UPPARY or PRINCETON 
 
 
 > 
 
 MAY 2 1 2002 
 
 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
£r,4i]j^ a..O'Bii-eu 
 
 '4 
 
 
 //^■^- 
 
THE 
 
 ®0ttver0i0tt 0f ©luldten. 
 
 CAN IT BE EFFECTED ? HOW YOUNG ? 
 
 WILL THEY REMAIN STEADFAST ? WHAT MEANS TO BE USED ? 
 
 WHEN TO BE RECEIVED AND HOW TRAINED IN THE CHURCH? 
 
 REV. EDWARD PA YSON HAMMOND, M.A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF " CHULDREN ANO JESUS," " SKETCHES OF PALESTINE," 
 
 " BETTER LIFE," " JESUS, THE LAKE OF GOD, ' " GATHERED 
 
 IAMBS," "GOLDEN GLEANDCGS," " JESUS AND THE 
 
 LITTLE ONES," " THE CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
 
 HEAV£N," AM. ED. " THE BLOOD 
 
 OF JS3US," ETC- 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY REV. J. E. RANKEN, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. 0. 
 
 REPRINT OF ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 "HuJ^er little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for o/suck 
 is the kingdom 0/ God." — Luke xviii. 16. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS, Publishers, 
 
 10 6^ J 2 DEV STREET. 
 
Copyrignt. 
 5^ Funk & Wagnalli^ 
 
 1882. 
 
^ebitatiou. 
 
 TO THB MIKISTEBS, SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHEE3 AND CHKISTIAK 
 
 ■W0RKEB3 vain WHOM IT HAS BEEN OUR PBIVILEGE, IN 
 
 THIS COUNXaT AN» GREAT BRITAIN, TO LABOR ' 
 
 WITH THE HELP OF GOD IN WINNING 
 
 THE LITTLE ONES TO JESUS, 
 
 Z^H ^olnmt IS giffectionalflg gcirualtb 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
INTRO D UCTION 
 
 HILDREN are converted, just as adults 
 are. The child is father of the man. 
 We love God because He first loved us. 
 It is not philosophy that shows us that 
 God has loved us, it is Christ Jesus, and Him cruci- 
 fied. This the child can see, even more clearly than 
 the adult. The nearer we are to birth, the nearer 
 are we to the new birth. The oldest, the wisest, has 
 to enter Christ's kingdom as a little child. This not 
 only means that he is to come in a child-like spirit, 
 but also that the method of coming is the same : 
 that is, that there is the same inward process. 
 
 I remember a child who heard a sermon ad- 
 dressed to adults on the text — '* Behold, I stand at 
 the door, and knock." After service he took to his 
 father a rude drawing of a kingly personage, knock- 
 ing for admission at a closed door. The father saw 
 the impression made by the truth, and kissing his 
 son tenderly, said, ^' That is it, m.y boy, let Him 
 in !" It is the philosophic Vinet who says of the 
 Bible : *' It is sometimes urged that this antique 
 
vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and oriental book refuses to assimilate itself with 
 the modern forms of thought. Without one aid of 
 archaeology the child understands the Bible as he 
 does the talk of his playfellow. This language of 
 the childhood of the nations, seems made for human 
 children. The child does better than understand — 
 these narratives are his delight. The Author of the 
 Bible is our Master in this also. Who could have 
 so well spread honey on the edge of this cup offered 
 to all men, at the bottom of which childhood finds 
 nothing bitter?" 
 
 Every child that is old enough to sin, is old 
 enough to be conscious of sin ; and the conscious- 
 ness of sin always prepares the way for the Saviour. 
 And when a Saviour is presented, the child seizes 
 hold of the idea, just as the man does. A drowning 
 child will struggle for life, will catch at straws even, 
 just as the man will. It would be a strange thing if, 
 when so large a proportion of children die in infancy 
 or childhood, the plan of salvation were so beyond 
 their apprehension that they could not lay hold of 
 it. God has done all. A man can add nothing to 
 it. And when a child says : 
 
 "Just as I am, without one plea, 
 But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
 And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, 
 O Lamb of God, I come," 
 
 it means just as much as though said by a philoso- 
 pher. It may mean more. For it often takes many 
 
IN TROD UCTIOX. vii 
 
 years, and many severe trials, to bring manhood 
 back to spiritual childhood. One of the best defini- 
 tions of faith once fell from the lips of one of these 
 little ones. She was asked how she became a 
 Christian. Her reply was, ''I just took my heart 
 to Jesus, and left it there." 
 
 It was not m.any months since that we received 
 to our communion a lady who was converted in 
 childhood at one of Mr. Ham.mond's meetings for 
 children in the West. He could have no higher 
 honor than this title — "Children's Evangelist." I 
 think he deserves this title, if for nothing else, for 
 his advocacy of the possibility of a child's conversion 
 as against all evil hearts of unbelief. But, in addi- 
 tion to this, I believe there are multitudes of children, 
 in this and other lands, who will rise up in heaven 
 and call him blessed, because he taught them the 
 way of life, through the blood of Christ. 
 
 I have read some of the adv^ance slips of this 
 book. To some of the facts I could myself attest. 
 And I am very happy thus to associate my name 
 with the author of it ; so tenderly remembered as 
 he is, in so many places, especially by the lambs of 
 the Saviour's flock. And if there is any prayer of 
 mine that could help him, I think it would be, that 
 he may learn more and more of his Master how to 
 feed these lambs. This prayer I offer, as I finish 
 these words of introduction. 
 
 J. E. RANKIN. 
 
 Washington, D. C, Sept. i8th, 1877. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE FROM DR. 
 A. H. BURLINGHAM. 
 
 Paterson, N. J., Oct. 15, 1877. 
 
 Rev. E. p. Hammond. 
 
 My Dear Bro. : From the depths of my heart 
 I am thankful that you are about to pubHsh a book 
 upon the conversion of children. It is a subject of 
 great importance and about which there ought to be 
 no faithlessness. I can never cease to be grateful to 
 you for your successful efforts in behalf of the 
 children in St. Louis. Many children at that time 
 came into the Second Baptist Church, of which I 
 was then pastor, and the record as to durability and 
 fidelity as Christians will compare more than fa- 
 vorably with that of any hke number of adults I 
 have ever received into any church. Let us save 
 the children before they come to be hardened and 
 gnarled. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 A. H. BURLINGHAM, 
 
 Fastor First Baptist Church, Paterson, N. J, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 OR nearly thirty years my attention has 
 been especially directed to children. A 
 large portion of my time has been 
 spent among them, 
 
 I have been repeatedly asked to write out 
 for adults a book embodying some of the 
 results of my observations among the Httle 
 ones. In doing so, I have reached beyond my 
 own sphere of labour as much as possible for 
 facts bearing upon the different points dis- 
 cussed, so that I might avoid the appearance of 
 defending my own method of labour among 
 the children. 
 
 Had it been possible, I should gladly have 
 omitted all reference to the especial work to 
 which I believe the Lord has called me. 
 
xii PREFACE, 
 
 And yet it is because of my experience in 
 this direction that I have been asked to write 
 this book. 
 
 The illustrations and incidents used are, I 
 believe, from reliable sources. 
 
 I can but feel grateful to those whose 
 prayers, with mine, are ascending to God, that 
 His rich blessing may attend this humble effort, 
 which has been put forth for His glory. 
 
 E. PAYSON HAMMOND, 
 Vkb-non, Connecticut, U.S»A« 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 THE CONVERSION OP CHILDREN, 
 
 ••Good chfldren" in Sunday-school books — Establishment cl Chil- 
 dren's Special Service Mission — Opinions of ministers on the con- 
 version of children — Special work among children — Revival at 
 Musselburgh— Dr. Lindsay Alexander— His address at Glasgo-.v— 
 "Greetin' about his sins" — Dr. Joel Parker's address— Satan's 
 devices — " I've lost my bat I " — Fifty anxious children— 1 he 
 Sunday-school superintendent — Children praying— The superin- 
 tendent convinced— Matthew Henry — Meetings at Weston -super. . ^ 
 Mare—*' Because I love Jesus"— Offending the little ones • • i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HOW EARLY MAY CHILDREN BE LED TO CHRISTf 
 
 Love foT earthly parents— Bushnell's "Christian Nurture "—Con- 
 verted children will be children still — '* Train up a child in the 
 way he should go " — Inconsistent parents — Mr. J. Denham 
 Smith's meetings in Dublin — Cleansing the heart — " Ever since I 
 was a little boy" — The Gospel about children — "Jesus wants 
 "urn" — "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by " — The Gambler — Teachers 
 should strive fcr immediate conversion — Little Eliza — Her father's 
 letter ••••• •••••• I9 
 
xlv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WILL CHILDREN CONTINUE STEADFAST? 
 
 PAGl 
 
 When can we say children are really converted ? — Personal experience 
 — Dr. Prime's "Five Years of Prayer"— Hon. and Rev. Baptist 
 Noel — Revival at John Street Chapel, London— Dividing the 
 converted from the unconverted — Children continuing steadfast — 
 Letter from Dr. J. O. Fiske— Rev. William Taylor's work among 
 children in Africa — Children's prayer meetings — " I've found 
 Jesus I " — The force of example — Children suffering persecu- 
 tion — "rU shoot you" — Obedience to parents— Rev. Dr. Todd— 
 Dr. Campbell— The conversion of Phoebe Bartlett— Children's 
 letters — The two sisters — A large number continue steadfast- 
 Examples of early conversion among the early Christians — Hymn 
 by a child •••••••••••37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HOW CAN CHILDREN BE LED TO JESUS f 
 
 How to speak to children — The general address— Dealing with them 
 individually— Rev. Robert McCheyne — Straying lambs • #63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PREACHING TO CHILDREN. 
 
 t e secret of successful preaching— Dr. Tyng— Counting the rafters- 
 Securing the attention— Belief of the early Church — An address to 
 children — The guide to heaven— The Maze at Hampton Court— 
 The Catacombs — Lost in London — A boy's letter — What is a new 
 heart ? — From Gethsemane to Calvary— Going up without a guide 
 —Lost in the snow— Frozen to death — A wonderful boy — Prayer 
 —The Children's band — Rev. Newman Hall — Impressions not 
 transitoiy ••••••••••68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HOW EARLY MA Y CONVERTED CHILDREN JOIN 
 
 THE CHURCH? 
 
 ''ceding the lambs — Obeying all Christ's commands — A child puzzling 
 the pastor — Mr. Spurgeon — Dr. Shaw — Expecting too much — "A 
 reason for the hope that is in them " — A children's Church — Rev. 
 Richard Fuller— Dr. Henry Clay Fisli —A great mistake — Little 
 Martlia — Your own liule Mary — Cbribt and the little ones • • Q4 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER Vir, 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDRETf, 
 
 FACE 
 
 Rov/land W. Diller's narrative — Pointing me out — Freed from strong 
 drink — "Don't you love him for that, father?" — Child influence 
 in prayer — "Can't you pray for me?" — The gamb'er and his 
 child— A deep thrust — Children at work for Christ — A child's 
 faith — Carrie and her fat her- A mother led to Christ by her little 
 boy — A child's words blessed— Praying children — Papa, how old 
 are you? — A distillery broken up by a child's influence — A father 
 and mother converted — The stowaway — Ti:e child and the infidel 
 —The infidel lawyer— The little crippb . , , « •III 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 TESTIMONIES ABOUT THE IVOEK" AND FROM 
 CHILDREN THEMSELVES. 
 
 Children's Letters— Hon. and Rev, Baptist Noel — "Bring them to 
 Jesus" — Extract from "The Christian" — Letters — Child's faith 
 
 in prayer— Letter from a blind child— Deaf and dumb children 
 
 •• If I am not a saint, I am a sinner" — Speaking to children indi- 
 vidually—Filled tumblers— Mr. John Sand i— Perse Jut ion — Con- 
 ficence in Christ— Stiug-gle uith Satan — The covenant — Eila's 
 victory— The house of Refuge— Jacksonville Institution for Deaf 
 and Dumb—" It's your last chance "—" Can't we have a prayer- 
 meeting ?'*«•• 
 
 X3a 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 TESTIMONIES FROM MINISTERS, 
 
 Testimonies from Rev. C. H. Spurgeon— Rev. Ezra Tinker— Rer, 
 Richard Newton — Rev. A. A. Bonar— Rev. Wm. S. Plumer— 
 Dr. F. H. Helraer— Revival among the little ones— President P, 
 A. Chadbourne— Rev. Dr. Pease— Rev. F. B. Shaw— Mr. Williara 
 Reynold*— Rev. E. F. Hatfield— Rev. I. N. Carman , . "'. 153 
 
, THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN. 
 
 'SUFPSR LITTLE CHILDREN, AMD FORBID THEM NOT, TO COMB UNTO 
 MS ; FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 
 
 Matt, xix. 14. 
 
 REQUENTLY, in my travels, I have held con- 
 versations something like the following with the 
 children whom I have chanced to meet in the 
 raihvay trains and elsewhere : 
 
 ** Are you a Christian, my dear child ?^ 
 « No, sir." 
 
 "Would you not like to be one?" 
 _. "No, sir." 
 "What! not like to be a Christian, and love the dear 
 Saviour, and so go home to heaven when you die ? *• 
 " No, sh-." 
 
 "Why not, may I ask?" 
 
 " Because, when I have read of the conversion of chil- 
 dren in our Sunday-school books, I have found that they 
 all die not very long after their conversion ; and / do not 
 want to die now ; I want to live to grow up I am ahuost 
 sure I should die if I were to become a Christian, for I 
 
m SUNDA Y.SCHOOL BOOKS, 
 
 never heard or read of any children who were converted 
 as young as I am, who lived to grow up to be men and 
 women." 
 
 It is perfectly astonishing how this idea has prevailed 
 among children all over the land where our Sunday-school 
 books are read. I believe that a vast number of books of 
 this kind are doing far more harm than they are doing 
 good. 
 
 Many grown-up people, as well as children, have almost 
 intuitively come to have the same idea of the probability of 
 the early death of Christian children. 
 
 Others, again, believe it is possible for children to be 
 converted, one here and another there ; but that it is hope- 
 less to expect that a great number of children in any Sunday- 
 school, or church, or comnmnity, will be regenerated by the 
 power of God, and saved in early childhood from a life 
 of sin. 
 
 I thank God that President Edwards had the boldness to 
 write an account of the conversion of Phcebe Bartlett when 
 only four years of age. I have no doubt many thought him 
 very injudicious, and in danger of spoiling the child. Very 
 likely there was some such danger ; but is there not more 
 danger in the direction to which I have alluded ? I 
 
 Last winter, in Syracuse, New York, I met the grand- 
 daughter of this same Phoebe Bartlett, an earnest Christian 
 lady, who related to me the account of the conversion of 
 her grandmother. So Phoebe Bartlett certainly did not die 
 in childhood, for she lived to be seventy years of age.* 
 
 One object in writing this book has been the hope of 
 doing away with the erroneous impression to which we have 
 referred, that converted children die young; and to encourage 
 God's people to labour eai*nestly for the salvation of the little 
 ones in lai-ge numbers, not only in their own families, but ia 
 • See pages 53 55, 
 
THE CHILDREN'S MISSION, 
 
 Sunday-schools and in meetings specially held for the pur- 
 pose. As the result of our visit to London in 1867-8, the 
 Children's Special Service Mission was inaugurated ; 
 and it has continued now for ten years to carry on the 
 work among children in different parts of Great Britain. 
 
 Many of those who are well adapted to the labour of 
 winning children to Christ have connected themselves 
 with this Mission. Year after year, in the different parts 
 of Great Britain and on the continent of Europe, they 
 have toiled on, carr}ang out the plan of labour to which 
 reference will be made in these pages ; and it is safe to say 
 that hundreds, if not thousands, have by them been led 
 to Christ. This Mission has its annual meetings, printed 
 reports, and its organization is as permanent as that of the 
 American Home Missionar)' Society. 
 
 During His hfe on earth, the Lord Jesus said, "Suffer 
 little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not" 
 (Luke xviii. 16). But can it be said in this our day that 
 any great anxiety is manifested concerning the salvation of 
 children ? Are children in very large numbers brought to 
 Christ? We fear it is too evident that they are not; 
 and the reason no doubt is, that many Christians have no 
 correct views upon the subject. They may admit that it is 
 possible for one here and another there, some specially pre- 
 cocious child, to be born into the fold of Christ, but that 
 they may be brought in in great numbers they do not 
 ^ believe. Certainly it would be strange if men should prac- 
 tically aim at what they have no faith in being able to 
 accomplish. 
 
 We cannot be too thankful for the Sunday-schools, 
 which have accomplished a great v/ork among the children. 
 But are not many parents and teachers satisfied with giving 
 mental instniction, hoping that at some future time the seed 
 sown will spring up and bear fruit; not realizing that those 
 
4 DR. D WIGHT'S OPINION. 
 
 under their charge are exposed to the shafts of death every 
 hour? And is it not true of a child, as of a man, that 
 except he be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of 
 God? 
 
 Dr. Dwight, for twenty-one years President of Yale 
 College, in his two sermons on "Religious Education," 
 speaking of the desirability of labouring for the - early con- 
 version of children, says : 
 
 ** The conscience is, at this period, exceedingly tender 
 and susceptible, rendily alarmed by the apprehension of 
 guilt, and prepared to contend or fly at the approach of a 
 known temptation. All the affections also are easily moved, 
 and are fit to retain permanently, and often indelibly, what- 
 ever impressions are made. The heart is soft, gentle, and 
 easily won, strongly attached by kindness, and peculiarly to 
 the parents themselves. To every amiable, every good thing, 
 it is drawn, comparatively without trouble or resistance, and 
 united by bonds which no future art or force can dissolve. 
 Against every odious and bad thing its opposition is v/ith 
 equal ease excited and rendered permanent." * 
 
 Rev. John Todd says : " When can the conscience be 
 reached, if not in childhood ? When has God promised 
 that the soul shall find Him, if not when He is sought 
 early? When will the Holy Spirit im.prcss the heart which 
 you are labouring to subdue, if not when it is the heart of a 
 child?" 
 
 Dr. Iren?sus Prime, in his ** Five Years of Prayer," says : 
 •* One of the characteristics of the outpouring of the Spirit 
 of God upon the churches in these latter days, and one 
 which proves the blessing to be from the same Spirit that 
 indited the pages of the Divine Word, is to be found in the 
 fact that * the hearts of fathers are turned to their children ' 
 in seeking, and praying, and looking, for their conversion. 
 
 • D wight's Theology t voU v. p. 13U 
 
SPECIAL WORK AMONG CHILDRE19. 5 
 
 There has been a great want of faith in this respect on the 
 part of the Church. Children — those of tender years — have 
 been too much regarded, and treated, as if they were not 
 capable of conversion ; as if the Spirit of God must leave 
 them, amid all the perils that surround them, until they 
 have arrived at maturity ; but this feeling is passing away. 
 This unbelief, which limits the Holy One of Israel, is giving 
 way to better views and stronger faith. The instances of 
 early piety, and of youthful devotion to the service of Christ, 
 are so many and so truthful, that none can doubt." 
 
 For thirty years it has been my privilege to labour 
 directly for the conversion of children. 
 
 Though but a boy when I was first led to know the " truth 
 as it is in Jesus," I began at once to work among the Httle 
 ones. Nothing made me so happy as to see children 
 giving evidence of having experienced a change of heart 
 through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 During my preparatory collegiate and theological course, 
 I was in the habit of holding meetings in adjacent cities and 
 villages, with the direct object of leading the young as v;ell 
 as the old to Christ. 
 
 Thus many interesting facts with regard to the conversion 
 of children have naturally come to my knowledge. I have 
 been repeatedly asked to gather those facts into a book, 
 which, with God's blessing, would strengthen the faith of 
 His people, especially of parents and Sunday-school 
 teachers, and lead them to labour immediately for the 
 salvation of the little ones, as much and even more than 
 if they had spent many years in sin. 
 
 While in Edinburgh, in 1859, I became acquainted 
 with the Rev. Dr. \V. Lindsay Alexander, a man ol great 
 learning and influence. A letter of introduction to him 
 from his old friend, Dr. Thomas H, Skinner, of New York, 
 
^ DR. ALEXANDER'S ADDRESS, 
 
 induced him to send me down to Musselburgh, to supply 
 the pulpit, while pursuing my studies in the Free Church 
 College. 
 
 I there found some earnest, praying Christians, who 
 desired to see sinners converted. Ere long, in ansv/er to 
 their supplications, the power of God's Spirit was manifested, 
 and many children and adults were asking what they should 
 do to be saved. 
 
 Dr. Alexander became somewhat alarmed lest the v/ork 
 should not be genuine. He attended one of the services, 
 but refused to remain in the inquiry meeting, where many 
 were seeking the way of life. Though he had himself 
 preached that night a most excellent sermon, yet this indi- 
 vidual work vras something new to him ; he therefore passed 
 on to the vestry for his hat and overcoat. 
 
 The church that night was so crowded that many of the 
 children could not get in. They therefore held a meetirig in 
 the adjoining room, where Dr. Alexander had left his hat. 
 
 Humanly speaking, my future history v/as influenced by 
 that miceting of children. For ten years I had fully pur- 
 posed being a missionary in Bulgaria, but the work of that 
 evening directed my hfe into another channel. 
 
 Through the influence of that one meeting in that little 
 room, as it will soon be seen, Dr. Alexander v»'as led to 
 realize that the work was of God. He published lengthy 
 accounts of it, which led to my remaining two and a hal 
 years in Great Britain, and thus to my devoting my life to 
 "do the work of an evangelist." 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Congregational Union at 
 Glasgow, in ]\Iay, i860, he delivered an address giving a 
 full account of the worli, from which I make an extract : 
 
 " What I am about to state has been found interesting 
 to Christian people in other places, and I have no doubt it 
 will be found interesting to every Christian present this 
 
*^A WHEEN O* US LASSIES," j 
 
 evening. I will give expression to one or two feelings that 
 have been excited in my mind with regard to the Mussel- 
 burgh meeting. 
 
 " The first thing that struck me in going out was the 
 increased number of attendants. I went out upon a week 
 evening, and preached in a place where I hardly ever saw a 
 full house upon the Sabbatti, and found myself called on to 
 address a congregation that crowded the place from wall 
 \o wall, and even filled up the steps leading to the pulpit. 
 That struck me as very remarkable, and it immediately 
 satisfied my mind that some very great work was going on 
 there. 
 
 " Another thing that struck me very much was the 
 multitude of young persons, of children, who were in the 
 meeting, and who seemed interested in the work. I confess 
 I had something of an unbelieving state of mind on that 
 subject Having never come in contact myself with any- 
 thing of the kind, I frankly confess I had not just the same 
 cordial belief in the conversion of very young children as I 
 have now. I happened to leave my great-coat in one of the 
 small vestries. When I went to the door for it, I found it 
 bolted. I was going to retire, when the door opened, and a 
 very little girl appeared. I asked if there was anybody in. 
 She said, *Yes, sir.' Whispering, I said, *I was gohig in 
 for my great-coat, but I will not disturb you ; but who is 
 here ? * She said, * A wheen o' us lassies.' I said, * I will 
 not go in then ; could you get me my coat ? * She said, 
 * It 's hei-e, sir ; but I canna get up to't.' I was going away, 
 when she said, *You might com.e in.* So I Vv'ent in, 
 and there I found (I forget exactly how many) little girls 
 upon their knees, and one of them was engaged in 
 prayer. Whether she had overheard us talking at the 
 door, or supposed that some person had come in, I do not 
 know; but her voice faltered, and she concluded very 
 
r DR. ALEXANDER'S ADDRESS, 
 
 quickly, so that I hardly heard her. But directly she had 
 concluded, another little girl began to pray, and a veiy 
 simple, very childlike, but very beautiful prayer it was. / 
 stood listening to that cliild^s prayer, and the tears started in 
 my eyes as I listened. I con Id not help it. I felt that J was re* 
 proved ; that I had doubted the work of God in that pan' inilar^ 
 and now He had brought me face to face with the work iwl^ 
 When she had concluded her little, simple prayer, they all 
 rose up, and very abashed the poor little things looked when 
 they saw I was standing in the midst of them. 
 
 " I began to talk to this little girl who had been engaged 
 in prayer, and I said to her, after I had reassured her a 
 little, *Well nov/, I heard you thanking God for pardoning 
 your sins, and for the peace of mind you have ; I suppose 
 you feel that you have been converted.' And she said, 
 * Yes, sir,' with great quietness, and great assurance of mind. 
 I said, ' Now, how did that come to pass ? You did not 
 always think of these things.' * Oh no ! ' she said, * I never 
 cared about them at all.' 'Well,' I said, *just tell m.e how 
 it came to pass that you did come to care about them.' 
 She said, * I came to the Meetings, and attended them for 
 awhile ; but I did not care much about what was going 
 on. One night I went, with some others, into a room. 
 There were a good many women there, and some of them 
 were greetin' about their sins. A lady was present who 
 spoke to them, told them about their sins, and told them 
 how they were to get pardon ; and,' she added, in her 
 simple sort of way, * the thought just came into my mind 
 that I was a sinner, too.' I said, * And did you go away 
 with that thought ? ' * Yes,' she replied. I said, * Did that 
 grieve you ? ' Looking up in my face with a most earnest 
 and striking expression, she said, * Eh, sir, I was in an 
 awfu'way!' In this state he continued, she said, fors 
 'good while. I asked, ' How did you find peace of mind a 
 
•* GREETIN' ABOUT HIS sins:* q 
 
 * Oh, sir/ she replied, * it was something that Mr. Hammond 
 said when he was preaching.* I asked, * What gave you 
 peace of mind?' Turning on me again the same intense 
 and earnest look, she exclaimed, * Oh, there is nothing can 
 give peace of mind to the sinner but the blood that was 
 shed on Calvary.' Now, I just put it to any experienced 
 minister, if such a statement does not show that this child 
 knows the way of salvation, and if it does not afford 
 evidence that she has experienced the grace of God in truth. 
 For my own part, all my doubts and unbelieving suspicions 
 were gone. 
 
 " I may just mention, that as this talk was going on, 
 there was a little boy in the corner of the room, so little a 
 fellow that he had just emerged from the condition of petti- 
 coats, and had not reached the dignity of a jacket ; his 
 whole costume being in one piece from his neck to the heels. 
 He was standing in the cornei of the room, and sobbing 
 very hard. The only idea that came into my mind was that 
 the little fellow was sleep}", and that he wanted to go home, 
 as it was now about ten o'clock. I said to one of the girls 
 that he was wearied, and that some one had better take him 
 home. She said, * Oh, no, sir ; he is not wearied, he is 
 greetin' about his sins.* I vrent to the little fellou^, and I spoke 
 ,to him ; hov/ever, he was really past speaking to. He was 
 in a state of great distress, vv^iatever was the cause. I said 
 to one of the girls, * Perhaps you could speak to him better 
 than I could;' and she replied, MYcll, yes, sir; I will speak 
 to him, but he does not belong to this place.* I said, 
 'Indeed I* *No, puir fellow; he has walked all the way 
 frae Prestonpans to-night.' Now this was a dark, wintry 
 night, and yet this little creature had walked, by himself, 
 about four miles, to get to the Meeting. I asked about him 
 the last time I was out. This little girl told me tliat she 
 believed he was going on in the right way. 
 
