileges you so richly enjoy in this invaluable institution. It is only about seventy years ago, that Sunday-schools were established. Before that, the children of the laboring classes grew up for the most part in ignorance, neglect of the Sabbath, and all the vices to which sabbath-breaking too often leads. Yes, my children, it is an undoubted fact, that sabbath breaking is a sin itself, and does lead to many other sins. "Remember," therefore, "the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Attend the school constantly and punctually. And understand for what you are brought to school. It is not merely to learn to read, but to be taught true religion. And what is true religion? Repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and a holy life. Now this is true religion, and you are brought to a Sunday-school to be taught it.

Be very diligent and very anxious to learn. Mind what your kind teachers say to you. Is it not very good of them to give up their time to you? More than fifty years ago I was a Sunday-school teacher myself, and I very well remember that one of the boys in my class was killed. He was a godly boy. I had great comfort in him. You may be suddenly killed, and therefore I advise you to be always prepared for death, by being always found in the fear of God. A godly child is as fit to die in his daily occupation, as he is in the house of God. Take my word for it, good Sunday-school boys or girls, that is, boys or girls that are very constant, always in time, obedient to their teachers, anxious to grow in knowledge and religion, will be likely to do well for both worlds, this and the next. If you follow my advice, and should live to be fifty years old, you will then say, on your Jubilee day, "Blessed be God for sending me to a Sunday-school; it was there I learned to be a godly boy, and by God's grace I became a godly man."

What a different aspect does our Sunday-school present to what it did when I came? We then had no school-rooms, but taught the children in a house in Moor Street. I would think it probable that during my pastorate nearly 20,000 children have been in our schools. And where are they now? Many in eternity. Some, we hope, in heaven; others, we fear, in hell. Many of them are now members of this church and other churches. Many in various parts of the earth, and in all conditions of life. Shall I tell you what has ruined many of these in body, soul, and estate? Why, drunkenness. Dear children, do grow up with a dread, a horror, and a hatred of drunkenness; and in order to avoid this vice, do not touch intoxicating drink. Shun it as you would a poison. Boys and girls can do without ale, wine, or alcohol.

What changes I have witnessed in the circumstances of many! Some, by the blessing of God upon their industry, sobriety, and skill, have risen from poverty to wealth; while others by their own misconduct, have sunk from wealth to poverty. And I wish you to set out in life remembering that "Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come." true religion will be your best friend for this world, as well as your only one for that which is to come. It will keep you from bad companions, and all those vices which lead to poverty. For, as an old writer once said, it will cost more to keep one vice than two children.

What a change has been made in our place of worship! The chapel in which I first preached was small, cold, and comfortless; almost hidden from view by a high wall in front; and the lane in which it stood was narrow, dirty, and slummy. How different all this from the spacious chapel in which we now assemble, and the wide street by which we come to it!

And then, what changes have also taken place in our town during these fifty years! When I came there were only 80,000 inhabitants, and now there are 250,000. Nearly twenty new churches have been built, and perhaps more than thirty other places of worship. What improvement has there been in the private and public buildings! Since then, our noble Town Hall, Market Hall, King Edward's School, the Public Office, the Corn Market, the Dispensary, and the Queen's Hospital have all been erected, and Smithfield laid out. Our streets have been lined with stone pavements, instead of the sharp pebbles which formerly blistered our feet as we walked upon them, and our suburbs have been studded with elegant villas.

When I came, we had no railways, and consumed seventeen hours in going to London by coach, instead of three or four, now, in the steam carriage. We had no gas lights, but only oil lamps in the streets, which served little else than to make darkness visible, and candles in the shops and in our places of worship. There was of course no electric telegraph, no police, no water works. And then, my children, what changes in our manufactories! How we would have stared in disbelief, if any would then have told us that before we died they would make plated goods as well as convey information by lightning, as is the case now with the electro-plating and the electric telegraph! There were then very few steam engines, and manual labor was not so much lightened by machinery as it is now.

What wondrous alterations then have I seen in the fifty years I have spent here! And, my children, who but God can foretell or foresee what changes will take place in the next fifty years? Who can imagine what, if you should live to keep your Jubilee, you will witness? This town will then perhaps contain half a million inhabitants. And what still greater discoveries and inventions of the arts will have taken place. How we seem to wonder what those did who lived before us; and you will perhaps wonder as much how we got on without those things which you will then possess.

You belong to a wonderful country, and are born in a wonderful age, and you should, with true patriotism, love your country, and bless God that you have such a country. Progress, my children, in human affairs is the order of Providence. The world is always growing wiser, and I hope better; and it would be well for everyone of you to do something to leave the world better than you found it. You can, everyone of you, be in some way or other a benefactor to mankind. How anxious you should be to act well your part in all these movements! Do be thoughtful and note the changes that are always going on in the world. You are being trained for future usefulness in our juvenile missionary societies, and other organizations of the young. When I commenced my ministry, children were entirely overlooked. We never dreamt of such a thing as calling in the aid of children. No such honor was bestowed upon them then. This privilege, however, is now conferred upon you, and I hope you esteem and value it as such.

During my pastorate I have witnessed multitudes of children that have grown up to be their parents' comfort and joy; and others breaking their parents' heart by their misconduct, and bringing down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. To which of these classes do you belong?

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