THE

PRIMITIVE CHURCH

(OR BAPTIST)

MAGAZINE.

No. CCXCIX.-NOVEMBER 2, 1868.

Essays, Expositions, &c.

THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN, AN IMPORTANT OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN EFFORT.*

THE point in life at which children enter upon responsibility and become personally guilty before God is undefined in the Bible. Revelation sheds no definite light upon this question. It is reserved to the Divine Being himself, and we leave the question with profound deference to his holy and merciful discrimination,—"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right." We accept with devout gratitude what He has revealed. Enough is intimated to impart consolation to the bereaved in death, and so little as to awaken parental anxiety in life for the salvation of the child. The manifestation of evil is early apparent. "For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." The sinfulness of human nature is traceable to our first parents,-"By one man sin entered into the world." The results of the first transgression have fallen upon the whole race,-"By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." It has not affected the mere accidents of man's being, but has touched his nature and altered his condition. The fountain-head is polluted, and the streams are impure. Personal transgression has endorsed the original deed, and the verdict of God is universal," All have sinned." The truth of the charge is admitted. The painful experience of all testifies "We have sinned." Interpretations of man'a native state as a sinner, are various and contradictory; but whatever explanation be accepted, one thing is evident, that on the ground of man's fallen state is founded the necessity for a thorough change of heart as a means of recovery and restoration to God. It is an inward change that underlies all true reformation. It is not brought about by self-culture or religious training, it is the "renewing of the Holy Ghost," "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." The change noted by the words a new creature," is in the Bible described by different phrases, or defined by different terms according as the work is viewed in its several aspects. The change, having respect to sin as spiritual death, is a new birth," begotten again;" and having reference to sin as a departure from God, it is conversion-a turning "from the power of Satan unto God." We overlook the distinction between regeneration, as the infusion of grace into the heart, in which man is passive; and conversion, the *The above paper was read by the Rev. P. Prout, of Haslingden, at a meeting of the East Lan cashire Union of Baptist Churches held at Goodshaw, August 5th.

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consequent exercise of that grace, in which man becomes active. In personal religion there is the concurrence of the human act with Divine agency, and the attempt to draw the line of separation between the agency of God in the soul, and its own individual action, would be as vain a speculation as to mark the line that separates light from darkness in the natural.

The work of conversion is associated with human instrumentality,-" Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee." It is ascribed to the word of God,-"The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul." It is pressed upon the sinner as a duty,-"Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." But while human instrumentality is employed, and the work is urged upon the sinner as a duty, it is accomplished in a way so as to keep prominent before the mind this truth, as though written in letters of gold upon our earthen vessels," That the excellency of the power is of God and not of us.”—“ For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The conversion of a sinner therefore, in any period of life, from childhood to old age, is ultimately in our calculation, a question of Divine power and fitness.

The early period of life is the most suitable to impress upon the mind religious truths. It is opening to outer influence, with a peculiar aptitude to receive instructions, and with a heart susceptible of the most tender touch. The impressions of childhood are the most permanent, and in their results the most important. They give character to manhood, and whether true or false, pure or impure, they abide and come up in after days in all the power of youth. The future of life, as it depends much upon what the child is, so it is of vast moment that the right direction be given to the thought and action. The capability of children to receive the Divine blessing is recognised in the fact that Christ "Blessed them." Their aptitude to apprehend truth is assumed by the fact that they supply the lesson to teach the adult how he ought to receive the kingdom of God. The point of our Saviour's illustration is not exclusively in the humility of the child, but also in an intelligent appreciation of Divine truth, however faint it may be. The Word of God is interesting to a child. The histories and biographies, parables and miracles, precepts and doctrines, have charms for the family circle. The right use of the Bible at home, as a book of instruction for the child would in a great measure anticipate the craving of human nature that runs in quest of fiction and romance; and the mind stored with the precious seed yielding a satisfaction, would be as a guardian angel to keep out the trivial and impure. The Rev. Henry Venn says, "The great danger is from surfeiting children with religious doctrines or over much talk-I did not give mine formal instruction till they were eight years old; and chiefly set before them the striking facts in the Old Testament, or the miracles in the New. I also laboured much to set before them the goodness of our God in things which they could understand," &c. His family has had the blessing promised to the seed of the righteous; and his sons and grandsons have continued the evangelical succession of devoted ministers of Christ.