10 "/ ''LL TAK* HIM NAME.** 
 
 " This was a very striking instance to me : and I was 
 struck, also, with the manifestation of a kindly interest in 
 liim on the part of his juvenile companions. I said, *This 
 poor little fellow cannot go home at this time of night.' 
 ' Oh,' said one of the little ones, *I '11 no let him gang hame ; 
 I '11 tak' him hame with me.* This seemed to me as like 
 the time of the beginning of the Gospel at Jerusalem, when 
 they had all things in common, and every man received 
 into his house those from a distance who were converted 
 to the truth. 
 
 " Several persons went down to Musselburgh from Edin- 
 burgh. Among them was a female servant. She entered 
 into conversation witli one of the little girls, who immedi- 
 ately began to preach Christ to her as the Saviour, to the 
 utter amazement and astonishment of this woman. She 
 said to her, * Lassie, where did you learn this ? ' After a 
 httle while, the little girl, to her still further astonishment, 
 said, ' If you will kneel down, I will pray with you.' And 
 to use the woman's own words, * she just drappit down on 
 her knees, and I couldna but gang down too ! ' And the 
 little girl prayed ; and the woman, strongly moved, when 
 they rose up, exclaimed, * Lassie, v/ha ever learned you to 
 pray ? ' The child's answer was, * Naebody learned me ; I 
 think the Lord just pits 't into me.' That was the means of 
 that woman's conversion ; and she is now one who gives 
 evidence of being really converted." 
 
 We are warned in God's Word not to be ignorant ot 
 Satan's devices. We read in Job, that upon a certain day 
 the sons of God came together, and Satan came also 
 among them. I well remember walking through the streets 
 of Rome with two friends, when one of them remarked, 
 "The devil is very busy here." This was the answer: 
 " Oh, no ; he has his own way here in Rome ; he is away in 
 America and Scotland, where God is pouring out His Spirit, 
 
SA TAN '5 D£ VICES. li 
 
 and where sinners are escaping from his dominion. It is 
 there that he is concentrating his power." It is an alarming 
 thought that he vv'ho, "as a roaring lion, walketh about, 
 seeking whom he may devour," is on the alert when sinners, 
 and especially children, are fleeing to Christ ; for he well 
 'knows that if he can keep the children away from Him until 
 'sjn hath dominion over them, he has far more prospect of 
 retaining his hold upon them through time and through 
 eternity. l 
 
 To illustrate this, let me give one fact which occurred in 
 Newark, New Jersey, where it was officially reported, after 
 the revival in 1864, that something over a thousand joined 
 the Church from the Sunday-school The venerable Dr. 
 I Joel Parker, for many years pastor of one of the leading 
 I churches of New York City, known as a very conservative 
 man, both in poHtics and religion, arose in one of the 
 morning meetings in Dr. Henry Clay Fisher's church, and 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 " The longer I live, the more I believe in the devil. At 
 the very commencement of these meetings he came near 
 upsetting me. At the first Children's Meeting held in my 
 church, Mr. Hammond at the close of the address went 
 down among the children and began to talk with every one 
 with whom he came in contact Many were in tears. 
 Finally, he returned to the pulpit, and taking me by the 
 hand, said, * Dr. Parker, this is the work of God's Spirit. 
 Won't you come and speak to some of the children ? ' I 
 had very grave doubts about the matter. * These children 
 are under deep conviction,' ho added, * won't you go and 
 point them to Christ ? You can see they are weeping for 
 their sins.' I determined not to heed his zj>se dixit, but to 
 test the thing for myself before I went to work in tl:e 
 inquiry meeting. I therefore surveyed the strange scene 
 for a little v/hile, and finally selected one boy that v.as 
 
X9 FIFTY ANXIOUS CHILDREN, 
 
 weeping more bitterly, and was, apparently, in more deep 
 feeling than any of the rest. Instead of saying to him, * I 
 am glad to find you anxious about your soul,' I slowly 
 approached him, and said : 
 
 " * What are you weeping so for, my little boy ? * 
 ** Fresh tears burst from his eyes as he exclaimed : 
 " * I 've lost my hat ! I 've lost m.y hat ! ' 
 "The devil seemed," continued Dr. Parker, "to be 
 standing in almost visible form by my side, saying, • Yes, 
 that is it I One boy has lost his hat, and that is all he is 
 crying for. Those around him are crying out of sympathy ; 
 and here you, a minister of the Gospel, are being led into 
 this nonsense, making a fool of yourself. You had better go 
 back to the platform and maintain your dignity. By so 
 doing you will continue to hold the respect of yourself and 
 your neighbours.* 
 
 " I was about to turn upon my heel, when the words, 
 ' Be not ignorant of his devices ' (2 Cor. ii. 11) occurred to 
 me. I therefore determined not to be frightened so easily. ' 
 By the side of this boy was another, also weeping bitterly.' 
 I questioned hi?fi as to the cause of his tears. His reply 
 was, * Oh, I feel that I have been a great sinner not to love 
 that dear Saviour who died on the cross for me, of whom I 
 have heard so much to-day. It seems to me I never can be 
 forgiven, my heart is so hard.' I believe that I talked with 
 at least fifty that day under deep conviction of sin, and I 
 rejoice to know that numbers of them belong to my own 
 Sunday-school. I have watched over them, and I believe 
 that most of them are to-day giving evidence of having 
 experienced a blessed change of heart. 
 
 ** Oh, how glad the Evil One would have been to have 
 prejudiced me against the work at the very start, and so 
 kept me from entering into it with all my might ; and what a 
 good excuse I should have had, not on\ for keeping myself. 
 
THE SUNDA Y-SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, 13 
 
 but others, from entering into this work of God. How easily 
 I might have said to the ministers the next day, v/hen asked 
 what I thought of the Meeting, * It is all a sham ; they were 
 crying, but none of them knew what they were crying for. 
 I went down into the inquiry meeting myself. I deliberately 
 sought to find those who were said to be under the deepest 
 conviction. I found one boy weeping more bitterly, if pos- 
 sible, than the rest. I asked him what was the matter. 
 His laconic reply was, "/ have lost my hat / " I was at once 
 satisfied the whole thing was a sham ; that it would be time 
 enough to labour for the conversion of children when they 
 knew the difference between tears shed on account of the 
 conviction of sin, and those shed over the loss of a hat /^" 
 
 I have often been struck with the fact, that at the com- 
 mencement of a series of Meetings specially for children, 
 those whom we expected would be most ready to enter 
 into the work, are the very persons who seem to keep aloof. 
 The Lord only knows hov/ many bitter tears I have shed as 
 I have from time to time realized this fact. 
 
 In 1862, a superintendent of one of the leading 
 Sunday-schools in Brooklyn, N.Y., whose pastor at that 
 time preached to the largest congregation, I think, with 
 one exception, approached me at the close of a meetmg 
 in Dr. Hatfield's church, New York, with an invitation to 
 come to Brooklyn and hold some meetings. He stated 
 that Dr. Buddington and others were ready to unite in the 
 work. He brought with him letters from several pastors, 
 and in a few days the matter was aiTanged. The super* 
 intendent seemed to be very much in earnest, ready to do 
 all in his power to forv/ard the worL Numerous young 
 converts and earnest Christians in the Church where I was 
 labouring promised to pray earnestly that God would mani- 
 fest His mighty power in the salvation of souls. 
 
 At the very first Meeting, at which there were over tv/o 
 
14 CHILDREN PR A YING. 
 
 thousand present, there was a power beyond that of man 
 plainly visible moving upon the hearts of the people. 
 Many children were in tears. I was the guest of the super- 
 intendent. When I returned home his wife said to him : | 
 
 "My dear, I did not sec you at work in the inquiry 
 meeting. The children were weeping for their sins. Many 
 more helpers were needed. I am sure many expected that 
 you, being a superintendent, would be working among those 
 who were inquiring for the way of life." 
 
 " I have no faith in this work among the children," he 
 replied. " I think that they were merely weeping at some 
 of the very touching stories they had heard. I do not 
 believe they knew anything about the conviction of sin 
 experimentally." 
 
 " But you would have believed so," said his wife, " if you 
 had gone among the children as I did." 
 
 " I have no wish to do so," was the reply. ** I do not 
 believe in this way of doing things." 
 
 So he continued for three days. We had long argu- 
 ments together, and though he attended the meeting each 
 day, he seemed to grow severely censorious. There I was, 
 a guest in his house, and he all the time blind to the great 
 v/ork which God, by His Holy Spirit, was carrying on in 
 the hearts of many of the children and youth. About the 
 fourth day of the meetings, as he was passing across one 
 corner of the inquiry meeting, down in the aisle right before 
 him he found two little girls, one of them weeping bitterly. 
 Said the weeping child to the other : 
 
 "Oh, I am such a sinner, how can God ever for- 
 give me?" 
 
 " I felt just so too, last Monday," the other replied ; 
 ''but one of the Christians talked and prayed with me, and 
 pointed me to Jesus ; and as I myself prayed to Him, He 
 showed me His bleeding hands and wounded side, until I 
 
THE SUPERINTENDENT CONVINCED. ij 
 
 sa\7 and felt that He had truly loved me and given Himself 
 for me ; and I could not help loving Him ; so I gave m.y 
 heart to Him, and have been a happy little girl ever since, 
 trying to get all my friends to come to Him ; and nov/ if you 
 will bow your head, you too can come to Jesus, and be as 
 happy as I am." 
 
 ^ They did pray together, and oh, such an earnest 
 prayer ! it was enough to melt the hardest heart We both 
 stood and listened. Suddenly I saw my tall friend, the 
 superintendent, quivering like an aspen leaf. That little 
 girl praying vvith her friend was his daughter, who had been 
 converted since the first meeting ; and while her fatlier had 
 been cavilling about the work, she had been leading souls to 
 Christ. He turned, and, seizing me by the hand, said, 
 *'Can you forgive me ? Can God forgive me ? " 
 
 From that hour he enlisted in the work, and when 
 Sunday came, he found that sixty-three of his Sunday- 
 school scholars were giving evidence of having experienced 
 a change of heart. That superintendent v/as a good man. 
 I loved him. Though my heart was grieved and I shed 
 many tears over him, I was not angiy with him because he 
 did not understand the blessed work of God's Spirit. He 
 has since gone home to glory, and will no doubt meet upon 
 the shining shore many of his scholars who were at that time 
 truly born again. i 
 
 In Matthew xviii. 2, we read : " Jesus cnlled a little 
 child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and 
 said, Verily I say unto you. Except ye be converted, and 
 become as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble 
 himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such 
 little child in my name, receivelh Me. But whoso shall 
 offend one of these Utile ones which believe in Me, it 
 
x9 AfA TTHE W HENR F. 
 
 were better for him that a mmstone were hanged about his 
 neck, and that he were dro^vned in the depth of the sea." 
 
 This last verse is equivalent to saying, Whoso shall put 
 a stumbling-block in the way of one of these little ones 
 which believe in Me, etc. 
 
 I am especially thankful for these four words : " whicli 
 believe in ]\Ie." 
 
 Are we not thus distinctly taught from God's ov;n Word 
 that Httle children can intelligently believe in Christ? 
 
 I am ready to admit that the term "little children" 
 often refers to young converts, though they may be old 
 in 5Tars ; but the connection here would, it seems to me, 
 lead us to believe that our Saviour refers directly to little 
 children as such. 
 
 Matthew Henry says: "The tender regard Christ has 
 to His Church, extends itself to every particular member. 
 Not only to the whole family, but to every child of the 
 family. The less they are in themselves to whom we show 
 kindness, the more there is of good will in it to Christ ; the 
 less it is for their sakes, the more it is for His, and He takes 
 it accordingly. Our Saviour warns all people, as they will 
 answer it at their peril, not to put any stumbling-block in 
 the v/ay of one of His little ones." 
 
 In the year i858, it v/as my privilege to hold a series 
 of meetings in Weston-super-Mare, at the invitation of 
 Lord Cavan, Rev. R. G. W^ilker, and others. 
 
 Towards the close of the fxrst meeting, I carefully dwelt 
 for some tim.e upon the proofs of a saving change of heart, 
 giving them five scriptural evidences; namely. Love for 
 God's people; love foPv. the Bible; love for prayer; 
 LOVE for the Saviour ; and a desire to see others 
 converted. I d^vclt upon these carefully, illustrating each 
 point. I then said, at the close of the address, '* You wlio 
 
•• BECA USE 1 LO VE JESUS^ T} 
 
 feel that you have lately become Christians, and that ycu 
 have those five evidences of a change of heart, can do one 
 of three things : you can go to your homes, if you choose ; 
 or you can remain at the inquiry meeting and talk with 
 your little friends who are anxious ; or you can come up on 
 the platform and sing. Lest any of you should come on 
 tlie platform because others come, or simply because you 
 love to sing, I shall request the Rev. R. G. Walker, a clergy- 
 man of the Episcopal Church, and Lord Cavan, carefully to 
 examine each one of you, and not to allow any of you to 
 go upon the platform unless you can * give a reason for the 
 hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.' " 
 
 The work soon after began, and I went down among the 
 anxious. Once, as I returned to the platform, I found that the 
 Rev. R. G. Walker had just allowed to go upon it a little 
 fellow who did not seem to be over four years of age. I asked 
 him why he put such a little fellow upon the platform. His 
 calm answer was, " Because I bcHeve he is a Christian.* 
 ** It may be," said I ; " but he is too young to go up on that 
 platform. It v/ill make talk among the conservative people. 
 They will say we are putting babes up there. It will do 
 more harm than good." " But," said he, " I was requested 
 to allow those children, and those only, who could give 
 evidence of having experienced a change of heart, to go 
 ^p, and I have examined that little bov, and I think he is a 
 Cliristian." " It may be," said I ; " but we must have some 
 respect for the feelings of those Christians who are looking 
 en." " You can take him off," said he, " if you please, but 
 I cannot conscientiously." 
 
 I blush to record the fact that I said to the little fellow, 
 "What are you on this platform for?" His quick reply 
 was, "Because I love Jesus." " I am glad if you do ; but it 
 is now nearly eight o'clock, and it is time such a little boy 
 as you were at home. Now run away," I said, as I lifted 
 
x8 OFFENDING THE LITTLE ONES. 
 
 him from the edge of the platform and turned his face 
 towards the door. He burst into tears, but, hke an obe- 
 dient boy, pressed his way out. Just at that moment a 
 Christian lady vv'ho heard all this touched my arm and 
 asked, " Do you know that boy ? " *' No," was my reply; " I 
 only know that I thought he was too young to be upon the 
 platform with the young converts." "If you had heard 
 him pray," said she, " as / did last night, you would not so 
 cruelly have put him from the platform and sent him home 
 crying.'" It seemed at that instant as if I could hear my 
 Saviour saying unto m.e, " Whoso shall offend one of these 
 little ones v/hich believe in Me, it were better that a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned 
 in the depth of the sea;" and I said, "O Lord, if I 
 may but be forgiven this once, I will never again act so 
 cruelly. With Thy help, never again shall the fear of man 
 under like circumstances bring a snare to my soul." 
 
 It is a delightful thought, and in full accordance with 
 the teachings of God's Word, that when you and I, dear 
 reader, enter the realms of Paradise, we shall meet multi- 
 tudes upon multitudes who were converted in childhood. 
 Let us hope that some of these will have been saved through 
 our instrumentality. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 BOW EARLY MAY CHILDREN BE LED TO CHRIST? 
 
 ••they brought young children [" LITTLE CHILDREN," Matthcw; 
 'INFANTS," Ltike\ TO HIM , . . AND KS , , . BLESSED THEM." 
 
 Mark X. 13, l6. 
 
 HE question is ofien asked— At how early an age 
 can children experimentally understand the vray 
 
 of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus 
 
 Ctjist? It may not be easy to give a definite answer to 
 this question ; but I have found in many parts of the world 
 erainent Christians who experienced a change of heart at 
 such an early age that they could not remember the time 
 when they first began to love God. I firmly believe that it 
 is possible for Christian parents and Sabbath-school teachers 
 of infant classes so to hold up Christ before little children, 
 even of only three, four, and five summers, tliat their young 
 hearts will be drawn I m.ight say almost involuntarily, to Him. 
 A mother in England taught her little child that his 
 father v/as av>'ay in India. As soon as he could Hsp his 
 father's nam.e, his picture was shovv-n him, and he was 
 taught to say, "That's my papa." Though he had never 
 seen his father to know him, yet, through that mother's 
 faithful teaching, he learned to love him. One day, unex- 
 pectedly to all, the father returned from India, and as he 
 
ao aUSHNELL 'S " CNJ^/S TIAN NUR TURE:* 
 
 entered the hall door, his little son was the first to greet 
 him, exclaiming as he did so, " ]\Iy dear papa, I so glad to 
 see you." Why is it not possible for mothers, therefore, so 
 to bring home to their little ones the great fact of Jesus' 
 love for them, that their young hearts will be drawn to Him 
 at such an early age that they will never be able to 
 remember the time when the light of the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness first dawned upon them? Then might they be enabled 
 truly to say of Christ, *' In whom, though now ye see Him 
 not, yet believing, ye rejoice." (i Pet. i. 8.) 
 
 It is not enough simply to tell children that Jesus has 
 loved them and died for them. They must first be led to 
 see and to feel that we really love Him ourselves, that He 
 is to us a personal Friend and Saviour. Then, and not till 
 then, will our words reach their hearts. 
 
 Dr. Horace Bushnell, in his book on ** Christian 
 Nurture," holds the theory to which we have alluded. 
 Some persons have misunderstood this work, and supposed 
 that he intended to teach that children were not by nature 
 sinful, and did not need the regenerating influences of God's 
 Spirit, that they might experience a saving change of heart. 
 A few years before he died I met him at his home in Hartford, 
 Connecticut, and questioned him upon this point. His 
 answer was, '' I believe that every child of Adam is a sinner, 
 and in need of forgiveness, and of a divinely wrought change 
 of heart ; and I beHeve that it is alone through the death oi 
 Christ that this change can be effected." He also says : 
 
 " The aim and effort and expectation should be, not, as 
 is comm.only assumed, that the child is to grow up in sin, 
 and to be converted after he comes to a mature age ; but 
 that he is to open on the v/orld as one who is spiritually 
 renewed, not remembering the time when he went through 
 a technical experience, but seeming rather to have loved 
 what is good from his carUest years. 
 
CHILDREN STILU 2i 
 
 *^This doctrine is not a novelty, now rashly and for 
 the first time propounded. It is as old as the Christian 
 Church, and prevails extensively at the present day in other 
 parts of the world. Neither let your own experience raise 
 a prejudice against it If you have endeavoured to realize 
 the very truth I here affirm, but find that your children do 
 not exhibit the character you have looked for ; if they seem 
 to be intractable to religious influences, and sometimes to 
 display an apparent aversion to the very subject of religion 
 itself, you are not, of course, to conclude that the doctrine 
 I here maintain is untrue or impracticable. 
 
 " You may be unreasonable in jour expectations of your 
 children. 
 
 " Possibly there may be seeds of holy principle in them 
 which you do not discover. 
 
 "A child acts out his present feelings, the feelings of the 
 moment, without qualification or disguise. And how would 
 you appear, many times, if you were to do the same ? 
 
 ' Will you expect of them to be better and more con- 
 stant and consistent than yourselves ; or will you not rather 
 expect them to be chixdven, human children still, living a 
 mixed life, trying out the good and evil of the world, and 
 preparing, as older Chris ciaiis do, vrhen they have taken a 
 lesson of sorrow and emptiness, to turn again to the true 
 good? 
 
 ** Perhaps they will go through a rough mental struggle, 
 at some future day, r.nd seem, to others and to themselves, 
 there to have entered on a Christian i.fe. xA.nd yet it may 
 be true that there was stiil some root of right principle 
 established in their childhood, v/hich is here only quickened 
 and developed, as when Christians of a mature age are 
 revived in their piety, after a period of spiritual letharg}'; 
 for it is conceivable that regenerate character may exist, 
 long before it is fully and formally developed." 
 
» ^IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GG." 
 
 Again, Dr. Bushnell says : " Children have been so 
 trained as never to remember the time when they began to 
 be religious. Baxter was, at one time, greatly troubled 
 concerning himself, because he could recollect no time when 
 there was a gracious change in his character. But he dis- 
 covered, at length, that * education is as properly a means 
 of grace as preaching,' and thus found a sweeter comfort in 
 his love to God, that he learned to love Him so early. The 
 European churches, generally, regard Christian piety more 
 as a habit of life formed under the training of childhood, 
 and less as a marked spiritual change in experience. 
 
 " The Mora\ian Brethren, it is agreed by all, give as 
 ripe and graceful an exhibition of piety as any body of 
 Christians living on the earth, and it is the radical dis- 
 tinction of their system that it rests its power on Christian 
 education. They make their churches schools of holy 
 nurture to childhood, and expect their children to grow up 
 there, as plants in the house of the Lord. Accordingly it 
 is affirmed that not one in ten of the members of that 
 church recollects any time when he began to be religious. 
 Is it then incredible that what has been can be ? 
 
 "God does expressly lay upon us to expect that our 
 children will grow up in piety under the parental nurture, 
 and assumes the possibility that such a result may ordinarily 
 be realized. 'Train up a child' — how? for future con- 
 version ? No, but * in the way he should go, and when he 
 is old he will not depart from it.' If it be said that this 
 relates only to outward habits of virtue and vice, not to 
 spiritual life, I reply, the Old Testament does not raise that 
 distinction, as it is raised in the New. It puts all good 
 together, all evil together, and regards a child trained up in 
 the way he should go, as going in all the ways, and fulfilling 
 all the ideas of virtue. 
 
 "The phraseology of the New Testament carries tha 
 
INCONSISTENT PARENTS, 83 
 
 same import : * Bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord ' (Eph. vi. 4), a form of expression which 
 indicates the existence of a divine nurture, that is to en- 
 compass the child and mould him unto God ; so that he 
 shall be brought up, as it were, in Him. 
 
 " A time is foretold, as our churches generally believe, 
 when all shall know God, even from the least to the gi-eatest^ 
 that is, shall spiritually know Him ; or so that there shall be 
 no need of exhorting one another to know Him ; for intel- 
 lectual knowledge is not carried by exhortation. If such a 
 tim.e is ever to come, then at least children are to grow up 
 in Christ. Can it come too soon? And if we have the 
 opinion that any such thing is impossible, either vve, or 
 those who com.e after us, must get rid of it. A principal 
 reason why the great expectations of the future, that Vv^e in 
 this age are giving out so confidently, seemx only visionary 
 and idle dreams to many, is that we are perpetually assuming 
 their im.possibility ourselves. One theory of religion is, 
 that men are to grow up in evil, and be dragged into the 
 Church of God by conquest. The world is to lie in halves, 
 and the kingdom of God is to stretch itself side by side 
 with the kingdom of darkness, making sallies into it, and 
 taking captive those who are sufficiently hardened and 
 bronzed in guiltiness to be converted." 
 
 Dr. Bushnell further asks : 
 
 " Why it is. If our doctrine be true, that many persons, 
 remarkable f ^r their piety, have been so unfortunate in their 
 children? Because, I ansv/er, many persons remarkable 
 for their piety, are yet very disagreeable persons, and that, 
 too, by reason of some very marked defect in their religious 
 character. They display just that spirit, and act in just that 
 manner, which is likely to make religion odious — the more 
 odious the more urgently they commend it Som.etimes 
 tliey appear well to the world one remove distant from 
 
34 RJ^ VI VA LS OF RELIGIO N. 
 
 them ; they shine well in their written biography ; but one 
 living in their family will know what others do not, and, if 
 their children turn out badly, will never be at a loss for the 
 reason. Many persons, too, have such defective views of 
 the manner of teaching appropriate to early childhood, that 
 they really discourage their children. * Fathers, provoke 
 not your children,' says Paul, * lest they be discouraged* 
 (Col. iii. 2i); implying that there is such a thing as en- 
 couraging, and such a thing as discouraging good principle 
 and piety in a child. And there are other ways of discou- 
 raging children besides provoking them to an angry and 
 wounded feeling by harsh treatment." 
 
 Now, some might infer from these teachings of Dr. 
 Bushnell that he v/ould naturally oppose labouring for the 
 salvation of children in masses, especially in revivals of 
 religion. I remember, however, the time v/hen he invited 
 Dr. Finney to his church in Hartford to hold a series of 
 meetings, and laboured earnestly with him in union 
 meetings. I am not surprised, therefore, that near the 
 close of his discourses op- "Christian Nurture," he uses 
 the following language : 
 
 *' Let us turn now, not away from revivals of religion, 
 certainly not away from the conviction that God will bring 
 upon the churches tides of spiritual exercise, and vary His 
 Divine culture by times and seasons suited to their advance- 
 ment ; but let us turn to inquire v/hether there is not a fund 
 of increase in the veiy bosom of the Church itself. Let us 
 try if we may not train up our children in the way that they 
 should go. Simply this, if we can do it, will make the 
 Church multiply her numbers manyfold more rapidly than 
 nov/, with the advantage that many more will be gained 
 from without than now." 
 
 It seems to me that every candid Christian must admit 
 
MR. J. DEN HAM SMITH, 25 
 
 the positions which Dr. Bushnell assumes in his discourses 
 on "Christian Nurture," at least those which I have 
 quoted. A fact occurs to my mind which bears upon the 
 subject of this chapter. 
 
 When r>Ir. J. Denham Smith was holding a series of 
 meetings in the Metropolitan Hall in DubUn, his own little 
 boy about four years of age was very much interested, and 
 deeply convicted of his sinfulness. He was very fond of 
 singing, as were all the members of his father's family. 
 One evening after they returned from the children's 
 meeting, his mother and sisters gathered around the 
 piano and began to sing some of their familiar hymns, 
 when his voice mingled with the rest. Though so young, 
 he had caught many of the refrains and could join in them 
 most heartily. Finally, they came to the hymn vrhich he 
 had often heard the great congregation sing, comm^encing, 
 
 ** Now I have found a Friend, Jesus is mine 5 
 His love shall never end, Jesus is mine." 
 
 Though all the rest d the family present united in 
 singing these words, his litde lips were closed ; at length 
 he said, " Please, mamma, don't sing that hymn ; Jesus is 
 not mine yet." When his father returned they told him of 
 it, but he replied, "Willie is too young to understand these 
 things. After tea we v/ill sing some more hymns, and bring 
 in the one he objected to." They did so, and AVillie again 
 remonstrated, exclaiming, " iMamma, didn't I ask you not 
 to sing that hymn ? Jesus is not mine yet I cannot sing 
 it." The father was surprised, but still said nothing. Next 
 morning, Willie did not come do^^m to breakfast After 
 waiting for him some time, his father v.'ent upstairs, and 
 there found him kneeling down by his bed, engaged in 
 prayer. When the door opened he arose, and in the most 
 earnest manner asked, " Papa, when is the next children's 
 
aS JOURNEY TO GALVESTON, 
 
 meeting?" Being told that it would be on Friday, he said, 
 " Won't you ask them to pray for me, that the Holy Spirit 
 may ^^7 /// and dozvn in viy heaji, so that I can v.'ith the rest 
 sing, 'Now I have found a Friend, Jesus is mine' ?" 
 
