Household Religion (Part 1)

HOUSEHOLD RELIGION

Rev. James Wood, D.D.

When Joshua, the renowned leader of the Israelites in the con quest of Canaan, was drawing near the close of his long and eventful life, he "gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God." Joshua recounted in their hearing the many instances of God's kindness towards them and their ancestors, from the calling of Abraham to their exodus from Egypt; the numerous miracles wrought in the wilderness for their benefit; and the extraordinary victories which he had enabled them to achieve in taking possession of their ancient inheritance.

This historical notice of God's mercies Joshua employs as the basis of an earnest exhortation to them to serve the Lord. "Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord." They had seen enough of Jehovah's power and majesty, to prove him to be infinitely superior to the gods of the heathen; and they had experienced in their own history, such manifestations of his kindness and mercy, as to place them under the strongest obligations to love and serve him.

But if after all their minds were vacillating between the true and the false; if they were still undetermined whether they would worship God alone, or would blend therewith the idolatrous worship of their heathen neighbours, he desired them distinctly to understand that his own mind was fully made up; that irrespective of the course which they might choose to pursue, he and his household would ad here to the service of the true God. "If it be evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods whom your fathers served, that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell: but AS FOR ME AND MT HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD."

This resolution of Joshua contains what we properly denominate household religion. Let us notice

1. The constituent elements of household religion, as expressed or implied in Joshua's resolution to serve the Lord; and

2. Some motives to influence parents and heads of families to adopt this resolution as their own, and to carry it into practical effect.

1. Household religion involves the possession of personal piety by the head of the family. Joshua expressly mentions himself as well as his house; and if he had not, his resolution to influence them to be religious, implies a sense of moral obligation with regard to their principles and practice, never found in parents who are not truly pious. The forms of religion had better be maintained in our families by chaplains, or other proxies, than to live as many house holds do, without any visible recognition of the Divine being. But the employment of chaplains is seldom practicable, and other per sons willing to officiate arc not always at hand. Hence it is often an alternative, either for the head of the family to lead in their devotions, and perform other duties belonging to household religion, or to have them neglected altogether. Even if it were otherwise, parents are the constituted guardians and overseers of their families; and they are required to provide for their spiritual wants, as much as for their temporal; for their daily religious training, no less than for their daily bread. But how can they fulfil the Scripture direction, to bring up their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," unless they first devote themselves to the Lord's service? The experiment, if made, would be a failure. It follows, therefore, that a resolution to maintain household religion requires of parents and heads of families a serious attention to their own souls; such an attention as shall secure for themselves a saving interest in Christ.

In Joshua's determination to serve the Lord, he was doubtless influenced in part by personal considerations, irrespective of its effect upon others. He regarded his own duty as clear, whatever course his household or the people generally might choose to pursue. Even though his endeavours to influence and control the decision of those under his immediate care might be unsuccessful, he would still say "as for me." "Though all Israel, not excepting my own family, should turn away to idolatry, I will stand alone in the reasonable and glorious service of the true God." And so ought each of us to feel now, whatever may be our relations to society. Especially should it be so with partners in organizing the family relation. Their marriage contract should be accompanied by a solemn covenant to serve the Lord, — a covenant made first individually and alone between each of them and his God, and then conjointly with each other, as the most sacred tie of their nuptial bond; thus be coming "heirs together of the grace of life." 

 

But though Joshua was so decided with regard to his own personal duty and purpose, no matter what others might think or do, yet he evidently hoped by announcing his decision, to influence his hearers to do likewise; and he was not disappointed. Particularly did he design and expect to influence his household, and to caution others net to tempt them to idolatry; thus placing around them a cordon sanitaire, to secure their safety and protection against the moral malaria to which they were exposed. It is in this light that we now consider his pious resolution; and it sustains our position, that piety in parents and heads of families, is the first requisite for qualifying them to perform, in a successful manner, the duties of household religion.

2. The maintenance of household religion implies a public religious profession. Secret piety stands first on the list of religious duties. "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet." In this re tired sanctuary we should offer our daily devotions, like Nathaniel under the fig-tree, who, though unseen by mortal eye, was noticed and approved by our divine, omniscient Lord. But though secret devotion is enjoined as a necessary Christian duty, our piety must not be confined to the closet. Ostentation in religion is indeed rebuked by Christ; and yet he teaches that he also disapproves of concealment. Our being ashamed to confess him before men, involves the fearful consequence of his being ashamed of us in the presence of the angels of God. Household religion relates especially to duties of a social character; and hence those heads of families who are resolved to maintain it, must necessarily express in some visible form their faith in Christ, and their purpose to obey and serve him.

By a public profession of religion, we mean to include a union with the visible Church, which is a duty incumbent on all who love the Redeemer. But we intend more than this, viz., such a course of conversation and conduct as proceed from a pious heart, and evince the sincerity and genuineness of a religious profession. Zacharias and Elizabeth "were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blame less." They were not only pious in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men. They were conscientious in the discharge of all the duties enjoined, both in the moral and ceremonial law. They were, in short, worthy members of the Church; and the spirit of their religious profession was carried into their households, and gave tone and character to their family devotions. Similar re marks may be made concerning Joshua. He publicly declared his veneration for Jehovah, the only true God, and he habitually practised those personal and relative duties which had been revealed to him as a servant of the Most High. True, he was a public man — a military leader, and a civil judge. But though this circumstance gave greater publicity and notoriety to his words and actions than would have been done if he had moved in a more humble sphere, yet his religious profession was substantially the same as was made by every pious father in Israel; the same, likewise, as is virtually made now by every pious father who erects the domestic altar, and offers upon it, in the presence of his household, the sacrifice of prayer and praise.

Joshua's high social position ought to render his example especially forcible with public men. Let them not entertain the thought that experimental piety, or its profession before the world, or its maintenance in their households, is unimportant to them, or un- worthy of their elevated positions. The chief reason for the appointment of Joshua to succeed Moses in the government of Israel was, that he was a man having within him "the Spirit" of God; and the most honourable testimony made concerning him at his decease was, that he was " the servant of the Lord," — a memorial which was divinely indited for his epitaph; not General Joshua, nor Judge Joshua, nor Prince Joshua, but "Joshua, the servant of the Lord."

3. Household religion involves the daily performance of family worship. The first instance of religious devotion after the fall occurred in the family of Adam, when Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord, and Adam officiated as their priest. The first altar erected after the flood was built by Noah, for him self and his household. Wherever Abraham sojourned, he no sooner pitched his tent to shelter his family from the noonday sun and the evening dews, than he "built an altar, and called on the name of the Lord." Job "rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, according to the number of his sons and daughters." "Thus did Job continually." When David had re moved the ark from the house of Obededom, and placed it in a tabernacle which he had prepared for it in Jerusalem, he "returned to bless his household;" i. e., says Henry, "to pray with them and for them, and to offer up his family-thanksgiving for this national mercy." These several examples may be justly regarded as a true exposition of the import of Joshua's resolution, with respect to its devotional character. And the duty thus implied in it is virtually inculcated and solemnly enforced in the inspired imprecation of Jeremiah, "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name."

Prayer and praise are expressly enjoined in the New Testament. "I would that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting." "Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." These directions are general; but we have good authority for asserting that they were understood by the early Christians as including daily religious worship in the family. In those palmy days of Christianity, we are informed that, "at an early hour in the morning, the family was assembled, when a portion of Scripture was read, which was followed by a hymn and prayer." "In the evening, before retiring to rest, the family again assembled, when the same form of worship was observed as in the morning, with this difference, that the service was considerably protracted beyond the time which could be conveniently allotted to it in the commencement of the day." Much more to the same effect might be quoted from reliable authorities, with interesting and instructive details, including the practice of asking a blessing and returning thanks at their meals. The habitual neglect of religious worship in the household would have been considered as being little short of a practical renunciation of Christianity.

The excellent Directory for Worship which forms a part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, ought to receive more attention than we fear is given to it by many in our communion. That which pertains to family worship is as follows: "Family worship, which ought to be performed by every family, ordinarily, morning and evening, consists in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and singing praises. The head of the family, who is to lead in this service, ought to be careful that all the members of his house hold duly attend, and that none withdraw themselves unnecessarily from any part of family worship, and that all refrain from their common business while the Scriptures are read, and gravely attend to the same, no less than when prayer or praise is offered up."

4. Household religion includes faithful religious instruction. This was enjoined by Moses in explicit terms. "These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Joshua was present when these injunctions were uttered; and there can be no question that he was faithful in carrying them into effect in his own house hold. Without it, his family could not have served the Lord intelligently. The words of Moses enjoin not only frequent formal instruction in the divine law, but daily religious conversation. They must give "line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little." They must also write down his words (the Pentateuch was not then printed) and let them occupy conspicuous places on their persons and premises, in order that their own recollections might be kept constantly awake, and that their children and servants might always have before them the great truths of God's holy law. It is not surprising that a people thus instructed should, as Josephus testifies, become as familiar with the sacred oracles as they were with their own names.

From the practice of Jewish parents, we may learn the spirit of our Lord's injunction, "Search the Scriptures." We should do this privately, for our own personal benefit, and in the presence of our households, with a view to their instruction in divine things. We will quote again from our Directory for Worship. "Let the heads of families be careful to instruct their children and servants in the principles of religion. Every proper opportunity ought to be embraced for such instruction. But we are of opinion, that the Sabbath evenings, after public worship, should be sacredly preserved for this purpose. Therefore, we highly disapprove of paying unnecessary visits on the Lord's Day, admitting strangers into the families, except when necessity or charity requires it; or any other practices, whatever plausible pretences may be offered in their favour, if they interfere with the above important and necessary duty."

