THE BIBLE AND THE CHILD: THE NEED
"From a babe," until the "man of God ..… be perfect, furnished completely unto every good work,"
In considering the subject of the Bible and the Church we took as a basis a passage from Paul's first letter to Timothy, In dealing with this subject of the Bible and the child, I propose to take a paragraph from his second letter to Timothy, found in the third chapter, the final paragraph, beginning at verse 14 (RV): "But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a babe thou hast known the Sacred Writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, Every Scripture inspired of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work,"
These words contain the complete philosophy of religious instruction, or a complete philosophy of the value of the Bible in the development of personality, Notice the period covered, "From a babe," until the "man of God,…., be perfect, furnished completely unto every good work," The whole of personality is there, from the baby to the man equipped for his work in the world,
In that paragraph the Sacred Writings are thus placed down side by side with the development of personality, Here we find the philosophy of religious instruction, or Bible teaching, both as to germ and norm, It is here in germ, It needs development and application, But it is here in norm, which means that there must be no development that contradicts it at any point, as to its philosophy or as to its method, The paragraph is complete,
These words were written by Paul to Timothy, whom he described in this letter as "my beloved child," and in the former as "my true child in faith," While it would be interesting to linger with Timothy's story, suffice it to say he was won for Christ when Paul was going through that period in which he was left for dead outside Lystra, after his stoning, At that time this youth was brought to a knowledge of Christ, and surrendered to Him, From the earlier reference we learn that Timothy had been born and nurtured in the atmosphere of faith, for the apostle declared that faith dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, and then in his mother, Eunice, Thus we have the picture of this boy from his childhood, in the care of these two women, That is the meaning of Paul's word to him, when he said, "Abide thou in the things which thou hast learned," Had Timothy learned them from the apostle? By no means, who, then? It was his grandmother and his mother, who had taught him the Holy Letters first,
Turning from the immediate apostolic application, let us consider the philosophy revealed, seeking to apprehend its value as it reveals the need for teaching these Holy Writings, these Sacred Writings, this Holy Bible, to the child,
Four matters emerge, First, the goal of all religious instruction is "salvation," Notice, "From a babe thou hast known the Sacred Writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation," That is the goal, the ultimate,
Second, the way of salvation is "through faith which is in Christ Jesus,"
Third, the mental condition for the exercise of faith is that of the wisdom, or knowledge, which comes through the Sacred Writings,
Fourth, the responsibility which rests upon those who have charge of children in any way is that they should make known the Sacred Writings,
We start, then, with our first deduction from this passage, It is that the goal at which we aim in all such instruction is salvation, I do feel that much of our Sunday-school work today is suffering because that is not realized, Young people are asked sometimes if they would not like to take a class, and they do so without remembering that the children they have to teach, the little ones, or the older ones, need salvation, and that the purpose of all Bible instruction to the young is that of arriving at that goal,
Salvation is the theme of the Christian Church, The word "salvation" is central to the Christian religion, "God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him," (John 3:17)
Let us remind ourselves of the value of the word, It postulates danger, but it promises safety, It recognizes the forces which destroy, and proclaims the possibility of their destruction, It implicates weakness, but it offers strength, It faces failure, and provides a way of recovery and realization, Salvation. It is the bright, shining glory against the dark background, the glory of divine provision against the background of human failure,
The word must be adequately interpreted when we think of it, As to time, salvation is progressive, As to extent, it is inclusive, As to value, it is utmost in human life,
As to time, it is progressive, We can use different tenses when we speak of salvation, It is quite competent for us to say, "We were saved," and it may be when we say that we are remembering a day and a date and a place, Perhaps we are not, Perhaps some have no date or place to remember, I remember the very moment, when I came to the consciousness of sin against Jesus Christ and my need of salvation, So we can also say, we were saved so many years ago; past tense, But it is equally correct to say we are being saved, "The Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved." That is the process, Salvation not only has its past in the "I was"; or the progressive present in the "I am being saved"; but it has its glorious future in which we say, "Now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed," (Rom. 13:11) It stretches through all time as to human personality,
As to extent it is inclusive, When people tell me they are concerned about the salvation of souls, I always want to ask them what they mean, Salvation is not merely for the soul, It is for the whole man, the whole woman, the whole child, the whole of personality, It is inclusive,