 At the next children's meeting Willie was present, 
 drinking in every word. At the close he pressed his way 
 to his father's side, and putting his hand in his, he said, 
 *' Now, dear papa, I can sing with the rest, *■ Now I have 
 found a Friend, Jesus is mine ! ' " 
 
 From that time this little boy lived a consistent Christian 
 life. Nine years after, when I was holding meetings in that 
 same hall, that boy, then thirteen years of age, Avas present. 
 Though I knew well his early history, I asked him if he was 
 a Christian. He said he had reason to believe that he 
 was. I then asked him when it was that he first began to 
 love the Saviour. His quick, decisive answer was, " It 
 seems to me that I always loved Him. I cannot remember 
 the time when I first felt His love in my heart" And yet 
 there was no doubt of the hour when he vras so enabled to 
 view the loving Jesus bleeding on Calvary's cross for him, 
 when his heart went out in love and consecration, and 
 the Spirit of God said to him, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and thou shalt be saved." God grant that every 
 reader of this book may often hear the Saviour's words 
 ringing in his ears, "Suffer the little children to come 
 unto Me, and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom 
 of God." 
 
 In 1874, at the close of the "union meetings" in St. 
 Louis, twenty-one people — earnest Christians — among whom 
 were several ministers and their wives, went with me on aa 
 evangehstic journey of nearly 2100 miles, to Galveston, 
 passing through Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, the Indian 
 Territory, and Kansas. At a Children's INIeeting in 
 .Galveston, the wife of one of these i?-iinisters related a 
 
THE CLEANSED HEART. 9} 
 
 touching storj' in regard to the conversation of her little 
 bo}^ scarcely four years of age. One day he came 
 running to her, and with a face betokening great sorrov/, 
 he said : 
 
 "Mamma, I said a naughty word; I sweared, I did." 
 
 "Did you?" she said j "come here then, and I will get 
 some clean water, and a rag, and some soap, and wash your 
 mouth out." 
 
 She then carefully went to work and washed his mouth 
 out thoroughly, after which she pressed her finger down 
 into his throat, and the little fellow felt half-choked. He 
 said: 
 
 "What are you doing that for, mamma ?** 
 
 " Because I want to get down into your heart, and wash 
 your heart out ; but I see that I can't do that, so you will 
 have to ask God to do that for you.'* 
 
 «HowcanGoddoit?" 
 
 ** I do not know ; He does not tell me.** 
 
 "I know It came from the heart, mamma, because I 
 thought the naughty word before I said it. But will He 
 wash out my heart if I ask Him, mamma ? " 
 
 " Yes, He will ; He promises to do so." 
 
 "Then I will ask Him." 
 
 Away he went to his little room, and kneeling doTm, he 
 said, " O God, I said a naughty word ; I sv/eared, I did ; 
 mamma has washed my mouth out, but she can't wash my 
 heart out. O God, please wash my heart out, for Jesus' 
 sake. Amen." 
 
 By many this wull be regarded as a childish affair, never 
 to be thought of again by the little one ; but this calm, 
 judicious mother, whose name I can give to any who may 
 desire it, said to a crowded church in Galveston, " That boy 
 has been changed from that day. I beHeve he became a 
 Christian from that hour, and he has lived a Chiistiaa life 
 
a8 ^ SINCE I WAS A LITTLE BOY* 
 
 ever since. His twin brother looks so much like him, I can 
 scarcely tell them apart, and yet they are totally different 
 fi-om each other in their spiritual life. One is a Christian 
 and the other is not. I see the proof of this over and over 
 again in their every-day life.'* 
 
 This child was not four years of age. 
 
 At one of the Children's Meetings in the Metropolitan 
 ITall in DubHn, Miss Bcwley found in the inquiry meeting 
 a little boy who did not appear to be more than five years 
 of age. V/hen she came to speak to this little fellow about 
 his soul, she found that he was indulging a hope in Christ, 
 and supposing that he was one of the young converts, asked 
 him how long it v/as since he had learned to love the pre- 
 cious Saviour. His quick reply was : " Oh, I have loved Him 
 EVER SINCE I WAS A LITTLE BOY I" "But," Said she, "you 
 are only a little boy now." She v/as about to remonstrate 
 vvith him for having given such an answer, thinking he did 
 not realize the nature of a change of heart, experimentally, 
 when suddenly a tall man who had been looking on, in a 
 confident manner said, " That is my boy. He has been a 
 Christian for at least tv.'O years ; and about the best Christian 
 too in our house." 
 
 The early faith here illustrated, kindled in the heart at 
 so tender an age,. and burning so brightly and steadily, we 
 know was John the Baptist's, who vvas " filled with the Holy 
 Ghost from his mother's womb " (Luke i. 15). It may have 
 been Timothy's, of whom Paul says, " From a child thou 
 hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make 
 thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus" (2 Tim. iii. 15); the same "unfeigned faith . • • 
 which dwelt fi- .t in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother 
 Eunice " (2 Tim. i. 5). Such, too, was the little Samuel's, 
 who "ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded 
 with a linen ephod" (i Sam. ii. iS); and such, perhaps, 
 
THE CHILD'S GOSPEL, 99 
 
 was the peacelul experience of Isaac, the child of promise. 
 And how grateful to God must have been the oHeriags of 
 such youthful hearts. 
 
 Let those who suppose children must arrive at matuiity 
 before they can become Christians, look carefully into the 
 New Testament for light on this subject. They will find 
 that there is no class of believers so particularly mentioned 
 by our Lord as children. Three of the evangelists have 
 recorded, what a little girl on hearing it read called " the 
 child's gospel " (I\Iark x. 13-16) : 
 
 " They brought young child; en 
 
 [Matthew says, " little children ; " Lulce calls them " infants"] 
 
 " to Him, that He should touch them : 
 
 [Matthew says, ** that He should put His hands on them and pray :"] 
 
 •*and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. Eut 
 when Je3us saw it He was much displeased, 
 
 [Luke says, "Jesus called them unto Him,"] 
 
 " and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto 
 Me, and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of God. 
 Verily I say unto you. Whosoever shall not receive the king- 
 dom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 
 And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon 
 them, and blessed them" (Matt. xix. 13-15; Luke xviiL 
 
 15-17)- 
 
 Rev. James Macfarlane remarks that these children were 
 of such an age that Jesus, after calling them to Ilim, took 
 them up in His arms. 
 
 And now let us inquire as to the effect of the Saviour's 
 blessing upon these little ones. Will any one say that it 
 was an unmeaning or useless formality, that the prayers of 
 the Son of God were not answered, and that these Uttls 
 
go *^SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN^ 
 
 children did not then and there receive " the kingdom of 
 God," undergo a change of heart, and become as real 
 Christians as the oldest of His disciples ? Observe also the 
 Saviour's declarations that "of such is the kingdom of God," 
 and that " whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 
 as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein " (Luke xviii. 
 17). Alas ! the greatest difficulty v/ith older sinners is here 
 illustrated by our Divine Master, that they cannot have that 
 trustful and obedient faith in their Heavenly Father's pro- 
 mises and commands which is so natural to the Httle child. 
 The child believes the facts or principles its parent states 
 as true, and obeys his orders without knowing the reason, 
 relying upon his judgment and yielding to his will. 
 
 Nor was this a miraculous imposition of hands in any 
 way different from ordinarj^ conversion. The little children 
 have the same living Saviour now as those had whom He 
 blessed while on earth, and " His hand is not shortened that 
 it cannot save " (Isa. lix. i). Little children can nov/ come 
 to Jesus just as they did then, and receive the same blessing. 
 He is now sending the Holy Spirit, in answer to prayer, to 
 testify of Him, and to direct sinners to Him as the 
 Saviour. 
 
 " JESUS WANTS 'UM." 
 
 Our Saviour is still saying, as of old, " Suffer the little 
 children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such 
 is the kingdom of God " (Mark x. 14). 
 
 In a Sunday-school where all the children were expected 
 to repeat a text of Scripture, a very small boy commenced 
 the above verse, but, through embarrassment, could only 
 get as tar as " Suffer little children." He started again, and 
 was only able to add the word " come." The third time, 
 n-ith more energy, he began and ended as follows : " Suffer 
 
•• JES US OF NA ZARE TH PA SSE TH D Y^ 31 
 
 fJie little children to come unto Me^ for — Jesus wants 'um all 
 
 TO COME, AND don't ANY OF YOU BIG FOLKS STOP 'UM." 
 
 To say the least, the little fellow had the trae idea of the 
 
 passage, though he expressed it somewhat roughly. 
 
 Rev. R. G. Pardee most thoroughly believed in the 
 early conversion of children. He was for many years 
 regarded as an oracle in Sunday-school m.atters. I believe 
 that all who knew him loved him. It vras my pleasure to 
 spend many happy hours in his own home. Whenever it 
 was my privilege to hold meetings anywhere in the vicinity 
 of Nev/ York, he was generally present. He loved especially 
 to point the anxious little ones to Christ. I have no doubt 
 that in heaven he has met some of those whom he pointed 
 to the atoning sacrifice. Words spoken by him y^cx^ the 
 occasion of the hymn " Jesus of Nazareth passeth by " being 
 written. I well remember that on a Saturday afternoon, in 
 Dr. Terhune's church, in Newark, N. J., in 1864, Mr. Pardee 
 rose in one of the crowded Children's Meetings and made 
 some very impressive rem»arks on the answer given to Blind 
 Bartimeus, in Luke xviii. 37, "They told him, that Jesus of 
 Nazareth passeth by." Miss Campbell, a Sunday-school 
 teacher, was present, and shordy after wrote that striking 
 hymn, which has been sung by thousands, and tens of 
 thousands, the world over. It struck me that it might be 
 set to music, and I found it could be sung very well to the 
 tune " Sweet Hour of Prayer." There were originally nine 
 verses. For twelve years I have used it,* and it has ahvays 
 been popular in evangelistic services ; multitudes have been 
 av/akened by it, and led to cry out, as did the blind man, 
 ** Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me ! " 
 
 * See "Hymns of Salvation," edited by E. P. Hammond. 
 Pp. 26 and 27. This hymn was also one of the favourites ia *' Songs 
 AND Solos," and was frequently sung with great effect by Mr. Sankey. 
 
Sa THE GAMBLER. 
 
 A gambler once came into a morning meeting, whicli 
 crowded the Congregational Church in Lockport, N.Y., 
 while we w^ere singing that hymn ; and at the close of it, 
 though it was the first meeting he had attended, he arose, 
 and with tears streaming down his cheeks begged the Chris- 
 < ians to pray for him. Earnest prayer at once ascended in 
 his behalf, and it was answered A few nights after, in 
 ^elating his experience before a large assembly in Dr. 
 Wisner's Church, he referred to this hymn as having been 
 the means of awakening him, and added, " As I v/ent out 
 of the church that day, and over the canal, I threw the 
 * Devil's Testament,' with its fifty-two leaves, into it." I am 
 sure he never played a card afterwards. He lived a con- 
 sistent Christian life, and has since died a happy death. 
 
 I might fill pages relating similar instances to illustrate 
 the good this hymn has accomplished. 
 
 I have been extremely sorry to see that in many of the 
 hymn-books which contain it, the second verse, which k as 
 follows, is omitted : 
 
 ** E'en children feel the potent spell, 
 And haste their new-found joy to tell 5 
 In crowds they to the place repair 
 "Where Christians daily bow in prayer J 
 Hosannas mingle with the cry, 
 •Jesus of Nazareth passeth by 1**' 
 
 The seven verses together are a little sermon in them* 
 selves, and it seems to me that they are so connected that 
 none of them should be discarded. By this hymn, I 
 believe multitudes have been led to Christ ; and they ov/e a 
 debt of gratitude to I\Ir. Pardee for having suggested, as 
 wxU as to Miss Campbell for having written, it. I have 'c^een 
 led to WTite these words partly for the sake of giving em- 
 phasis to Mr. Pardee's words, in " The Sabbath-school 
 Indey/' on the eaily conversion of children ; 
 
MR. PARDEE'S WORDS, 33 
 
 "Immediate conversion ought to be the aim and ex- 
 pectation of every faithful Sabbath-school teacher. It is 
 indeed a poor excuse to suffer a child to drown because we 
 have but one opportunity of saving it. V/hen a child is in 
 danger of perishing, we do not first try to educate it, but tc 
 save it. The fact evidently is, that the great mass ol 
 children ought to be led directly to Christ and become 
 child-Christians without delay ; and multitudes would be so 
 led, methinks, if parents and teachers and pastors had suffi- 
 cient confidence in the power of God's Vvord and Spirit, 
 and had faith in the early conversion of children to God. 
 Many of our most learned divines and most devoted and 
 useful Christian ladies date their conversion from the early 
 ages of three, four, five, and six years. 
 
 " We have heard many pastors declare in Sabbath-school 
 conventions, that * They never could remember when they 
 did not love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts.' And we 
 believe with the pious Richard Baxter, that if Christiai 
 parents were faithful in the use of the means God has pul 
 in their hands, most of their children would be converted 
 before they are old enough to understand a sermon. 
 
 " It is a fact that should never be forgotten, that the 
 children, even the little children of our Christian families 
 and Sunday-schools, all want to be Christians more than 
 they want anything else. Little ones of five or six years tell 
 us that they wet their pillows night after night with teais of 
 sorrow for sin ; and, more than all earthly longings, they long 
 for some one to lead them to Jesus. Such is the testimony 
 of devoted ministers and Christian ladies in great numbers ; 
 and many of us can realize it all, most bitterly, if we will 
 only recall our early childhood and Uve that over again, 
 v^ ** Said one little girl of four summers, * Mamma, I should 
 think that anybody who knows Jesus would love Him.' 
 
 " This IS the feeling of well-trahied children in great 
 
 3 
 
34 THE KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED, 
 
 numbers. They want pure, simple instruction as to who 
 Jesus Carist is, and what He is to them. 
 
 All the Gospel knov/ledge really necessary for salvation 
 lies, as it were, in a nut-shelL The knowledge of their fall 
 and sinfulness, and the atonemxent and redemption there is 
 in Jesus Christ, and which, to a wihing mind, can be taught 
 in a few minutes, is all the knowledge really necessary for 
 s:ilvation. Really teach this, and it v/ill remain attached to 
 the natural conscience, and only awaits the spark of grace 
 from the Holy Spirit to descend and act upon it, and renew 
 the heart and change the life. 
 
 "This subject is one of overwhelmxing importance. It 
 is the vital point of all Bible teaching. When Sabbath- 
 school teachers learn the holy art of leading children to 
 Jesus, then we may expect conversions. Sometimes ^¥e 
 have known one-third of all the members of large Sabbath- 
 schools to unite with the Church of Christ in a single season. 
 Why should not this oftener be the case ? Why should it 
 not be the general rule in all our schools ? and will it not be 
 so, if the teachers will but have faith in God, faith in His 
 Word, and faith in childhood, and aim directly to bring the 
 children to Christ for salvation ? The great point is to get 
 Bible truth, the Word of God, which is the sword of the 
 Spirit, to bear directly on the conscience, heart, and life 
 of the child. Convince him thereby of his sin ; then lead 
 him by a simple trusting faith to Jesus' blood shed for him. 
 Seek the proffered, willing aid of God's Holy Spirit be- 
 lievingly, and the vvork is done. * This is Hfe eternal, that 
 they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom Thou hast sent ' " (John xvii. 3). 
 
 LITTLE ELIZA. 
 
 A little more than eleven years ago, there were some 
 CLiidrcn's Meetings in Tovvanda, Pennsylvania, where a good 
 
LITTLE ELIZA, 35 
 
 many children and youth learned to love the dear Saviour. 
 Little Eliza, my wife's niece, only four and a half years of 
 age, wanted to go with her brothers and sisters to the 
 meetings. Just to please her, her father and mother per- 
 mitted her to go. I do not think they imagined at the time 
 that she would understand what was said, or v/ould get any 
 good. But though she was so little, Eliza did understand 
 all that was said about Jesus dying on the cross, that we 
 might have our sins forgiven and be saved for ever in 
 heaven. And when she heard that God was waiting to 
 accept little children for Christ's sake, she went to Him in 
 believing prayer, and asked Him to forgive her sins, and 
 give her a new heart, and make her His own child. 1 often 
 talked with her after that, and felt quite sure that she had 
 trusted in Christ, and was saved. 
 
 That was in January, 1866. Nearly three years passed 
 away, and still, day by day, little Eliza Hved the life of a 
 Christian. All who knew her felt that she did truly love 
 the blessed Saviour of Httle children, and that daily she 
 tried to please Him. I could not help loving her, and so 
 did all who knew her. 
 
 I cannot tell you how sad we felt when one day 
 in London, we received a letter from her father, 
 snying : 
 
 " I write to tell you of tlie death of our dear little 
 daughter Eliza, who went to her Saviour about one o'clock 
 in the morning of October 26, after an illness of only thirty- 
 four hours, aged seven years, five months, and fourteen 
 ^ays. I left home on T^Ionday, leaving her reading her last 
 .Sabbath-school book, 'On the Rock and on the Sand.' She 
 kissed m.e her last ' good-bye ' till we kiss again in heaven- 
 need not speak to you of her lovely Christian life and 
 character, nor of the winning ways of this favourite little 
 one. What a comfort we have in knowing that long ago 
 
^ THE FA THER '5 LE TTER, 
 
 she learned to know and love and trust in Jesus — that she 
 went to Him, and never left Him ! " 
 
 She was one who died early. But her father wrote of 
 her: 
 
 " I can only think of Eliza as having gone over the 
 river first, because she was best prepared; and as she 
 always so joyfully ran to meet me on my return home, so 
 she will run into my arms when I follow her home to 
 heaven." 
 
«a33rr->." ■^^T^'*: 
 
 "^^rfp^^"^^ "^'^^\ 
 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WILL CHILDREN CONTINUE STEADFAST? 
 
 WORDS OF JESUS : 
 
 „ IT IS KOT THE WILT. OF YOU?. FATHEK VvIIICH IS IN HEAVEN THAT 
 ONE OF TliEbE LITTLE O.NES SHOULD PESISn.** 
 
 Ulait. xviii. 14. 
 
 Ril 
 
 \^:^i^:£kk 
 
 KNOW that many believe that it is easy to work 
 upon the feelings cf children— to get them 
 thoroughly excited with a sort of religious en- 
 thusiasm, and then to ask them if they love Jesus, and if 
 they say "Yes," to pronounce them converted. I know 
 that even good Christians who have not had the opportunity 
 of labouring among children for their salvation, have been 
 heard to express ideas similar to these. 
 
 Years ago, when I first began to labour amongst them, 
 and saw them in large numbers profess to have experienced 
 a change of heart, the question was often asked me, *' Do 
 you believe those children have been really converted?" 
 At that time I had no answer to give, for the reason that I 
 had no data on which to form a correct conclusion. 
 
 Before we can reason philosophically by the law of 
 induction, and lay down principles and conclusions, philo- 
 sophers teach us that we must gather a great number of 
 facts from different sources. For instance, we say the sun 
 will rise to-morrow, simply because shice the creation of the 
 world it has, day after day, thrown i% rays upon the earth 
 
S8 AfY IVN EXPERIENCE, 
 
 r.s it Uirns upon its axis. We therefore regard it safe to say 
 that the sun will rise to-morrow. 
 
 The only answer I could give was, " I hope they will 
 hold out. I know that we have prayed for the Holy Spirit 
 to awaken them and show them their sinfulness ; I know 
 that we have tried to hold up Christ as the only Saviour. 
 But, after all, it may prove an evanescent work. It m.ay be, 
 that it is only excitement; that these children's feelings 
 only have been wrought upon; that they have- never v/ith 
 the eye of faith beheld Christ bleeding on the cross for 
 them ; and tliat therefore their present earnestness will all 
 pass away as the m.orning cloud and the early dew." 
 
 This was the only position that I had any authority for 
 taking fifteen and twenty years ago ; but since that period I 
 have taken great pains to ascertain v/hat have been the 
 prominent results of what might be called the phenomena 
 concerning these children. And now I feel that I am in a 
 position to state definite facts that certainly ought to 
 encourage the faith of those who have had less opportunity 
 of observing the result of labours put forth directly for the 
 salvation of the young. 
 
 I have frequently revisited places, and found those who 
 years ago were converted when children, grown up to be 
 men and v/omen ; and what is more, I have found them 
 earnest Christia?TS, and ready to testify that when " those 
 Children's Meetings were held " in their town or city, they 
 experienced the forgiveness of their sins and a change of 
 heart, and then began to live the new life which is by the faith 
 of the Son of God, "who loved us and gave Himself for us. ' 
 
 In nearly every city and town where I have laboured for 
 the last few years, I have found some who have ol their own 
 accord said to me, in substance, something like this : " So 
 many years ago, v/hen ^a child, I was converted in the 
 Children's Meetings held in our place, and I thank Goc for 
 
DR. PRIME'S "FIVE YEARS OF FRAVER." 39 
 
 it ; for I have thus been kept by His grace from a thousand 
 sins into which others of my age have fallen." 
 
 An item of experience with regard to the Children's 
 Meetings I was permitted to hold in London, in 1867, 
 bears upon the subject of this chapter. To show how 
 God's providence unexpectedly prepares the way for His 
 people to work for Him, it m.ay be interesting to refer to a 
 singular circumstance, vrhich led to our visit to England. 
 
 In the summer of 1864, I was sitting under a tree near 
 " Mountain House " in the Catskill T\Iountains, reading a 
 book, when a gentleman passing asked me if I could tell 
 him the way to Eagle Rock. I replied that I should be 
 happy to s/ioza him the way. The consequence was that 
 we spent the forenoon together conversing m.ostly upon 
 religious topics, and scenes and persons that we v/ere both 
 acquainted with in other lands. We did not learn each 
 other's names until we returned to the hotel, when he intro- 
 duced me to his wife, Mrs. E. D. G. Prime, daughter of 
 Dr. Goodell, of Constantinople. Dr. Prime told me that 
 his brother was writing a sequel to " The Power of Prayer," 
 and asked if I had anything on the subject of ansv/ers to 
 prayer and concerning the conversion of children. I gave 
 him a copy of " The Harvest Work of the Holy Spirit," 
 and referred him to some of the facts narrated, which were 
 afterwards put into his brother's book. 
 
 In 1 868, four years aftenvards, I received a letter from 
 the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, of London, saying that he 
 had been reading " Five Years of Prayer," by Dr. Prime, 
 which had been r=;published in England, and that his heart 
 was deeply moved in hearing of what God had been doing 
 by His Holy Spirit in the conversion of children in America. 
 In his letter he requested me to come to London and hold 
 a series of meetings similar to those of which he had read 
 in America. He said that he believed that oiher churches 
 
40 HON. AND REV, BAPTIST NOEL. 
 
 would imlle, and the work would spread through the city j 
 and though it might begin v/ith the children, it would not 
 end there. The invitation was accepted. I found Baptist 
 Noel surrounded with a most earnest, consecrated band of 
 Christian men and women. They had gi-eat confidence in 
 their pastor, then nearly seventy years of age. He had 
 long been with them, and they seemed ready at once to 
 comply with every request he made. Much prayer was 
 offered for a great blessing. 
 
 When the Children's Meetings commenced, on Sunday 
 afternoon, his large church was crowded in ever^^ part. The 
 Spirit of God manifested itself with mighty power, as on the 
 day of Pentecost. It is not too much to say, that at the 
 very first meeting hundreds were bathed in tears. There 
 had been nothing said to work upon the fears of the children. 
 The one theme was the love of Jesus in giving Himself 
 to die for us. On Monday the same scene was repeated ; 
 the aisles were so crov/ded in the inquiry meeting, to which 
 nearly every one remained, that it was difficult to move about. 
 All day Tuesday I was troubled as to the best method of 
 conducting the second meeting. In my own mind I was 
 satisfied that a division ought to be made between those 
 who were anxious and those who were rejoicing in Christ; 
 yet I was fearful to propose this division, lest Mr. Noel 
 should not approve of it. I feared lest I should do any- 
 thing to forfeit the confidence of this good man. I felt that, 
 if I were to labour in London for some length of time, it 
 was very important to have the co-operation of this man, 
 who, if he had rem.ained in the Episcopal Church, many 
 believe, would have been Bishop of London. 
 
 In the evening of Tuesday, as I entered the church, 
 it presented the same crowded appearance. Mr. Noel 
 touched me upon the shoulder and inv'ted me to his vestry. 
 In his quiet manner lis said, " I lound, as did also others, 
 
A T JOHN S TREE T CHA PEL, 41 
 
 that there were a large number of children in the meeting 
 yesterday wlio had evidently experienced a change of heart. 
 It seems to me, therefore, that it would be wise to call those 
 who have been converted into the side room, and then let 
 them come out upon the platform, that their parents and 
 teachers may see that they have * the witness of the Spirit ' 
 and are not ashamed to confess Christ." 
 
 I replied, " That is just v/hat I desired all day, but I 
 hesitated to propose it, fearing that course might not meet 
 your approval. I think," said I, "that it is natural and 
 proper, but I would rather you would propose it" 
 
 " I will willingly do so," he replied. 
 
 At the close of the Address ha asked the children who 
 had been converted to meet him in the side room. I at 
 once arose and warned the children against self deception, 
 and told them that if any went into the room among the 
 young converts who had not been converted, they would tell 
 a terrible falsehood. 
 
 I dwelt at some length upon the spiritual evidences of 
 a change of heart, and to make doubly sure, I requested 
 five or six judicious persons to act as door-keepers, and to 
 allow none to pass through until they had been examined 
 with great care. A long time was spent in examining two 
 hundred and thirty. We then followed them into the vestry 
 and there re-examined them. Still we could not induce 
 any of the two hundred and thirty to go back into their 
 seats. Mr. Noel then opened another door, and, like a 
 shepherd followed by a flock of lambs, he walked upon tlie 
 large elevated platform with all these children following 
 him. Many parents in the gallery were in tears as they 
 pointed out one or more of their children, saying, " There 
 is our dear child." Some who were not Christians found 
 themselves under deep conviction, and felt a stronger desire 
 to be ibliovvers of Jesus than they had ever experienced 
 
42 CONTINUING STEADFAST, 
 
 before. The same thing was repeated the next day, and 
 about one hundred more were added. 
 
