7. Train them to habits of diligence and regularity about public means of grace
Tell them of the duty and privilege of going to the house of God and joining in the prayers of the congregation. Tell them that wherever the Lord’s people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in an especial manner, and that those who absent themselves must expect, like the Apostle Thomas, to miss a blessing. Tell them of the importance of hearing the Word preached, and that it is God’s ordinance for converting, sanctifying and building up the souls of men. Tell them how the Apostle Paul enjoins us not “to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Heb 10:25), but to exhort one another, to stir one another up to it, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
I call it a sad sight in a church when nobody comes up to the Lord’s table but the elderly people, and the young men and the young women all turn away. But I call it a sadder sight still when no children are to be seen in a church, excepting those who come to the Sunday School and who are obliged to attend. Let none of this guilt lie at your doors. There are many boys and girls in every parish, besides those who come to school, and you who are their parents and friends should see to it that they come with you to church.
Do not allow them to grow up with a habit of making vain excuses for not coming. Give them plainly to understand that so long as they are under your roof, it is the rule of your house for everyone in health to honour the Lord’s house upon the Lord’s day, and that you reckon the Sabbath-breaker to be a murderer of his own soul.
See to it, too, if it can be so arranged, that your children go with you to church and sit near you when they are there. To go to church is one thing, but to behave well at church is quite another. And believe me, there is no security for good behaviour like that of having them under your own eye.
The minds of young people are easily drawn aside, and their attention lost. Every possible means should be used to counteract this. I do not like to see them coming to church by themselves; they often get into bad company by the way, and so learn more evil on the Lord’s day than in all the rest of the week. Neither do I like to see what I call ‘a young people’s corner’ in a church. They often catch habits of inattention and irreverence there which it takes years to unlearn, if ever they are unlearned at all. What I like to see is a whole family sitting together, old and young, side by side—men, women, and children, serving God according to their households.
But there are some who say that it is useless to urge children to attend means of grace, because they cannot understand them.
I would not have you listen to such reasoning. I find no such doctrine in the Old Testament. When Moses goes before Pharaoh (Exod 10:9), I observe he says, “We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters: for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.” When Joshua read the law (Josh 8:35), I observe, “There was not a word which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.” “Thrice in the year,” says Exodus 34:23, “shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel”. And when I turn to the New Testament, I find children mentioned there as partaking in public acts of religion as well as in the Old. When Paul was leaving the disciples at Tyre for the last time, I find it said (Acts 21:5), “They all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed.”
Samuel, in the days of his childhood, appears to have ministered unto the Lord some time before he really knew Him: “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him” (1 Sam 3:7). The apostles themselves do not seem to have understood all that our Lord said at the time that it was spoken: “These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him” (John 12:16).
Parents, comfort your minds with these examples. Be not cast down because your children see not the full value of the means of grace now. Only train them up to a habit of regular attendance. Set it before their minds as a high, holy, and solemn duty and, believe me, the day will very likely come when they will bless you for your deed.
8. Train them to a habit of faith
I mean by this you should train them up to believe what you say. You should try to make them feel confidence in your judgement, and respect your opinions as better than their own. You should accustom them to think that, when you say a thing is bad for them, it must be bad, and when you say it is good for them, it must be good—that your knowledge, in short, is better than their own, and that they may rely implicitly on your word. Teach them to feel that what they know not now, they will probably know hereafter, and to be satisfied there is a reason and a needs-be for everything you require them to do.
Who indeed can describe the blessedness of a real spirit of faith? Or rather, who can tell the misery that unbelief has brought upon the world? Unbelief made Eve eat the forbidden fruit: she doubted the truth of God’s word: “Ye shall surely die”. Unbelief made the old world reject Noah’s warning and so perish in sin. Unbelief kept Israel in the wilderness: it was the bar that kept them from entering the promised land. Unbelief made the Jews crucify the Lord of glory: they believed not the voice of Moses and the prophets, though read to them every day. And unbelief is the reigning sin of man’s heart down to this very hour—unbelief in God’s promises—unbelief in God’s threatenings—unbelief in our own sinfulness—unbelief in our own danger—unbelief in everything that runs counter to the pride and worldliness of our evil hearts. Reader, you train your children to little purpose if you do not train them to a habit of implicit faith—faith in their parents’ word, confidence that what their parents say must be right.