Household religion implies proper parental restraint and correction. Joshua could not secure the fulfilment of his resolution that his house should serve the Lord, except by the exercise of his legitimate authority over them, in connection with the use of other appropriate means for promoting their spiritual good. He must keep them from idol-temples. He must restrain them from vice and immorality, and from unnecessary exposures to temptation. He must rebuke and chastise them, if he saw them going astray. This course was pursued by Abraham, the father of the faithful, and God approved of his conduct. "I know Abraham," said Jehovah, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." Solomon was inspired to give similar directions to parents, "Train up a child in the way he should go;" not in the way he would go, for to err is the natural tendency of our fallen humanity; but in the way he should go; "and when he is old, he will not de part from it." Again, "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 shall deliver his soul from hell."

5. Kind parental counsels are to be employed, either with or with out the use of authority and correction, according to circumstances; and correction is not to be resorted to until reproof and counsel fail. But experience and observation show that children cannot always be restrained from sin, and kept in the path of virtue, with out the exercise of more or less severity. Eli's "sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." He counselled and re proved them; he expostulated with them; but to no effect. If, in addition to these remonstrances, he had firmly and faithfully interposed his parental and official authority, and had proceeded to punish his wicked sons as their offences deserved, and particularly if lie had done this when they were children, he might have rescued his family, his office, and the cause of religion from much reproach and injury. It is reported of the eldest son of President Edwards, that while congratulating a friend on having a family of sons, he said to him with much earnestness, "Remember, there is but one mode of family government. I have brought up and educated fourteen boys; two I suffered to grow up without the rod. One of these was my youngest brother, and the other was Aaron Burr, my sister's only son — both having lost their parents in their childhood; and from both my observation and experience, I tell you, sir, a maple sugar treatment will never answer. Beware how you let the first act of disobedience go unpunished."

We need scarcely remark (it is so obvious), that punishment ought never to be inflicted in a passion, or out of due proportion to the nature of the offence. It should be performed conscientiously and religiously, in a kind and benevolent spirit, and with earnest prayer to God that he would bless the chastisement for their spiritual and eternal good. We know a lady who was successful in family government, concerning whom it was said by one of her friends, that she kissed her children into subjection. This remark was true so far as it described her kindness and affection towards them. But kissing did not always produce the desired effect, and then she resorted to the rod, or some other mode of punishment. But when she inflicted chastisement, it was done as a religious duty, accompanied by prayer with and for them, that the Lord would subdue their wills and give them new hearts.

6. Household religion requires of parents a pious dedication of their children to God in the ordinance of baptism; and a diligent use of all the other means of grace appointed in God's word. The seal of infant dedication in the Old Testament Church was circumcision, but in the New it is baptism. The two ordinances agree in this, that they are both signs and seals of the covenant of grace, and involve a solemn engagement to be the Lord's. In the ad ministration of the ordinance to infants, the parents make this engagement in their behalf; and as a part of what is implied in it, they promise to maintain household religion. The Church has always been composed of families, embracing parents who profess the true religion, and their offspring. Hence circumcision, though an initiatory ecclesiastical rite, belonged to the household. And so of baptism. In three instances household baptism is distinctly mentioned in Scripture. The prompt and pious observance of this ordinance is therefore a part of household religion, and a suitable introduction to the other religious duties which devolve on Christian parents with regard to their children.

As soon as children are old enough to understand, they should be taught the nature and design of their baptism, and how they ought to improve it as a means of grace. The relation of baptism to the Lord's Supper, should also be explained to them. They should be told of their obligations to devote the morning of their lives to the service of God: be earnestly exhorted to trust in Jesus Christ, as their Redeemer, and to ratify their baptismal dedication to him in their infancy, by a public profession of their faith, and a devout reception of the Lord's Supper. The relation of circumcision to the Passover, was analogous to that which exists between baptism and the Lord's Supper; and the Passover, though a public church ordinance, was celebrated in a household capacity, and by all the members thereof, who had been circumcised, and were otherwise qualified to partake of it. And for their being duly prepared, the heads of Jewish households were, in a great measure, responsible. Preparation for the Passover was, therefore, an important part of household religion, and this was accordingly implied in Joshua's resolution, that his house should serve the Lord. The paschal lamb was a type of Christ, and those who partook of that ordinance, expressed their faith, not only in the true God, but in the Messiah, and in his atoning sacrifice. Hence, the resolution of Joshua involved a solemn purpose to make his house, as far as he might be able, worshippers of God, and believers in his Son. In harmony with this, Christian parents ought to bring before the minds of their children what is implied in the worthy partaking of the Lord's Supper, and their duty with regard to it, and to endeavour to prepare them, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, for receiving this holy ordinance in the exercise of a true and living faith.

We have already spoken of family prayer as a part of house hold religion. We add now the further remark, that parents ought not only to pray with and for their children, but to enjoin upon their children, the duty of praying for themselves. Philip Henry, father of the commentator, Matthew Henry, frequently gave his children this advice: "Be sure you look to your secret duty" [i.e., prayer]; "keep that up, whatever you do; the soul cannot prosper in the neglect of it. Apostasy generally begins at the closet door." Prayer is offering up to God our desires, and not a mere form of words. Yet it is difficult to pray without language; and more so for children than adults. Hence, in teaching them how to perform this duty, parents will find it necessary to prescribe suitable words, in the use of which their children may be trained to the habit of devotion. They should, of course, be taught that their hearts must be engaged as well as their lips, in order to render their prayers acceptable to God. But the serious repetition of devotional words, is often blessed of God to affect the heart; sometimes in producing a saving change, and at others in making a valuable and permanent, if not a saving impression. The distinguished American statesman, John Randolph, once said to an intimate friend, "I used to be called a Frenchman, because I took the French side in politics; and, though this was unjust, yet the truth is, I should have been a French atheist, if it had not been for one recollection, and that was, the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me on my knees to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven.'"

A further means of grace which parents ought to employ for the benefit of their households, is to require of them the proper observance of the Christian Sabbath, by a suspension of business and worldly recreations, by reading God's Word, and a regular attendance upon the public ministrations of the Gospel. The divine command, "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," is as obligatory on households, as on individuals. Heads of families are required not only to sanctify the day themselves, but to take good care to have it sacredly observed by their children and servants. This is distinctly enjoined in the original law of the Sabbath: "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." This law was designed to prohibit worldly recreations, as well as secular business. It is thus interpreted by Divine inspiration: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words." (Isa. 58: 13.) But in addition to abstaining from labour and amusements, the proper sanctification of the Sabbath requires us to spend the day in religious services. They are both mentioned together in the divine command, "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord." This statute was conscientiously observed by pious Israelites; and it received the sanction of our Lord; who " as his custom was, went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." This was practised also by his disciples, not only during his sojourn on earth, but after his death and resurrection. Christ appeared to them several times, on the evening of the first day of the week, as they were assembled for worship. Paul preached again and again on that day, directed that Christians should not forsake the assembling of themselves together, and that collections should then be made for charitable uses. John calls it the "Lord's day," and he observed it in a devout and holy manner. The law of the Sabbath thus expounded by the practice of Christ and his Apostles, was regarded by the primitive Church as being of perpetual obligation. In the famous letter of Pliny to the Roman Emperor, he says, that they were accustomed to assemble on the first day of the week, and sing hymns to Christ, as to God. And we add, that with regard to their families, they followed the example of Old Testament believers, who, when they publicly appeared before the Lord, took with them their " wives, and children, and little ones." This noble example ought to be imitated now, by every Christian community. The great congregation of worshippers in the sanctuary, should consist of households; and these should be whole and entire, and not broken fragments — the parents for instance, while their children are permitted to remain at home; or one or two members of the family, while the remainder spend the Sabbath in recreation. "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob." And he accordingly loves the dwellings of Jacob, when their inmates show the sincerity and fervour of their household devotions, by delighting to throng the gates of Zion. The sacred fire on their domestic altars, when thus kindled afresh in the temple, is made to burn with a purer and more heavenly flame, and on their return, they carry back the coals of a new consecration, to render more holy and sanctifying their household worship. 

The above article was originally published The Home, The School, and The Church, Volume 8 (1858)

Family Catechising

Family Catechising

(From the United Presbyterian Magazine, Scotland 1851)

Of all the periods of human life, youth is the most favourable for religious impression. At first the judgment, though weak, is not pre-occupied; the heart, though depraved, is not yet hardened; and the conscience, though evil, is not yet seared as with a hot iron. Then, like the young sapling, the mind will take any bend you are pleased to give it. But when it has long been inured to sin, it be comes stubborn as the sturdy tree that resists our pressure. We are told, on the best authority, it is as unlikely for one to do good who has been accustomed to do evil, as for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or the leopard his spots. Hence it is that so little can be done with the aged, and many think that few are converted after their twentieth year. It is true we must not limit the Holy One of Israel, and we know he can save even at the eleventh hour. But though a man may be born again when he is old, few, we fear, are changed at this time of life, and most of the aged who are coming to the grave like a shock of corn in its season, are those of whom God says, "I remember the kindness of thy youth."