 Mr. Noel printed a great deal upon the subject which 
 was read all over Great Britain. He thoroughly endorsed 
 the work, and repeatedly expressed his conviction that it 
 was not of man, but most unmistakably the work of the 
 Holy Spirit. At the end of three weeks he gave a soiree in 
 the church, to which he allowed none to come except those 
 who gave evidence, after having been watched and examined 
 by their Sunday-school teachers, that they had experienced 
 God's regenerating grace in their hearts. The number 
 of those admitted, though many were refused, v/as three 
 hundred.* 
 
 At the end of the year I returned again to Mr. Noel's 
 church, and at the close of the first meeting I requested 
 that those children, and only those, who one year before 
 were examined as young converts and allowed to go into 
 the side room, and from thence to the platform, should do 
 the same again. To the delight of all, and the astonish- 
 ment, no doubt, of some, those same cJiildren v/ere there, 
 the number nearly as large as the year before ; and with the 
 same confidence and humility they sat upon the platform 
 again. It was a most impressive sight, one which those 
 who witnessed it will not soon forget. We spoke with many 
 of those dear children personal 1)^, and found that though 
 some of them had passed through severe trials, and at times 
 had been almost ready to give up their hope in Christ, they 
 had nevertheless been upheld by the Saviour's promise — 
 
 " I WILL NEVER LEAVE TIIEE NOR FORSAKE THEE." 
 
 I have, in one way and another, heard from many of 
 them during the last ten years. My heart has often been 
 rejoiced to learn of their progress in the divine Hfe. One 
 
 • Tliese remarkable Children's Meetings at John Street Cliapel 
 were fully reported at the time in The Revival (now TJie Christian), 
 
DR. J. 0. FI SHE'S LETTER, 43 
 
 of those dear children was burned to death, but though she 
 went home in a chariot of fire, she v/as heard to sing 
 amidst her suffering — 
 
 ** Jesus, take this heart of mine, 
 Make it pure and wholly Thine 5 
 Thou hast bled and died foi* me, 
 I will henceforth live for Thee/* 
 
 While writing this chapter, I have received a letter from 
 the Rev. J. O. Fiske, D.U., for many years pastor of the 
 leading church at Bath, JNIaine. Ke is knovrn all through 
 New En2:land as a most conser/ative and reliable man. His 
 words will have weight with those v/ho know him. 
 
 "Bath, Maine, Auonst 3, 1877. 
 "Rev. E. p. Ha^.imond: 
 
 *• My dear Brother, — In reply to your note of the 
 2 1 St inst, I am happy to say that your labours among our 
 people in the year 1862 were eminently successful in awaken- 
 ing an interest among the children, as well as in securing the 
 conversion of many older persons. At that time quite a 
 fiu/fibsr of young children expi'essed a hope in Christy and 
 hecaine members of our church. These have proved by their 
 subsequent lives that they ivcre true disciples. Some appeared 
 to be interested, who did not subsequently give any evidence 
 of having been converted; but I have been frequently 
 called to see in sickness, or in the hour of approaching 
 death, others who had made no public profession of their 
 faith, but who evidently enjoyed and had enjoyed for years 
 the comforts of that hope which they first realized when you 
 were here. Some of these were from families in vv^hich no 
 strong Christian influence existed to help them. 
 
 *' i look back with pleasure to your visit here, and 
 rejoice in God that so many precious lambs were then 
 gathered into the fold of our Lord. 
 
 " Yours very cordially, John O. Fiske.'' 
 
44 THE CONVERSION OP 
 
 REV. WILLIAM Taylor's work among the children 
 
 IN AFRICA. 
 
 While at Ocean Grove in the summer of 1877, I had 
 the pleasure of meeting the Rev. Wm. Taylor, \vhG has 
 accomplished such a great work in India and Africa. He 
 has written me the following letter, which bears on the 
 subject of this book : 
 
 " In answer to your inquiry about the steadfastness of 
 converted children, I have only time now for a fact or two. 
 At Heald Town, Africa, we had three hundred and sixteen 
 converted in two days \ about one hundred of these were 
 children. 
 
 " * But, dear me,* says one, * such sudden work as that 
 must be very transient — over three hundred persons pro- 
 fessing conversion at a two-days' service, and working week- 
 days too ; why, it must have been a straw fire that will soon 
 die out' Indeed, after so long a preparation, why should 
 not *the Lord whom ye seek come suddenly to His 
 temple ' ? Was not that the way the Holy Spirit did when 
 He first entered on His great work in Jerusalem? If He 
 hath changed His methods of working, it is a wonder He 
 hath not informed us, so that we may adjust ourselves to 
 them. That was a quick word by which three thousand 
 souls were saved in one day, under the first Gospel sermon 
 they ever heard in their lives, and yet thirty-three years 
 afterwards St. Luke testified to their steadfastness, saying, 
 *They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and 
 fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.' 
 
 " To illustrate the genuine character and permanency of 
 this work of the Spirit, at Heald Town, so far as we can in 
 the time which has since elapsed, I may be allowed to copy 
 part of 
 
CHILDREN IN AFRIC^K 45 
 
 A LETTER BY REV. WM. SARGENT, 
 
 who is prepared to testify of this work nearly ten months 
 after my visit. His letter is dated Graham's Town, April 4, 
 1867, in which he says : 
 
 " * I am thankful to be able to say, that up to the time 
 of my leaving Heald Town, and since my departure, the 
 work has been widening and deepening. At the time of our 
 District Meeting in January, besides about two hundred 
 old members, who had either obtained for the first time a 
 sense of their acceptance with God, or had recovered what 
 they had lost, and many who had been raised to a higher 
 platform of Christian experience, there were three hundred 
 and fifty-eight, principally young persons, who had been 
 received into the church, most of whom had been made 
 happy in God's pardoning love. At the Quarterly Visitation 
 I was truly astonished with the experience of some of these 
 young people, who described their conversion in a way that 
 would have been impossible, had they not been tauglit of 
 God. Out of about four hundred professing conversion, 
 not above two or three had, up to the time of my leaving 
 Keald ToAvn, failed to attend prayer-meetings, where they 
 spoke of their continued love for Christ. This, I may 
 remark, has been a striking peculiarity in the recent revival 
 during your visit in these parts. Imniediately after every 
 previous revival, there was always a considerable falling 
 away; but the cases of defalcation, in this instance, have been 
 exceedingly fev/, compared with the numbers brought in. 
 
 " * The Sabbath-schools and day-schools, in a short time, 
 almost doubled their members, and the thirst for learning 
 among the young people became mxost manifest in an un- 
 precedented application for school-books, and that from 
 children in the adjacent hamlets, who previously cared for 
 none of these things. 
 
46 CHILDREN'S PRAYER MEETINGS. 
 
 " * Many of these young people formed themselves into 
 prayer -meethigs, \yhich they held in the fieUs alone. One 
 Sabbath afternoon, not long before leaving Heald Town, I 
 was walking a little below the Institution towards the "klool" 
 (a deep gorge), when I saw some twenty or thirty native 
 children making their way down into the " bush." I was 
 suspicious that they were meeting for purposes of play, and 
 therefore watched them. I soon found, to my agreeable 
 surpiise, that they were a company of converted children, 
 met for a praycr-rneeting, spending an hour after school in 
 alternate prayer and singing. The six or eight European 
 children at Heald Town also formed themselves into a 
 prayer-meeting. 
 
 ** * My little girl, nine years of age, v/ent from house to 
 house among the Europeans at the station, and invited all 
 the children about her own age to a little room, the use of 
 which she had obtained for the purpose, and formed them 
 into a prayer-mccting. 
 
 " * One day she came to me, saying, '* Pa, what can 1 do 
 for that poor sick m.an ? " 
 
 " * She had heard me speak of a sick native man, whom 
 I had been visiting. I said, 
 
 " * " What do you mean, my dear? " 
 
 *'*"0h," she replied, "I should like to do something 
 for him ? " 
 
 " * I told her that she might go and buy a fev/ groceries 
 at the shop, and take them to him. She did so ; but took 
 her New Testament under her arm, and having given him 
 the groceries, she read several portions of God's Word to 
 him, and then asked him if he was happy. I knev/ nothing 
 of it till the man told me himself what a comfort it had 
 been to him. AV. S.' 
 
 ** Hev. Clark P. Hard, Presiding Elder of Madras District, 
 
*' I'VE FO UND JES US** 47 
 
 India, a most indefatigable and successful minister of the Gos- 
 pel, was converted to God when he was a child of five years. 
 "I believe it to be God's plan to have the children 
 iustified and purified so as to give perfect praise to 
 Him while in the nursery — the department of babes and 
 sucklings — and thus develop a fireproof Christian character 
 before they are brought into contact with the coniipting 
 agencies and influences of the outside world. 
 ** Your brother in Jesus, 
 
 «Wm. Taylor." 
 
 Mr. Taylor also states the following : 
 
 " I knew a little girl nine years old, who, at a meeting I 
 once attended, longed to find Jesus. The Good Spirit had 
 spoken to her heart ; and as the big tears were streaming 
 down her face, she put her little hands together, and said, 
 *0 Lord, for Christ's sake, have mercy on me a sinner. 
 For Christ's sake, give me a new heart* She prayed very 
 earnestly for some time, and then as she saw that Jesus had 
 died for her, her countenance brightened up, and she said, 
 ' Oh, praise the Lord ! I've found Jesus. He is my Saviour. 
 Gloiy to God, He has pardoned all my sins.' She was 
 so glad, that she did not know what to do. She was an 
 orphan girl, and had not known a parent's care for years ; 
 but now she knev/ that God was her Father, and loved her, 
 and cared for her. As she was praising the Lord aloud, a 
 minister said to her, * Little girl, what are you praising the 
 Lord for ? ' * Because I love Him,' said she ; * glory be to 
 God, I do love Him.* *Why do you love Him?' continued 
 the minister. * Because He first loved me, and He has 
 pardoned my sins.' 
 
 " The preacher at first thought that she was so small 
 she did not know what she was about, but he soon found 
 that she was truly enlightened by the * Spirit of adopiioa.' 
 
PO IVER OF EXAMPLE* 
 
 The next day her brother said to her, rather tauntingly, *Ah, 
 Virginia, I think your goodness will not last long ! ' * Well. 
 James,' said she meekly, * your thinks will not remove it' 
 
 "Virginia grew up in the fear of the Lord, and is now a 
 Christian mother in California.'* 
 
 Paris R , a boy of my acquaintance in Virginia, 
 
 found peace in believing when he was eight years of age. 
 I saw him at a camp meeting when he was nine years old, 
 and he was called on to pray in public nearly as often as 
 any of the m.en, and prayed with much greater effect than 
 many of them. 
 
 During that camp meeting Paris's old grandfather be- 
 caiTie awakened to see his lost condition as a stranger to 
 God, and asked his httle grandson to pray for him. 
 
 Oh, could you have seen the grey-headed man kneeling 
 dov/n, and groaning under the bondage of sin, and the little 
 boy pleading with his Father in heaven to have mercy on 
 his dear grandfather, you would have said, "What a mercy 
 that the old man has so good a boy to pray for him ! " It 
 was believed that it was the boy's good example that brought 
 the old man to his knees. 
 
 Time would fail to tell of the numerous instances of 
 juvenile piety in the past and present history of the Church. 
 Many of her best ministers, and a large proportion of her 
 most exemplary members, were converted in their childhood 
 and youth. 
 
 Mary W , of Western Virginia, was made savingly 
 
 acquainted with God v/hen she was eight years old. 
 
 A year after her conversion, her father, who was a very 
 wicked man, fell out with her class-leader. 
 
 The following Sunday morning, after Mary had drcr-scd 
 herself to go to church, her father said to her, " I^Iary, 
 
'*rLL SHOOT YOU." 49 
 
 where are you going?** "I am going to class, father," 
 replied the little girl meekly. " You sha'n't go to class ; I'm 
 going to put a stop to it ; you sha'n't go any more," replied 
 the father, in very harsh tones. " Oh, father, do please let 
 me go," said I>Iary, in earnest tones of supplication. " Hush 
 up ! not a word ! I tell you you shall not go." " Father," 
 said Mary, " I must go to class. The Lord will be dis- 
 pleased with m.e if I don't go ; you know, father, I love you. 
 and I try to please you, but I must net displease the Lord." 
 "If you go to class, I'll whip you; see if I don't," said 
 the father. What was the poor little girl to do ? She felt 
 that she should sin against the Lord if she did not go to 
 class: if she went, she would displease her father, and be 
 punished. 
 
 The Apostle Paul says, " Children, obey your parents In 
 the Lord : for this is right ;" but this wicked old parent was 
 not " in the Lord." Still, he should have been obeyed, had 
 he not set his authority against the Lord. " Honour thy 
 father and thy mother," is the law, but a child can never 
 do that by dishonouring God. Unreserved obedience to 
 parents is the duty of all children, unless they clearly see, 
 as little Mary did, that the parents' commands are in oppo- 
 sition to God's commands : then it becomes their duty to 
 "obey God rather than man." 
 
 But what could poor Mary W , a little girl of nine 
 
 summers, do, when her father said, " If you go to class, I'll 
 whip you " ? She was greatly affected, but in the midst of 
 her tears said, " Father, I would rather take a whipping 
 than offend the Lord, I am your little girl, and you know 
 I want to be good." That should have moved a father's 
 heart, but it only enraged him the more, and in a most 
 violent tone he said, "You saucy imp, if you go to class I'll 
 shoot you." " Well, father," said Mary, " I had rather be 
 shot than sin against the Lord," and then immediately 
 
 4 
 
59 MARY'S FA THER, 
 
 Started on her way to class. The wicked father followed 
 her outside the gate, and picking up a thorn bush, struck 
 her with it a couple of times, tearing her bonnet and dress 
 a little ; but she went on, and he returned to the house. 
 When Mary came back, with her heart full of the love of 
 Jesus, her mother met her at the gate, and said, " Oh, Mary, 
 don't go into the house ; your father has loaded the gun, 
 and I am afraid he will shoot you." The mother wept, but 
 did not take hold of the little girl to restrain her, so Mary 
 v/alked into the house. The father had gone upstairs. 
 When Mary went in she began to sing one of her sweet 
 hymns. She was a melodious singer. Often listeners were 
 stirred, and burst forth in tears. 
 
 As she sang, her father called her, " Mary, come up 
 here ! " she immediately obeyed, and went upstairs, with the 
 anticipation of being shot by her enraged father. She had 
 a martyr's spirit, as every boy and girl ought to have, and 
 was not afraid to die. When she reached the top of the 
 stairs, her father said, " Mary, that is a very pretty song ; 
 sing some more." Then, overcome with emotion, he dropped 
 on his knees, saying, " Mary, will you forgive your wicked 
 father?" " Oh yes, father," said Mary, as she put her arms 
 round his neck, " I forgive you with all my heart." " Mary, 
 Mary, pray for me," said he; "oh, pray that God may for- 
 give my sins ! " She knelt by his side, and with streaming 
 eyes, pleaded with the Lord for her father. The struggle 
 was continued for hours, but resulted in the man's con- 
 version to God. He joined the Church, and in it Hved 
 and died. 
 
 Mary continued steadfast till the day of her death. She 
 became a woman oi great faith and usefulness. Her house 
 was a home for the preachers, and each member of her 
 family took delight in ministering to their comfort. I hav« 
 seen scores of souls converted under her roof, and, as I 
 
DR. TODD'S OPINION. 51 
 
 believe, principally through her instrumentality. She has, 
 during my absence in California, gone, in holy triumpli, to 
 her home in heaven. 
 
 Any number of facts, similar to these, might be gathered 
 to assist us in giving a positive ansvrer to the question at the 
 heading of this chapter, Will converted children co^f. 
 
 TINUE steadfast? 
 
 Rev. John Todd says of those converted early, " They 
 were like the early small stars of evening, very small, very 
 pure, and bright, and beautiful. They held on their way, too, 
 gloriously. I do not fear that a converted child will dis- 
 honour religion, so much as I do that the aged sinner, who 
 has lived in the iron habits of sin for half a century, v»dll 
 do so. With him it is the v/ork of Hfe and death to break 
 off these old habits. His thoughts, v/icked and vile, will 
 ever and anon flow back into the old deep-worn channels. 
 But piety in the child gushes up Hke the breaking out of a 
 new spring, making its own channel, grov;ing, and widening, 
 and beautifying as it flows." 
 
 Dr. Spencer, in his " Pastor's Sketches," continually 
 refers to cases which have come under his own observation, 
 yet no one would think of calling him an egotist He was, 
 I believe, an humble, earnest minister, seeking to know 
 God's will, and then desirous of foliov/ing it. 
 
 My one great object in writing this book is, as I said at 
 the outset, to enable God's people everywhere to labour, 
 with more success, for the salvation of children. If a miner 
 prospects in a nev/ region, and finds rich beds of silver or 
 gold, far beyond his compass, he naturally tells his friends, 
 and the news soon flies on the wings of the wind. Multi- 
 tudes flock thither, as soon as they are satisfied that gold in 
 abundance is obtainable. So I feel that the souls of these 
 dear children are more precious than silver or gold. My 
 
52 DR. CAMFBELVS STATEMENT, 
 
 great desire is to encourage many more to work this mine, 
 and to win the souls of the young, wliich shall, one day, 
 form their "crown of rejoicing." 
 
 One thousand and one children from the Sabbath- 
 schools ALONE in and about Rochester, Massachusscf.s, 
 joined the churches, as the result of God's blessing on the 
 union meetings held there in 1S63. Among the number 
 were some as young as nine years. 
 
 DR. Campbell's stateiment, 
 
 Tn regard to this work, the Rev. Dr. Campbell pub- 
 lished at thf* time the following statement : — 
 
 " Six years ago Mr. Hammond held a similar series of 
 meetings in this cit}^, and it is sometimes asked, * What has 
 beoorrje of the converts? Several hundreds v/ere received 
 into the churches at the time, and now, after the lapse of 
 six yearo, who can find them?' At the Central Church, a 
 careful investigation of this question has been made, with 
 the follov/ing results : 
 
 *'As the fruit of the revival season of 1S63, one hundred 
 and sixty-three persons were received into the Central 
 Church. This is not counting a large number who have 
 united with the same church since that time, and who refer 
 their conversion to that occasion. Of the one hundred and 
 sixty-three, one hundred and fifty-three are either in good 
 standing in the church to-day, or have taken a regular 
 dismission to other churches, or have died in hope. The 
 remaining ten are marked ' unknown,' they havmg mostly 
 removed from the city ; but, with the exception of two or 
 three, they v/ere, at last accounts, walking in an orderly 
 Christian manner. This is the record of a church that 
 v/as, for nearly tv.-o years subsequent to Mr. Hammond's 
 labours, virtually without a pastor. Of the one hundred 
 unj sixty-three new recruits, onl^ ttn missing at the end of 
 
PIICEBE BARTLE TT '5 EXPERIENCE, 5 3 
 
 six years, and those ten most of them dohig well at lasi 
 accounts. This statement can be relied upon, and it shov. s 
 a condition of things almost without parallel in the history 
 of revivals." 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF PHCEBS BARTLETT. 
 
 In the first chapter (p. 2) I alluded to Dr. Jonathan 
 EdTards's account of the conversion of Phccbe Bartlett. 
 I venture nov/ to make an extract from his interesting 
 narrative : 
 
 ** Slie was horn m March, 1731. In 1735 she was greatly affected 
 by the talk of her brother, who had been l.opefuljy converted a little 
 before, at about eleven years of age, and then seriously talked to her 
 about the great things of reHgioa, 
 
 " Iler parents did not know of it at that time, and were not wont, in 
 the counsels they gave to their children, particularly to direct them- 
 selves to her, by reason of her being so young, and, as they supposed, 
 not capable of understanding. But after her brother had talked to her, 
 they observed her listening very earnestly to the advice they gave to 
 the other children, and she was observed veiy constantly to retire, 
 several times in a day, as was concluded, for secret prayer ; and she 
 grew more and more engaged in religion, and was more frequently in 
 her closet, till at last she was wont to visit it five or six times in a day, 
 and was so engaged in it that nothing would at any time divert her 
 from her stated closet exercises. 
 
 "Her mother often observed and watched her, when such things 
 occurred as she thought most likely to divert her, either Ij putting it 
 out of her thoughts or otherwise engaging her inclinations, but never 
 could observe her to faiL 
 
 *« But on Thursday, the last day of July, about the middle of the 
 day, the child being in the room where she used to retire, her mother 
 hsard her speaking aloud, which was unusual, and her voice seemed to 
 be as of one exceeding importunate and engaged, but her mother coula 
 distinctly hear oiily these words, * Pray, blessed Lord, give me salva- 
 tion! I P?vAY, EEG, pardon all my sins ! * When the child had doro 
 prayer she came and sat down by her mother, and cried out aloud. I'er 
 mother very earnestly asked her several times Vv'hat the mJttcr Wai 
 before she would make any answer, but she continued crying, like o!is 
 
54 THE HAPPY CHANGE, 
 
 in anguish of spirit. Her mother then asked her whether she was 
 afraid that God would not give her salvation. She answered, * Yes, I 
 am afraid I shall go to hell ! ' Her mother then endeavoured to quiet 
 her, and told her she would not have her cry ; she hoped God would 
 give her salvation. This did not quiet her at all — but she continued 
 earnestly ciying for some time, till at length she suddenly ceased, 
 and began to smile, and presently said, with a smiling countenance, 
 * Mother, the kingdom of heaven is come to me 1 ' Soon after the 
 child said this, she retired to her room, and her mother went over 
 to her brother's, who was next neighbour ; and when she came back 
 the child met her mother with this cheerful speech, * I can find God 
 now I* 
 
 *• Then the child spoke again and said, * I love God 1 ' Her mothei 
 asked her how well she loved God, whether she loved God better than 
 her father or mother. She said, * Yes.' Her mother asked her whether 
 she was afraid of going to hell, and if it was that which had made her 
 cry. She answered, 'Yes, I was; but now I shall not be.* Her mother 
 asked her whether she thought that God had given her salvation. 
 She answered, * Yes/ Her mother asked her when. She answered, 
 * To-day.' 
 
 ** She appeared all that afternoon exceedingly cheerful and joyful. 
 That evening, as she lay in bed, she called to her one of her little 
 cousins, who was present in the room, as having something to say to 
 him ; and when he came she told him that heaven was better than 
 earth. 
 
 " On the Sabbath she was asked whether she believed in God. She 
 answered, * Yes.* And being told that Christ was the Son of God, she 
 made ready answer, and said, * I know it. ' 
 
 *'From this time there has appeared a very remarkable abiding 
 change in the child. She has been very strict upon the Sabbath, and 
 seems to long for ihe Sabbath-day before it comes, and will often in the 
 week-time be inquiring how long it is to the Sabbath-day, and must 
 have them particularly counted over that are between before she will be 
 contented." 
 
 Dr. Edwards goes on to describe at length the evidences 
 which she continued to exhibit of a change of heart, showing 
 5»er deep anxiety for the salvation of her brothers, sisters, 
 ^uid friends. 
 
 We do not doubt that many said, " She will not hold 
 ^ut ;" but she adorned religion in future life, became the 
 
CHILDREN'S LETTERS, 55 
 
 wife of Noah Parsons, and " died triumphantly at the age cj 
 
 about seventy J* 
 
 I am thankful that I have seen one of her grandchildren, 
 and heard her speak with great affection of her godly grand- 
 mother, Phoebe Bartlett.* 
 
 '' I received the following letter from a child in Kansas, 
 v,-hich relates to the subject of this chapter. She is now 
 EIGHT years old ; bu!: when she became a Christian she was 
 
 only FIVE YEARS OF AGE. 
 
 "Lawrence, Kansas. 
 **My dear Friend, — I can remember when you used to teach 
 the children about Christ Jesus, day by day. 1 used to go to your 
 meetings, and there I was converted, and I am trying to live up to 
 my profession. I pray mornings and nights, and live as near as I 
 can to Christ. I hope you'll pray for me, so that I may be more 
 like Hun. I am eight years old. 
 
 " From your friend, ** G. M. R.** 
 
 I at once answered this letter, and also sent a few copies 
 of a little Child's Paper which I used to edit, and I received 
 the following : 
 
 "Lawrence, Kansas. 
 
 " My dear Friend, — I was very glad to get your nice letter. You 
 asked me how I came to wi-ite to you. I was sick, and my sister had 
 just come from Sabbath-school and brought me a Sabbalh-school paper. 
 Ma looked over the paper, and pretty soon came to a- piece, 'The 
 Young Reaver,* that was written by you, and she read it to me, and 
 she read a letter that was written from a little girl to you. Ma s^dd I 
 might write you if I wanted. I found Jesus at your meetings here. 
 I thought your papers were veiy nice. I read them over and over. I 
 liked the 'Woodbine Cottage' very, very much. I think I am a 
 Christian because I love TO work FOR Jesus, and I ought to love 
 Him, for my Saviour died on the cross. I attend the Baptist church 
 with my father and mother, who are members of the church. I know 
 eleven children among the many who joined the church and were con- 
 veited when you was here. I remain your aftectionate friend, for ever, 
 
 « G. M. R." 
 • See page 2, 
 
56 A CHILD 'S TESTIMONY, 
 
 TWO WORKERS. 
 
 It always gives me pleasure to meet earnest Christians, 
 and especially to fihd tliose at work in the inquiry meeting, 
 who say, " So many years ago, when a child, I was con- 
 verted in the Children's Meeting held in such a place." 
 While in Alton, Illinois, \\\ 1874, I met at our meetings the 
 daughters of Rev. Dr. Wocid, Professor in Shurtliff College. 
 Vhey told me that they were converted in the Children's 
 Mcerir^gs held in Lewiston, Maine, twelve years before. I 
 rerotr'ea Low earnestly, at the very first meeting in Alton, 
 they errgsc^id in pointing the siixious Uttle ones to Christ. 
 They had not forgotten the time wiien they themselves were 
 seeking t'n*^ baviour in a somewhat similar meeting. I have 
 just found kxi -^/.ittle Ones from f!ke Fold,"* two letters 
 which those wr>i^u wrote me fifteen years ago. I insert 
 them because they bear upon the subject of this chapter. 
 
 ** LiLWlSTON, May 19, 1S62. 
 " I have always wawttd ?o be a Christian, This spring a dear little 
 cousin died, and his death wi»;dc me think mt-re, and made me feel more 
 that I wanted to be good, a^ci love the Ss viour ; and I told mamma 
 how I felt, and asked her to pray for me. The first afternoon you were 
 here, I went to hear you talk to children. I loved to hear you talk 
 about the Lord Jesus, and sing : and I <\'anted to love Him too. 
 When I cams home, papa asked Ua wiow we liked the meeting. I could 
 not answer him, but burst into tea/c. i fxilt I was so wicked. I read 
 my Bible, and asked God to give rae a nev/ heart. Monday morning I 
 went to meeting, and you asked me if i loved Jesus ; and I did not dare 
 to say *yes,' but told you I did not. The next Wednesday you took 
 dinner here, and when you asked me again, I thought it would not be 
 wrong for me to tell you I did love Hirti ; and you told me to cling to 
 Hun ; and I do try do. I love to pray, mid read, and sing, and tell of 
 Jebus. Good-bye, dear Mr. Hammond. 
 