I have heard it said by some that you should require nothing of children which they cannot understand—that you should explain and give a reason for everything you desire them to do. I warn you solemnly against such a notion. I tell you plainly I think it an unsound and rotten principle. No doubt it is absurd to make a mystery of everything you do, and there are many things which it is well to explain to children in order that they may see that they are reasonable and wise. But to bring them up with the idea that they must take nothing on trust—that they, with their weak and imperfect understandings, must have the ‘why’ and the ‘wherefore’ made clear to them at every step they take—this is indeed a fearful mistake and likely to have the worst effect on their minds.
Reason with your child if you are so disposed, at certain times, but never forget to keep him in mind (if you really love him) that he is but a child after all—that he thinks as a child, he understands as a child, and therefore must not expect to know the reason of everything at once.
Set before him the example of Isaac in the day when Abraham took him to offer him on Mount Moriah (Gen 22). He asked his father that single question: “Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?” and he got no answer but this: “God will provide Himself a lamb.” How, or where, or whence, or in what manner, or by what means—all this Isaac was not told, but the answer was enough. He believed that it would be well because his father said so, and he was content. Tell your children, too, that we must all be learners in our beginnings—that there is an alphabet to be mastered in every kind of knowledge—that the best horse in the world had need once to be broken—that a day will come when they will see the wisdom of all your training. But in the meantime, if you say a thing is right, it must be enough for them; they must believe you and be content.
Parents, if any point in training is important, it is this. I charge you by the affection you have to your children, use every means to train them up to a habit of faith.
9. Train them to a habit of obedience
This is an object which it is worth any labour to attain. No habit, I suspect, has such an influence over our lives as this. Parents, determine to make your children obey you, though it may cost you much trouble and cost them many tears. Let there be no questioning, reasoning, disputing, delaying and answering again. When you give them a command, let them see plainly that you will have it done.
Obedience is the only reality. It is faith visible, faith acting and faith incarnate. It is the test of real discipleship among the Lord’s people. “Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14). It ought to be the mark of well- trained children—that they do whatsoever their parents command them. Where, indeed, is the honour which the fifth commandment enjoins if fathers and mothers are not obeyed cheerfully, willingly, and at once?
Early obedience has all Scripture on its side. It is in Abraham’s praise, not merely he will train his family, but “he will command his children, and his household after him” (Gen 18:19). It is said of the Lord Jesus Christ himself that when “He was young He was subject to Mary and Joseph” (Luke 2:51).
Observe how implicitly Joseph obeyed the order of his father Jacob (Gen 37:13). See how Isaiah speaks of it as an evil thing when “the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient” (Isa 3:5). Mark how the Apostle Paul names disobedience to parents as one of the bad signs of the latter days (2 Tim 3:2). Mark how he singles out this grace of requiring obedience as one that should adorn a Christian minister: “a bishop must be one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity”. And again, “Let the deacons rule their children and their own houses well” (1 Tim 3:4,12). And again, an elder must be one “having faithful children, children not accused of riot, or unruly” (Titus 1:6).
Parents, do you wish to see your children happy? Take care, then, that you train them to obey when they are spoken to—to do as they are bid. Believe me, we are not made for entire independence; we are not fit for it. Even Christ’s freemen have a yoke to wear: they “serve the Lord Christ” (Col 3:24). Children cannot learn too soon that this is a world in which we are not all intended to rule, and that we are never in our right place until we know how to obey our betters. Teach them to obey while young, or else they will be fretting against God all their lives long, and will wear themselves out with the vain idea of being independent of his control.
