sanctify them for earth. He is as deeply interested in the saving operations of His grace in the heart of a child, we firmly believe, as He is in the heart of an adult. We should, therefore, use all the means in our power, that our children may be the dwellings of the Holy Ghost. Let them be given to God and His Church in holy baptism, with a firm faith in the presence of His renewing and saving grace, and by prayer and Christian instruction, and holy living, foster and cultivate the " germ of a new life, implanted in the soul of the child," signed and sealed in holy baptism. Hence, our children should always be in Christ. It is sad for any to know of a period, when they were not in Him. They should be as ignorant of their spiritual birth and childhood, as they are of their natural. A child is a human being long before it is conscious of the fact; so we should be Christians, before we are conscious of this great and precious truth. When we learn to know what Christianity is, we should learn it from the elements and attributes of the Christian in ourselves, just as we learn from the constitution of our own being that we are human. 66 'But," do you ask, "must not our children be converted?" Certainly. But what is conversion? It is a turning from sin to holiness; and in its higher development, it is a "mortifying of the old man, and a quickening of the new. Conversion is an essential element in man's new and spiritual life in Christ. If the corrupt nature of the little child be brought, standing in holy covenant with God, under the law of grace, and if it show, with its opening self-consciousness, the evidences of a Christian character, there will be found also, the elements of conversion. Just as the plant in the cellar, in obedience to the law of its life, turns away from the darkness toward the light gleaming upon it from some open window, so the child instinctively, under the hallowing presence of God's grace, turns away from sin to holiness. And if that child with its successive years, loves God and His service, growing better as it grows older, we very properly say, that child is converted-its face is set heavenward-it is in the way of life. If God in His mercy, imparted to it His grace, already in unconscious childhood, and signed and sealed it as His, in sacramental covenant, and put it already then in the right way, why all the better. God sanctified from the womb, John the forerunner of Jesus, and why will he not also sanctify His followers in the right use of His divinely appointed means of grace? Does not the very first question in our excellent, I might say incomparable, catechism, go upon the assumption, that our children, consecrated to God in holy baptism, and trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, are personally interested in the redemption by Christ? Q. What is thy only comfort in life and in death? A. That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ, who, with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil." This comfort is ours in childhood, as well as in riper years-in old age, in life and in death. God's covenant children are His in a real and living way, all the time they are in the covenant. They do not only have the external sign and seal of the invisible and saving grace, but the grace itself, or there would be nothing to seal. "But," it may be asked, "do all baptized children attest in their future life by a development of Christian character, the presence of that covenant grace for which we are contending?" Many certainly do not. The divinely appointed conditions for spiritual growth may be wanting, such as careful Christian nurture in the family and in the Church. Many baptized children grow up in an entirely worldly atmosphere, with scarcely one favorable influence to foster the growth and development of that principle or germ of a new life in Christ-God's gracious gift to His covenant children. Or, our youth themselves may despise their sacred birth-right, and thus make of none effect the grace of God. Thousands professing Christ in adult age, who may seem to run well for a season, dishonor the cause they espoused, by inattention to its sacred claims. Parents and all religious teachers of youth, should take heed that they do not undervalue the promise of Christ's great commission to our children, as well as to ourselves. Let parents regard their baptized children as God's heritage-plants in the holy and lifegiving soil of the Church, which they, by their prayers and faith, fidelity and holy living, are to foster and rear, as an actual growth in God's spiritual kingdom. Let it be impressed upon their opening consciousness that they belong to Christ, not only by purchase, but by actual incorporation into His mystical body, the Church. It is our manifest right to believe that when we apply the cultivating hand to the Christian nurture of our children, the seed of God's gracious covenant, there is present in them a principle to counteract the native and total depravity of their nature, signed and sealed in their formal consecration to God in holy baptism. In this view, parents and pastors, and Sabbath School teachers, can give themselves to the work of Christian nurture and training with encouragement and hope. They are not in the vineyard while the children are without. The promise is not only to them, but to the children also; hence, their little ones are planted in the same soil as young and tender vines, needing the culture and care of a riper experience. For this work the Sabbath School offers a wide and promising field of usefulness. Here the private members of the Church can lend their aid to parental and pastoral training and nurture. And we are happy to know that this department of Christian effort has employed in its service large numbers of persons of the very first talents and refinement, and social position in the land. A few years ago, a clergyman from the South, in a visit to the North, made a considerably extended inspection of Sabbath Schools. In a statement of the result of his observations he remarks, "That in one of our Atlantic cities he found the Mayor of the city at the head of a class. In another, he found the Governor of the State employed in the same way. In another, he found an illustrious United States Senator at the head of a Sabbath School class. Indeed, wherever he went, he found men of all ranks and offices, and women of the first circles in society, laboring to impart instruction to the infant mind." And in this work, teachers are gathering a rich harvest for the granary of immortality! Think of the ecstasy of their dying hour, if they can look yonder to their bright home on high, and see sparkling in its celestial light their crown, gemmed with the souls that God gave them in their work of love as a Sabbath School teacher. Then labor on, labor faithfully, till you hear the welcome of your blessed Master: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." THE BLOOD OF JESUS. "Wie bist du mir so herzlich gut." BY W. J. S. This