 ** Your Little Friend." 
 
 * A little narrative of the Conversion of Children, published ia 
 IS66. 
 
THE TWO SISTERS. gf 
 
 Her sister at the same time wrote as follows : 
 
 •' I had been feeling that I ought to be a Christian, and I wanted 
 to be one. The first Sabbath you were here, I went to hear you speak 
 to the children. When you requested those who were weeping for their 
 sins to remain, I did so ; but I did not wish to weep. I did not feel as 
 though I wanted to kneel, when you asked them ; and I did not. But 
 I went home wishing I could be a Christian. I went to meeting 
 Monday evening, and stopped to the inquiry meeting. I kept wishing, 
 and yet almost afraid, that you would speak to me. Tuesday, I prayed 
 a great deal, that I might become a Christian. A little while before I 
 went to meeting, I went away and prayed that God would help me to 
 give Him my heart that night. I stopped to the inquiry meeting that 
 night. A young lady came and spoke a few words, and prayed v»-ith 
 me ; and after she went away, I felt as if I had given my heart to 
 Jesus. I was vejy happy. I felt as if I would like to have everybody 
 love Jesus. Some of the reasons I think I am a Christian, are, that 1 
 love to pray better now ; I love the Bible ; I love to go to meeting ; and 
 I want everybody to love Jesus." 
 
 Their father was, at the time those two letters were 
 written, pastor of the Baptist Church in Lewiston. In 
 Upper Altrn, I found him a Professor in Shurtliff College.. 
 He stated that his two daughters, from the time of their 
 conversion, when little girls m Lewiston, had, during the 
 subsequent fifteen years, livei consistent Christian lives. 
 They now laboured to point anxious lir.le ones to Christ 
 
 "A MAJORITY OF THEM CONTINUE STEADFAST." 
 
 In London I received the following letter from a 
 clergyman : 
 
 " I have faith m the conversion of children, and for 
 some time have held meetings something similar to yours, I 
 suppose, in connection with my day-school. Last winter 
 and spring, a ?iurnber of childre?i were brought to Jesus, and 
 a 7najority cf ihe?n remained steadfast. We meet every 
 Thursday evening, read the Scriptures, and talk about 
 
^ MATTHEW W. BALDW/M 
 
 Jesus, besides spending some time in prayer. Our num- 
 bers vary from sixty to one hundred present at once. I 
 conduct tlie meeting myself; the children join in prayer at 
 the conclusion." 
 
 "With very few exceptions, the children are under 
 thirteen years of age. 
 
 "I hold private conversations with them during the 
 week ; they tell me their little troubles and griefs, and seek 
 counsel. One little girl of twelve years, the only praying 
 person in a family of seven, has often advised with me 
 respecting her parents and brothers. She came to me two 
 days ago with the glad news that her mother had begun to 
 seek the Lord, but that she was very anxious about her 
 father, who was not a good man, but laughed at their 
 * religious notions,' and never went to the house of God. I 
 advised her to continue to pray for him and exercise faith in 
 God ; to be very kind to him, and careful not to do any 
 thing unworthy of a little Christian, and occasionally in a 
 kind manner to bring the subject of religion under his 
 notice. She said she believed that, if she prayed in faith 
 and patiently waited, God would, in His own time, hear her 
 prayers and answer them." 
 
 In 1865, in Philadelphia, T had the pleasure for several 
 weeks of being the guest of Matthew W. Baldwin, the 
 well-known builder of clun-ches, as well as of locomotives. 
 He loved to do all in his power to assist in leading little 
 children to Jesus. He told me that w/ien he was a little 
 hoy^ he went to attend the meetings of Dr. Edward D. 
 Griffin in Newark, New Jersey. He had often seen many 
 at the same time deeply affected, as Dr. Grifiin described to 
 them the great love of Jesus in giving Himself to die for 
 them. 
 
 We find in the " Harvest Work of the Holy Spirit " tha 
 
EXAMPLES OP EARLY CONVERSION, 59 
 
 follovang quotation from Dr. Griffin, descriptive of those 
 meetings which made such a deep impression on the youth- 
 ful mind of Mr. Baldwin : 
 
 " The appearance was as if a collection of waters, long 
 suspended over the town, had fallen at once, and deluged the 
 whole place. For several weeks the people would stay at 
 the close of every evening service to hear some new exhorta- 
 tion ; and it seemed impossible to persuade them to depart, 
 until those on whose lips they hung had retired. At those 
 seasons you might see a multitude weeping and trembling 
 around their minister, and many others standing as astonished 
 spectators of the scene, and beginning to tremble themselves. 
 One Sabbath, after the second service, when I had catechised 
 and dismissed the Uttle children, they gathered around me 
 weeping, and inquiring what they should do. I know not 
 but that a hundred were in tears at once. The scene 
 was as affecting as it was unexpected. Having prayed vrilh 
 them again, and spent some time in exhortation, I attempted 
 to send them away, but w^ith all entreaties I could not 
 prevail upon them to depart until night came on, and then 
 I was obliged to go out with them, and literally force them 
 from me." 
 
 If I remember rightly, Mr. Baldwin told me that he 
 experienced a change of heart at that early age, under the 
 preaching of that good man. 
 
 / I have often thought that one reason why Samuel led 
 such an irreproachable life w^is because, when a little boy in 
 the temple of Shiloh, his ansv»^er when called of God vras, 
 *' Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth ! " 
 
 ^ It is commonly held that Jeremiah and John the 
 Baptist, who were "faithful unto death," were early the 
 children of God's grace. King Josiah began to reign when 
 he was only eight years of age, and ''in the eighth year of 
 
Co MATTHEW HENRY. 
 
 iiis reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek af^er 
 the God of David, his father " (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3). Among 
 the early ('.hristians, it is evident from ihe writings of the 
 fathers, that there were many converted in childhood 
 
 The early Christians included pious children. Thus 
 ' Polycarp. martyred at the age of ninety-five, declares he had 
 served God eighty-six years ; showing that he was converted 
 at the age of ni?ie years. And Justin Martyr testifl es of many 
 of both sexes " who had been made disciples of Christ in 
 their childliood and continued uncorrupted all their lives." 
 
 While in Chester, England, I visited the church where 
 Matthew Ileniy preached for many years, and the little 
 study, where he wrote his Commentary. It v»'as a pleasure to 
 remember that he was converted befoj-e he was eleven years 
 old. It is no wonder that he wiites so clearly upon those 
 passages in the New Testament v/hich refer to child piety. 
 Surely I^Iatthew Henry's conversion was not evanescent 
 
 Neither was t.hat of Jonathan Edwards, who was con- 
 verted, as he thinks, before he was seven years of age. 
 Nor was that of Isaac Watts, who was led to Jesus before 
 he was nine years old, and wrote hymns of praise at that 
 early age. When in Southampton, England, we visited his 
 monument, of the purest white Sicilian marble, nineteen feet 
 b'gh, with a base eight feet square, resting on a pedestal of 
 Aberdeen gi-anite. On the front side Dr. Watts is represented 
 as instructing a group of beautiful children. Underneath 
 are the words, 
 
 ** He gave to lisping infancy its earliest and purest lessons." 
 
 The Rev. L. W. Bacon says : " One of the most eminent 
 and beloved of the pastors of New York City once told me 
 the beautiful story of his Christian experience ; how with 
 tlie earliest dawn of reflection he became conscious of a 
 
HYMN BY A CHILD. 6x 
 
 deep and tender love for the Saviour, and how, although he 
 had felt many doubts and difficulties, he had finally settled 
 clearly in the conviction that if ever he had known the 
 grace of God, he had known it from the time of those 
 earliest recollections. A few days after this I met the 
 venerable father of my friend on Broadvray, and told him 
 that his son had been telling me the story of his religious 
 life. * Oh no, he has not,' said the good old man ; * he 
 CANNOT REMEMBER THAT STORY. Only his mother and 
 myself can tell it.' Who will undertake to say at what 
 point a Christian life may not be begun by the inworking 
 of the Holy Spirit?" 
 
 HYMN WRITTEN BY A CHILD. 
 
 T!ie v;ell-knov\-n hymn found in nearly all hymn-books 
 commencing, 
 
 '* Jesus I and shall it ever be 
 A sinful child ashamed of Thee? 
 Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise, 
 Whose glories shine through endless days ? ** 
 
 was written by Joseph Gregg when but a child. It had for 
 its heading, when first published, " Shame of Jesus con- 
 quered by love, by a youth of ten years." 
 At a later period he wrote, 
 
 ** BehoM, a Stranger at the door, 
 
 He gently knocks, has knocked before J 
 Has waited long, is waiting still : 
 You use no other friend so ill. "' 
 
 He became a minister, and preached in Silver Street, 
 London, where he was very usefuL 
 
 Thus multitudes of cases might be cited of children con- 
 verted in early childhood, who have lived to attest the 
 
6a THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 
 
 genuineness of the great work wrought upon them by God's 
 Spirit through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 May the Lord help every reader of this chapter to 
 reahze the precious truth contained in the words of Jesus at 
 the beginning — " It is not the will of your Father 
 
 WHICH IS IN HEAVEN THAT ONE OF THESE LITTLE 0NE3 
 SHOULD PERISH." 
 
 *' Saviour, who Thy floclc art feeding 
 
 With the Shepherd's kindest care^ 
 All the feeble gently leading, 
 
 Wliile the Lambs Thy bosom share. 
 Now, these little ones receiving. 
 
 Fold them in Thy gracious arm ; 
 There, we know, Thy word believing, 
 
 Only there, secure from harm : 
 
 *' Never, from Thy pasture roving, 
 
 Let them be the Lion's prey ; 
 Let Thy tenderness, so loving, 
 
 Keep them all life's dangerous way, 
 Tlien, within Thy fold eternal, 
 
 Let them find a resting place^ 
 Fecc' m pastures ever vernal, 
 
 Dimk the rivers of Thy grace.'* 
 
 Wm, A. Muklenbcrg^ i8g6L 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 ffOW CAN CHILDREN BE LED TO JESUS f 
 
 •'SHOWING TO THE GENERATION TO COME THE PRAISES OF THE LORD, 
 AND HIS STRENGTH, AND HIS WONDERFUL V/ORKS." 
 
 Fsal/ii Ixxviii. 4. 
 
 Pl^^l^ANY ask tlie question, "What is the secret of 
 IKP ^i leading children to Jesus? " 
 iM'^^&ij Firstly, if a person would be successful in this 
 
 work, he must first possess and cultivate a deep love for 
 children. I remember v/hen I was secretary of the *' Mills' 
 Missionary Society " in Williams College; it fell to my lot 
 to correspond with missionaries in foreign lands. We thus 
 received a letter from Dr. Calhoun, of Mount Lebanon. In 
 answering the question we had propounded to him, as to 
 how we could become successful missionaries, he enlarged 
 upon the thought ihat we must cultivate a love for man 
 as such, no matter what his colour or race. We must feel 
 that every man is a child of Adam, and that God has loved 
 him and given His Son to die for him ; that every being on 
 the face of the earth possesses a soul, worth more than al^ 
 the world. Just so those who would labour successfully 
 among children must learn to lore them, and must become 
 familiar with Ihcir habits of thought, and even with their 
 modes of am.using themselves. 
 
 Secondly, A man, to be successful, must have faith in 
 
64 CLVC/ST'S SLVr^A'/A'GS. 
 
 iLiE powEK OF God's Spirit and in the pov/er of His 
 TRUTH. He must believe the words of Jesus, who says : 
 " I, if I be lifted up fi-om the earth, will draw all men unto 
 Me." Then he must bring out vividly before the minds of 
 the children, the great fact that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 LOVED EACH ONE OF THEM, AND DIED A CRUEL DEATH ON 
 THE CROSS IN THEJR STEAD. 
 
 You say: "Every Sunday-school scholar in the land knows 
 this." I admit it, but it is one thing to l-ncnc it, and another 
 and very different thing to feel zi deep down in the heart. 
 I say then that he must dwell on the sufferiiigs of Christ 
 until the children see Him vividly "crucified before them." 
 They must see the crown of thorns upon His brow. They 
 must see the heavy lashes laid upon His bare, bleeding 
 back. They must hear the shouts of the mob as they cry : 
 '•'Away with Him! away with Him ! — crucify Him I" They 
 must see the cross laid upon His bleeding, quivering form, 
 and then follow Him, sinking beneath its weight, as He 
 bears it along the Via Dolorosa. They must hear the heavy 
 mallet as, with blow after blow, the nails pierce His feet. 
 Having seen Him walking the seven sorrowful ways — from 
 the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane ; from the 
 Garden of Gethsemane to the house of Annas ; from the 
 bouse of Annas to the house of Caiaphas; from the house of 
 Caiaphas to Pilate j from Pilate to Herod; and from Llerod 
 back to Pilate's Hall ; and thence to Calvary, — they should 
 then be called upon to listen at least to some of the seven 
 sorrowful cries which He uttered as He hung upon the 
 cross ; and vrhen the cry reaches their ears, " My God, my 
 God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" they should then be 
 taught that He was forsaken that they might not de 
 FORSAKEN ; tliat all these dreadful sufferuigs. especially His 
 soul sufferings, which were infinitely beyond His physical 
 sufferings, were endured in their stead. Then, further^ they 
 
ONE BY ONE, 65 
 
 sliould be lo!d of His death and burial, of His ascenEion, 
 and briefly be taught that God, in raising Christ from ths 
 dead, showed His acceptance of His "finished work." 
 * Then in a few words they should be told tliat He is coming 
 again to judge the world, and that there will be a great 
 separation upon that day: that all those who loved and 
 trusted Him here will be on the right hand, while those vrho 
 rejected Him will be found upon the left hand. 
 
 These great facts should be illustrated by simple stories, 
 and made vivid by illustrations that the children can under- 
 stand ; especially should great stress be laid upon the 
 DOCTRINE of SUBSTITUTION. Children as young as five 
 and six years of age can understand this doctrine, if it is 
 illustrated in a simple manner. 
 
 Of course, every Christian knows that all this preaching 
 will be in vain without the power of the Holy Spirit. No 
 Christian will engage in this sacred vv^ork without much 
 prayer : he certainly will not engage in it successfully unless 
 he feels his entire dependence upon God, unless he often 
 listens to His words : " Not by might, nor by power, but 
 by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts " (Zech. iv. 6). 
 
 But he who would win children to Christ must not stop 
 here. After the Address he must go among them, speaking 
 to them ONE by one. He will then find that many who have 
 appeared indifferent up to that moment will burst into tears 
 when spoken to, saying, " Oh, I have been a great sinner 
 not to love that precious Saviour !" 
 
 Dr. Mark Hopkins, of Williams' College, once said to 
 his students, ''Young gentlemen, you will accomphsh little in 
 the world tmless you work in a line with God'* 
 
 That one remark m^ade a deep impression on my mind. 
 It is only as workers together with Him (2 Cor. vi. i) 
 that we find a divine power accompanying our words and 
 efforts. 
 
65 ROBERT McCHEVKE. 
 
 It has therefore been a careful study with me to see 
 what agencies God most blesses in leading the young and 
 old to Christ ; and I have frequently found that very many 
 wlio were not at all affected by the address, have, by per- 
 sonal dealing in the inquiry meeting, been brought under 
 conviction. Many have testified that it was the simple 
 question, "Do you love Jesus?" put directly to them, 
 that first startled them to the realization of the fact that 
 they had not truly loved Ilim, and v/ere therefore guilt}' of 
 the greatest sin. 
 
 When in Scotland, one of the first places I visited was 
 Dundee, that I might see the grave of Robert McCheyne, 
 and the church in which he pointed so many children and 
 adults to Jesus. 
 
 I had not only read, but shidied his life, vmtten by his 
 personal friend, Andrew Bonar; not simply that I might 
 find who he was, and what he had done in the world, but 
 that I might, if possible, catch something of his yearning 
 desire for the salvation of souls. 
 
 It was therefore a great pleasure for m.e to stand upon 
 the floor of his vestr)% which one of his elders told me he 
 had seen covered with children seeking the Saviour. 
 
 Not long after, I made the acquaintance of his bio- 
 grapher. Dr. Andrew Bonar, and for twelve weeks at one 
 time, and six weeks at another, laboured with him in a 
 revival in Glasgow. 
 
 When meetings, more especially for children and youth, 
 were held in his own church, numbers at times were deeply 
 affected, even to tears ; yet some of his office-bearers did 
 not at first feel satisfied that it was a work of God. 
 
 But Dr. Bonar for several nights said to them, and to 
 all Christians : " If any of you have doubts about this 
 being the work of God's Spirit, they will fiee av/ay as soon 
 
STjRA YING lambs. 6j 
 
 as you go down among these anxious ones and talk and 
 pray with them." 
 
 At the end of a week he said, " I had a meeting with 
 my session last evening" (I think eighteen in number), 
 " and am glad to be able to state that I find them all in 
 sympathy with this blessed work of God Most of them 
 have children among the number of those who are rejoicing 
 m Jesus." 
 
 How many Iambs are strapngf, 
 
 Lost from the Saviour's fold 1 
 Upon the lonely mountains 
 
 They shiver with the cold, 
 "Wilhia the tangled thickets, 
 
 Where poison vines do creep, 
 And over rocky ledges, 
 
 Wander the poor lost sheep. 
 
 Oh, who will go to find them. 
 
 Who, for the Saviour's sake. 
 Will search, with tireless patience, 
 
 Through briar and through brake? 
 Unheeding thirst and hunger. 
 
 Who still, from day to day, 
 Will seek, as for a treasure, 
 
 The Iambs that go astray. 
 
 How sweet 'twould be at evening, 
 
 If you and I could say, 
 Good Shepherd, we've been seeking 
 
 The lambs that went astray ; 
 Ileart-sore, and faint with hunger, 
 
 We heard them making moan, 
 And lo ! we come at nightfall, 
 
 Beaiing them safely home. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON PREACHING TO THE CHILDRE]^. 
 
 ** PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE." 
 
 Ma7-k xvi. 15, 
 
 ;HE command, " Preach the Gospel to every 
 creature," seems to me to refer to children as 
 
 i*ii^ well as to adults. 
 
 But many say, " It is not my gift to preach to children." 
 If it is not a natural gift, may it not, to a certain extent, be 
 acquired? Certainly, every minister, and every theological 
 student, may seek to enlist the friendship and interest of 
 the young. 
 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne said, " If I value myself on any- 
 thing, it is on having a smile that children love." 
 
 I often heard the name of Dr. Alexander Fletcher men- 
 tioned in England. He loved to preach to children. Thos'^ 
 who knew him say, that the secret of his power lay in the 
 boyishness of his nature. He seemed to carry into manhood 
 all the taste and feelings of his early years. He loved 
 especially to join with the little ones in their sports ! 
 
 If Paul to the Jews became a Jew, is it not becoming 
 \xi those who would interest the young to become again 
 children to those that are children ? 
 
 And I have often observed that the speaker who can 
 
DR, TYNG, 69 
 
 thoroughly interest a crov/d of children is sure of securing 
 the attention of the adults. 
 
 Vinet says, " A child's book may be a great or beautiful 
 work, and deserve a place of honour in our libraries. Good 
 books for children are the best among the books for men." 
 So good sermons for children are often the best for adults. 
 
 Dr. Wm. C. Wisner, of Lockport, N. Y., stated to my 
 wife that a lady, aged over seventy, who had sat under his 
 ministry for many years, was converted at one of the first 
 Children's Meetings I held in his church. Dr. Wisner, as is 
 y/ell known, is one of the strongest men and best preachers 
 in Western Nev*' Vork ; and yet some simple illustration 
 for the children, which many would think of little account, 
 was the instrument, under the Spirit of God, of leading her 
 to Christ. 
 
 SI:npUcity should be sought by those who gain the 
 atter'ton of children and win them to Christ. 
 
 Dl Tyng has been in the habit of preaching to the 
 children of his congregation for full twenty years. He says, 
 ** It has been one of the most interesting and effective of my 
 labours in the ministry. The Lord has been pleased very 
 graciously and mercifully to own the v/ork as His in many 
 cases of conversion. I have considered no part of my work 
 more valuable and important than this; and certainly no 
 portion of it so popular and acceptable to others." 
 
 As has been intimated, it is absolutely necessary in 
 addressing children effectually, first to secure their undivided 
 attention. 
 
 To this end it is often essential to seize upon some inci- 
 dent which in itself does not amount to much, and yet which 
 catches the eyes and ears of the children. At the same 
 time, we should not be discouraged if a few restless ones do 
 not seem to hear all that is said. 
 
 A little boy on returning from church was severely 
 
TO COUNTING THE RAFTERS. 
 
 censured by his father for not having paid attention to the 
 sermon. 
 
 " Father, I heard all the minister said." 
 
 ** I do not believe it ; you were gazing all over the 
 church during the entire service/' 
 
 " But, father, I heard all the minister said.** 
 
 " I cannot believe it, for it seemed to me you hardly 
 looked at the preacher ; your eyes were oftener fixed upon 
 the rafters than the pulpit." 
 
 " But, father, I did hear all he said, and I can tell it to 
 you." 
 
 ** Let me hear you try it** 
 
 He then began, and astonished his father by giving the 
 text, the heads of the sermon, and 7?iuch that was in it 
 
 " I declare," said the father, " you did hear the sermon 
 after all" 
 
 "I told you I did, father; and now I can tell you 
 
 EXACTLY HOW MANY RAFTERS THERE ARE IN THE ROOF, FOR 
 I COUNTED EVERY ONE OF THEM DURING THE SERMON !" 
 
 In 1861, v/hile holding a series of meetings in Boston, I 
 became intimately acquainted v/ith Rev. Dr. E. N. Kirk, 
 Pastor of Mount Vernon Church. He said to me one day 
 that if he were to live his life over again he would devote 
 much more time to children. He realized the importance 
 of securing their attention, and often, though not especially 
 addressing them, he held their minds throughout the entire 
 discourse. In one of his Addresses he says : 
 
 "I have been accustomed to preach and to talk a 
 great deal to the children in my church, and I have some 
 very dear children wliom I love very much. There is one 
 little girl I will tell you about, to show you v/hat kind 
 of hearers we want among children. I had noticed her, 
 as she sat in her father's seat in the church, fix her eyes 
 on me as soon as I rose up in the pulpit to begin the 
 
CHILDREN 'S MEMORIES, 7I 
 
 exercises; but I did not know so much about her, till 
 one day, when I was sick and confined to my chamber, 
 her father called to see me, and began to talk about 
 his dear little Mary, v/ho was about nine or ten years of 
 age. Said he, * Have you ever noticed how my little girl 
 sits in church ? * I said I had not particularly noticed any 
 thing but this, that I used to have to turn to that side of 
 the church, because if anyone is preaching, he loves to see 
 every person's eye on him, and, Vv'hencver I looked, this 
 little girl's bright eyes v/ere always fixed on me. But her 
 father told me more about her. He said, that from the 
 time I rose in the pulpit, she never turned her head away. 
 
 " But here was what struck me with great force about this 
 little girl, one so young ; it was the custom of her father, 
 every Sabbath afternoon, after the second service, to go 
 home and get all his children around him, and begin to talk 
 over the sermon of the morning, and then the sermon of 
 the afternoon ; they found the text, and each one read it, 
 and then the father would begin to tell what he recollected 
 of the sermon, and then the mother repeated what she 
 recollected, and -^hat he had omitted ; and sometimes when 
 they forgot one of tie heads of the sermon they would turn 
 to little Mary, and si e would recollect it. I was quite sur- 
 prised; but I have learnt more about little children since 
 then, and I find they can be very profitable hearers of 
 sermons ; and ever since that time it has encouraged me, 
 even when I am preaching to grown people, to talk espe- 
 cially to children, because I find that dear little children 
 can und?' stand me ; and that is all a minister wants, for 
 the people to understand him, and think about what he 
 says." 
 
 Dr. Kirk attended one of the Children's Meetings in 
 Lawrence, Mass., in 1863, and spoke as follows. I quote 
 from a Presbyterian newspaper : 
 
ya CHILDREN IN THE EARLY CHURCH, 
 
 . "What amazes me about this movement is, that the 
 children understand v/hat they are about. Though no 
 inquiry meeting was appointed v/hen Mr. Hammond first 
 addressed the children of my congregation, the children 
 zuould have one, and gathered about the speaker in groups. 
 The thing that satisfied me was that the little ones were 
 convinced that they were sinners in not believing in Jesus. 
 
 "I believe that I myself might have been converted 
 when eight years old if I had been taught the way. And 
 how much farther and faster I should have got along ! In 
 my thirty years' experience in the examination of applicants 
 for church- membership, I have found it one of the most 
 difficult things to get them to speak the name oi Jesus, and 
 acknowledge their dependence on Him. But the children 
 who are instructed in these meetings seem to know all about 
 Jesus i" 
 
 And here it occurs to me to remark, that if we cannot 
 prove positively that m^eetings were held especially for the 
 conversion of children in the early centuries, we at least 
 have evidence of the sentiment of the Church in relation to 
 children. A Greek hymn of Clement of Alexandria, which 
 was sung in the second century, is thus translated! 
 
 " Shepherd of tender youthj 
 Guiding in love and truth 
 Through devious ways. 
 Christ, our triumphant king, 
 V/e come Thy name to sing. 
 And Jure our children bring 
 To shout Thy praise." 
 
 This would certainly indicate that there \\ere children 
 in those early days who were savingly acquainted with God, 
 and who therefore loved to unite with His people in praising 
 liins. 
 
THE CHILD'S GUIDE TO HEAVEN. 
 
 n 
 
 Irenaeus, who lived within one generation of the Apostles, 
 says : " Christ came to save all persons through Himself, 
 all, I say, who through Him are regenerated unto God; 
 infants and little ones, and children and youth, and the 
 aged." 
 
 I trust it will not seem out of place now to introduce 
 the report of an address delivered in Newark, New Jersey, 
 the reading of which brought at least one little girl to 
 Christ, and which peradventure may assist some young man 
 in addressing children so as to win them to the Lord Jesus. 
 For such a result I should be thankfuL 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 "I want to speak to you this afternoon about Jesus 
 being the child's Guide to heaven. 
 
 " In the grounds of Hampton Court, twelve miles from 
 London, is a labyrinth, in which Henry the Eighth, more 
 than three hundred years ago, used to wander about for his 
 amusement. 
 
 " One beautiful afternoon in the autumn, after spending 
 hours among the picture-galleries in the palace, and visiting 
 the room where Oliver Cromwell parted for the last time 
 with his lovely daughter, I wandered away into the park, 
 among the delicate, light-footed deer, and came to this 
 labyrmth. 
 