Since these things are so, can too much attention be paid to the training of the young? And should not every expedient be resorted to for improving the precious season of youth? In what follows, we intend to confine our remarks to one branch of the subject — family catechising. Of the importance of this department of parental duty, we cannot form too high an estimate. A family thus instructed, be comes a little nursery for the church and for heaven. The advantages of the practice have been seen in the lives and in the deaths of multitudes, and yet the day of judgment alone can reveal them fully.

But this practice, so invaluable to the young, has sadly declined in these degenerate days. The time has been, when no head of a family, who pretended to the name of a Christian would have dared to neglect it; but, as with family worship, what was once the rule has, we fear, become the exception. Nay, there is too much reason to doubt, that rare as is the worship of the family, the family catechising is still more rare; and some who observe the former duty have no relish for the latter. The chief cause of this is, no doubt, the decline of vital religion; but there are particular circumstances at the present day, which cannot be held as evincing such a decline, and yet have had their influence in producing the result we are deploring. Since Sabbath-schools have become so numerous, many parents think the work of family catechising is taken out of their hands. Now this is a great mistake. Sabbath-schools are a blessing, and a great blessing, to the country. But they are at the best but a remedy for a prevalent disease, and if every father could, and would, instruct his own household, Sabbath-schools would be quite uncalled for. No Christian parent is at liberty to devolve on a proxy the religious training of his offspring. And what instruction can be compared to that of a father? The school teacher may be very kind, and deeply concerned for the salvation of his pupils. But the child knows that his parent has far more interest in him than any stranger can have; and if the lessons of the school are not seconded by home tuition, they will in general be in vain. The neglect of this duty we believe to be one great reason of a fact which all Christians deplore, that while Sabbath-schools were never more numerous, juvenile wickedness was never more prevalent.

The frequency of preaching on the Sabbath evenings, especially in towns, may be another cause which has led to this evil. These sermons are extensively placarded and earnestly pressed on attention. The names of the preachers and their particular subjects are diligently advertised and intimated from every pulpit, as if it were some performance where men go to be entertained. Parents think they are well employed when they are hearing the word; and, as this is felt to be much easier than doing their more appropriate work at home, it is often preferred. Now, no head of a family should ever think, in ordinary circumstances, of going to these evening discourses. He is the priest in his own household, and his work at home is far more important than hearing the most popular preacher, on the most exciting theme he can bring before them.

The neglect of the good old way has been most disastrous. It is owing to this that such ignorance now prevails among the members of churches, and that the attainments of most professors are so very circumscribed. None who examine candidates for communion, or parents who are seeking baptism to their children, but must be pained at this. Many people can make but little of sermons, as preachers cannot be always dwelling on first principles; and as church examinations, either from the neglect of the pastor, or the pride of the people, are now almost entirely obsolete, unless the examination be practised in the family, ignorance must increase. And is it not owing to the same neglect that the grossest errors and wildest views on religious subjects are so rampant in the present day? Though the age be distinguished for shrewdness and acuteness in detecting flaws in science and literature, what monstrous opinions are entertained on religion!

Now, if in early life a systematic view of Christian doctrine were obtained, and digested and stored in the memory, the analogy of faith would be seen; the bearing of one doctrine on another would be apparent, and the pernicious dogmas, which gain assent so easily, would be at once rejected. In times of change like the present, when a respect for all that is sacred is sneered at by many as weak ness and superstition, when the march of intellect, as they call it, is the pretext for so much change, and when all the foundations have gone out of their course, how important for the young especially to be rooted and grounded in the truth, that they may not be the dupes of every impostor, and be tossed about by every wind of doctrine!

In catechising a family, much will depend on the mode of procedure. To be efficient, it must be done frequently, seriously, intelligently, affectionately, attractively, and prayerfully.

It must be done frequently. Not at rare intervals, as before a communion, or when about to ask admission into the church, or when the visit of the pastor is expected. It must be very regular, and often repeated. For many years it was the custom to require an answer to a question every morning, and the greater part of Saturday was devoted to a revisal of the Catechism. But in this age of bustle and business, when even the day of God is encroached on, and there is time for everything but religion, such important seasons may not be convenient. Yet once in the week is surely not too often, and the evening of the Sabbath may be employed by all.

It must be done seriously, — not like some secular exercise, but as a work involving eternal interests. The subjects of examination are all of the most solemn and tremendous moment. And yet how often are the questions repeated with scarcely a solemn sound, and by a thoughtless tongue! Now this is not only hateful to God, but hurtful to the young. On such occasions all levity must be banished from the mind. They must be taught, when examined, that they have now to do with God, and that the place they occupy is like the "holy ground."

It must be done intelligently; without this it will be labour in vain. Many have the form of sound words to which they can attach no meaning. They can repeat the questions with the greatest accuracy; but if you vary the language and ask what is meant by the thing expressed, there is no reply but the stare of ignorance. In this matter an improvement has taken place in recent editions of the Catechism. But still there is need for more explanation, that milk may be given to babes as well as meat to the stronger man.

It must be done affectionately, in the spirit of the father when he said, "O my son, if thine heart be wise my heart shall rejoice, even mine;" or of the mother who, leaning over the darling of her heart, exclaims, "O my son, and the son of my womb, and the son of my vows, and the son of my prayers." The young must be drawn with the cords of love as the bands of a man. We cannot compel them to be religious. We may force them to read the Bible, and to repeat the questions, but we cannot compel them to love the Redeemer. In conducting this duty, the father must try to convince his child that he loves him as his own soul, and travails as in birth that Christ may be formed in his heart.

It must be done attractively, — not in a scolding, scowling manner, which would discourage children, and beget an aversion to the exercise; not as a task or piece of drudgery, so many questions inflicted as a kind of punishment. Unless the duty is made a delight, it will be little relished. The pious Philip Henry, as his son tells us, made the work of catechising so delightful to himself and his household, that he would sometimes say, at its close on the Sabbath evening, "Well, if this is not heaven, it must be the gate to it."

And it must be done prayerfully. The parent who knows any thing of true religion, is well aware that all his efforts will be useless without the Spirit of God. He may succeed in imparting theoretical knowledge; his child may be able to answer with promptitude and precision every question he is pleased to put to him; but without the grace of God, it is all like the sounding brass or the tinkling cymbal. The knowledge which is all intellectual may exist in the memory or the head, but it has no communication with the heart. Polish the marble as you please, it may display its spots and its veins, but it is marble still. No father can convert his son. Flesh and blood can not do this; none but the Father in heaven. While, therefore, the parent questions, he must also pray; and while in the morning he sows the seed, he must look up for the early and the latter rains.

Were the exercise so conducted, might we not expect the most happy results? We know it is corruption and not grace that runs in the blood; and that many a pious father has had a wicked Absalom. But this is the exception and not the rule, and for such exceptions reasons may often be assigned, as in the case of David and Eli. Manasseh had a good father who would take care to instruct him in the things of God; and yet for a while he gave no evidence of profiting from his pious education. But see him caught among the thorns; carried captive to Babylon; lying in the dungeon, and there making supplication to the God of his father. It was his early impressions which were then revived. It was the seed sown into his mind when a child, that then sprung up and produced such a blessed harvest. And such cases are by no means rare. Parents may sometimes think they have laboured in vain. Their instructions may be buried long under the clods of corruption, but their words may be remembered when they are sleeping in the dust, and when their souls are in heaven. They may have occasion to say on hearing of the conversion of their poor prodigal, "It is meet to make merry, and be glad, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

If a parent, then, is reading these lines, we would say — for your own sake, for your children's sake, and for the sake of the Lord Jesus, early instruct your offspring in the things of God. If your children perish through neglect of this, how can you meet them in the other world? "O father! O mother!" they might say, "if you had taught me the Catechism, if you had taken pains to instruct me in the things that belong to my peace, I might not have come to this place of torment. You took care, indeed, to cultivate my mind, and refine my manners; you sent me to every school but the school of Christ; you were careful that I should learn everything but the way of salvation. You often examined me on questions of science, but you had no anxiety to know my attainments in religion. You were proud when you saw me excelling others in branches of literature, but you thought no shame though you saw me ignorant of religion as the wild ass's colt. The things that belonged to my peace you hid from mine eyes, and now I cannot but curse you for ever as the cause of my misery."

But O, how different the meeting when by instructing your children in religion you have not only kept them from error, but become the means of their eternal salvation! Then how will they hail you, as, under God, the parents not of their first only, but of their second birth! And how transported will you be when called to account for your charge, you can say, Lord, here are we, and the children thou hast given to us — given to us first by nature, and then by grace! Happy family in heaven! Here you enjoyed your domestic gatherings, but they were soon over. But now your Sabbath's sun never goes down — your meetings never break up! The Catechism is left behind you, and also the Bible, for now you know even as you are known. But being pious and happy in your lives, in your deaths you are not divided; for they who are a family in Christ are for ever with each other and for ever with the Lord!

 

Religious Instruction at Home

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AT HOME

BY THE REV. JOHN P. CARTER

If the importance of a Christian duty is to be estimated by the emphasis with which it is enjoined in the word of God, then the religious instruction of the young demands a degree of attention which, we fear, it does not ordinarily receive.

No sooner had the Lord instituted his covenant with Abraham, by the rite of circumcision (Gen. xviii. 9-14), "to be a God unto him and to his seed after him," than that father of the faithful, "took Ishmael, his son, and every male of his household, in the self-same day, as God had said unto him," and administered unto them the token of the Lord"s covenant. And in the following chapter is recorded the testimony of God to parental faithfulness: "I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." (Gen. xviii. 19.)

