CHILDHOOD AND HOLY SCRIPTURE
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Paul taught young Timothy the gospel himself. Timothy not only heard his doctrine—but saw his practice. We cannot force truth upon men—but we can make our own teaching clear and decided, and make our lives consistent therewith. Truth and holiness are the surest antidotes to error and unrighteousness.
The apostle said to Timothy, "Continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of—knowing of whomyou have learned them." He then dwelt upon another potent remedy which had been of great service to the young preacher—namely, the knowing of the Holy Scriptures from his earliest childhood. This was to young Timothy one of his best safeguards. His early training held him like an anchor, and saved him from the dreadful drift of the age. Happy young man, of whom the apostle could say, "From a child you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus!"
To be prepared for the coming conflict, we have only to preach the gospel, and to live the gospel; and also to take care that we teach the children the Word of the Lord. This last is specially to be attended to, for it is by the mouth of babes and sucklings, that God will still the enemy. It is idle to dream that human learning must be met by human learning, or that Satan must cast out Satan. No! Lift up the brazen serpent wherever the fiery serpents are biting the people, and men shall look to it and live. Bring the children out, and turn their little eyes towards the divinely ordained remedy! There is still life in a look—life as against the varied venoms of the serpent which are now poisoning the blood of men. There is no cure after all for midnight—but the rising sun. And no hope remains for a dark world—but the light of the Gospel.
Shine forth, O Sun of Righteousness—and mist, and cloud, and darkness must disappear. Keep to the apostolic plans, and rest assured of apostolic success. Preach Christ; preach the Word in season and out of season—and teach the children. One of God's chief methods for preserving His fields from tares, is to sow them early with wheat.
The work of God's grace in Timothy commenced with early instructions, "From a child you have known the Holy Scriptures." Note the time for instruction. The expression, "from a child," might be better understood it we read it, "from a very child;" or, as the Revised Version has it, "from a babe." It does not mean a well-grown child, or youth—but a child just rising out of infancy. From a very child, Timothy had known the sacred writings. This expression is, no doubt, used to show that we cannot begin too early to imbue the minds of our children with Scriptural knowledge.
Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. During the first months of a child's life—it learns more than we imagine. It soon learns the love of its mother, and its own dependence; and if the mother is wise—it learns the meaning of obedience, and the necessity of yielding its will to the parent's will. This may be the keynote of its whole future life. If it learns obedience and submission early—it will save a thousand tears from the child's eyes, and as many from the mother's heart! A special vantage-ground is lost—when even babyhood is left uncultured.
The Holy Scriptures may be learned by children as soon as they are capable of understanding anything. It is a very remarkable fact, which I have heard asserted by many teachers—that children will learn to read out of the Bible better than from any other book. I scarcely know why; it may, perhaps, be on account of the simplicity of the language; but I believe it is so. A Biblical fact will often be grasped when an incident of common history is forgotten. There is an adaptation in the Bible for human beings of all ages, and therefore it has a fitness for children. We make a mistake when we think that we must begin with something else—and lead up to the Scriptures.
The Bible is the book for the peep of day. Parts of it are above a child's mind, for they are above the comprehension of the most advanced among us. There are depths in it wherein leviathan may swim; but there are also brooks in which a lamb may wade. Wise teachers know how to lead their little ones into the green pastures beside the still waters.
I was noticing, in the life of that man of God whose loss presses very heavily upon many of our hearts—namely, the Earl of Shaftesbury, that his first religious impressions were produced by a humble woman. The impressions which made him"Shaftesbury, the man of God, and the friend of man" were received in the nursery. He had a godly nurse who spoke to him of the things of God. He tells us that she died before he was seven years of age; clear proof that early in life his heart had been able to receive the seal of the Spirit of God, and to receive it by humble instrumentality. Blessed among women was she whose name we know not—but who wrought incalculable service for God and man by her holy teaching of the chosen child. Young mothers, note this.
Give us the first seven years of a child, with God's grace—and we may defy the world, the flesh, and the devil to ruin that immortal soul. Those first years, while yet the clay is soft and plastic, go far to decide the form of the vessel. Do not say that your office, you who teach the young—is in the least degree inferior to ours, whose main business is with older folks. No, you have the first of the children, and your impressions, as they come first, will endure last! Oh, that they may be godly, and only godly!
Among the thoughts that come to an old man before he enters Heaven, the most plentiful are those that aforetime visited him when he sat upon his mother's knee. That which made Dr. Guthrie ask for a child's hymn when he was dying—is but an instinct of our nature, which leads us to complete the circle by folding together the ends of life. Childlike things are dearest to old age. The old songs are on our lips, and the old thoughts are in our minds. The teachings of our childhood leave clean-cut and sharp impressions upon the mind, which remain after seventy years have passed. Let us see that such early impressions are made for the highest ends.
It is well to note the admirable selection of instructors. We are not at a loss to tell who instructed youthful Timothy. In the first chapter of this epistle Paul says, "When I call to remembrance the sincere faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in you also." No doubt grandmother Lois and mother Eunice united in teaching the little one. Who should teach the children—but the parents? Timothy's father was a Greek, and probably a heathen—but his child was happy in having a venerable grandmother, so often the dearest of all relatives to a little child. He had also a gracious mother, once a devout Jewess—and afterwards also a firmly believing Christian, who made it her daily pleasure to teach her own dear child the Word of the Lord.
O dear mothers, you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God! He has in effect said to you, "Take this child and nurse it for Me, and I will give you your wages!" You are called to equip the future man of God, that he may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. If God spares you, you may live to hear that pretty boy speak the gospel to thousands, and you will have the sweet reflection in your heart that the quiet teachings of the nursery led the man to love God and serve Him.
Those who think that a mother detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely may the godly mother be able to leave her home for a place of worship; but do not dream that she is lost to the work of the church; far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord! Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple!
Parents! Your children are as surely as grown-up people, "dead in trespasses and sins!" May no parent fail fully to realize the spiritual state in which all human beings are naturally found. Unless you have a very clear sense of the utter ruin and spiritual death of your children, you will be incapable of being made a blessing to them. Go to them, I beg you, not as to 'sleepers' whom you can by your own power awaken from their slumber—but as to 'spiritual corpses' who can only be quickened by a divine power!
If you think that your child is 'not really depraved', if you indulge foolish notions about the 'innocence of childhood', it should not surprise you if you remain barren and unfruitful.
If you would bring spiritual life to your child—you must most vividly realize that child's state. It is dead, dead! God will have you feel that your child is dead in trespasses and sins—as you once were. God would have you come into contact with that death by painful, crushing, humbling sympathy. If you would raise your dead child to spiritual life—you must feel the chill and horror of your child's death yourself. You must have, more or less, a distinct sense of the dreadful wrath of God, and of the terrors of the judgment to come. Depend upon it, when the spiritual death of your children alarms and overwhelms you—then it is that God is about to bless you!
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