 " I saw people entering it, and heard them say they 
 could find their way out easy enough, and I, too, was led to 
 attempt it. It was very easy to go in a long distance ; but 
 when I turned to find my way back, it was a different 
 matter. Whichever path among the high hawthorn hedges 
 I took, I soon reached its end. I could not even find the 
 people whom a little before I saw entering this strange 
 place. I seemed to walk miles, and yet to be no nearer 
 
74 THE MAZE AT HAMPTON COURT. 
 
 the end. It was getting dark, and I began to fear T might 
 have to lie down upon the cold ground for the night. All 
 this time a kind man had been standing upon a high tower 
 near by, waiting for me to lift my eyes to him, and ask hint 
 to guide me out. I quickly said — 
 
 " Dear sir, will you please show me the way out of thm 
 dark place?" 
 
 " * Oh, yes,* he replied, and with a long stick he soon 
 helped me to thread my way to the green lawn again. 
 
 " How much time and anxiety I might have been saved, 
 if I had only taken this man for my guide out of this 
 winding puzzle ! He seemed so glad to help me, he made 
 me think of the dear Jesus, who always stands ready to 
 guide lost sinners in the way to heaven. His words, you 
 know, are, * I am the way, and the truth, and the life.' Let 
 us all see if we can find that verse. Yes ; here it is ; 
 John xiv. 6 : * Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the 
 truth, and the life \ no man cometh unto the Father but by 
 li'le.' But have you ever felt, my dear children, that you 
 were lost in the dark ways of sin, and that you could not 
 find the way to heaven without the help of Jesus, who died 
 on the cross that He might lead you home to the mansions 
 above? You are surely lost in the dreadful labyrinth of 
 sin, and you will never get out without the help of Jesus. 
 
 "And yet some of you have never really asked Him to 
 be your Saviour and Guide, and you are every day going 
 farther and farther away from Him. 
 
 ** In Rome we followed a guide with a lighted taper 
 down into the Catacombs, which, like this labyrinth of 
 "which I have told you, wind in all directions under ground. 
 A little before, a young man had left the guide, and was 
 Eoon out of hearing. Search was made for him, but it was 
 all in vain. Days and weeks passed away, and at last 
 nothixig but bis bones were found. How closely the very 
 
LOST IN THE CATACOMBS, 75 
 
 thought of it made me cling to our guide. This young man 
 did not expect to be lost, but he never saw the hglit of day 
 after he left that guide. And I am afraid that some of you 
 may be lost, and never see the light of heaven. You cer- 
 tainly never will, if you do not come to Jesus, and cling 
 close by His side. As that guide in the Catacombs of 
 Rome held a light for us, so Jesus will give you the light of 
 His Word all your journey through, if you will but trust in 
 Him to save you from sin and be your Guide. Will you 
 ask Him to-day ? He loves you, and wishes to take you 
 by the hand and lead you along the shining path to happi- 
 ness and glory. Will you let Him? *Just now?' And 
 sing with joy, * Jesus, take me, just now; Jesus, guide me, 
 just now.' 
 
 " A few days after my visit to Hampton Court, as I was 
 passing along the streets of London, I fell in with a crowd 
 of anxious people, who were gathered around a little girl on 
 the side-walk. She had wandered av>^ay from her home. 
 One object after another had allured her along, until, as she 
 began to look up and around to see where she was, she 
 found she was lost. All was strange to her. She had been 
 running in different directions, but could not find the way 
 to her father's house. And as I saw her she v/as beginning 
 to cr}^ Her tears were all in vain, for none of us knew the 
 v.ay to her house. At length a kind gentleman came along, 
 who at once knew her, and pressing his way into the crowd, 
 he took her by the hand, saying, 
 
 •* * I know the little girl ; I v/ill take her home.* 
 
 ** He was as willing to be her guide, as was that man by 
 the labyrinth at Hampton to guide me out of the maze. 
 
 "The tears of the child were soon brushed away; for 
 she believed that this good man would take her straight to 
 her father and mother. 
 
 *♦ During the past few weeks I have seen hundreds of 
 
7« 'Vil/ LOST/ I CAN'T FIND ^ESUS /" 
 
 children a.^val:Gned to feel that they were losf and in need of 
 Jesus, who, a few days before, were as careless and thought- 
 less as was this little girl in London, before s/ie found she 
 was lost ; and I have seen them weeping as though their 
 hearts would break. In a day or two many of them had hold 
 of Jesus' hand, and their little hearts were filled with joy. 
 
 " A few days ago I found a little boy about eight years 
 of age, in one of these seats at the children's inquiry 
 meeting, sobbing aloud. Said I, 
 
 •** What's the matter, my dear little fellow?' 
 
 ***0h, dear! I'm lost ! I'm lost! and I can't find Jesus! 
 Oh ! my wicked heart ! How can I get a new heart ? I 
 liave been so wicked ! I have never loved Jesus at all ! I 
 thought I loved Him, but now I know I never did. Will 
 He take me ? * 
 
 " * Oh, yes ! ' said I ; * He says, " Kim that cometh unto 
 Me I will in no wise cast out." ' I tried to tell him how the 
 IvOrd Jesus died for sinners just like him. At length we 
 kneeled down in one of the pews, and, in a low tone, we 
 prayed together, and the little boy asked God to take away 
 his wicked heart, and help him to love the Saviour ; and 
 that little boy, I believe, found /esi/s to be ' f/ie cliild's Giiidi 
 to heaven^ and he is here to-day, v>ith a smiling face and a 
 singing heart. 
 
 "If, indeed, he is following the loving Saviour as his 
 Friend and Guide, you will see a change in that boy's life. 
 
 " This little boy's face to-day, like many others here, is 
 lit up with a radiant joy that is far brighter than that which 
 shone from the face of the little girl in London, when on 
 her way home. I have no doubt some of the parents here 
 to-day scarcely believe that their children are at enmity with 
 the gracious Saviour ; perhaps they have never found out by 
 experience that the Bible is true, when it says, * The heart is 
 deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.* I pray 
 
A BOY'S LETTER, 77 
 
 that they may learn, as many of you have learnt, that it is a 
 very wicked thing not to love that dear Jesus who 'first loved 
 us.' Here is a letter from a little boy whom I found, in a 
 children's inquiry meeting in Brooklyn, weeping and asking 
 how he could get a new heart. He says, ^ I thought I loved 
 /esus, but Ifoiifid I vjas a gi-eat sinner,^ 
 i " I will read it to you, and I trust the Christians present 
 will be lifting up their hearts to God, that all here may find 
 what great sinners they are to reject the loving Saviour: 
 
 ** * I was always in the liabit of coming to Sunday school, and I 
 thought I loved Jesus, until you came and told us about Him ; and I 
 found that I was a great sinner to reject that loving Saviour, who suffered 
 so much for me. At the first meeting I did not care much, imtil a kind 
 lady in the inquiry meeting came and asked me if I loved Jesus : I did 
 not make her any answer, for there v/ere other boys in the seat with me. 
 So she sat down and talked with us a long time, and said she would 
 pray for us, and it was then I commenced to feel that I was a sinner, 
 and if I did not repent of my sins, I could never enter heaven ; and 
 when I went home, I asked God to give me a nev/ heart, and make me 
 to love that Saviour who died for me ; and when I got up off my knees, I 
 felt so happy that I could not help singing. Eut still I did not say any- 
 thing, for I thought tlie boys would laugh at me ; and you said we 
 ought not to be ashamed of Jesus, for if we were ashamed of Him, we 
 could not be His lambs. So when I went home, I prryed to God to 
 help me not to be ashamed of Jesus. He has answered my prayer, and 
 has given me a new heart, and I do not think I will ever be ashamed of 
 Him again. I feel very happy now since I have found Jesus. There 
 are other boys and girls who have found Jesus ; and oh 1 I do love to 
 be at our little prayer-meetings, for I think that when we get to heaven 
 "> we shall be far happier. 1 love to read my Bible now, and before I 
 found Jesus I never thought of it, except whep . was in Sunday-school. 
 But I love it now, and I will always love it ' and I love to pray to Jesus 
 for others and myselt Pray for me, 
 
 *' * Your Young FbiejJd.* 
 
 "You see how hr.ppy this dear boy is, now that he has 
 found Jesus to be * iJie ciiild/s Juide to heave ft* He says he 
 
78 A NEW HEART, 
 
 asked God for a new heart, and He gave it to him, and fee 
 was so happy that he could not help singing. Can some of 
 you tell me what a new heart is ? (Up fly dozens of little 
 hands). Well, what is it ? " 
 
 One little boy answers — " It is a penitent heart.** 
 
 " What else is a new heart ? " " It is a Jesus-trusting 
 heart" 
 
 " Any other answer ? " " It is a sin-hating heart" 
 Another: "It is a singing heart" 
 
 ** And what else is a new heart?" Another answers — 
 ** It is a praying heart" 
 
 " Yes, you see this little boy says, * I love to pray to 
 Jesus for others and myself.' Ah, I see another hand up. 
 Well, what is your definition of a new heart ? " 
 
 ** It is a v/orldng heart." 
 
 " Very good. This boy, too, must have had a working 
 heart ; you see he did all he could to get others to follow 
 Jesus, the * Guide to heaven.' Are there any more 
 answers ? " 
 
 "A Bible-loving heart" 
 
 "Very good. If a Bible-loving heart is a new heart, 
 then this boy in Brooklyn must have had a new heart, 
 for you see he says, * I love to read my Bible now, 
 and before I found Jesus I never thought of it, ex- 
 cept when in Sabbath-school. Are there any other 
 answers ? " 
 
 "A new heart," said a little girl, "is a haj?jfy 
 heart" 
 
 " Oh, how true ! None of us can be really happy till 
 we find Jesus and get a new heart ; and we shall all find it 
 to be truly a 'happy heart' And this is another evidence 
 that this boy had a new heart; for he says, *I was so 
 knfpy I could not liclp singlnp;.' Let us count up some of 
 these evidences of a new heart ; we will place them like 
 
A WOR ICING HEART. 79 
 
 gold rinss upon our fingers. Here, then, is the first on the 
 left linle finger. WHiat was it?" 
 
 Several ans:ver — " A penitent heart.** "A Jesus-tnisting 
 heart" " A sin-hating heart." " A singing heart" 
 
 " What next ? " "A praying heart" 
 
 "Yes; and what was the name of the *gold ring* for 
 the fifth finger ? " <* A working heart" 
 
 " The sixth ? " "A Bible-loving heart** 
 
 " And what for the next ?" "A happy heart.** 
 
 ''Yes, and I see numbers here to-day whose happy faces 
 seem to show that they have this new, singing, praying, 
 Bible-loving, working, happy heart Some of you, w^ho, 
 only a iQ\N days ago, were weeping to think how your sins 
 helped to nail the hands of the dear Saviour to the cruel 
 cross, I sav/ at w^ork yesterday in the children's inquiry 
 meeting, and by your words and prayers trying to lead 
 others to trust in the Saviour. I am glad some of you seem 
 to have the ' working heart* 
 
 " I pray that the sight of these many happy faces may 
 pierce the hard hearts of some older ones here to-day, and 
 lead them to trust in Jesus as their Saviour and Guide. I 
 have in my pocket a letter from a lady in Hamilton, in 
 Canada, who was first startled to think of her lost 
 condition by having a friend say to her at one of the 
 Children's Meetings : 
 
 *' 'How happy these children seem ! It makes me happy 
 to look at them.* 
 
 *' It led her to ask the question : 
 
 " * Am I happy ? No ! I have all that this world can 
 give ; but I am not happy.* 
 
 " In a few days she was among the happy young con> 
 verts, r nd was able to rejoice in the * love of Christ, which 
 passeth knowledge* (Eph. iii. 19). 
 
 "Now, my dear little friends, do you v/ant this ntm 
 
8o THE NEW WATCH. 
 
 heart f The moinent you believe in Jesus, you have it 
 Let us all turn to Ezekiel xxxvi. 26. There it says, *A new 
 heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
 you : and I v.'ill take away the stony heart out of your flesh, 
 and I will give you a heart of flesh.' Our Lord will not lead 
 you one step towards heaven till you come to Him, and get 
 rid of that hard, stony heart. While many have felt hapj)y 
 here to-day, and joined heartily in singing these sweet hymns, 
 I have noticed that numbers were at times in tears. I believe 
 that the Holy Spirit has been showing some of you that you 
 are losf^ and that you have Vv'icked, hard hearts. And what 
 I am afraid of is, that you will be satisfied with trying to 
 get a better heart, instead of coming at once to Jesus for a 
 riCw heart. You see the promise in this verse is not for a 
 better heart, but for a new heart. 
 
 " A gentleman once bouglit a valuable gold v/atch ; but it 
 did not keep time. He did not knew by it when to go 
 home to his dinner ; he thus somictimes lost his meals. He 
 took it back to the watclimaker. He looked at it with his 
 magnifying glass, and tried to find what the matter was; 
 but it was all in vain. He said to the gentleman, 
 
 *' * It is a perfect watch, and must keep time.' 
 
 " He took it home, and tried it again, but still with no 
 success. Lie vrent back with it, quite angry, saying, *I 
 will not have it ; I don't care if it is full of jevrels, it will 
 not keep tim.e, and that is v/hat I want a watch for.' 
 
 "At length the vratchmakcr found that one of the wheels 
 was magnetized. Bid he place it on his little anvil, and try 
 ta make it better ? No. He took it cut and threw it away, 
 and put a new wheel in its place, and then the watch kept 
 good time. And that is just what you must ask God to do 
 for you, and He will, for Christ's sake, take away that bad 
 v/heel in your hearts and give you a new wheel (a new 
 heart) that v/ill regulate all your actions by motives 
 
FROM GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY. Ci 
 
 \^-hIch you have never known before. You will tlv 
 love the Lord, and delight to follow Him as your *Guid- 
 to heaven.' 
 
 ** This is the way to get those five gold rings, and this will 
 make you rich in time and eternity. In the thirty-seventh 
 verse in this same chapter in Ezckiel, you arc told how to 
 get that new licart : * Thus saith the Lord God, I vvill yet for 
 this be inquired of.' Yes, if you ask in faitli, you will g'^t 
 all your sins forgiven, and a new heart, so that you will tlien 
 hate sin. You see, my dear children, I have been trying to 
 sliow those of you v\'ho are not Christians, that you arc lest 
 in the dark ways of sin; and I have told you how others 
 found the way to Jesus, ' the Guide to heaven,' and how, 
 when they trusted Him, they had a new heart given them, 
 and were made happy and v^^ere sure of being led all the 
 way to His blissful presence above. 
 
 " You love to sing the sweet hymns and hear the 
 stories. But who, of those who come here day after day, 
 really love Jesus ? Like this boy whose letter we read, you 
 may think you do ; but you may be mistaken, as he was at 
 first. Do you give the same evidence of having a new heart ? 
 I have been trying to show you how easy it is to come to 
 Christ and be saved. But oh ! it was not such an easy thing 
 for our Lord to suffer for us, that Lie might save us from our 
 sins, and guide us to heaven. 
 
 *''Let us open our Bibles, and spend a few moments in 
 foUowmg the steps of our dear Saviour from the garden of 
 Gethsemane to the cross of Calvary. In Luke xxii. 42, 44, 
 we hear Him saying, 
 
 "* Father, if Thou be v/illinj, remove this cup from Me And 
 
 being in an agony He prayed more earnestly : and His s\/eat was as it 
 were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.' 
 
 «*The thought of being treated as a sinner, and having GoJ 
 
 6 
 
8a CHRIST LED TO ANNAS AND CA/APHAS. 
 
 turn His face away from Him, made the bloody sweat pout 
 do\vn His brows. But, oh, dear children. He saw that there 
 was no other way for us to be saved, and He loved us so 
 much that He was willing to die for us ! and so, in Matt, 
 xxvi. 42, we hear Him saying, 
 
 " ' Thy will be done.' 
 
 " Let us read on in this twenty-second chapter of Luke, 
 forty-fifth verse, 
 
 "* When He rose up from prayer, and was come to His disciples, 
 He found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why sleep 
 ye ? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. And while He yet 
 spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the 
 twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss Him. 
 But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with 
 a kiss?' 
 
 **We learn from the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the 
 eighteenth chapter of John, that 
 
 " ' The captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound Him, 
 and led Kim away to Annas first.* 
 
 "In the fifty-fourth verse of Luke xxii. we see Him agam 
 taken and led to Caiaphas the high priest's house. And 
 we see, at the sixty-third verse, how cruelly they treated the 
 Son of God, who made all things : 
 
 *• 'The men that held Jesus mocked Him, and smote Him, And 
 when they had blindfolded Him, they strack Him on the face, and asked 
 Him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote Thee ?* 
 
 *' In Mark xiv. 65, it says, 
 
 ** * Some began to spit on Him, .... and to buffet Him f 
 
 ** that is, they struck Him with the clenched fist, 
 
 ** * And the servants did strike Him with the palms of their handi 
 
TO PILA TE AND HEROD. 83 
 
 «<0h, how wonderful that He should have borne all so 
 meekly and willingly for you and me ! And what hard 
 hearts we must have not to love Him in return ! But this 
 was not alL In the first verse of the twenty-third chapter 
 of Luke, 
 
 « ' The whole multitude of them arose, and led Him unto Tilate j and 
 they began to accuse Him.* 
 
 ** Fourth verse, 
 
 «< * Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no 
 fault in this Man. And they were the more fierce.* 
 
 «' Oh ! how like ravening wolves they thirsted for His blood, 
 saying, 
 
 " ' He stin-eth up the people .... throughout all Jewry, beginning 
 
 from Galilee to this place.' 
 
 "When Pilate heard that He 
 
 " * Belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod.' 
 
 « And now, in the eleventh verse, we see that after a mock 
 trial, 
 
 «' * Herod with his men of war set Him at nought, and mocked 
 Him, and arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him again to 
 Pilate.' 
 
 <* In John xix. we see how this cruel Roman officer treated 
 
 the Son of God. 
 
 " * Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him ;* 
 
 "with a great scourge he caused Him to be lashed, till, no 
 doubt, big drops of blood ran down His back. 
 " Second verse : 
 
 " ' And the soldiers platted a crown cf thorns, and put it on HiS 
 
 head, and they put on Him a purple robe, and said, Hail, Kin;^ of the 
 Jews ! and they smote Kim with their hands. Pilate therefore went 
 forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring Him forth to you, that 
 j€ may know that I find no fault ia Him.* 
 
«4 THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 **No, my dear children, if Pilate could have justly found 
 any fault in Christ, He could never have been our Guide to 
 heaven. He never did one wrong thing in all His life. 
 Yes, He who knew no sin was made sin for us. 
 
 «* ' Then came Jesus [forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the ^ 
 purple robe.* 
 
 ** The crown-jewels which encircled Queen Victoria's brow 
 are guarded by wakeful eyes, day and night, in the great 
 Tower of London. They cost millions of dollars. Crowds 
 daily flock to see them. But Jesus, the King of kings, 
 wore this cruel crown of thorns that you and I, rebels 
 against God, might wear a crown of glory. Sixth verse : 
 
 ** * When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Him, they cried 
 out, saying, Cmcify Him, Ciiiciiy Him.* 
 
 ** Sixteenth verse : 
 
 *'* And they took Jesus, and led Him away. And He bearing His 
 cross went foi th into a place called the place of a skull, which is called 
 in the Hebrew Golgotha ; where they crucified Him.' 
 
 ** They laid the cross down upon the ground and then 
 took some nails, and drove them through His hands and 
 feet. Hark ! can you not almost hear the hammer as it 
 drives those rusty spikes through His sensitive hands? 
 Legions of angels are ready to deUver Him, and are able to 
 destroy those wicked men. But no ; the Son of God is 
 being 
 
 "•Wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities j * 
 
 " for only by His stripes can we be healed. In agony cf ' 
 soul more than of budy, He cries : 
 
 *'* My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' 
 
 ** He was forsaken for our sake. 
 
 "And the words of Jesus to you, are I 
 
MOUNT WASHINGTON. 85 
 
 ** * Look unto Me, Jind be ye saved * (Isa. xlv. 22). 
 
 " It seems so strange to me, that when Christ has 
 done so much for us, there should be any here who 
 DO NOT LOVE Him. An anxious little girl among the 
 inquirers in Dundee, in Scotland, where the holy Robert 
 IMcCheyne was so dearly loved by the children, said in an 
 inquiry meeting that her heart was so wicked she could not 
 love the Saviour. She seemed to feel her sins to be very 
 ;great, but declared she could not love Jesus. As she 
 (appeared to have learned that she needed an entirely ' new 
 Iheart,' and not a * better heart,' we began to tell her more 
 !about what Christ had done for lost sinners. In a few 
 imoments she looked up with a happy smile, saying, 
 ^ *" I can't kelp loving Hni. Oh, I wonder I never 
 Iloved Him before, v/ken He loved me so much as to 
 ^be willing to suffer punishment and death for me.' 
 \ "Why, if an earthly friend had done half as much for 
 you as has this One, who so * well deserves the name of 
 Friend,' I am sure you would not be so ungrateful as not to 
 love Him in return. 
 
 " This reminds me of a touching story about a party 
 who determined to climb to the top of Mount Washington, 
 more than six thousand feet high. But they rejected the 
 Guide. Just as this party of ladies and gentlemen were 
 leaving the hotel at the foot of Mount Washington, the 
 proprietor urged them to take one of his guides. 
 
 •* * We do not wisli a guide,' they said. ' We are deter- 
 mmed to find our own way to the " Tip-top House.' " 
 
 " * But,' said lie, ' I will let you have one for half price.' 
 ** * No ; we do not want one, even at half price. We can 
 find our way well enough alone. Vv''e will follow the path, 
 and so will soon find our way to the hotel at the top of the 
 mountain, and there we shall get a good supper and all we^ 
 need .^ — ^ 
 
86 SNO W-S TORM IN S U AIMER. 
 
 "'You may get lost,* said the hotel-keeper, * without a 
 guide ; and rather than have you go alone, I will send with 
 you, all the way, a good faithful guide for nothing.* 
 
 "*No, we won't have him, even for nothing; we want 
 to do something that will astonish our friends.' 
 
 " ' But it is very dangerous.* 
 
 " * We are strong, and will risk it' 
 
 "•Suppose you fmd yourselves in a snow-storm, what 
 would the ladies do ? * 
 
 " One of them laughed, and said, * That would be very 
 nice. A snow-storm in summer : I hope we shall see one.' 
 
 " ' Yes, yes ! ' they shouted ; * then we will roll up some 
 snow-balls, and see them go rushing down the mountain 
 side till they beccsiie small avalanches.* 
 
 " And so, with hearts full of hope, they started off for 
 the top of Mount Washington. On they went, gay as larks, 
 for a few miles, till they got near the top and they saw a 
 white cloud above them. Up, up they v/ent into it. They 
 found what I have often seen in Switzerland, a snow-storm 
 among the mountains, while the sun was pouring its warm 
 rays upon the people in the valley below. 
 
 " * Isn't this fun ? * said one and another. And so it 
 was for a short time ; but after a while the snow became so 
 deep they could not see the path. Ah! then the 'fun* 
 was at an end, and they began to think of the v^-arning 
 words of the proprietor of the hotel, who offered them a 
 guide. 
 
 ** * Oh ! how I wish we had that guide now ! * said one. 
 
 " But it's too late to go back for him ; we must fmd our 
 way alone,' said another. And so they struggled on, some- 
 times going quite out of the way. 
 
 " Darkness came, and they were lost ! lost in the deep 
 snow ! But tliey kept moving upward as well as they could. 
 The two ladies got so tired they could not walk ai.other 
 
LOS T—FR OZEN—DEA Dt 87 
 
 Step. It was dreadfully cold, and so they sank down in the 
 deep, cold snow, and waited for daylight to come to show 
 them the way to the * Tip-top House.' In the morning, 
 the storm had all cleared away, and as the keepers of that 
 house looked out, they saw only a little way off, not much 
 more than a stone's throw, the half-buried party. They 
 went to them at once, but it was too late to save the life of 
 one beautiful young lady, who had been frozen to death 
 during that awful night, and all because she, with the rest, 
 had said, * We don't tvant the guide.^ 
 
 " When I was at the top of Mount Washington, a few 
 summers ago, I saw a great pile of stones, which had been 
 thrown together over the spot where iliis young lady was 
 found co/d in death. 
 
 " How foolish they were not to accept the guide. But 
 suppose they had taken him, and he had lost his life just as 
 he had got them all safe in the warm hotel, how would the 
 party have felt toward him? Jesus, who is 'the child's 
 Guide to heaven,' had to die a dreadful death on the cross 
 before He could lead sinful children to heaven. Yes, my 
 dear little friend. He died in your place^ so that God might 
 forgive you all your sins. 
 
 " And now He is ready to take you with Him all through 
 the journey of life, safely home to the Golden City. 
 
 " One day, as the train entered the station at Rochester, 
 New York, I saw a crowd of people gathering around a little 
 boy, whom the conductor was leading out of one of our cars. 
 Everybody in that crowd seemed anxious to get even a look 
 at the little fellow ; and so I waited around to find out what 
 it was all about. Soon a young gentleman, who knew me, 
 came and told me something that interested me very much, 
 and I think it will interest you too, my little friends, when 
 you hear the story. 
 
 "This boy, who did not look over three years old ^ had 
 
88 A PERSEVERING LITTLE BOY. 
 
 been off alone, twenty miles on the railway. And what do 
 you think took him off so far alone? *How came his 
 mother to let him go ? M can hear you ask. But she did 
 not let him go ; he ran av/ay down to the station all alone, 
 and got into the train by himself, just as it was starting, 
 and av/ay went the little man twenty miles before anybody 
 knew where he was. 
 
 "But now you say, * What made him do such a strange 
 thing ? ' I will tell you, 
 
 " He loved his father very nuich, because his father used 
 to be very kind to him, and bring him home toys, and play- 
 things, and picture-books, and candies, and lots of good 
 things. He thought there was nobody quite so good as his 
 father, and he felt sure nobody loved him so much. .Bac 
 his father had sojne business in California, thousands of 
 miles away, and so one day he told his wife and children 
 that he must leave them all and go there. Little Frankie at 
 once said, * Can't I go with you, papa?' 
 
 " * No, my child ; it is too far to go with me.' This 
 made the little fellow cry bitterly. When the time came for 
 the father to set out, little Frankie was not allowed to go to 
 the railway sta.tion with him. But after awhile he found a 
 way to get out, and off he scampered to the station with all 
 his might. Just as he reached there he saw a train about 
 to start, and lie thought, of course, that his father must be 
 in that train, and into it the little boy climbed, and went all 
 tlirough the car, looking for his dear father. After he had 
 ridden about twenty miles, the conductor chanced to get 
 hold of him : and, having found out his name, telegraplicd 
 back to his mothei, and then gave him to a conductor of a 
 train they met, and thus he was taken back to Rochester to 
 his home. It v.-as his own brother who told me all this. 
 