Reader, this hint is only too much needed. You will see many in this day who allow their children to choose and think for themselves long before they are able, and even make excuses for their disobedience, as if it were a thing not to be blamed. To my eyes, a parent always yielding and a child always having its own way are a most painful sight—painful, because I see God’s appointed order of things inverted and turned upside down—painful, because I feel sure the consequence to that child’s character in the end will be self-will, pride and self-conceit. You must not wonder that men refuse to obey their Father which is in heaven if you allow them, when children, to disobey their father who is upon earth.
Parents, if you love your children, let obedience be a motto and a watchword continually before their eyes.
10. Train them to a habit of always speaking the truth
Truth-speaking is far less common in the world than at first sight we are disposed to think. The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is a golden rule which many would do well to bear in mind. Lying and prevarication are old sins. The devil was the father of them: he deceived Eve by a bold lie, and ever since the fall, it is a sin against which all the children of Eve have need to be on their guard.
Only think how much falsehood and deceit there is in the world! How much exaggeration! How many additions are made to a simple story! How many things left out, if it does not serve the speaker’s interest to tell them! How few there are about us of whom we can say, we put unhesitating trust in their word! Verily the ancient Persians were wise in their generation: it was a leading point with them in educating their children that they should learn to speak the truth. What an awful proof it is of man’s natural sinfulness that it should be needful to name such a point at all!
Reader, I would have you remark how often God is spoken of in the Old Testament as the God of truth. Truth seems to be especially set before us as a leading feature in the character of him with whom we have to do. He never swerves from the straight line. He abhors lying and hypocrisy. Try to keep this continually before your children’s minds. Press upon them at all times that less than the truth is a lie; that evasion, excuse-making and exaggeration are all halfway houses towards what is false, and ought to be avoided. Encourage them in any circumstances to be straightforward and, whatever it may cost them, to speak the truth.
I press this subject on your attention not merely for the sake of your children’s character in the world (though I might dwell much on this). I urge it rather for your own comfort and assistance in all your dealings with them. You will find it a mighty help indeed to be able always to trust their word. It will go far to prevent that habit of concealment which so unhappily prevails sometimes among children. Openness and straightforwardness depend much upon a parent’s treatment of this matter in the days of our infancy.
11. Train them to a habit of always redeeming the time
Idleness is the devil’s best friend. It is the surest way to give him an opportunity of doing us harm. An idle mind is like an open door, and if Satan does not enter in himself by it, it is certain he will throw in something to raise bad thoughts in our souls.
No created being was ever meant to be idle. Service and work is the appointed portion of every creature of God. The angels in heaven work; they are the Lord’s ministering servants, ever doing his will. Adam, in Paradise, had work: he was appointed to dress the garden of Eden and to keep it. The redeemed saints in glory will have work: “They rest not day and night singing praise and glory to Him who bought them.” And man*—weak, sinful man—must have something to do, or else his soul will soon get into an unhealthy state. We must have our hands filled and our minds occupied with something, or else our imaginations will soon ferment and breed mischief.
And what is true of us is true of our children too. Alas, indeed, for the man that has nothing to do! The Jews thought idleness a positive sin: it was a law of theirs that every man should bring up his son to some useful trade, and they were right. They knew the heart of man better than some of us appear to do.
Idleness made Sodom what she was: “This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her” (Ezek 16:49). Idleness had much to do with David’s awful sin with the wife of Uriah. I see in 2 Samuel 11 that Joab went out to war against Ammon, “but David tarried still at Jerusalem.” Was not that idle? And then it was that he saw Bathsheba—and the next step we read of is his tremendous and miserable fall.
Verily, I believe that idleness has led to more sin than almost any other habit that could be named. I suspect it is the mother of many a work of the flesh—the mother of adultery, fornication, drunkenness, and many other deeds of darkness that I have not time to name. Let your own conscience say whether I do not speak the truth. You were idle, and at once the devil knocked at the door and came in.