At the institution of the Passover, commemorating the redemption of God"s people from the servitude of Egypt, and in immediate connexion with the ceremonial observances to be attended to in that impressive ordinance, the parent is commanded: "Thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt." "And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt from the house of bondage." (Ex. xiii. 8, 14.)

And when Moses would impress the people with a deep sense of their exalted privileges, as a nation, in having "Jehovah their God so nigh unto them in all things that they called upon him for;" and having statutes, and judgments so righteous as all that law which he set before them that day — he adds, " Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons and thy sons" sons." (Deut. iv. 8, 9.) Again, when exhorting the people to obedience, in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, he says, " And these words which I command you this day, shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." And the summary of parental instruction contained in this chapter, concludes with these impressive words: " And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." (Deut. vi. 20-25.)

In the 78th Psalm, written, as is supposed, in commemoration of Asa"s victory over the Israelites, when many out of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, were brought back to the pure worship of God, occurs the following passage: "For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." (Ps. lxxviii. 5-7.) The calamities which befell the Ten Tribes that revolted from the house of David, do not exceed what might have been foreseen and predicted by any pious Israelite, as the consequences of the abolition of the divinely-instituted worship of Jehovah, and the setting up of the idolatrous worship of the calves at Dan and Bethel; a measure, in the judgment of Jeroboam, essential to the permanence of his usurped authority. (1 Kings xii. 25-33.) With this change in the national religion, family religion must have experienced a corresponding mutation. For when Jeroboam had cast off the Lord"s priests from executing the priest"s office and had ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made, it cannot be supposed that the families adhering to him, would be inclined, or permitted to attend to that injunction of Moses, " Ye shall command your children to do all the words of this law," which saith, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."

By the event referred to in the 78th Psalm, from which we have quoted above, a portion of the revolted tribes were brought back to their allegiance to Jehovah and to the house of David, by the victorious arms of Asa; and the pious Psalmist, celebrating this triumph, introduces his subject in a style significant and striking: " I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us; we will not hide them from their children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done." (Ps. lxxviii. 2-4.)

By the house of Judah likewise, we infer that the duty of parental religious instruction was to a great extent neglected, from the prevalence of idolatry among all classes of the people. For it can not be supposed that the Lord would have commanded "the fathers to make known His truth to the children," as a means of preventing idolatry (see Deut. iv. 9, ad fin.), and then would have suffered the nation to fall into the most degrading forms of idol-worship, unless those fathers had forgotten the covenant of the Lord their God, and hidden from their children, "the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works." Although this national sin brought upon them the threatened wrath and displeasure of the Most High; and although they endured the consequences of this guilt in the horrors of the siege, the oppression of conquerors, and finally in their deportation to the bonds and servitude of Babylonish captivity; yet there is reason to apprehend, even after their restoration from that captivity, that there prevailed great inattention to the duty of family religious instruction, and disregard of those high and sacred obligations involved in the constitution of the family; the canon of the Old Testament Scriptures closing with this remarkable language: "Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mai. iv. 4-6.)

From this brief account of the subject under consideration, drawn from the history of God"s people under the old dispensation, it is obvious that the neglect of a duty so plainly enjoined, and upon the faithful performance of which so much depended, must have been a sin of no ordinary magnitude. And connected as this sin was, with many of the more flagrant offences of the Jewish people, as a nation and as individuals, it need not surprise us that, in God"s dealings with them, it should have met the fearful retribution of his justice, in every age, from the time that Rebecca instructed her son in the arts of deception, to the period when his descendants rejected their Prince and Saviour, madly invoking the malediction, "His blood be upon us and our children."

In the New Testament, which contains the doctrines and institu tions of the Christian religion, the duty of parental religious training occupies a position not less prominent than in the Old Testament. In the gospel, truly, " The hearts of the fathers are turned to the children, as well as the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." (Luke i. 17.)

Our Saviour rebuked his disciples for forbidding children to be brought unto him, saying, " Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. xix. 13.) And to qualify children and youth for this membership in the kingdom of heaven, so far as education and discipline can accomplish that end, they are brought into covenant relation to God, on the faith of their parents (1 Cor. vii. 14). Promises are made to them (Acts ii. 39). Special instructions are addressed to them (Col. iii. 20; Eph. vi. 1-3). Parents are cautioned against provoking them to wrath, and are enjoined to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. vi. 4; Col. iii. 21). They were, doubtless, dedicated to God in the baptism of households (Acts xvi. 15, 33; 1 Cor. i. 16). And instances are recorded of their walking in the truth (2 John 4), and of their acquaintance with the holy Scriptures from childhood (2 Tim. iii. 15).

Thus, in both the Old and New Testament, the duty of family religious instruction occupies a position of importance which should bespeak for it the awakened attention of Christian parents and of the Christian Church. Its continued neglect cannot but prove fatal to the usefulness and happiness of families, and disastrous to the prosperity of Zion.

THE MATTER OF INSTRUCTION.

In further consideration of this important subject, we propose to speak of what should be embraced in a course of early religious in struction.

As "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," the Bible should be the principal text-book in the religious teaching of the young. For this purpose, among others, was this precious volume given to the world. "The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth under standing to the simple."

The adaptation of the word of God to the purpose in question appears, first in the fact that the reception and contemplation of the truths of revealed religion, more than any other subjects of study, elevate and strengthen the mind. Children, that are for several years conversant only with the ordinary affairs of the family circle or with the common occurrences of life, experience a pleasing expansion of thought and development of mind when they visit places at a distance from home. But the youthful mind, though previously accustomed to retirement, soon comprehends the variety and confusion of a large city, and is presently familiarized with scenes of beauty and grandeur. The mountain range, the cataract, the extended ocean, or the starry firmament, though, perhaps, never viewed without a degree of interest, yet, as they become familiar, gradually lose their power to affect even the youthful mind with those sensations of awe, admiration, or astonishment, which were at first awakened by their contemplation. The same effect upon the mind results from familiarity with the events of history and the demonstrations of science. There appears to be a point beyond which the study of created things ceases to develop intellectual power and to increase the capacity of the mind. Whether the ability of such studies to strengthen the mind is limited by their own essentially finite nature, or results from the native incapacity of the human mind to investigate such subjects beyond a certain degree, we assume not to decide. No such arrested progress, however, attends the study of. divine truth. Acquaintance with the revealed things of God imparts to the mind the desire and the capacity for all that is truly great and good. Familiarity with one truth of revelation invigorates for the contemplation of others more complex, extensive, and profound. As the mind advances, the more is it strengthened for the pursuit of higher attainments in knowledge. Its progress is as the light which beams upon " the path of the just, shining more and more unto the perfect day." In contemplating the deep things of God and acquiring the knowledge of the manifold relations of the creature to the Creator, the immortal spirit enters upon ceaseless astonishment, admiration, and praise; ever approaching the eternal throne; never reaching it, yet ever advancing.

But, in the second place, this invigorating and elevating influence of divine truth is not confined to the intellectual faculties alone; the whole moral nature, also, is by it powerfully developed. For although, in our fallen condition, the law of our natural conscience is so far obliterated as to be unavailable in ascertaining our duty to God, yet there remains the original faculty by which we distinguish right and wrong; and to this faculty, in an especial manner, are the teachings of the word of God addressed. Our innate moral sense, though naturally depraved, is susceptible by education of still further perversion and degradation. It is also susceptible by education of great improvement. The education of which we speak is the aggregate result of all the influences of education and example to which an individual is exposed until his principles are settled, and his habits formed.

Let heathenism, for instance, train a child in her dark places, which are full of the habitations of cruelty, and he will know no higher deity than the elements of nature: he will strangle his aged father as an act of humanity; and conscientiously sacrifice his own offspring to devils. The same child, educated by Romanism, will regard it mortal sin to think for himself on matters of faith: he will yield his body and soul to the polluting domination of the confessional, as the only way of pardon. He will verily believe that the gift of God is to be purchased with money; and that the great and blessed God himself is pleased with vain oblations, pomp, and parade. But the same child, trained under the influence of the gospel and instructed in the great doctrines of the Bible, will manifest a clearness of mind, a tenderness of conscience, and a strength of moral principle which can be produced by no other educational instrumentality: so peculiarly adapted is the word of divine inspiration to operate upon the natural conscience.

"The fear of the Lord," using the term in its usual specific sense, is not only "the beginning of wisdom," but is also one of the most powerful motives that can be addressed to the natural heart. This sentiment, when once habitual, becomes the master influence of the life. Though it may not cleanse from secret faults, yet it strongly tends to keep back from open and presumptuous sins, such as profane swearing, Sabbath-breaking, fraud, violence, intemperance, and the like. It inclines to the path of duty and is the strength of moral obligation. And yet, while its tendency is to hold its possessor in subjection and obedience to God, it is remarkably adapted to remove from the character the fear of man, and an undue respect for the creature. The existence and majesty of God, his present moral government over his creatures, and the final retributions of his justice, are the truths which tend to cultivate in the youthful mind the controlling sentiment of which we have spoken: and these are the doctrines recognised and inculcated throughout the Bible.

And this influence of sacred truth is not temporary. It grows with the growth and strengthens with the strength. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto, according to thy word." Many a young man has, by this means, been kept from the path of the destroyer, from which he could hardly have escaped, had his childhood been uninstructed in "the admonition and fear of the Lord."