 " And what do you think / thought of, when I looked 
 Upon the face of that persevering little fellov/, and knew liow 
 
COXCLUSION OF ADDRESS, 89 
 
 determined he had been to find his father, and go with him 
 to CaUfornia ? I will tell you. 
 
 ** I said to m.yself, * Oh ! I wish that little children, even 
 as young as three or four years old, were everywhere so 
 anxious to go with the child's Guide to heaven. He has 
 done ten thousand times more for them than ever that 
 father did for little Frankie.' This dear Saviour loves you, 
 my little friends, more than that father loved his little boy, 
 Frankie ; and He is the only One that can take you home 
 to your Father in heaven. He is also willing to give 
 you a new heart, so that you will love God and all good 
 thin^;?. 
 
 "You remember that poor little Frankie was disap- 
 pointed because he could not go with his father; but there 
 never was a boy or girl who really wanted to go with Jesus, 
 but that He was ready to take them, and wake them 
 
 FIT FOR A USEFUL AND HAPPY LIFE HERE, AND A JOYFUL 
 LIFE IN HEAVEN FOR EVER. 
 
 " But, as we saw when I was reading the Bible, before 
 Jesus could offer Himself as our Guide, He had to die in 
 our stead that dreadful death on the cross; there He had to 
 suffer for our sins tliat we might be forgiven. And yet 
 there are some here to-day who, I fear, do not love Him at 
 all. You hate Him; you speak lightly of Him ; you profane 
 His name ; you are ashamed of Him. Perhaps yesterday 
 you were unwilling your own dear mother should know you 
 wanted to find the way to heaven. You have often heard 
 how He loved you, and yet you have never loved Him in 
 return. Does not this show that you have wicked hearts ? 
 Some ot you I see are in tears. But weeping wdll not save 
 you. All that you can do is to confess all this — confess 
 that you have been very wicked in not loving Him at all, 
 when He has loved you so much. Here is a precious pro- 
 mise for you in i John L 9 : * If we confess our sins, He is 
 
90 PR A \ER. 
 
 faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness,* 
 " Will you not say, 
 
 •* • Just as I am, and waiting not 
 To rid my soul of one dark blot, 
 To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spoiy 
 O Lamb of God, I come 1' ? 
 
 " Yes, the dear Jesus is here, full of love ; He sees your 
 tears ; He sees you wandering in the dark labyrinth of sin ; 
 He hears all your sighs; His tender, loving words are, 
 * Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and 
 I will give you rest' (Matt. xi. 28). How can you reject 
 Him when He so gently knocks at the door of your 
 heart ? 
 
 " Shall we then at this moment bow our heads in prayer 
 and * come to Jesus ' ? Will you repeat after me these 
 words? [All bowed their heads, and, in a subdued tone, 
 
 repeated aloud after Mr. H ^ one by one, these sentences 
 
 of prayer] : 
 
 " Dear Lord, we come to Thee with all our sins. — We 
 have been very wicked. — We have told lies, and disobeyed 
 our parents, and done many wicked things. — But, worst of 
 all, we have not loved Thee. — We have often rejected Thee. 
 — Our sins helped to crucify Thee. — And yet Thou was**; 
 willing to die for us. — Thou v/ast ' wounded for our trans- 
 gressions.* — Thou art able to save unto the uttermost. — 
 Thou hast said, O God ! that if we confess our sins. Thou 
 art faithful, for Jesus' sake, to forgive us. — O God ! v/e do 
 confess our sins. — We would repent of them. — We would 
 wish to forsake them. — O God, help us to be sorry for our 
 sms, and to believe in the Lord Jesus, who died on the 
 cross for sinners like us. — Dear Saviour, show us Thy love, 
 so that we cannot help loving Thee. — Thy blood cleanseth 
 
THE CHILDREN'S BAND. 
 
 91 
 
 from all sin. — Lord, we believe, help Thou our unbelief. — 
 Help each of us to say from the heart — 
 
 '* 'Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, 
 
 Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relievC) 
 Because Thy promise I believe, 
 
 O Lamb of God, I come I * 
 
 "Yes, Thou Lamb of God, we give ourselves away to 
 Thee; 'tis all that we can do. — Strengthen our dear 
 ministers and our Sabbath-school teachers. — Reward them 
 for their faithfulness to us. — May we all, at last, meet 
 around the throne of God in heaven. — For Jesus Christ's 
 Bake. Amen.' '* 
 
 THE "children's BAND" IN LONDON. 
 
 I clipped from " The Independent " (New York) some 
 time ago an account, written by the Rev. Newman Hall, 
 concerning what he calls the "Children's Band" in London. 
 It bears upon the subject of this chapter so directly that it 
 can but prove instructive. 
 
 Mr. Hall's article was written several years after the 
 commencement of this work among the children, and yet 
 he says : — 
 
 " During the present year I have had the fullest 
 
 SATISFACTION IN WELCOxMING TO THE LoRD's TABLE, FROM 
 these SERVICES, FIFTEEN ; SIX OF WHOM WERE THIRTEEN 
 YEARS OLD, ONE TWELVE, ONE ELEVEN." 
 
 Here is the extract : 
 
 " Let me refer to a conference held in our schoolroom 
 on the subject of special religious services for children. 
 And I cannot do better than simply relate some facts which 
 were given by Mr. Tyler, a devoted young man, who conse- 
 crates his life to the good work of feeding Christ's lambs, 
 Mr Hammond, from America, visited us in 1867; and his 
 
93 REV, NEWMAN HALU 
 
 manner of urging the claims of Jesus on the young left a 
 deep impression on many minds. After his visit, children 
 wha felt so disposed were invited to attend a special 
 rehgious service every Sunday and Tuesday evening. They 
 came of their own accord, without teachers. The hymns, 
 prayers^ and addresses were calculated to inspire and 
 impress their minds. It was felt that there should be 
 some m.ethod by which those who really loved Jesus might 
 be able to coni'ess Him, and also enjoy the advantage of 
 the sympathy of each other. So the * Christian Band ' was 
 formed. Papers were given to the children on which these 
 four questions were printed — Do you love Jesus? Are you 
 trusting in Jesus as your own precious Saviour? Will you 
 try by the help of Jesus to give up everything sinful ? Will 
 y^u try to be more and more like Jesus every day ? 
 
 "To these questions was prefixed the inquiry, *Dear 
 little friend, can 5^ou answer Yes?' Each child was asked 
 to bring back the paper with answers. Some were not 
 returned at all. Others came back with such replies as 
 these : 
 
 " To the first question : ' Yes, with joy I can say I love 
 Him.' * Yes, with all my heart.' * Yes, because He died 
 for me.' *Yes, because He loves m.e so.' * Yes, but I 
 siiould like to love Him more.' *I will try with my whole 
 heart.' 
 
 "To the second question: *Yes, I feel He is my 
 precious Saviour.' *Yes, I will try.' *I am afraid not,* 
 etc. 
 
 "To the third: * Yes, I will pray to Him to help me' 
 (by a little girl of eight years, since gone to Him) ! * Yes, I 
 will try more and more.' 
 
 " To the fourth : * Yes, I wish to be more like Him.' 
 'Yes, I will,' etc Those who brought back the papers 
 were asked to remain after the rest had gone. Special 
 
IMPRESSIONS NOT TRANSITORY, 93 
 
 prayer was offered, and responded to sentence by sentence; 
 a simple prayer of consecration. 
 
 " This Christian Eand of young disciples meet oiire a 
 month, when the names of those who have ji)ined durhig 
 the month are read out. They are specially watched over 
 by the conductors of the services, and, at their own desire 
 from time to time, are recommended to the pastor for 
 church fellovv'ship, still, however, continuing attendance at 
 their own special meetings. 
 
 " During the present year I have had the fullest satisfac 
 tion in welcoming to the Lord's table fifteen from these 
 services 3 six of whom were thirteen years old, one twelve, 
 and one eleven. But this does not indicate the total result 
 to the Church, for the services are unsectarian. 7'he chil- 
 dren come from the district., and are encouraged to unite 
 themselves with any church which their parents or friends 
 prefer. Some may fear that the impression produced will 
 in most cases prove transitory. To aid in forming a correct 
 judgment, inquiry has been made respecting the first fifty 
 who joined the Christian Band three years ago. Of these, 
 ten are church members, twenty are still regular and con- 
 sistent members of the * Band,' seven belong to the Episco- 
 pal Church and are not visited lest it should be thought 
 there was a wish to proselytise, two attend a Wesleyan 
 chapel with their parents, nine have left the neighbourhood, 
 one sleeps in Jesus, one is unsatisfactor}^ yet often penitent. 
 
 " These children often speak to their companions and 
 invite them to the meeting, and urge them to love Jesus. 
 They hold prayer-meetings, at which the petitions indicate 
 the fullest trust in the efficacy of prayer. A friend over- 
 heard the following : * Please, Lord, make me a good girl. 
 Bless my father and bless my mother ; and O Lord, do 
 send father some work,' ** 
 
flip 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 HO IV EARLY MAY CONVERTED CHILDREN JOIN IHE 
 
 CHURCH? 
 
 WORDS OF JESUS : 
 
 TAKE HEED THAT YE DESPISE NOT ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONKS. 
 
 Matt, xviii. lo. 
 
 •'THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME." 
 
 Luke xxii. 19. 
 
 EED MY LAMBS." This is a subject of very 
 tender interest to me. The little babe after it 
 is born needs the solicitous care of the mother 
 and nurse. Just so little " babes in Christ " need to be 
 cared for most tenderly. A sheplierd who had a fine flock 
 of sheep, was once asked how it was he had such beautiful 
 sheep. His answer was, " I take care of the lambs." 
 
 Dr. Butler, in Auburn, Maine, once told me that twenty- 
 two years before, in a place where he had been a pastor, ;*. 
 large number of children had been converted. Grave 
 doubts were expressed as to the propriety of receiving them 
 into the Church. He had no little difficulty in inducing 
 the officials to receive them ; but at last they were led to do 
 so. "And," said he, "I am thankful for it. They aie 
 to-day pillars of that Church." 
 
 I believe that children converted should be gathered 
 ?ind instructed by themselves week by week. Sometimes I 
 
ALL OF CHRIST 'S COMMANDS, 95 
 
 have observed that pastors have selected several earnest 
 Christian men and women, and given them the care of 
 fifteen or twenty of these new-born souls, and that those 
 friends have convened the children each week at their houses 
 for instruction. Thus the Httle ones have been led along step 
 by step in the divine life. It is well, also, to encourage the 
 little ones to attend the weekly Church prayer-meetings. 
 
 Lorenzo Dow used to say that a good farmer would 
 always put the hay so low in the racks that even the little 
 lambs could get some of it. And so it seems to me that 
 spiritual food should be so dealt out that little children 
 should be enabled to gi-asp it and grow thereby. 
 
 The Church of God is the place for all of His children, 
 both old and young, and thither these little ones should be 
 brought 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hawley, of Auburn, N.Y., once told me 
 that he had in his Church a little girl who was early con- 
 verted. She came before the session for examination. In 
 order to satisfy his elders he asked her some pretty severe 
 questions, but she answered them with much clearness. 
 Finally, he said to her : 
 
 " You are a very little girl ; only nine years old. What 
 would you think if we should deem it best for you to remain 
 a few years out of the Church, until you are older?" 
 
 The little thing burst into tears, and said : 
 
 ^^ I want to obey all of Clirisfs comniands^ and He has 
 said J * This do in remejubrafice of Me.^ " 
 
 What was it but the Spirit of God that taught her that 
 these words were applicable to little children as well as to 
 adults ! It is a great comfort for me to believe that the 
 Holy Spirit can adapt His teacliings to the understanding 
 of litde children. 
 
 A number of years ago, in the city of Washington, a 
 friend of mine, as he wr.s leaving the house to p»-each a 
 
96 **rvE DONE it:' 
 
 sermon in a series of meetings, observed a little girl running 
 tlirough the hall, and heard her say : 
 
 " Mamma, I want to go to meeting to-night; I want to 
 be a Christian ! " 
 
 " Why, you are only six years old," replied her motlier. 
 " Your bed-time is seven o'clock, the meeting v/ill not be 
 out until nine or ten o'clock." 
 
 " But, mamm.a, I want to go to church to-night and learn 
 to love Jesus, as the rest are doing." 
 
 My friend turned to the child and said : 
 
 ** You can give your heart to Jesus here at home." 
 
 She replied quickly, " I will." 
 
 When they returned, the little girl came bounding 
 through the hall, exclaiming — 
 
 " I have done it ! I have done it ! " 
 
 " What have you done ? " asked her mother. 
 
 " Why, I have given myself to Jesus, and I knov/ He 
 has received me. I am so happy." 
 
 Little notice was taken of the occurrence, for neither 
 the mother nor the preacher believed the child understood 
 the import of the w^ords she used. Three weeks afterwards 
 the pastor gave notice that anyone who had been recently 
 converted should, on a certain day, present themselves for 
 examination. Little Clara found her way to the examination 
 room at the appointed time. The pastor said to her, 
 
 " What are you here for, my child ? " 
 
 "Why, I have come here to be examined." 
 
 * Examined for what ? " 
 
 "To join the Church." 
 
 " But you are too young. How old are you ? ^ 
 
 " I am six years old." 
 
 *' That is too young." 
 
 Looking up inquhingly into the pastofs face, she coa- 
 tinucd. 
 
MR. SPURGEON—DR. SIM IV, ^ 
 
 "You come to our Sunday-school, and you tell us to 
 come to Jesus ; you say that He died on the cross for us ; 
 and that if we will trust in Him, God, for His sake, will for- 
 give us our sins, and give us new hearts, and make us happy. 
 How old must children he before they can beco.-ne Christians 2 " 
 
 These words puzzled the minister and the officers. They 
 found they were getting examined^ and a question had been 
 asked at the very beginning too difficult for them to solve. 
 
 Finally, they were forced to examine her, which they 
 did with reluctance. The pastor then said : 
 
 " We believe you have been converted ; but you are so 
 very young we feel we cannot admit you into the Church for 
 several years." 
 
 And thus the poor child was left out in the cold for 
 three long years. It is a wonder she did not freeze to 
 death. But after these years she was found alive and taken 
 into the Church, and is now an earnest Christian mother in 
 the city of Vv'ashington. 
 
 If there is a blessing connected with the ordinance of 
 the Lord's Supper, I cannot see why children should be 
 debarred the privilege of joining with God's people in that 
 ordinance. 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon once said that he had been in the habit 
 of receiving thirty or forty children into his Church every 
 year; that he had found it necessary to excommunicate 
 one or two adults in that time, but that he had never yet 
 found it necessary to dismiss one received in the early years 
 or childhood. 
 
 Dr. Shaw, of Rochester, New York, has said that for 
 twenty-five years he has been in the habit of taking children 
 into his Church, and he never regretted having done so. 
 
 The nature of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper should 
 be fully explained in a very simple manner, so that children 
 can understand it \ and then, if they desire to connect them- 
 
98 DR, BUSH NELL. 
 
 selves with God's people, they should not be hindered. He 
 who hinders is in danger of hearing the Saviour's warning, 
 " Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe 
 in Me, it were better for him that a millstone v/ere hanged 
 about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of 
 the sea." 
 
 We should not expect too much of these little children. 
 I remember once hearing of the officer of a church who was 
 very much opposed to a certain boy being received into fellow- 
 ship; whenever it was proposed he strongly objected. But at 
 last the pastor's good counsel prevailed and the boy was 
 received. The next morning the pastor heard the door-bell 
 ring as if the house vvcre on fire. Hastily dressing himself, 
 he descended, and found the office-bearer, out of breath, 
 and greatly excited. 
 
 " That boy you took into the Church," said he, " I saw 
 coming down the hill this morning playing horse as hard as 
 he could I I guess that is the end of his religion I " 
 
 This good man, it appears, was greatly troubled because 
 the Uttle boy vras taking exercise in the pure morning air. 
 
 " They will," says Dr. Bushnell, " as many of us do, live 
 a mixed Hfe, sinning and repenting ; but let us not, on this 
 account, debar them from the privilege of assembling them- 
 selves with God's people at stated times, to commemorate 
 the dying love of Jesus." 
 
 In some places to which I have returned after a revival, 
 I have found the little ones wandering about like strayed 
 lambs upon the mountains. When I have asked them if 
 they were not Christians, they have hesitatingly said, 
 
 " I thought I Y/as when you were here, but I fear I was 
 not." 
 
 " Did you join the Church ? " 
 
 •*No, sir; I wanted to, but my father (or pastor, or 
 some one) said I was too young ; and when I fell into sin, 
 
A CHILD 'S EXPERIENCE. 
 
 99 
 
 my brother pointed his finger at me and said, * You are a 
 pretty Christian ; you are no more one than I am ! ' so I 
 have often been led to fear that I was not converted." 
 
 " Do you love to pray ? " " Oh, yes 1" 
 
 *'Do you love God's people? " 
 
 "Yes, I love to be with them." 
 
 The whole trouble with the children who talk in this way 
 is just here ; they were converted, they want to join the 
 Church, but for one reason or another they are not allowed 
 to do so. And thus they become discouraged, and almost 
 abandon their hope in Christ. 
 
 Upon returning to other places where the children have 
 been watched over, and after being carefully examined have 
 been received into the Church, I have been delighted to find 
 them daily grooving in grace, and able clearly to give a 
 reason for the hope that is in them. 
 
 Those who have not been in the habit of entering into 
 close conversation vrith converted children would be 
 astonished to find the clearness with which they give 
 evidence that they have passed from death unto life. For 
 the sake of such I will here introduce a conversation which 
 I held with a little boy about nine years old, in the Rev. 
 Baptist Noel's church in London, in 1867, and whom I 
 found lingering in the chapel after tlie congregation was 
 dismissed : 
 
 '* Why do you look so happy, my boy ? " 
 
 "I think it is because I have found Jesus." 
 
 ** But what makes you think you have found Him?"*^ 
 
 «* Oh, I know I have.'* 
 
 **But huw do you know? We read in I Peter iii. 15, ^ Be ready 
 always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of 
 the hope that is in you, v/ith meekness and fear.* Now wliat is you? 
 reason for thinking that^w.' are a Christian ? " 
 
 ** Because I know that He has forgiven me all my sins.*' 
 
 " But have you really /c// that you were a sinner ? " 
 
100 A CHILD'S EXPERIENCE. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I have felt that many times. I know I have done mariy 
 
 wicked things." 
 
 *' What wicked things have you done?*' 
 
 ** Oh, I have told lies, and disobeyed my parents. But the other 
 flight, when I heard you tell of how Jesus Christ died such a dreadful 
 death on the cross for us, I felt I was a great sinner not to love Him for 
 I felt ashamed that I had never thanked Him for His great love to 
 me. If He had not been * wounded for my transgressions,' I know I 
 must have been lost for ever. It made me cry to think that I had 
 been so wicked as not to love Him." 
 
 ** And did you repent of this sin ?" 
 
 ** Oh, yes, I was very sorry for it, and I asked Him to forgive me." 
 
 •' But did He forgive you ? " " Oh, yes." 
 
 ** How do you know ? " 
 
 " I know it, because I heard you read out of the Bible, *If we con- 
 fess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins; ' and I con- 
 fessed my sins : so I know He forgave me." 
 
 ** But are there no other reasons why you think you are a Christian? 
 What do you love now that you did not love before?'* 
 
 "Oh, I love Jesus, and I never thought so much about Him before. 
 I feel that He is near me almost all the time. I think about Him when 
 I first wake up in the morning." 
 
 " And is there anything else that you love that you did not 
 before ? *' 
 
 ** Yes ; I love to pray. Before, I just said my prayers, because my 
 mother taught them to me ; but after I received a new heart I loved to 
 pray. And sometimes I pray now as I walk the streets : I pr^y for 
 my little friends that they may love Jesus and be as happy as I am.* 
 
 *'Is there nothing else that you love now, that you did not love 
 before ? Do you not love the Bible novr ? " 
 
 ** Oh, yes, very much ; I love tr read it as often as I can. I 
 could not understand it before, but now I love to hear it read. Every 
 morning, when papa reads it, I listen to every word." 
 
 ** What part of it do you love best ? " 
 
 •* The New Testament, where v,e are told how Jesus died for ns.*' 
 
 •* Tell me how you feel towards those v.'ho you think are Christians." 
 
 '*I love to be with them. Ii I know they love Jesus, then I love 
 them very much.** 
 
 •*In John's first Epistle iii. 14, we read: * We know that \vk 
 
 HAVE PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIKE, P.ECAUSE WE LOVE TIIK 
 BRETHREN.' Now, if you, my little friend, have repented of your 
 Bins and have come to Christ for panloi ; if you love the dear Saviour, 
 
A CHILDREN'S CHURCH, ici 
 
 and \ovt the Bible, and love God*s people, then it would 'be quite right 
 for you to say ; ' / ktiovj that I have passed froyn death unto life, because 
 I laz'e the brethren.* If this is all true that you have told me, then 
 it was quite right for you to answer me in the way you did when I 
 asked you what made you so happy. But what are you going to do 
 when the devil tempts you to do v^Tong ? " 
 
 '* Pray to God to help me to do right.'* 
 
 «* But what if you forget to pray, and so do wrrong almost before 
 you think of it ? What if you get angiy and say some naughty words 
 almost before you know it ? What will you do then ? " 
 
 ♦*I shall go and tell God I am very sorry, and ask Him to forgive 
 me." 
 
 " Cut suppose something says to you, ♦ You are not a Christian, for 
 if you had been you would not have displeased Jesus. What will you 
 do then?" 
 
 This seemed to trov.ble the little boy, and then I said to 
 him: 
 
 *' For the first few months after I gave myself to Christ, I used to 
 find so much sin in my heart that I often scarcely dared to hope that I 
 was a Christian ; and Satan often at such times said to me : * You are 
 no Christian ;' but then I remembered that Je-us had said, in John vi. 
 37, * Him that cometh to J.Ic, I will in no wise cast out ; ' and so I 
 used to go at once to Him and say : * Dear Saviour, even if I was 
 deceived before, I give myself to Thee now. Oh, take me, and make 
 me Thine OAvn obedient child.' And He always took me back to His 
 loving bosom. And whenever Satan tempts you to think that you are 
 not a Christian, if you will go to Jesus, I am sure He will receive you. 
 But if you live near to Him and pray to Him every day, and seek to 
 obey His commands, you will not be filled with doubts and fears, but 
 you will be happy all the time.^' 
 
 While at Ocean Grove I found there had been a v/ork 
 of grace going on among the children before I arrived. 
 They had what they called a " child's church," into v/hi^ h 
 children giving evidence of having experienced a change of 
 heart were gathered. 
 
 K few years ago, while spending a day or tv:o at Sara- 
 toga, a lady left her card at the hotel where I was stopping. 
 I did not remembei the name, but soon after called at her 
 
xoa CHILDREN A T SARA TOGA, 
 
 hotel Though I did not find her in, two little children 
 whom I saw in the drawing-room came running to me and 
 expressed great delight at seeing me. I found that they 
 v/ere members of a Sunday-school in Brooklyn, and had 
 attended the meetings I had held in that city a year before. 
 After a pleasant chat with the children, I asked them if they 
 still loved Jesus. They said, 
 
 " Oh, yes ! we have loved Him ever since those meet- 
 ings, and been happy all the time." 
 
 " Have you joined the Church? " I inquired. 
 
 " Oh, no," answered the little girl of twelve. " I wanted 
 to, but mother would not let me *' 
 
 "And so did I," said the little seven-year-old, "but 
 mother would not let i?ie either." 
 
 They both burst into tears. Just at that moment their 
 mother entered, and was astonished to find her children 
 weeping. Instead of answering her question as to the cause 
 of their tears, I beckoned her to accompany me to the 
 verandah, and asked her if she thought her children v>'ere 
 Christians. Her answer vras, 
 
 " I have no doubt of it. They were converted at those 
 meetings you held in Dr. Cuyler's church in Brooklyn. 
 They have never ceased to love the Saviour, and they are 
 consistent in their lives." 
 
 *' Have they joined the Church?" I asked. 
 
 ** Oh, no ; they are too young for that. They wanted 
 to, but we did not think it best." 
 
 Said I, " That is the cause of their tears. They told me 
 they desired to join the Church, but you would not let them." 
 
 I once said to Mr. Moody that I had sometimes thought 
 1 would give my whole time up to children, it being so 
 much easier to lead them to Christ. 
 
 "Oh," said he, "that would be cruel. You should 
 always remain in a place until the Christians' hearts are 
 
AT WHAT AGE X03 
 
 thoroughly warmed, so that they will take care of the little 
 children." I felt the truth of it, for why should living chil- 
 dren be given to dead parents ? 
 
 AT WHAT AGE IS IT SAFE TO ADMIT CHILDREN INTO THE 
 CHURCH ? 
 
 It cannot be answered in a word, for children differ so 
 much in intelligence and capacity. Some are more mat'U-e 
 at five years of age than others at ten. 
 
 " What is the age," writes a pastor, " of the youngest 
 child you know of that has been admitted to the communion 
 of the Lord's Supper? A little lad in my congregation, 
 between eight and nine years old, has found the Saviour, and 
 obtained from Him a new heart. He comes into my Young 
 Men's Prayer jMeeting, held in my study every night We think 
 his case very interesting ; he is very bright and intelligent. 
 
 The following letter, which I received from a little child 
 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, suggests an answer to the 
 above. It seems that she was but six years of age when she 
 was admitted to the Lord's table. She is now eleven years ot 
 age. A minister who has known her during these five years 
 told me she has lived a consistent Christian life. 
 
 She tells her own story in these words, which I copy 
 from her letter : 
 
 *' When I was six years old I felt I loved Jesu3, and have been 
 trying to keep His word. My father was then statioa;)d at Jersey 
 Shore, and I asked him to let me join the Church, which he did, on 
 probation. I served my probationship there. I joined the class my 
 ma belonged to, and have been tiying to live for Jesus, though I often 
 do things I should not do ; but I pray to God to forgive me, and I 
 know He does, for I feel it. 
 
 ** On the 8th of January my dear pa died. He was stationed here 
 at Pine Street Methodist Episcopal Church. A short time before he 
 died, he wished to see us little children. I wept so when I saw he 
 would die. He said, * Don't cry, Allie, you'll come to heaven some 
 time, and see your papa there.* I am trying to meet him in heaven. 
 Pray for me." 
 
I04 REV. RICHARD FULLER. 
 
 WTiile I write, a mother tells me that her daughter joined 
 the Church when she was eight years of age, and that she 
 has follov/ed Jesus faithfully for eleven years. She also tells 
 me that at one time, eleven of her nieces and nephews 
 joined the Church before they were twelve years of age, and 
 that now, after eight years, they each honour their pro 
 fession. 
 