And indeed I do not wonder, everything in the world around us seems to teach the same lesson. It is the still water which becomes stagnant and impure; the running, moving streams are always clear. If you have steam machinery, you must work it, or it soon gets out of order. If you have a horse, you must exercise him; he is never so well as when he has regular work. If you would have good bodily health yourself, you must take exercise. If you always sit still, your body is sure at length to complain. And just so is it with the soul. The active moving mind is a hard mark for the devil to shoot at. Try to be always full of useful employment, and thus your enemy will find it difficult to get room to sow tares. Reader, I ask you to set these things before the minds of your children. Teach them the value of time, and try to make them learn the habit of using it well. It pains me to see children idling over what they have in hand, whatever it may be. I love to see them active and industrious, and giving their whole heart to all they do—giving their whole heart to lessons, when they have to learn—giving their whole heart even to their amusements, when they go to play.
But if you love them well, let idleness be counted a sin in your family.
12. Train them with a constant fear of over-indulgence
This is the one point of all on which you have most need to be on your guard. It is natural to be tender and affectionate towards your own flesh and blood, and it is the excess of this very tenderness and affection which you have to fear. Take heed that it does not make you blind to your children’s faults and deaf to all advice about them. Take heed lest it make you overlook bad conduct, rather than have the pain of inflicting punishment and correction.
I know well that punishment and correction are disagreeable things. Nothing is more unpleasant than giving pain to those we love, and calling forth their tears. But so long as hearts are what hearts are, it is vain to suppose, as a general rule, that children can ever be brought up without correction.
Spoiling is a very expressive word and, sadly, full of meaning. Now it is the shortest way to spoil children to let them have their own way—to allow them to do wrong and not to punish them for it. Believe me, you must not do it, whatever pain it may cost you, unless you wish to ruin your children’s souls.
You cannot say that Scripture does not speak expressly on this subject: “He that spareth his rod, hateth his son; but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes” (Prov 13:24). “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying” (Prov 19:18). “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child: but the rod of correction shall drive it from him” (Prov 22:15). “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 deliver his soul from hell” (Prov 23:13, 14). “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest, yea, he shall give delight to thy soul” (Prov 29:15, 17).
How strong and forcible are these texts! How melancholy is the fact that in many Christian families, they seem almost unknown! Their children need reproof, but it is hardly ever given; they need correction, but it is hardly ever employed. And yet this Book of Proverbs is not obsolete and unfit for Christians. It is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable. It is given for our learning, even as the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians. Surely the believer who brings up his children without attention to its counsel is making himself wise above that which is written, and greatly errs.
Fathers and mothers, I tell you plainly, if you never punish your children when they are in fault, you are doing them a grievous wrong. I warn you this is the rock on which the saints of God, in every age, have only too frequently made shipwreck. I would fain persuade you to be wise in time and to keep clear of it. See it in Eli’s case. His sons Hophni and Phinehas “made themselves vile, and he restrained them not”. He gave them no more than a tame and lukewarm reproof when he ought to have rebuked them sharply. In one word, he honoured his sons above God. And what was the end of these things? He lived to hear of the death of both his sons in battle, and his own grey hairs were brought down with sorrow to the grave (1 Sam 2:22-29, 3:13).
See, too, the case of David. Who can read without pain the history of his children, and their sins? Amnon’s incest—Absalom’s murder and proud rebellion—Adonijah’s scheming ambition: truly these were grievous wounds for the man after God’s own heart to receive from his own house. But was there no fault on his side? I fear there can be no doubt there was. I find a clue to it all in the account of Adonijah in 1 Kings 1:6: “His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?” There was the foundation of all the mischief. David was an over-indulgent father—a father who let his children have their own way—and he reaped according as he had sown.
