Religious Education of Children 2
Back to John Angell James
I shall conclude by a few hints both to parents and ministers on the momentous subject of this paper.
To the parents I would say—
Cultivate, I repeat, your own personal religion to a higher degree of eminent and consistent piety. Without this you will have neither the disposition nor the power to do much in forming the pious character of your children.
Many of you must be sensible that you are in too lukewarm a state, and too inconsistent as professors of godliness, even to make the attempt to bring your children under the influence of true religion, much less to expect success, if you were even to make the attempt—and it is not improbable that some of you are acting upon the conviction that you will do more good by silence and by leaving them altogether to ministerial influence, the power of preaching, and the course of events. Alas! for both you and your children. But shall matters remain thus? Shall this year be added to the number in which you have thus lived? Awake from your slumber, which, if continued, will be the sleep of death, both for you and for them! "You should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12
Settle with yourselves the point fully and forever, that whatever advantages of general education you wish and intend to procure for, and bestow upon, your children, their religious character is the first object of your deepest solicitude, and shall be of your practical and persevering effort. Let there be no question, no hesitation, no wavering here. Here fix your center; here direct your aim; here concentrate your efforts, your energies, and your prayers.
Remember, their religious education is your business. Whatever aids you call in from ministers or teachers, you never must, you never can, you never should, delegate this work. God will hold you responsible for the religion of your children—so far as means go.
Begin religious education early. It is in general too long deferred. The natural corruption of the heart is allowed to acquire strength before it is resisted, and Satan is permitted to be beforehand. Begin with calling out the conscience—this may be done as soon as a child can speak. Conscience is the great faculty which in religious education is to be enlightened, invigorated, and made tender.
A child can soon be made to know and feel the distinction between right and wrong, and taught to be a law to himself. Inspire a reverence for yourself; be yourself, in a sense, to the child in the place of God as his representative, before he can understand who and what God is. Train even the little child to obedience, to surrender his will to a superior will. What else is practical religion, if we only substitute God for the parent?
Let piety be seen in you, as an ever-present and ever-regulating reality; no mere abstraction, or thing of times and places. Let it be a part of your whole character. Appear before your household as one habitually conscious of the presence of God, and walking with him.
Be exemplary in matters of truth, integrity, generosity. A religion without these will disgust your children. Let there be no little acts of equivocation, injustice, spite, or meanness. Acquire a nobleness of character. A very little child can understand all these matters.
Be good tempered; not passionate, stormy, impatient, severe, denunciatory. A bad-tempered Christian is a contradiction. You may give your children much scriptural knowledge, and load them with warnings and admonitions; but frequent fits of passion and stormy gusts of anger will drive it all out of their heads and hearts.
Avoid all censoriousness upon the failings of professing Christians, and all cynical criticism and cavils upon the sermons of ministers.
Bring round your children the best specimens of religious professors. I do not mean the most fashionable and worldly, for these are often the worst; but those whose piety is consistent and cheerful, whose manners are engaging, and with as much of polish as can be obtained.
Choose their schools with reference to religion as well as education; and if you can, send them where they will have the advantage of a lively, impressive ministry. It is a sad thing for a lively girl, or a sprightly boy, not perhaps ill-disposed towards religion, to find the Sabbath the dullest of all dull days, because they are obliged to hear the dullest of all dull preachers.
Without reducing religion to a matter of mere taste, and imagination, and poetry, combine as much of taste, and imagination, and poetry with it as shall accord with its own spiritual nature, and shall not interfere with the functions of the heart and conscience. I do not mean a mere susceptibility of impression from antiquity, and Gothic architecture, and gorgeous rites, and fine sculpture and painting, and all the other inventions of are for gratifying the senses and putting aside the truth that is to be received in faith; but I mean a perception of the sublime and the beautiful, especially as these are exhibited in Scripture compositions and truths; and an aptitude to see, admire, and relish the skillful, graceful, and elegant forms of nature, as designedly manifesting the glorious ideas of God; a taste for the real beauties of the finest sacred poetry; a conviction that in religion there is nothing low and groveling, intellectually considered—but all that is fair and noble; a thoughtful, imaginative, and pensive habit of piercing the veil of the material world, and conversing with invisible realities. This appertains, of course, to the elder children, and it is of no small importance to them.
I need scarcely remind Christian parents how much of earnest, believing, persevering prayer for the Holy Spirit is necessary, and how much of familiar, affectionate, judicious instruction, or how much of vigilance, expostulation, tender rebuke, and salutary restraint, must enter into their system of domestic religious education—all this is taken for granted.
Well then, parents, be this your purpose for the year on which you have just entered; your intelligent, solemn, and deliberate purpose. Begin afresh. Set out anew. Recollect what a solemn thing it is to be a parent, and what a weighty responsibility attaches to those who have the immortal souls of their children committed to their care!
Ministers, have we not something to repair for the future—in the neglects of the past? Have we been faithful pastors as regards the children of our church members? Have we fed the lambs? Have we, with the mild authority, and, at the same time, with the tenderness of a good shepherd, looked after the younglings of the flock? True, we are not to be the substitutes, but ought we not to be the helpers, of the parents? Has not the catechetical instruction of children fallen into general neglect? Why? Can we assign a solid reason? If we neglect it, are we not the only religious functionaries who do? Do the Roman Catholics neglect it?
Do the clergy of the Church of England neglect it? Can we wonder, I again ask, or ought we to complain, while we omit this obvious, this incumbent, this solemn duty—if our young people grow up without any attachment to us, or to true religion? We are the ministers of the whole congregation committed to our care, and the children are a part of it, and therefore a part of the objects of our legitimate attention. The parents will thank us for aiding them in their endeavors to bring up their children for God, and the children will gladly avail themselves of our instructions. What a field do we neglect to cultivate while we leave this virgin soil untilled. Let us then all begin the year with a renewed consecration of ourselves to the interests of the youth of our flock, and then all future years will yield us abundant evidence that this is one of the most effectual plans for the revival of religion in our churches!
Back to John Angell James