Nor do the advantage and influence of Scripture instruction terminate with the inculcation of sound morality and with the restraining and moulding of the external deportment. The Sacred Scriptures, through faith in Jesus Christ, are able to make wise unto salvation. And the salvation of the soul should be the great and ceaseless aim of the parent, in teaching his child out of the lively oracles of God. Children, at a very early age, can understand their need of a Saviour and the plan of salvation. Their earliest remembrances should be associated with the love of God as displayed in the transactions of Calvary. They should be early familiarized with the name of Jesus; with the holiness of his character, the benevolence of his heart; his sympathy for the distressed, his special regard for children; with the greatness and goodness of his miracles; and above all, with the shedding of his blood in atoning for sin: that he is both able and willing to save sinners. Let the first great idea impressed upon the infant mind, in lines of indelible distinctness, be the idea of the God-Man Christ: the mighty God over all, the sympathizing friend of sinners; the pattern of their life, their Protector and Help in trouble, their Redeemer, their Judge, their God!

Thus made acquainted, from their youth, with the Holy Scriptures, they are not only kept from receiving "for doctrines the commandments of men;" but in the day of God"s merciful visitation to their souls, when they shall be effectually called by His Spirit into the kingdom of his Son, it will not be their part to occupy the room of the untaught, who are necessarily confined to a limited sphere of usefulness, while they are learning what are the first principles of the doctrine of Christ; but with sanctified affections and enlightened minds, they are qualified to enter at once into the active and efficient service of the Master. The individual, who, in youth, has been thoroughly instructed from the Scriptures and trained in the path of duty by parental faithfulness, needs but the life-giving influence of the Holy Spirit on his soul, to introduce him into a sphere of use fulness, and to invest him with a maturity of Christian character, to which he would have been a stranger, had his early religious training been neglected.

The religious training of our children will be incomplete, however, if they are instructed only in the general principles of Christian faith and practice. They should likewise be thoroughly indoctrinated in the peculiar views of our Church, and faithfully instructed in her history.

These subjects have been unfortunately, too often omitted from the early instructions of our children, in order, as it is alleged, "to avoid giving undue importance to non-essentials; and that the youthful mind may not be biased by sectarian prejudices." We apprehend, the Presbyterian Church has not yet fully realized all the evils resulting from this error. We deprecate as much as any, the bad effects of early prejudice; and "the tithing of mint, and anise, and cummin, to the neglect of the weightier matters of the law." And as the most efficient guard against these very evils, we earnestly recommend to the parents of our beloved Zion that they familiarize their children with the distinctive doctrines and order of the Presbyterian Church; exhibiting them in their proper place and showing their real importance in the system of divine truth. It will not fail to appear that the truths of the gospel, as held forth by Presbyterianism, "are like apples of gold in pictures of silver." And we need not fear that any one will be a Presbyterian from prejudice, who is well instructed in the scriptural authority of that system and in the eventful history which has distinguished its progress.

In recommending that Presbyterian children be instructed in the peculiarities and history of their Church, we assume that their pa rents believe and love those peculiarities and appreciate that history. Then by what reasons soever the system promulged in the standards of the Presbyterian Church is entitled to our credence, by which we have been induced to profess it publicly, and by which we are justified in holding it forth to the world; by the same reasons are we laid under all obligation to communicate that system to our children.

What system ever held by man is superior to that popularly known as Calvinism, in its power to benefit the world? What other system ascribes the same glory to the infinite Majesty of heaven, and at the same time is so calculated to develop the highest qualities of human nature? By this system the man of distinction and extensive use fulness is made to feel that he has nothing but what he has received, that it is God who maketh him to differ, " working in him to will and to do;" whilst his more humble fellow-servant, no less important in his appointed sphere, is encouraged to improve his single talent with the utmost diligence. Inculcating the sovereignty of God and his changeless purpose of justice and grace, it inspires the heart of man with high resolves for the glory of God and the good of man; and nerves his arm with invincible prowess for the execution of noble enterprises. And whilst it affords to the believer, effectually called, the assurance that "he shall never perish," being "kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation" — it extends to the impenitent sinner the encouragement which he needs: " It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."

The brightest pages of history derive their radiance from the records inscribed by the principles of our system. In the progressive development of liberty, knowledge, and righteousness, those principles have exercised a controlling influence; and they enroll among their advocates multitudes of the wise, great, and good in every age, that have arisen to bless mankind.

Above all, we believe this system to be the precious truth of God, which he has revealed concerning himself and concerning our duty and destiny. And we may regard him who holds it, as occupying that mountain elevation which commands the radiant bow in full perfection, at once the memorial of justice, and the pledge of mercy. Shall we fail then, to impress upon the minds of our beloved off spring the proper estimation of such a system as this? Shall we not faithfully indoctrinate them in its principles, that they may imbibe its healthful and invigorating spirit and be enriched by its priceless blessings?

Especially is this demanded in such a day as the present, when this way is evil spoken of by many contradicting and blaspheming; and a fearful current of infidelity and atheism threatens to deluge the land. " We will not hide it from our children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works."

AN APPEAL TO PARENTS.

In the constitution of the family, Divine Providence has invested the parental relation with peculiar authority and influence for the discharge of these duties; and nothing so strengthens that authority and augments that influence as the assembling of a family, morning and evening, to be led in their devotions by parental piety, and to be instructed out of the law of the Lord.

The responsibility of a father is commensurate with the near relation which he sustains to his offspring. God has, for a season, committed to parental stewardship the immortal soul of the child. How much depends upon the manner in which are met the duties involved in that stewardship! To a great extent, success or failure; honour or degradation in the world; weal or woe in eternity. And in what terms may we define the turpitude of that parent who fails to acknowledge God before his household and to speak to his children of salvation? Not only does he deprive himself of one of the richest pleasures known to the sanctified heart, but he defrauds his little ones of a divine inheritance and contemns the authority of heaven. The total neglect of family religion is commonly attended with the decay of personal piety, loss of interest in the cause of religion generally, derangement of secular business, feuds among brethren and sisters, the alienation of children from parents or the untimely breaking up and dispersion of families, and other evidences of God's just displeasure.

The observance of a formal morning and evening service at the family altar, in which the children and domestics take no part, and which is accompanied by no religious instruction, accomplishes little more than to remind the household that a profession of religion is made in their midst. Should the devotions of a family be conducted even with spirit and zeal, but still be unaccompanied by proper instruction, and left unappropriated to the purpose of "training in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," the members of that family will derive from such devotions but feeble ability to withstand the influences which tend to divert them from the path of virtue; or to correct those false impressions made upon the minds of our youth, by which they are sometimes enticed from the faith of their fathers. On the other hand, when family religion is made to consist in mere instruction, however appropriate or orthodox it may be, to the exclusion or neglect of devotional and spiritual duties, and more especially if the instruction relates chiefly to outward ceremonies and forms — those under its influence may be expected to become formalists and bigots; or in disgust at all religion, to withdraw to the dark and unhappy recesses of infidelity.

The appropriate remedy for all these evils — the efficient guard against results so painful to a Christian parent"s heart, is that which we propose in the recommendations of this article: The instruction of our children and households in the truths of the word of God, from the Scriptures, and as they are contained in the standards of our Church; and the training of them to know their "heavenly Father as a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God." The faithful parent, desiring the divine blessing in his habitation, will not only impart this instruction and attend to this training as ordinary duties; but he will seek frequent occasions to speak to his children individually and in private, upon the great concern of their salvation*; warning them affectionately and earnestly to seek God, and to give their hearts to the Lord Jesus in the morning of life. And His anxiety, refusing to be satisfied with warning alone, will con duct them singly to the throne of mercy, imploring in their behalf the effectual grace of God to bring them to Christ, to give them new hearts and to adopt them into his family. Nor does his concern for them cease here; but in his secret devotions also, with strong cries to God, will he bear them before the throne upon the arms of a vigorous faith, until it shall appear that "the children of such prayers cannot perish." But while he is thus exhorting and teaching his children and making them the subjects of earnest and constant prayer, he is careful in his daily walk to set before them an example which they may safely follow; to lead them into no temptation; and to place them in no situation where their morals may be corrupted or their judgment perverted. The children of such a parent shall rise up and call him blessed; they shall be as olive plants around his table; and at last, it will be his distinguished blessedness to appear in the eternal Presence, saying: "Behold, I, and the children Thou hast given me."

This article is from "The Home, the School, and the Church," Volume 2 (1852). This was journal published by the Presbyterian Education Board of the PC USA from 1850-1860

Domestic Christian Education

From 1850-1860, the Presbyterian Educational Repository, overseen by Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, published a journal entitled, The Home, The School, and The Church. 

The following is from the conclusion of an article written by Rev. Isaac Ferris, D.D. Entitled “Domestic Christian Education.” After having argued the Christian parent's natural, Christian, and covenantal duty to bring up his children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord,” he concludes with some suggestions for Christian parents to do just that.

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There are several important measures not so frequently the subject of remark, which are now to be proposed for your consideration.

1. In the first place, the observance of occasional seasons of closet prayer with each child, is a very important measure.