Parents, I beseech you, for your children’s sake, beware of over-indulgence. I call on you to remember that it is your first duty to consult their real interests, and not their fancies and likings;—to train them, not to humour them—to profit, not merely to please.
You must not give way to every wish and caprice of your child’s mind, however much you may love him. You must not let him suppose his will is to be everything, and that he has only to desire a thing and it will be done. Do not, I pray you, make your children idols, lest God should take them away and break your idol, just to convince you of your folly.
Learn to say ‘No’ to your children. Show them that you are able to refuse whatever you think is not fit for them. Show them that you are ready to punish disobedience, and that when you speak of punishment, you are not only ready to threaten, but also to perform. Do not threaten too much.4 Threatened folks and threatened faults live long. Punish seldom, but really and in good earnest; frequent and slight punishment is a wretched system indeed.5
Beware of letting small faults pass unnoticed under the idea ‘it is a little one’. There are no little things in training children; all are important. Little weeds need plucking up as much as any. Leave them alone and they will soon be great. Reader, if there be any point which deserves your attention, believe me, it is this one. It is one that will give you trouble, I know. But if you do not take trouble with your children when they are young, they will give you trouble when they are old. Choose which you prefer.
13. Train them remembering continually how God trains his children
The Bible tells us that God has an elect people—a family in this world. All poor sinners who have been convinced of sin and who have fled to Jesus for peace make up that family. All of us who really believe on Christ for salvation are its members. Now God the Father is ever training the members of this family for their everlasting abode with him in heaven. He acts as a husbandman pruning his vines—that they may bear more fruit. He knows the character of each of us—our besetting sins—our weaknesses—our peculiar infirmities—our special wants. He knows our works and where we dwell, who are our companions in life, and what are our trials, what our temptations, and what are our privileges. He knows all these things, and is ever ordering all for our good. He allots to each of us, in his providence, the very things we need in order to bear the most fruit—as much of sunshine as we can stand, and as much of rain—as much of bitter things as we can bear, and as much of sweet. Reader, if you would train your children wisely, mark well how God the Father trains his. He doeth all things well; the plan which he adopts must be right.
See, then, how many things there are which God withholds from his children. Few could be found, I suspect, among them who have not had desires which he has never been pleased to fulfil. There has often been some one thing they wanted to attain, and yet there has always been some barrier to prevent attainment. It has been just as if God was placing it above our reach and saying, “This is not good for you; this must not be”. Moses desired exceedingly to cross over Jordan and see the goodly land of promise, but you will remember his desire was never granted.
See, too, how often God leads his people by ways which seem dark and mysterious to our eyes. We cannot see the meaning of all his dealings with us; we cannot see the reasonableness of the path in which our feet are treading. Sometimes so many trials have assailed us—so many difficulties encompassed us—that we have not been able to discover the needs-be of it all. It has been just as if our Father was taking us by the hand into a dark place and saying, “Ask no questions, but follow Me”. There was a direct road from Egypt to Canaan, yet Israel was not led into it but round, through the wilderness. And this seemed hard at the time. “The soul of the people,” we are told, “was much discouraged because of the way” (Exod 13:17; Num 21:4).
See, also, how often God chastens his people with trial and affliction. He sends them crosses and disappointments; he lays them low with sickness; he strips them of property and friends; he changes them from one position to another; he visits them with things most hard to flesh and blood; and some of us have well-nigh fainted under the burdens laid upon us. We have felt pressed beyond strength, and have been almost ready to murmur at the hand which chastened us. Paul the Apostle had a thorn in the flesh appointed him—some bitter bodily trial, no doubt—though we know not exactly what it was. But this we know: he besought the Lord thrice that it might be removed, yet it was not taken away (2 Cor 12:8, 9).