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The Word of God is expressly designed to answer the urgent enquiry, “What must I do to be saved?" The counsel given is as suitable to the child as to the adult. One answer is for all, and the child in its simplicity apprehends it as correctly as the scholar in his meditative mood. And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." We should aim, as a means to attain our important object, to lead the child direct to the cross of Christ. As a scene of suffering it appeals to human sympathy, and as the manifestation of God's love is calculated to awaken love for him, who first loved us and gave himself for us. There is a mystic power in the cross; it is the wisdom and the power of God; and as we linger before it, and speak of redeeming love, we shall have reason devoutly to acknowledge, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise."

The period of childhood or youth is the most critical moment of life. The convictions of right and wrong early manifest themselves, and the conflict begins in personal experience which shall be ascendant. The interests of the soul and the results of eternity are usually decided by the term of manhood. The battle of spiritual life or death is first fought within the recesses of the soul in the struggles of conscience and youthful passions; the half-yielding heart at first, indicates the tendency of nature, and when it has surrendered the right and taken action in a wrong direction, too often the doom is for ever sealed. If the testimony of all Christians could be collected who have been favoured with religious privileges when young, they would, we are inclined to believe, testify to early convictions of Divine truth. And if they who have been similarly favoured, but who have lived to old age undecided, were to give evidence, they too would testify to the fact of early and powerful convictions of the world to come. We may call these natural emotions, and nicely discriminate between the natural convictions of conscience and the work of grace. We may speak of the temporary character of the former and the certainty of the latter. But the fact is still before us to be accounted for that, as a rule, in early life the choice is made for God, or never.

An earnest minister in New York, having investigated 253 cases of converted persons under his own care, gives the result with respect to the ages at which they were converted:-138 under the age of twenty, or more than one half of the whole; 85 between the age of twenty and thirty, one third of the number; 22 between the age of thirty and forty, or one in seven; 4 from forty to fifty years of age; 3 from fifty to sixty, and 1 only after the age of sixty. We do not present these figures as something out of the ordinary way, we presume that if the results of most ministers in similar circumstances were gathered, they would be kindred, and illustrate the same truth,-early conversion to God. There is a time when youth is poised upon the pointof indecision, whether to serve God or no. He hesitates to cast in his lot with God's people, and resolve their God shall be my God. There is the alternation between hope and fear, joy and grief, Christ and the world. In some cases the distress and anguish are beyond expression; and while in a state of hesitancy counter-influences act unfavourably. A state of indifference follows, and associates are chosen from the point of indecision, he walks in the counsel of the ungodly, stands in the way of sinners, and thence sits in the seat of the scorner. In the transition from one state to another appeals have been made and entreaties pressed, which at first were partially regarded, but afterwards they were treated with carelessness, and then with dislike. In a somewhat hopeless state of mind we have turned away and have thought we have heard the voice of God,'Let him alone for he is joined to idols." But another scene comes up the counterpart of this. A parent's heart is sad, Christian regrets are uttered, and a teacher's hopes are disappointed. In the Sabbath school the question is raised, how to retain our elder scholars? Means are suggested to make more interesting the instructions, and provision is made for other entertainments. Granted, that there is room for improvement, yet we might have learned by painful experience, if not from the teachings of the Bible, that in the absence of true conversion to God we cannot retain and interest the scholars in harmony with the spirit of religion. We heard the discussion of retaining elder scholars more than thirty years ago, and the result of these years of observation has matured the opinion of those days, that the source of failure was to be found chiefly in the defective religious training of the earlier period of life, and the want of piety on the part of the Church of Christ to guide the youth, over the crisis of being, to the city of refuge.

The method of God's procedure should for ever have settled the question of a child's conversion, and the example of Christ should have prompted to earnest effort. But it has been a strange work in the eyes of Christian people, and in the face of evident facts, distrust has applied the question-"How can these things be?" We have lacked faith in our work, and have not expected the blessing