Hymn, by Gerhard Tersteegen, who died 1769, was writte nunder the following circumstances. After he had preached with much success for years, he fell into a season of doubt. At last he threw himself upon his knees, and prayed God, in mercy, to reveal Himself unto him. While praying, he was enabled to believe in the existence of God, and persuaded of a saving interest in the blood of Jesus, and wrote this Hymn before he rose from his knees. Hence the allusion to his former unbelief and deception in the seventh and eighth verses, and also of the Spirit's witness in the eighth. How art Thou so entirely good! Of all High Priests the best; When I am tempted to distrust, I know Thy blood hath made me just, It gives the burdened conscience ease, That I, in Thee, find truest peace, Have I done wrong, left undone good, It mollifies pain's keenest smart, Gives comfort to the tortured heart, New faith in every hour. Here sinks to rest my trembling sense And can this be by grace conserved? Is this deception, too? For, awful sinner, I've deserved Thy curse the ages through. No, Jesus, this is even so, Thy Spirit witnesses; Thy blood doth blessed peace bestow, I'm loved, and stand in grace. Hence, sin! Be thou by me forgot. Ye humble souls, by guilt cast down, ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS.* BY A FRIEND OF THE GUARDIAN. Luke 24: 33-35. These words form the concluding part of a very instructive narrative of an event which took place on Sunday evening-the evening of the day on which Christ rose from the grave. Two disciples were going on foot to Emmaus, a village situated about six miles from Jerusalem. They were conversing on the all-absorbing theme of the day, the report, namely, that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified and buried on Friday, had risen from the grave, and that He had been seen alive by certain women who visited the sepulchre early in the morning. The intelligence was astounding. They did not know what it meant, or how to receive it. Was it true or not? And if true, what did it mean? Questions like these they were earnestly discussing. It seems strange, at first view, that they were discussing such questions; for, before His betrayal, Christ had plainly taught His disciples that He would be put to death and rise again on the third day. But they could not understand this prediction. They could not understand or receive the prediction for several reasons. The principal reason, no doubt was, that their minds were prepossessed with the idea of an external, temporal kingdom, a kingdom of a politicoreligious character, which, in their opinion, the Messiah was to establish. Sanguine in their expectations of such a worldly kingdom, they were unfitted to receive the truth which Christ taught concerning Himself and His work. Connected with this prejudice was the unwillingness of the disciples to be separated from the society of the Redeemer. They loved Him. He was their Master, their Teacher, their Friend and Refuge. His bodily presence was necessary to their happiness. Hence they could not and would not believe that He would be crucified. Hence when the dark hour came, instead of seeing in it the evidence of the truth of His divine mission, they, shut up in wilful ignorance and prejudice, despaired and fled in dismay. And when, on Sunday morning, the wonderful report was circulated in the city of Jerusalem that Christ had risen, instead of rejoicing in faith, they continued to be cast down and perplexed. *Discourse on Easter Sunday evening, 1865. The depression and perplexity of these two disciples affords us an insight into the state of mind prevailing among all the disciples. How strong must have been their prejudices, and how obtuse their minds, to withstand all the instructions of Christ, and with the crucifixion and resurrection before their eyes to remain without any perception of the truth! In like manner do ignorance and prejudice now render ineffectual, both in the world and in the Church, the teachings of Christ's ministers and the administration of His ordinances. The fulness of grace may be taught in the pulpit, and you may hear and not understand. Christ may be set forth crucified for your sins, and risen for your justification in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, yet for want of penitence, meditation and prayer, which fit the mind for receiving new communications of grace, you may fail to obtain that spiritual benefit from the Holy Communion which it is designed to confer. When the disciples had abundant cause for confidence and joy, they were desponding and confounded. It was whilst walking towards Emmaus, and conversing together, that the risen Saviour overtook them. "But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him." Christ did not make Himself known, because the minds of these disciples were not yet in a fit state for an external manifestation. Their difficulty was an external one. They were wanting in knowledge and faith. Hence, in order to draw out an expression of their views and feelings, He questions them concerning the subject of their conversation: "What manner of communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk, and are sad?" Cleopas replies: "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass in these days?" To draw them out more fully, Christ inquires: What things?" Then they proceed to tell Him "How Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word had been condemned and crucified, how they had been disappointed in the hope that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel from the oppression of the Roman empire, and how they had been astonished at reports which had been circulated on that day, concerning His resurrection." Having led them thus to open their hearts to Him, He upbraids them for their ignorance and unbelief, their want of faith in the prophets, teaches the necessity of Christ's sufferings in order that He may enter into His glory, "and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Thus He opened to them the true meaning of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Moses taught that Messiah must suffer for Israel. The sacrifices required by the ceremonial law show that there can be no approach to God without the shedding of blood-that the true Mediator between God and men must die for men. The prophets teach that the Deliverer of Israel must be despised and rejected of men, must be wounded for their transgressions, and His soul be made an offering for sin. All the Scriptures agree in this testimony. There must be an atonement. The necessary consequence of sin is misery and death. The curse cannot be excused or evaded. It must be borne. Sin is a power in men that must be destroyed, not by magic, but by bearing its penalty, and so bearing it that it ceases to have power in and over human nature. Death itself must be destroyed by dying, and the grave conquered by going into it-by one who surrenders himself to its power, and then triumphs over it. Satan him |