Now, reader, notwithstanding all these things, did you ever hear of a single child of God who thought his Father did not treat him wisely? No, I am sure you never did. God’s children would always tell you that, in the long run, it was a blessed thing they did not have their own way, and that God had done far better for them than they could have done for themselves. Yes! And they could tell you, too, that God’s dealings had provided more happiness for them than they ever would have obtained themselves, and that his way, however dark at times, was the way of pleasantness and the path of peace.
I ask you to lay to heart the lesson which God’s dealings with his people is meant to teach you. Fear not to withhold from your child anything you think will do him harm, whatever his own wishes may be. This is God’s plan. Hesitate not to lay on him commands, of which he may not at present see the wisdom, and to guide him in ways which may not now seem reasonable to his mind. This is God’s plan.
Shrink not from chastising and correcting him whenever you see his soul’s health requires it, however painful it may be to your feelings, and remember medicines for the mind must not be rejected because they are bitter. This is God’s plan.
And be not afraid, above all, that such a plan of training will make your child unhappy. I warn you against this delusion. Depend on it, there is no surer road to unhappiness than always having our own way. To have our wills checked and denied is a blessed thing for us: it makes us value enjoyments when they come. To be indulged perpetually is the way to be made selfish, and selfish people and spoiled children, believe me, are seldom happy.
Reader, be not wiser than God: train your children as he trains his.
14. Train them remembering continually the influence of your own example
Instruction and advice and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel. Archbishop Tillotson made a wise remark when he said, “To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell”.
We little know the force and power of example. No one of us can live to himself in this world; we are always influencing those around us, in one way or another, either for good or for evil, either for God or for sin. They see our ways, they mark our conduct, they observe our behaviour, and what they see us practise that they may fairly suppose we think right. And never, I believe, does example tell so powerfully as it does in the case of parents and children.
Fathers and mothers, do not forget that children learn more by the eye than they do by the ear. No school will make such deep marks on character as home. The best of schoolmasters will not imprint on their minds as much as they will pick up at your fireside. Imitation is a far stronger principle with children than memory. What they see has a much stronger effect on their minds than what they are told.
Take care, then, what you do before a child. It is a true proverb that “Who sins before a child, sins double”. Strive rather to be a living epistle of Christ such as your families can read, and that plainly too. Be an example of reverence for the word of God, reverence in prayer, reverence for means of grace, reverence for the Lord’s day. Be an example in words, in temper, in diligence, in temperance, in faith, in charity, in kindness, in humility. Think not your children will practise what they do not see you do. You are their model picture, and they will copy what you are. Your reasoning and your lecturing, your wise commands and your good advice—all this they may not understand, but they can understand your life.
Children are very quick observers—very quick in seeing through some kinds of hypocrisy, very quick in finding out what you really think and feel, very quick in adopting all your ways and opinions. You will often find as the father is, so is the son.
Remember the word that the conqueror Caesar always used to his soldiers in a battle. He did not say “Go forward”, but “Come”. So it must be with you in training your children. They will seldom learn habits which they see you despise, or walk in paths in which you do not walk yourself. He that preaches to his children what he does not practise is working a work that never goes forward. It is like the fabled web of Penelope of old who wove all day and unwove all night. Even so, the parent who tries to train without setting a good example is building with one hand and pulling down with the other.
15. Train them. remembering continually the power of sin
I name this shortly in order to guard you against unscriptural expectations. You must not expect to find your children’s minds a sheet of pure white paper, and to have no trouble if you only use right means. I warn you plainly you will find no such thing. It is painful to see how much corruption and evil there is in a young child’s heart, and how soon it begins to bear fruit. Violent tempers, self-will, pride, envy, sullenness, passion, idleness, selfishness, deceit, cunning, falsehood, hypocrisy, a terrible aptness to learn what is bad, a painful slowness to learn what is good, a readiness to pretend anything in order to gain their own ends—all these things, or some of them, you must be prepared to see, even in your own flesh and blood. In little ways they will creep out at a very early age. It is almost startling to observe how naturally they seem to spring up. Children require no schooling to learn to sin.