Every Christian parent, it is presumed, will pray for his child; indeed, will he not as often as he goes to the mercy-seat, remember those whom God has given him. In addition to this general player, it is suggested that he adopt, as a part of his plan, a retiring from time to time to pray with each child singly. As a means of good, this has been seen to be a measure of blessed influence. There is something in the circumstances of the parent with his child in such a situation, calculated to move the hearts of both. A child that loves his parent will be melted as he sees the earnest, tender entreaty in his behalf. His own individual case will be brought more fully and forcibly before his mind. He will realize more distinctly the presence of God, and his dependence on him — a spirit of devotion will be inspired, while his heart is bound more tenderly to his parent — a barrier to the world's influence will be raised up — conscience will be kept active. A child thus dealt with, in the overflowings of Christian love, may possibly under temptation break away from parental counsel; but something will have been deeply implanted, which will often goad him, and which will afford the best hope of his return.

Has this course been tried, do any ask? It has, and with happy effect. Out of many cases let me mention a few. The first is that of a Christian parent, whose beloved child had become wayward, and had fallen into a habit which threatened most unhappy consequences. He had tried advice, entreaty, and correction, in vain. With a heart deeply grieved, he took his child to the closet — the case was the subject of prayer — it was an affecting season — both wept — the child's heart was melted, and the issue was all a parent could wish. Another is the case of one, who had lost a mother's care when very young; a pious father was spared, whose practice it was every evening as he carried his son to his couch, to pour out his heart over him in prayer. The earliest recollections the son had of the father, were of him in the attitude of prayer for him. These exercises were never forgotten — that son has been for years a useful minister of Christ in a neighboring city. Another is the case of one, whose pious mother was left to pursue a Christian parent's duty, unaided by her companion. Often did she retire with her son to pray, when all was hushed in sleep. He felt the exercise. He pursued for a time the way of folly, but even then felt an invisible check. A mother's prayers, with other instruments which she had much to do in applying, brought him to choose the better part. In the ministry of reconciliation now, he has often blessed God for that mother's care and prayers; and how far others may have been benefited by his labors, and have reason to join with him, this congregation have for years had the opportunity of judging.

2. The devotion of some time on the Sabbath evening to the examination of Divine truth with an assembled family, deserves special regard.

The parent, truly anxious for his children, will suffer no opportunity of dropping a good word, or any striking occurrence, or any awful calamity, private or public, to pass unimproved. He will seek special seasons, and fix on those whose attending circumstances most favor his object. Now, for a season the most favorable, we are led to the Sabbath evening. This is a season peculiarly fitted for gathering around us our beloved circle, and seeking their everlasting good. Then the bustle and distraction of the world are removed — then there is a freedom from interruption, which cannot be secured at any other time; then naturally all are brought together; the public exercises of the Sabbath have prepared the mind for solemn reflection, as well as furnished the materials for profitable remark. And thus situated and prepared, never can a parent hold converse with his children more profitably. Refreshed and mellowed himself by the truths he has heard and the exercises he has engaged in, out of a full heart he can mete instruction and advice to his charge. The Sabbath evening is thus honored, and by that circle will be loved. There certainly is not a more interesting sight than that of a family, consisting of children of different ages, thus gathered around a beloved parent, and hearing from his or her lips the words of eternal life. Often there will be seen the glistening tear, the heaving breast, under an apprehension of the evil of sin — of personal unworthiness, or in view of a Savior's sufferings — often there the seeds of eternal life will be planted. Such a circle, how truly a nursery of Heaven! It is to be regretted that the evening of God's holy day is not thus more frequently improved. It is now in many cases the dullest season in the week, or, though occupied in religious exercises, passed far less profitably than we have suggested. Public exercises are allowed to supplant this interesting service, or confine it to a very brief space. Far be it from me to say a word which shall keep any one from a proper attendance on the house of God, and yet it must be acknowledged that attendance on public ordinances has become much of a gossiping matter. Many seem to think that religion requires no time for reflection; that all a man has to do to sustain a religious character, is to rush from one public exercise to another as often as possible, and the oftener the better. Every one must be aware that in a city there are persons who may be variously detained, and parts of families only who can attend at a given time, and many who, from years and other circumstances, may require a third service, and should have the opportunity of attending; but many, very many more are they whose Sabbath evening would be best spent in the bosom of their families, and who can only on the Sabbath evening enjoy calmly the company of their children. In the practice to a considerable degree prevalent, there is much selfishness on the part of parents: they seek through the whole their own interest, to the neglect of their children. There is a beautiful symmetry in true religion — every duty and every interest has its proper place, and the Christian parent should, for the sake of example, as well as the welfare of all around him, study to cultivate this symmetry, and have every duty in its appropriate place. His children's welfare, as well as his own satisfaction and profit, must be consulted, and if to the latter be devoted the Sabbath day exercises, he may well give the evening to the former.

The course suggested may cost him labor and patience; but what good, com pared in any degree with his children's immortal interests, does not cost him labor and patience? The course suggested has been long and extensively pursued in Scotland, and seems to have a close connection with the remarkable success of parental efforts in that country, already spoken of. This mode of spending the Sabbath evening has a fascinating effect on children. There are many who look back to evenings thus spent as among the most interesting and happy they have enjoyed. If the preacher may refer to his own experience, he would say that he fixes on the Sabbath evenings thus passed in his youth, with five or six other children around a pious mother, when the Westminster Catechism was regularly recited, and the Scriptures read, and an account given of what had been read and heard through the day, as among his happiest evenings. He believes, moreover, that those exercises have proved no unimportant part of his preparations for the ministry, though at the time he had no thought of the use Providence might make of them.

3. Care should be taken to improve and impress the public dispensation of Divine Truth.

The preaching of the gospel, as commonly enjoyed, is rather fitted for mature minds. It may be very simple, and yet will involve much, the force of which none but minds of maturity will perceive. This peculiarity cannot be altered, it being affected altogether by the circumstances of the congregation, who cannot be addressed in a childlike familiarity, and to whom the same description of illustration which gives the greatest zest to the instruction of children and youth, would be unsuited. While this is the fact, it is to be lamented that so little is effected for children by the exercise of preaching, and yet the defect is not without a remedy. While k will be acknowledged to be desirable in the highest degree that all ages should find this divine institution profitable, it is very much in the parent's power to make it so to his children. There is a plan practiced successfully by many, which deserves the attention of all. It is that of regularly examining children on the sermons they hear, and expecting them to bring home some account of the heads of a sermon, and the various topics illustrated. When this plan is pursued, it gives the parent an excellent opportunity for impressing the truth delivered, in a very familiar manner, and dwelling on and carrying out those points which may strike him as particularly important. This plan cultivates the habit of attention, and while it exercises both the memory and the judgment, is valuable as an exercise of mental training. If the power of analysis be of almost indispensable importance, such an exercise, which will unquestionably to a degree cultivate it, must be highly esteemed. There is nothing which, in such a space and in so pleasant a manner, shows the value of analysis so clearly as a well studied sermon. In it every part has its place, and all united make a grand whole, bearing on one end. The plan of which we speak will call for attention on the part of the parent, and of this both his mind and his heart will find the benefit. The first efforts of a child in this work may only give him the text; but this recorded in his book is great gain. His next effort may give him a meager skeleton of a sermon; yet in a short time it will be surprising to himself to see how much of a public exercise he may bring home. At thirteen years, in most cases, the account he will furnish will be in a degree complete. And what will be gained as to the habit of attention in the sanctuary? And how, as the whole plan is carried out on the part of the parent, will he drink in instruction and soon apply for himself? The habit of bringing divine truth thus directly home will be blessed, and how many thousand times better this than the practice of many parents, who return to their families to show what captious hearers they are, and by their conversation and conduct undermine all the confidence their families might otherwise feel in the sermons they hear?

4. It is a matter of great moment that every parent furnish his children with suitable reading of a pious character.

Reading will be found one of his most valuable auxiliaries — one by which in a sense his children become their own teachers. Care should be taken, however, by the parent, if he would avail himself of it fully, to select or lead the way to that sort of reading which shall impress his own instructions, and mend the heart, while at the same time it interests. Now for this, it must not merely be religious reading, but that reading which presents religion in a style suited to his years. We have many choice treatises on the great subject of Christianity, which may bring joy to the adult Christian, but which will be dry as husks to the young mind — and forcing the child to read these, or confining him to them, will create a distaste not only for them, but for religion itself, as he will be led to associate with it the idea of some intolerable burden. Every Christian can judge of this for himself, for who of them would not feel the same, if confined to the study of a book on science, which entered into its minutiae, while it took for granted the necessary elementary know ledge on the part of the reader. There is no necessity of our falling into this mistake at the present time. A great change has taken place, and while books of excellent character for adults are multi plied, our religious juvenile literature, has, not only within a few years, become a distinct department, but very extensive. The Christian parent has now the opportunity of selecting from a large number, works which precisely meet the need of his children, writ ten in the most interesting style on all the ordinary subjects on which he would dwell, and adapted to the youthful mind.

The parent should not, let me say, think his work done when he places these books within the reach of his children; on the contrary he should make it his business to inquire carefully into the reading of each child, and may well make such inquiry a part of his Sabbath evening's engagements; while at the same time he may have select books read aloud, in order, for the purpose of calling out remarks from his children, and for making his own observation and application.

5. The pious observance of family worship is an important auxiliary in Domestic Christian Education, and even an essential part of it.