As to value, it is utmost, That, I am not arguing here, That is the core and center of the belief of the Christian Church when it is true to its Evangelical faith, It is far more important that your boy, your girl should be saved than that they should get on in the world, It is best, Narrow interpretations of salvation are pernicious, It is for mind and body as well as spirit, It is for today as well as for tomorrow, for time as well as for eternity; and nowhere is it of more importance that we should recognize this than when we deal with our children,
Why teach them the Bible? Because of their salvation, that bright and spacious and marvelous thing that has to do with the yesterday and today and the tomorrow of every individual life, Salvation is that tremendous thing that takes in spirit, mind, and body, the whole of personality, Salvation is the need,
Where shall we find anything about that? Everyone knows the answer; in the Bible, and nowhere else, No other literature deals with that subject, There is no other form of religion extant that suggests it as a possibility with which to confront derelict and failing humanity, Salvation is the theme and goal of all Bible teaching,
With equal brevity consider the next matter, The way of salvation is through faith which is in Christ Jesus, We remember that the whole possibility of human salvation is summed up in Him, He saves from danger, He destroys the destroyer. He gives strength, He realizes the whole of personality, as to time, He is patient, as to extent, He is persistent, as to value, He realizes His own preciousness in the believing soul,
The condition, then, of appropriating all that which is in Christ Jesus is that of faith, What is faith? Knowing that no definition ever yet has been full and final of anything either in the heavens above or the earth beneath, a definition of faith cannot perhaps be complete, Nevertheless, I say that faith is volitional surrender to intellectual conviction, Faith is not intellectual conviction alone, If we only have intellectual conviction we have not the faith that brings us into salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, To intellectual conviction there must be added volitional surrender. The simple illustration is this: here is a chair; it is a good chair, I go into the house of my friend, and he says "You look tired," I am tired; I am very tired, "Take a chair," and he offers me one, Now, if we are intelligent beings we never sit down on a chair without having first gone through an intellectual process of inquiry as to its safety! I have glanced at chairs, and refused to sit in them, So there is an intellectual process, Will that chair bear me? It will, I am intellectually convinced that the chair will bear me, Is that faith? Oh, no; at least it is not the faith that gives me any rest when I am tired, I say to my friend, "Yes, thank you so much, I am so tired; I am so much obliged to you," It is a wonderful chair—but I keep standing, He will say, "Why don't you sit down?" Then I sit down, That is faith, I yield to my conviction, I venture my weight upon it, whatever it may be, I trust it, That is the faith that saves, First, intellectual conviction; and then the venture of confidence, the trust that reposes, Finally, therefore, faith is an act performed, and then it becomes an attitude maintained, That is the faith in Christ Jesus that brings men into salvation, It may come, that act of volitional surrender, as unconsciously as the blush of the dawn breaking over the mountains, so that we hardly know when it came, So it came to me, Or it may come in an eruption, volcanic and terrible, with fire and thunder, So it has come to multitudes, It does not matter whether this way or that, It is that act of saying, "Yes, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul, and I will crown Thee Lord of my life," It may be so natural that one can hardly tell when it happened,
It is so good when a child is so trained that it comes to the mental condition for the exercise of faith in Christ, That mental condition is that of the knowledge that comes from acquaintance with these Sacred Writings, Let the children know what these writing really say, Faith always presupposes knowledge, Knowledge presupposes truth, and results from instruction in the truth, When the child is familiar with these Writings, is intelligently taught, then it has the wisdom, But that has not brought salvation. It has led, as these Writings always lead, to Christ Himself; and when the child, instructed in these Writings, comes face to face with Christ, it is natural, it is easy for it to say, "Yes, I am His, and He is mine," There is great importance, therefore, that we should teach the Bible to the child, That is the need,
So, brethren, the responsibility of those who have charge of children is that of making known these Sacred Writings, It cannot begin too soon, The moment the child is intelligent enough to say anything to you, it will be intelligent enough to hear, Begin to acquaint that little mind with something of the Sacred Literature, It should be intelligently done, which means it is not enough to know the Bible; we must know the child. That subject is postponed to our next article. The work should be thoroughly done,
This is not final work, but it is fundamental, Even this intelligent instruction of the child in the Sacred Writings cannot compel faith, but it makes it possible, it makes it easy. No, father and mother, you cannot compel your child to an act of faith in Jesus Christ; but you can make it almost impossible for a child not to exercise that act of faith, The father and the mother cannot compel the child to be a Christian, but the child will have a much easier choice, because of what they did for that little one, and what the little one saw in them, There is the need, and the responsibility; and as to method, God willing, we consider it more carefully in our next article,
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