But you must not be discouraged and cast down by what you see. You must not think it a strange and unusual thing that little hearts can be so full of sin. It is the only portion which our father Adam left us; it is that fallen nature with which we come into the world; it is that inheritance which belongs to us all. Let it, rather, make you more diligent in using every means which seem most likely, by God’s blessing, to counteract the mischief. Let it make you more and more careful, so far as in you lies, to keep your children out of the way of temptation.
Never listen to those who tell you your children are good and well brought up, and can be trusted. Think, rather, that their hearts are always inflammable as tinder. At their very best, they only want a spark to set their corruptions alight. Parents are seldom too cautious. Remember the natural depravity of your children, and take care.
16. Train them remembering continually the promises of Scripture
I name this also shortly in order to guard you against discouragement. You have a plain promise on your side: “Train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it” (Prov 22:6). Think what it is to have a promise like this. Promises were the only lamp of hope which cheered the hearts of the patriarchs before the Bible was written. Enoch, Noah, Abrahanm, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph—all lived on a few promises and prospered in their souls. Promises are the cordials which in every age have supported and strengthened the believer. He that has got a plain text upon his side need never be cast down. Fathers and mothers, when your hearts are failing and ready to halt, look at the word of this text and take comfort.
Think who it is that promises. It is not the word of a man, who may lie or repent; it is the word of the King of kings, who never changes. Hath he said a thing and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Neither is anything too hard for him to perform. The things that are impossible with men are possible with God. Reader, if we get not the benefit of the promise we are dwelling upon, the fault is not in him, but in ourselves.
Think, too, what the promise contains before you refuse to take comfort from it. It speaks of a certain time when good training shall especially bear fruit: “when a child is old”. Surely there is comfort in this. You may not see with your own eyes the result of careful training, but you know not what blessed fruits may not spring from it long after you are dead and gone. It is not God’s way to give everything at once. ‘Afterwards’ is the time when he often chooses to work, both in the things of nature and in the things of grace. ‘Afterward’ is the season when affliction bears the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Heb 12:11). ‘Afterward’ was the time when the son who refused to work in his father’s vineyard repented and went (Matt 21:29). And ‘afterward’ is the time to which parents must look forward if they see not success at once: you must sow in hope and plant in hope.
“Cast thy bread upon the waters,” saith the Spirit, “for thou shalt find it after many days” (Eccles 11:1). Many children, I doubt not, shall rise up in the day of judgement and bless their parents for good training, who never gave any signs of having profited by it during their parents’ lives. Go forward then in faith, and be sure that your labour shall not be altogether thrown away. Three times did Elijah stretch himself upon the widow’s child before it revived. Take example from him, and persevere.
17. Train them, lastly, with continual prayer for a blessing on all you do
Without the blessing of the Lord, your best endeavours will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in his hands, and except he touch the hearts of your children by his Spirit, you will weary yourself to no purpose. Water, therefore, the seed you sow on their minds with unceasing prayer. The Lord is far more willing to hear than we to pray—far more ready to give blessings than we to ask them—but he loves to be entreated for them. And I set this matter of prayer before you as the top-stone and seal of all you do. I suspect the child of many prayers is seldom cast away.
Look upon your children as Jacob did on his. He tells Esau they are “the children which God hath graciously given thy servant” (Gen 33:5). Look on them as Joseph did on his: he told his father, “They are the sons whom God hath given me” (Gen 48:9). Count them with the Psalmist to be “an heritage and reward from the Lord” (Ps 127:3). And then ask the Lord with a holy boldness to be gracious and merciful to his own gifts. Mark how Abraham intercedes for Ishmael because he loved him: “Oh that Ishmael might live before thee” (Gen 17:18). See how Manoah speaks to the angel about Samson: “How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?” (Judg 13:12). Observe how tenderly Job cared for his children’s souls: “He offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all, for he said, It may be my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually” (Job 1:5). Parents, if you love your children, go and do likewise. You cannot name their names before the mercy-seat too often.