Regarded as a general duty, every one claiming to be a Christian, and indeed every parent should have his altar in his house, around which his children are daily gathered. It is in the matter of Christian education "an engine of prodigious power." If the several services be pertinent, brief, varying with circumstances, lively, they will make an impression. Is the Word of God read on every occasion, in proper portions, as one of the exercises, not only is the truth of God impressed on the mind, but it is regarded as the family oracle: the young, seeing the place it occupies with a pious parent, will cling to it as the Book of books. And how much may we hope to gain by this, when we remember that the young man cleanses his way by cleaving to God's Word. Picture to yourself, a family on their knees at worship — hear the prayer a beloved father offers so feelingly: he adores God, and acknowledges his own and his family's dependence on Him, traces every blessing, the rest of every night, the comfort of every day to Him — how does this tend to cherish a reverence for God and the feeling of obligation in the bosoms of all? He confesses his sins and his family's, he seeks to come into the dust at God's feet, and cannot go without his pardon — how calculated this to make his children feel their accountability — to awaken solicitude for their own state — to lead them to God for pardon? He commits them to God, prays for security, for blessings, for all they need — how calculated this to check the foolish self-dependence to which our nature is prone, to keep his children under a sense that all is in God's hands? Look at this exercise as Providence leads to its variation, by the sickness or death of friends — or the occurrence of difficulty, or deliverance from imminent danger — and does it not speak directly to the heart, does it not aid in the cultivation of those feelings at which a Christian education aims? Blessed institution indeed. A master mind (Cecil) has spoken thus of it — "worship thus conducted may be used as an engine of vast power in families. It diffuses a sympathy through the members. It calls off the mind from the deadening effect of worldly affairs. It arrests every member -with a morning and evening sermon, in the midst of all the hurries and cares of life. It says, 'There is a God' — 'There is a spiritual world' — 'There is a life to come.' It fixes the idea of responsibility in the mind. It furnishes a judicious and tender father or master an opportunity of gently glancing at faults, where a direct admonition would be inexpedient. It enables him to relieve the weight with which subordination or service often sits on the minds of inferiors."

6. Finally, a careful observance of the Sabbath is indispensable as a part of a Domestic Christian Education.

The observance of the Lord's day is urged mostly on the ground of a moral claim on the part of God, and the view we now take may be considered novel — it is nevertheless correct. Look at the place the Sabbath holds; does not its observance bear on all the interests of religion, and can a man be called religious who does not keep it? And if the Sabbath have not a hold upon a man, will any thing else have? Do not all religious interests in the church, in society, in a man's own heart, rise and fall with the observance of "the day the Lord has made?" Now when we speak of a proper observance of the Sabbath, we mean its consecration as entirely as possible to the business of religion — to worship, to religious reading, while the business of the world, the indulgences of the world, and all bustle are shut out — such an observance, as makes this day stand out in holy pre-eminence above all the other days, as The Day of God. Now with such a view of it, we ask what will be the influence of such observance on a growing family; will not such observance of one- seventh of the time fill the house with a holy atmosphere; will it not make a family feel there is a solemn reality in religion? will it not raise the tone of pious feeling in such house? will it not, in a most blessed manner, stand as a check upon the influence of our worldly pursuits; and as such an observance associates the Sabbath here with the Sabbath of heaven, will it not lead the young heart to heaven? Can a Christian parent, if he would bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, pursue a more effectual means than thus hallowing God's day? For confirmation of all this, I beg you to look to the families where God's day is not honored; where the political newspaper or secular periodical is read in preference to the Scriptures — where business, or visiting, or pleasure walking, or frivolous conversation, occupy the attention, and see if there you find a due sense of religion, or children growing up with the feeling that religion is a matter of any moment, or growing in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. No, God's impress is on this matter. The parents in such a family may give sage advice, they may supply any quantity of religious reading, though they are not likely to do this; they may sit down regularly at the communion-table, and yet their profanation or neglect of the sanctity of the Sabbath will destroy all. They shall see their children grow up, thoughtless, giddy, lovers of the world and not at all of God.

Many conceive such an observance of the Sabbath as we speak of, will make it a heavy, dull day; if it be so, it is their own fault, for religion has nothing heavy or dull about it. A judicious parent will find no difficulty on this point. He will study and lay himself out so to direct reading and the study of divine truth and conversation, that the Sabbath will be a delight.

Two things should enforce what has been said: your time with your families is short; they will either be taken from you or you from them — and if you neglect your duty to their souls, while you have them, you will plant a thorn in your dying pillow. By all that is dear to you in the interests of your children; by all your desires to see the Church of your Redeemer sustained by their active, holy efforts; by the fearful consequences which you have seen to follow the neglect of parents; by all the griefs by which the hearts of others have been wrung; by all your anxieties to have your children members of that great family which shall assemble around the glorified Redeemer at last, and sing His praises for ever, I charge it upon you, be faithful.

An Educated Ministry (Part 3)

This, and the preceding two posts are from an essay written by R.L. Dabney for the periodical The Southern Presbyterian Review, for the April 1883 edition. It was written in response to an October 1882 & January 1883 article, entitled "An Inquiry into the Aggressiveness of Presbyterianism."

We have been told that by this way we should get a cheaper ministry for our new fields. Men thus trained, not having spent so much in their training, would work on smaller salaries. Now, the only experience we have does not support this hope. Most of the Methodist evangelists were trained thus; but they really receive better salaries than the Presbyterian. When the various allowances are added up, theirs is found a better paid ministry than ours.

The urgent comparisons made between our method and that of Methodists and Baptists cannot but suggest another thought:—that we, if we make the proposed change, shall be in danger of “putting on their old shoes just when they are throwing them away.” If these denominations are good exemplars for us, then it is to be presumed that they understand their own interests; their fine results indicate wise management. Now, it is significant that both these denominations are now expending great effort in making certain changes in their methods of rearing ministers, and that these changes are in the direction of the way we are now advised to forsake. They have tried, and are trying, two different ways. They are in a transition state. Before we make their way our guide, it will be well to wait and see which of their two ways they are going to approve finally for themselves. If we are correctly informed by those who are in closest intelligence with their influential men, these are yearly less and less satisfied with their old species of training, and more and more desirous to have all their ministry improve the advantages of the excellent seminaries of theology which they have founded. Hear, for instance, the testimony of Mr Price in the Southern Presbyterian:—“And, in proof of this view, it is a remarkable fact, that those very causes to which this writer ascribes their more rapid growth, are becoming more unpopular every day with those denominations.” While he and others in our church are advocating a lower standard of ministerial qualification, that we may keep pace with the Baptists and Methodists, these denominations are directing the most intelligent energies of their respective churches to raising their grade of scholarship; their uneducated men are losing caste and influence; the ministers coming forth from their theological schools are establishing a public sentiment and a more rigid rule of systematic theology, and of clear and accurate statement in doctrine, before which the loose and extravagant discourses of a class of preachers that once exercised. a powerful influence fall under sharp censure, and are even occasionally exposed to ridicule.

“There are unlearned men in these churches, and such may be licensed and ordained in ours, under our provisions for extraordinary cases, whom the most intelligent are bound to respect as called of God, and whose usefulness none can deny; but when our Baptist and Methodist brethren are casting off certain methods, which they have weighed in the balance and found wanting, it becomes us to consider well before we take up that which they throw away, especially when they are free to confess that our example, and the evident fruits of our more thorough training, have powerfully impelled them towards change.

“The writer in the Review has heard of the Cumberland Presbyterians. If he has been correctly informed, he will find that no branch of the Presbyterian Church has, in proportion to its numbers and resources, more colleges, universities, and theological schools. If he attends their General Assembly, he will be impressed by the distinct and painful line of demarcation between their learned and their unlearned men. And when he sees and hears some of the latter, though he may find much to admire in the vigour of their speech and the vigour of their labours, he will not wonder that, as a people, our Cumberland brethren are making, perhaps, more vigorous effort”, than any other Presbyterian body to educate their ministry, and thus obliterate one of the distinctive features upon which they went out from us. When the Revelation Dr Lyon brought into our General Assembly, some years ago, a report against certain proposals of union with the Cumberland Presbyterians, he did not hesitate to present, as one of the arguments of the committee that he represented, that, by such a union, our church will be brought under the control of an overwhelming majority of uneducated men. If some of the theories now in vogue among us are put into practice, we may reach this alternative without uniting with the Cumberlands; and they, in turn, by raising their standard, as they now seem determined to do, may be in a position, by and by, to raise the same objection to a union with us.

“We are reminded that our system now requires a longer and more expensive preparation than the other liberal professions. And why should it not, when our professional tasks are infinitely more responsible? But facts here argue on our side again, in that society is steadily demanding a raised standard of preparation from lawyers and physicians. Is this the time to lower ours? The well-furnished young physician, for instance, gets, in his youth, a pretty fair classical education; then he reads medicine a year with some doctor; then, if he graduates in one year (most have to spend two) in a good school of theoretic medicine, like that in the University of Virginia, he does remarkably well; then he goes into a New York or Baltimore hospital one or two years, to get the clinic instruction. And even the plainer country neighbourhoods are now requiring so much of training of their doctors! The other professions are advancing largely; it is no time for ours to go back.”

It has been often and justly remarked that it requires more mature training and ability to teach unenlightened minds accurately than cultivated ones. It was considered by discerning persons the crowning manifestation of Dr John H, Rice's trained capacity, that he could not only preach to the edification of General Assemblies in Philadelphia, but could go then to the Bethel Seamen's chapel and preach with equal effect to the rough sailors. If we are to bring poor and rude communities into our denomination, then they will need the best trained, not the inferior, minds, to inculcate on them our logical and profound system. And as regards the frontier communities, there is no greater mistake than that of concluding that, because their exteriors are rough, the ill-furnished minister will suffice to instruct them. The testimony of Dr N. L. Rice, for instance, in the Assembly of 1857, was wholly the opposite; and he spoke of his own knowledge. Said he:—“The garb of the frontiersmen may be rough; their dwellings may be cabins; but they include the most independent, active, inquiring minds anywhere to be found in America. It is the fact that their minds and temperaments are such which has made them emigrants; the plodding, the slow, the minds that like to lean on precedent and prescription, and are content to be led—these stay in the old neighbourhoods. It is the adventurous minds who seek new fortunes. A very large portion of them are men of thorough education. The educated emigrant is most often a 'free-thinker,' so-called; for one main impulse which pushes the man of culture to brave the roughnessess of the frontier is, that he has broken all intellectual trammels, if not all sound restraints of orthodox thinking. Hence we find these frontier societies seething with most eager speculation, questioning all old foundations. To suppose that the good man of slim intellectual resources can control these minds is the most fatal mistake. The man who is to command them needs to have the most mature resources of learning at the readiest possible command. He needs to be a walking library, of the most advanced learning, not only in divinity, but in all connected studies.” This witness is also true of our Southern frontiers. You shall see the “cow-boy” of Western Texas, sometimes reclining on his greasy blanket to read a pocket edition of Horace or Moliere. In their “shanties,” alongside of the whiskey-jug, will be found the writings of Huxley, Bradlaugh, and Büchner, with the Westminster Review, and the works of Renan. Our evangelists confirm Dr Rice's testimony, and tell us to send none but thoroughly furnished men to the frontiers.

It has been supposed that great gain-would result from the alternative of an “English course” in our seminaries for such candidates for the ministry as could not find time or means for mastering the original languages of Scripture. A manual of church history might be taught, it is supposed, without involving Latin or Greek; and the exegetical and doctrinal studies would be founded on the English version alone. Were the teachers in these seminaries entitled to any consideration in this discussion, their friends might perhaps raise an embarrassing question on their behalf. Their time seems to be already fully occupied in the teaching of the fuller course to their classical students and the exposition of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, which alone are the ipsissima verba of God. Shall they cease to give this course, in order to do justice to the other class of their students? Or shall they give the latter class a light, perfunctory. Sabbath-school course, such as they will have time for? Would such a little sketch be a worthy training for a Presbyterian minister?

It will behove the advocates of this system to consider three consequences which are very distinctly involved in it.

One is, that it will admit the imperfect education of a great many more men than should be entitled, according to the new plan itself, to enter the ministry upon it. Men's over-haste, or indolence, or ill-considered seal, or self-confidence, will prompt many of the candidates to plead that they also are poor enough, or old enough, or gifted enough, or married enough, to claim to enter through the English door, of whom the judgment of our innovators themselves “would be, that they had no grounds for claiming that easier way.” The pressure of churches and Presbyteries for more labourers to be speedily gotten will assuredly second their pleas. The result will be the general breaking down of our standard. The majority of our ministry will be the uneducated, the minority the educated, as it was in the other denominations in those old ways from which they are striving so hard to escape.

The second will be, that the students of the English course will be much at the mercy of the professor for their doctrinal and exegetical opinions. When the teacher gives his construction of the text, if the English pupils attempt to say that the English version, or the commentaries thereon, seem to sustain another meaning, he has only to reply:—“I assure you, young gentlemen, that the original supports only my construction; and if you understood that language, you would see it to be so.” That is, to those students, an end of debate. Or else they must learn to hold their teacher in suspicion and disesteem, as a man capable of imposing on their ignorance. There will be one caste of minds which will resent this mental domination, the self-sufficient and crotchety. The consequence will be, that to this class their teacher will be no guide; but this is the class to whom influential guidance will be most necessary. Now, we surmise that this sweeping power in the professors of our seminaries will not be very agreeable to that large class of our presbyters who cherish along with us a well-grounded jealousy of seminary dictation, and all other forms of centralisation. It may be said, our present professors may all be trusted. But they cannot remain always. Unhappily, such things have been known in seminaries as heretical professors, and yet oftener as crotchety professors, fond of riding exegetical hobbies. Shall we arm these with this dangerous power of leading off the English students after their error?

The third consideration is, that if the new plan of training is to be carried on to any successful extent, we must reconcile our minds to become a “broad church.” We must lose our doctrinal unity. Again, we advance the experimental evidence as the most solid. All the denominations which practice the methods of training ministers proposed become broad churches. The Immersionists are a broad church; we have ourselves heard Calvinism and Arminianism preached in it from the same pulpit. The Cumberland Presbyterian is a broad church. The Methodist is a broad church. As we remarked, the Wesleyan theology receives from Methodist ministers various interpretations, from moderate Calvinism down to Pelagianism. There are ministers and presiding elders who hold the perseverance of the saints, just as we do. The church of Alexander Campbell is a broad church; he himself declared that in it “all sorts of doctrine were preached by all sorts of men.” In this we are not reproaching these denominations. We use the phrase “broad church” in no sense offensive to them, but as a ready and familiar phrase to describe a condition of things among them on which they congratulate themselves, namely, a tolerance in the ministry of the same body of different schools of theological opinion, “within the scope of the fundamental doctrines of salvation.” But we only point to the fact that it has been the conscientious fixed policy of us Presbyterians not to have these doctrinal diversities and contrarieties among our official teachers. We receive all shades of opinion, compatible with true repentance, to our communion; but we require the voice of our official body to give one sound as to revealed theology.

Now, the experience cited above proves that if we are willing to lose this doctrinal harmony and unity, the chief glory of a church of Christ, we have only to imitate these other denominations in their method of training ministers. The explanation of the result is easy. Human minds are imperfect instruments of thought, and their opinions naturally tend to variety and diversity. Again, the religious world teems with competing clashing doctrines, each striving for recognition and pressing itself on others with its utmost ingenuity of argument. The proposed method of training, by reason of its comparative brevity and imperfection, must leave its pupils more pervious to the injurious religious errors which obtrusively meet them. These different “grades” of preachers will not have the unifying bond with each other of a complete esprit de corps. The result will be doctrinal divergence; and our church must either submit to become a “broad” one, or be again rent by schism. We are aware that there is no patent infallible process, in fallible men's hands, for transmitting a doctrinal homogeneity from age to age. But the means which comes nearest, the only means of any tolerable efficiency is, under the grace and light of God's Spirit, the thorough education of ministers in an orthodox theology, and that by similar methods for all. Thus not only is the competent knowledge of the divine science acquired by all, and the practical skill in moral reasoning and exposition, which detect error and sophism in false doctrines, but all imbibe, so to speak, the Presbyterian and orthodox idiosyncrasy of mind The doctrinal affinity in the correct creed is propagated through the whole body. Now, he who really doubts whether the Presbyterian theology is right, may also doubt whether it is proper to employ these influences for unifying and stereotyping men's belief in it. But those who, with us, are sure that our theology is right, will also feel that it is not only allowable, but our duty to wield those influences for making our theology permanent in our ministers' minds. It is the only human way to avoid the tendencies to “broad Churchism.”

In conclusion, we most emphatically affirm all the regrets expressed at our lack of a holy aggressiveness, and every ardent aspiration for a remedy. But this remedy is not to be found by innovation upon our system, but in the reformation of the persons who work the system. What we need is not a class of imperfectly educated ministers, but repentance, holy yearning for souls, prayer, and more abounding labour by educated ministers; more family religion and true Christian training in households, which is, after all, the Presbyterian's main lever; more self-consecration in our laymen; and especially our employment of the “dead capital” now lying unused in our eldership. The elder need not be a “local preacher,” after the pattern of the Methodist “local,” but the intelligent elder ought to be something much better; active in spheres of work which the church needs much more than sermonising or formal “preachments,” vis., catechetical instruction, teaching the gospel from house to house, oversight, social meetings, exhortations. Sabbath-schools. Do we feel a “crying need” in our out-lying destitutions for such work as this, and for labourers to do it more cheaply than the educated evangelist? This is precisely the work which intelligent ruling elders ought to do. All the elders in Scripture, ruling and teaching, were required to be “apt to teach.” Our conception of the New Testament organisation of the congregation would not pull down a part of the ministers to an uneducated level, but lift up all the elders, including the ruling elders, to the level of official teachers. Each congregation was governed and taught, not by a one-man power, a sort of local prelate, but by a board, a plurality of elders, all of whom were teachers, though not all of equal teaching authority, learning, or gifts. But, to ensure full intelligence and permanent orthodoxy, we should require the presiding elder in this board to have the full equipment of well attested theological learning. One such man, thoroughly furnished, presiding over the board, and regulating and harmonising their joint instructions, would give a sufficient guarantee of soundness in the faith. The others under him, in their less authoritative teaching sphere, would safely fill in the details of the work. The ruling elder would not act as catechist as though he were an independent integer, but as a member of the board, under its direction, and especially under the direction of the president, who is fully trained and tried; even as he, in his public work as authoritative herald of salvation, does not act independently, but under the control of his Presbyterial Board, the Presbytery. Thus the didactic work of each congregation would assume a largeness, occupying several men's hands; while the thorough theological furniture of the one man at the head would guarantee doctrinal safety in the whole. Such was evidently the apostle's conception in the pastoral epistles.