And now, reader, in conclusion, let me once more press upon you the necessity and importance of using every single means in your power, if you would train children for heaven.
I know well that God is a sovereign God, and doeth all things according to the counsel of his own will. I know that Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, and Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, and that you do not always see godly parents having a godly seed. But I know also that God is a God who works by means, and sure am I, if you make light of such means as I have mentioned, your children are not likely to turn out well.
Fathers and mothers, you may take your children to be baptized and have them enrolled in the ranks of Christ’s church; you may get godly sponsors to answer for them, and help you by their prayers; you may send them to the best of schools, and give them Bibles and Prayer Books, and fill them with head knowledge; but if all this time there is no regular training at home, I tell you plainly, I fear it will go hard in the end with your children’s souls. Home is the place where habits are formed; home is the place where the foundations of character are laid; home gives the bias to our tastes and likings and opinions. See then, I pray you, that there be careful training at home. Happy indeed is the man who can say, as Bolton did upon his dying bed to his children, “I do believe not one of you will dare to meet me before the tribunal of Christ in an unregenerate state”.
Fathers and mothers, I charge you solemnly before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, take every pains to train your children in the way they should go. I charge you not merely for the sake of your children’s souls; I charge you for the sake of your own future comfort and peace. Truly, it is your interest so to do. Truly, your own happiness in great measure depends on it. Children have ever been the bow from which the sharpest arrows have pierced man’s heart.
Children have mixed the bitterest cups that man has ever had to drink. Children have caused the saddest tears that man has ever had to shed. Adam could tell you so; Jacob could tell you so; David could tell you so. There are no sorrows on earth like those which children have brought upon their parents. Oh! Take heed, lest your own neglect should lay up misery for you in your old age. Take heed, lest you weep under the ill-treatment of a thankless child in the days when your eye is dim and your natural force abated.
If ever you wish your children to be the restorers of your life and the nourishers of your old age—if you would have them blessings and not curses—joys and not sorrows—Judahs and not Reubens—Ruths and not Orpahs—if you would not, like Noah, be ashamed of their deeds, and, like Rebekah, be made weary of your life by them—if this be your wish, remember my advice betimes, train them while young in the right way.
And as for me, I will conclude by putting up my prayer to God for all who read this paper that you may all be taught of God to feel the value of your own souls. This is one reason why baptism is too often a mere form, and Christian training despised and disregarded. Too often parents feel not for themselves, and so they feel not for their children. They do not realize the tremendous difference between a state of nature and a state of grace, and therefore they are content to let them alone.
Now the Lord teach you all that sin is that abominable thing which God hateth. Then, I know you will mourn over the sins of your children, and strive to pluck them out as brands from the fire.
The Lord teach you all how precious Christ is, and what a mighty and complete work he hath done for our salvation. Then, I feel confident you will use every means to bring your children to Jesus that they may live through him. The Lord teach you all your need of the Holy Spirit to renew, sanctify and quicken your souls. Then, I feel sure you will urge your children to pray for him without ceasing, and never rest till he has come down into their hearts with power and made them new creatures.
The Lord grant this, and then I have a good hope that you will indeed train up your children well—train well for this life, and train well for the life to come; train well for earth, and train well for heaven; train them for God, for Christ, and for eternity.
Endnotes
4 Some parents and nurses have a way of saying, “Naughty child,” to a boy or girl on every slight occasion, and often without good cause. It is a very foolish habit. Words of blame should never be used without real reason.
5 As to the best way of punishing a child, no general rule can be laid down. The characters of children are so exceedingly different that what would be a severe punishment to one child would be no punishment at all to another. I only beg to enter my decided protest against the modern notion that no child ought ever to be whipped. Doubtless some parents use bodily correction far too much, and far too violently, but many others, I fear, use it far too little.