 When in Baltimore I became acquainted with Rev. 
 Richard Fuller, D.D., who has since gone to his reward. 
 He loved to see children coming to the Saviour. He says : 
 " I once thought I was doing God service in opposing the 
 reception of young children into the Church, and was most 
 thoroughly and touchingly corrected by my own first-born. 
 At the age of ten she told mo of her conversion, and 
 desired baptism. 
 
 "*]\Iy darling child,* I replied, 'you are young, and 
 your gay relatives and companions may lead you into the 
 world." 
 
 " ' My father,' she said, ' am I too young to love you 
 and my mother? and ought I not to love Jesus before all 
 and above all ? ' 
 
 " Since then I have rc'joiced to welcome children to 
 Him vA\Q says, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me, 
 and forbid them not,' thus rebuking in His apostles the 
 very prejudice we now encounter. I may add that the 
 death-bed of this precious daughter at the age of twenty- 
 three, was a triuinpliant termination to a life of purity and 
 love. Never have I known or read of such bodily suffering ; 
 nor of such exaltation in Jesus." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Cox once informed me, that while he was 
 a pastor in Brooklyn, there was a rule in Iv.s Church pro- 
 hibiting children under fourteen years of age from becoming 
 members of it. A bright little Christian girl asked for 
 admittance. The session with various excuses put her off 
 
AWAY WITH SUCH RULES^ 105 
 
 from time to time. At last her pastor told her plainly that 
 she was too young to be received into the Church. As she 
 was v/ell acquainted with Dr. Cox, she laid her head upon 
 his shoulder, and wept After a little she tenderly lifted her 
 eyes to his, and said, " Dr. Cox. Jesus would not treat me 
 so. He says, ' Suffer little children to come unto Me.' " 
 The pastor at once exclaimed, ^^ Away with all these rules 
 which conflict luith Christ's Word!" 
 
 Dr. Henr}^ Clay Fish, in his "Handbook of Ile\ivals," 
 says : 
 
 " We talk to our children in the family and Sunday- 
 school about Jesus loving little children, and being ready 
 to receive them. We urge them to begin now to love Him, 
 repeating, * I love them that love Me, and those that seek 
 Me early shall find Me.' We tell them they may die early, 
 and that that is a reason why they should repent no>v\ 
 And vv-e pray for their immediate conversion, and teach 
 them to sing of the loveliness of infant piety. But when 
 they tell us they love Jesus, and v/ould like to profess their 
 love for Him. tve hesitate, and advise caution and delay. 
 
 " Even w here parents are compelled to acknowledge a 
 great change in the child, and see better evidence of piety 
 (as they admit) in the child than in themselves, they oppose 
 the idea of his joining the Church. 
 
 Alas for such inconsistency ! Do we not thus show that 
 our prayers for the speedy conversion of children were 
 faithless ? Do we not depreciate and undo our own teach- 
 ings ? And do we not cast discredit upon the vrork of the 
 Holy Spirit, and discourage all efforts on the part of a child 
 to fellow the divine requirements. 
 
 *' It is astonishing that the teaching and the practice 
 ci Christians here are so at variance. Why not cease this 
 perpetual talk about child-piety, or else accept its conse- 
 quences ? If we believe what we preach, namely, that the 
 
«o5 A GREAT MISTAKE, 
 
 children ought to love Christ, and should now, at once, give 
 
 their hearts to Him (the staple of Sunday-school addresses), 
 then why not acknowledge child-piety where it is apparent ? 
 Why try to lead the children to Christ, and then shut the 
 door of Christ's Church against them ? Why in our homes 
 and sanctuaries entreat them with tears and loving words to 
 be Christians now, and then doubtfully shake the head when 
 the question comes of their admission to the communion? 
 ; " Many a parent perusing these lines can remember how 
 a dear child spoke of having found Jesus. You heard the 
 simple tale with tearful interest, and said, ' I am glad of it, 
 darling.' You gave thanks for it in the closet ; and felt un- 
 speakable joy at seeing the new sweetness of temper in the 
 child, the increased dutifulness, and lovingness, and prayer- 
 fulness. 
 
 "Then the child said, * May I join the Church?' You 
 said, * Wait a little, my dear.' The child submitted (though 
 with disappointment) to your superior 'udgment. 
 
 " Months passed. Again the child said, ' What do you 
 think about my joining the Church now ? I should like to 
 do it, if you approve of it.' You said, ' You know you are 
 very young ; hadn't you better wait a little longer ? ' So it 
 passed on. 
 
 " At length, years after (if God did not take the precious 
 one to Himself), the minister, upon exhorting this youth to 
 become pious, finds traces of existing godliness. * How 
 long have you felt so ? ' * Why, for years.' The pastor 
 calls to see you as to the child's profession. You consent, 
 and the child is taken into the Church. But, oh ! what a 
 loss has already been experienced ! Darkness and doubt 
 gathered upon the young mind, from the fact that you 
 seemed to question the reality of the change. Perplexity 
 arose on a thousand points. Coldness ensued, and wander- 
 ings in evil ways j until at last in another work of grace 
 
LITTLE MARTHA, 
 
 XOf 
 
 that poor thing again through fearful struggles came into the 
 light, to regret till a dying day that there had not been 
 experienced during those years the warm sympathies of the 
 Church instead of the chilling influences of the world. 
 
 "This is by no means an overdrawn or unusual case. 
 There are thousands of Christians who might have sat for 
 the picture. And, in this light, how much is the practice 
 under remark to be deprecated." 
 
 In my early Christian life I witnessed a scene which 
 opened a full fountain of sympathy for the young and the 
 tender lambs of the flock. Little Martha, the granddaughter 
 of the officiating clergyman, appeared before the proper 
 officers of the Church to be examined for admission to its 
 communion. She was examined thoroughly, and the result 
 was satisfactory. But the officers said, " Martha, you are 
 very young, and had better wait till you are older before 
 you make a public profession of religion." She did wait 
 patiently for three months, and then appeared again, telling 
 them the same sweet story of Jesus and His love ; and yet 
 she was advised to wait. Again she appeared, hopeful now, 
 but was again disappointed. And when a whole year had 
 passed, and she was again advised to wait, her breaking 
 heart sobbed out, " Oh ! grandpapa, how old must I be 
 before I may love Jesus, and sit with Him at His table ? " 
 The old prejudice gave way ; she was received, and became 
 an ornament and a blessing to the Church. 
 
 Whom Christ has received, however young, the Church 
 may not reject ; and those who are fitted for His Church 
 above are surely fitted for its fellowship here. 
 
 "l AM YOUR OWN LITTLE MARY.** 
 
 Dr. John Todd, as everybody knows, loved chilaren, 
 and most thoroughly believed that they should be early led 
 
to8 "^ AM YOUR OWN MARV:' 
 
 to Christ He was once at work in an inquiry meeting, at 
 twilight, in Pittsfield, when he came to a little girl, deeply 
 anxious about her soul. He talked and pra3^ed with her, and, 
 as he believed, finally led her to Christ. Before leaving her, 
 he asked, " Whose little girl are you ? '' To his astonish- 
 ment and delight, she now for the first time, turning hei 
 face to him said, " Why, papa, don't you know me ? I am 
 your own little Mary." Would not parents oftener be 
 blessed in leading their own children to Christ, if they 
 would go to work as Dr. Todd did, for the salvation of the 
 children of others ? Dr. Todd believed that children, who 
 gave evidence of a change of heart, should be treated as 
 Christians, and therefore received into the Church. He tells 
 a touching story of the manner in which one was gathered 
 into the fold of the Great Shepherd : 
 
 ** Some months since the Spirit of God touched her heart and taught 
 her that she was a lost sinner. Sh(» came to talk with me alone about 
 the salvation of her soul. It was a time when none of my dear flock 
 seemed to want to be led to the Great Shepherd, and I was surprised to 
 see her. A few minutes convinced me, as I talked with her, that she 
 had been taught by the Holy Spirit. She wanted peace of mind, 
 vleliverance from sin, and a friend to stand by her for ever, 
 
 " * Emma, have you learned that you are a sinner?* 
 
 <* * Yes, sir ; I feel it more and more every day,* 
 
 '* * Have you asked for mercy yourself?* 
 
 '' * Yes, sir, every day.' 
 
 " * How long have you been in the habit of daily prayer?' 
 
 ** * I have ahvays said my prayers, but I do not think I have really 
 prayed till about two months ago.' 
 
 ***Do you know what your easily besetting sin is? I mean, the 
 ;in that gives you the most trouble ? * 
 
 ** * I think I do, sir ; and I try to pray against it, and to kill it 1 It 
 is my temper^ sir I But I think I have done somtthing Xo over- 
 come it,* 
 
 •"You tell me, Emma, tliat you want to make a profession o( 
 rei igion. Why do you ? ' 
 
 " * Bemuse, sir, Clirxst has told ua to ; and because I want to bo 
 
•«/ WANT TO DO MY DUTV:^ 109 
 
 among His people ; and because I may die early, and I want to do mj 
 
 duty, as fully as 1 can.' 
 
 "The Saviour was set before her as our righteousness, and her faith 
 and love took hold of Kim with a stronp grasp. 
 
 "On the next occasion of celebrating the Lord's Supper, little Emma 
 came out in the aisle of the church, and, before the great congregation, 
 stood up to be received into the Church. Her father was dead, and her 
 mother was away, so of all her family she alone came. She was small 
 m size, pale as a lily, and when in her simple white dress she came to 
 be baptized, I could not but say, ' Little one, God is able to make thee 
 stand.'" 
 
 Mrs. Annie V/ittenmyer, author of the well-known 
 hymn, " I have entered the valley of blessing so sweet," 
 who has done so much for the cause of Christ and tem- 
 perance, WTites me as follows: "I was converted before I 
 was eight years old. I was not allowed to join the Church 
 till I was thirteen, but I was just as well prepared to join 
 at eight as at thirteen : better, for the delay dam.ped my 
 zeal." 
 
 Oh I how many have I heard give a similar testimony I 
 
 CHRIST AND THE LITTLE ONES. 
 
 "The Master has come over Jordan," 
 
 Said Hannah, the mother, one day; 
 *' He is healing the people who throng Him, 
 
 With a touch of His finger, they say ; 
 And now I shall go with the children. 
 
 Little Rachel and Samuel and John ; 
 I shall carrj' the baby, Esther, 
 
 For the Lord to look upon.'* 
 
 The father looked at her kindly, 
 
 Lut he shook his head and smiled } 
 *' _ rt^, who but a doating mother 
 
 Would think of a thing so wild? 
 If ihe children were tortured Viy demonSj 
 
 Or dying of fever, 'twere wed ; 
 Or had they the taint of the leper, 
 
 Like many an Israel ." 
 
CHRIST AND THE LITTLE ONES, 
 
 ** Nay, do not hinder me, Nathan | 
 
 I feel such a burden of care ; 
 If I carry it to the Master, 
 
 Perhaps I shall leave it there. 
 If He lay His hands on the children, 
 
 My heart will he lighter, I know; 
 For a blessing for ever and ever 
 
 Will follow them as they go." 
 
 So, over the hills of Judah, 
 
 Along by the vine-rows green, 
 With Esther asleep on her bosom, 
 
 And Rachel her brothers between ; 
 'Mong the people who hung on His teaching, 
 
 Or waited His touch and His word, 
 Through the row of proud Pharisees listening 
 
 She pressed to the feet of the Lord. 
 
 ** Now, why shouldst thou hinder the Master/* 
 
 Said Peter, "with children like these? 
 Seest not hov/, from morning till evening, 
 
 He teacheth, and healeth disease ? " 
 Then Christ said, " Forbid not the childr^l, 
 
 Permit them to come unto Me ! " 
 And He took in His arms little Esther, 
 
 And Rachel He set on His knee ; 
 
 And the heavy heart of the mother 
 
 Was lifted all earth care above, 
 As He laid His hands on the brothers 
 
 And blest them with tenderest love $ 
 As He said of the babes in His bosom, 
 
 *• Of such are the kingdom of Heavcaa,^ 
 And strength for all duty and trial 
 
 That hour to her spirit was given. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 " A UTTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 
 
 Isaiah xi. 6. 
 
 51HERE are many avenues of approach to the human 
 heart; but ofttimes it seems as if all of these 
 were obstructed, except those through which only 
 a child can thread its way. It has often been observed, 
 that those who have resisted the power of logical sermons 
 and pathetic appeals, have been drawn to Christ through the 
 influence of some little child. " God hath chosen the foolish 
 things of the world [at least those so regarded by men of 
 the world] to co?ifound the wise ; and God hath chosen the 
 weak things of the world to cotifound the things which are 
 mighty ; . , , . that no flesh should glory in His presence'^ 
 (i Cor. i. 27, 29). 
 
 It has occurred to me, that this bock may be used by 
 some as a handbook for reference and assistance in work 
 among children. I have therefore gathered the following 
 facts which have come under my obsei-vation, and others 
 which I have culled from reliable sources. I have seen 
 large audiences deeply moved by the recital of some of 
 these touching incidents. 
 
XI3 REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE, 
 
 If v/e would be encournged to labour enthusiastically 
 for the conversion of children, we should feel that there are 
 powerful motives to urge us on in that direction. 
 
 The quickest way to reach adults is often through the 
 children ; therefore it has been found desirable, in com- 
 mencing a series of meetings for the salvation of souls, to 
 bcgm with the children. I am satisfied that many efforts in 
 this direction tail, because this plan is not adopted. 
 
 This gentleman and his wife, a Quakeress, were in a 
 very remarkable manner led to the cross, through the in- 
 fluence of their little ones in Springfield, Illinois, in iS66. 
 
 It has been my pleasure to observe that each member 
 of his family has since lived consistently. The little boy 
 to whom he refers, now a young man, related in a meeting 
 in Washington, two years ago, the story of the conversion 
 of the family. 
 
 The words of Mr. Diller, as they appear below, were 
 taken down by a short-hand reporter in St. Louis, at one of 
 the Union Evangelistic Meetings held there in 1874. 
 
 Mr. R. W. Diller said that he was grateful for the work 
 now in progress in St. Louis. 
 
 "Vv'hen Mr. Kammond came to SpringGeld, I did not believe in 
 him. My children went to his meeting.-, however. One Sunday afier- 
 noon twenty men gathered in my store, and we all joined in slandering 
 Mr. Hammond, and said he was a humbug, although none of us had 
 heard him. My wife was a Quakeress, and did not believe in revivals ; 
 and she was mad to think that he should have come to our city. That 
 was good enough cause for grumbling for us, and we had a good l"me 
 traducing him. 
 
 ** We concluded our children should not go to any such circus per- 
 formance as I supposed he gave, from the stories I heard on the street. 
 That night my little boy took his Testament and went to his room, 
 looking very serious, and did not appear again until morning. The 
 
POINTING ME OUT, I13 
 
 next day my boy came to me and said : * Pa, why cannot we go to the 
 meeting ; all the children from the schools are going? ' 
 
 "Well, I thought the matter over, and concluded if other people's 
 children could go there without injury, mine could too. So I told them 
 they could go. My wife concluded she'd go, just to see what it was like. 
 
 ** Well, she got over all her prejudices against revivals, and they 
 came home singing. One day my wife said to me : 'Husband, don't 
 thee believe the Bible?' * Certainly I do, every word of it,' I replied. ' 
 
 * Well, don't thee think thee'U die?' she asked. I told her I expected 
 I should. * Won't thee come to these meetings, and tiy to be a Chris- 
 tian ? * I thought I would some time. * BUT WHEN WILL THAT SOME 
 TIME COME ? ' she asked. 
 
 **That got me. \Vherever I went it kept ringing in my ears, 
 
 * When will that time come?' I had been a drinking man, had 
 repeatedly gone reeling home, and but for liquor ours might have been 
 a happy family. 
 
 " The next day my wife wanted me to go and hear ?ilr. Hammond. 
 Finally, I told her that if it would be any satisfaction to her I would go. 
 So I went to hear him when he preached in the State House. When 
 the service was over I went across the street to my brother-in-law's 
 store, and told him I had been in to hear Hammond. He asked me 
 how I liked it. I told him I thought it was just about as good as any 
 other circus. He said something else then, and I was afraid he was 
 going to talk religion to me, so I left. 
 
 *' The next Sunday Mr. Birch preached in the Third Baptist Church, 
 and by some providence of God I went to hear him. He frequently 
 repeated *»he words, * He eateth with publicans and sinners,' and no 
 matter whether he pointed to this corner of the church or to that, I 
 thoueht he was pointing me out to the congregation every time. I 
 went away from the church mad, and stiid that he need not have 
 pointed at me all the time ; that there were forty other sinners in 
 the house as bad as m.yself. I declared that Id never go to hear 
 Birch again. I learned the next day, however, tliat he didn't know 
 I was in his church at all. The next day Hammond was to 
 preach in the park. I declared I would not go ; I would go and 
 see a sick friend. I started, but almost before I knew it I found 
 myself right before the platform at the open-air meeting at which five 
 thousand persons were present, and for two hours I never took my 
 eyes off the preacher. That night I went to church v.dth my family. 
 When the sermon was over, I\Ir. Hammond asked all the young con- 
 verts, and all who wanted to be Christians, to stand up. My wife and 
 boy stood on one side of me, and on the other my two little girls, while 
 I, ft poor, dissipated wretch, sat in the midst. God kept whispering, 
 
114 ^^ VE NE W-BORN SO ULS, 
 
 * Stand up.' The d.vil said, * Sit still ; there's one of your oM friends 
 right over there, and there's another ; they'll laugh at you if you get 
 up.' That night I tossed and tumbled about and could not sleep. My 
 v/ife got up three times and went away alone, I knew to pray for me. 
 In the morning she asked me if I had rested well. I told her never 
 better. I knew it was a lie, and so did she, for I had not slept a wink. 
 
 ** That morning my boy brought his Testament to me and said : 
 •* Father, why can't we have family prayers like they do at Uncle 
 Reuben's?' *0h, my boy,' said I, *I can't pray. You and your 
 mother may, if you wish.' I felt wretched ; I couldn't tell what was 
 the matter with me. I thought I'd go to the polls and electioneer and 
 work off my miserable feeling. 
 
 ** Strange to say, I never thought of my usual way of forgetting my 
 cares, drowning them in the bowl ; but I didn't get any better. I 
 went around like a wooden man, and everybody said, * What's the 
 matter with Diller? He isn't the same jovial fellow that he usually is !* 
 I went home and said to my wife, ' I can't stand this any longer ; I want 
 you to pray for me.' Presently a neighbour came in, and they both 
 prayed for me. But I felt no better, and I went to meeting that night 
 determined to stand up for prayers, if it killed me. 
 
 *• I did stand up, and soon after a friend came and talked to me, 
 and told me just to believe. I told him I didn't know how ; that I 
 didn't know what to believe. 
 
 **Then he related to me several other cases like my o'wti, and 
 explained to me how they had trusted Jesus. I saw it all then, and 
 believed ; and just that moment the burden of sin fell off my shoulders 
 and rolled away down into the sea of forgetfulness, just as the burden 
 of Christian did, whom Bunyan tells about. 
 
 "The next morning my little boy brought his Testament to me 
 again (Bibles didn't lay around our house then as they do now), and I 
 read a few verses of the 14th chapter of John, and then we knelt in 
 prayer, an unbroken family, five NEW-BORN SOULS into the kingdom 
 of God 
 
 " I tell you, friends, that the working Christians of Springfield to- 
 day are the convsrts of that revival of 1S66." 
 
 When he was about to sit down, I requested him to 
 relate his struggle to overcome his appetite for liquor, in the 
 hope that it might be an encouragement to some poor 
 despairing soul to hope for a victory over a ruling appetila 
 
 Mr. Diller continued : 
 
FREED FROM STRONG DRINK. 115 
 
 ** One day I passed a saloon and smelt the liquor ; I hurried past 
 as rapidly as I could, for I felt the old appetite conaing over me again. 
 I went down to my store. I was attended with a terrible burning 
 thirst ; I walked the floor until the clerks began to wonder what was 
 wrong with me, I went upstairs and prayed, but when I came dov/a 
 temptation met me again, for there was the soda fountain and the 
 bottles of port wine and liquor, 
 
 **I couldn't stand that. I went back upstairs, fell on my face, and 
 in the agony of despair, I cried, * O Lonl^ is it Thy desi^-e that 1 shozchi 
 become a dricnkard again ^ Is it Thy desire that I should again disgrace 
 my wife and children ? * 
 
 ** I immediately felt better. I rose wp a free m.an ; free from the 
 demon strong di-ink that had so long held my despairhig soul m its 
 grasp. My appetite for liquor was gone, and has never returned to this 
 day." 
 
 WTien Mr. Diller concluded there were few diy eyes in 
 the audience. His story was told so simply and so natu- 
 rally that no one could doubt the truth of his words. 
 
 "don't you love him for that, father?" 
 
 One Sabbath evening, the father of tv/o little children 
 had placed one of them on each knee, to ask them what 
 they had heard in the infant-school in that day. He was 
 not a professor of religion, although he had a pious wife. 
 The little children began to tell him, in their own way, of 
 the beautiful home in heaven that Jesus had left because of 
 His love to men. Looking full in her father's face, the 
 little girl said, " Jesus must have loved us very much to do 
 that ; don't you love Him for it, father ? " They then went 
 on describing the trials and sufferings of the Saviour, and 
 she again asked the question, " Don't you love Him for 
 that, father? " and when they spoke of His death on the 
 cross, the little one asked the third time, "Now, don't you 
 love Him, father ? " 
 
 The father had to put the children down, and go out of 
 the room to hide his emotion. He confessed to the speaker 
 
it6 A FATHER LED TO CHRIST BY HIS CHILD, 
 
 aftenvards, that he felt worse under the artless questioning 
 of his little children, than he ever felt under the most power- 
 ful preaching in his life. He soon afterwards united with 
 the Church of God. 
 
 CHILD-INFLUENCE IN PRAYER. 
 
 In the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting a gentleman gave 
 an interesting account of the influence which a little gir) 
 exerted in leading her father to Christ. 
 
 He spoke as follows : 
 
 " About two years after she began attending the school, 
 one Sunday afternoon her father came home earlier than 
 usual. Having to go upstairs for something, on reaching 
 Mary's room he heard her voice in earnest prayer. *0 
 God, have mercy on my dear father ! Show him his sins. 
 Let him feel his need of Jesus Christ. May he seek Thy 
 mercy, and find peace through believing in Jesus.' He 
 stood powerless, almost paralyzed. Quietly he turned and 
 came downstairs, and was overcome with a sense of his 
 great guiltiness before God. The hand of God had touched 
 him ; the light of heaven had beamed upon his dark, polluted 
 soul. 
 
 " He sank down in a chair, and said to his wife, * I feel 
 very strange.' His wife, looking at him anxiously, said, 
 * You don't look well; what's the matter? Shall I send for 
 a doctor ?' * No, I'm not sick, but I feel an awful weight on 
 my heart Isn't there a Bible in the house ? ' He sighed 
 heavily when Mary spoke : * Father, I know where there is 
 one ; shall I fetch it ? ' * Yes, child, do.* Quickly svye was 
 in her room, and brought the book, and handed it to her 
 father. He gave it to his wife, saying, * You read j } to too 
 wicked.* Opening the book in the middle, her eye fell on 
 the fifty-first Psalm, which she read slowly and distinctly, 
 « Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving- 
 
*^ CAN'T YOU PR A Y FOR ME f " 1x7 
 
 kindness/ never fell upon ears more ready to receive them 
 than was this poor trembling sinner. When the psalm was 
 finished, he said, * Can't you pray for me?' Blushing at 
 such an unexpected request, she said, * No, I cannot : I 
 have not prayed since I was a little girl.* The dear child, 
 seeing her father's distress, said, * Father, shall I pray?' 
 * Yes, child, if you can.' She kneeled down, her father and 
 mother both fell on their knees, when she poured out a fer- 
 vent prayer for mercy and salvation for these her parents. 
 God was in that room. Jesus was there. The Holy Spirit 
 was there. That father's heart was melted; so was his 
 wife's. Both wept together for their sins. Mary's face beamed 
 with joy that her prayers were now answered. Many times 
 had she sought the Lord alone, and prayed for her father's 
 conversion. That day salvation came to that house. 
 
 " While partaking of their evening meal, he said, * I 
 should like to go somewhere to church to-night.' The \vife 
 answered, * I don't know hardly where to go, but I'll go with 
 
 you.' Mary said, MVon't you go and hear Mr. B ?' 
 
 They consented. She led them to the sanctuary where 
 was her Sunday-school. The Gospel of Jesus was pro- 
 claimed, and the words reached the heart of this man. 
 He went home to pray. He sought and obtained mercy. 
 His wife became a Christian; all three united with the 
 Church. Mary is now a devoted Sunday-school teacher, 
 endeavouring to lead other children to Christ. The in- 
 fidel is a zealous Christian, and has written in defence of 
 the faith he once sought to destroy." 
 
 THE GAMBLER AND HIS CHILD. 
 
 In one of our morning meetings in St. Louis, !Mr. Alli- 
 son, an old gentleman of seventy-three years of age, arose 
 in the back part of the house, and related a remarkable 
 experience : 
 
fi8 A DEEP THRUST, 
 
 He said that he had but recently been converted ; that 
 he had been a gambler and a drunkard ; that he had 
 travelled all over the East and North with fast horses ; that 
 he had been a participant in almost every kind of vice and 
 debauchery ; " and yet," said he to the men who were still 
 walking in the paths he trod, " Christ saved me, and He 
 will save you if you ask Him to." The most interesting 
 part of his story, however, was that after a drunken spree he 
 hid his bottle of brandy in his hay-mow, where it was found 
 one day by his little boy, who brought it to him and told 
 him where he had discovered it, saying that he supposed 
 some vagabond had left it there. " That comparison," said 
 he, "was a sore thrust, and from that date i sought an 
 interest in Christ." 
 
 CHILDREN AT WORK FOR CHRIST, 
 
 Little children, who do not find it necessary to offer the 
 prayer of backsliding Christians, ** Restore unto me the 
 JOY OF Thy salvation" (Ps. li. 12), are often the best 
 workers in inquiry meetings. To ilkistiate this, I quote the 
 Rev. Dr. Foot's words spoken in St. Louis. 
 
 He said that one evening he conversed with two little 
 girls in Dr. I.inn's church, and stated that they found 
 the Saviour that same night. " On the following evening I 
 was sitting near the pulpit when they came up to me lead- 
 ing two of their friends, saying : * You can talk to them 
 better than we can.* They then went out into the audience 
 and found others, and brought them to me, and during the 
 evening they brought to me no less Hum forty anxious 
 inquirers. They were very industrious and earnest, and I 
 called them my little messengers." 
 
 In t86S, I heard Mr. Moody relate, in the Aldersgate 
 Street Prayer Meeting, London, the following touching 
 incident of 
 
FAITH, 119 
 
 Mr. Moody said he had in his Sabbath-school in Chicago 
 a little girl of seven years old, who had given as striking an 
 example of faith as he had ever heard of. 
 
 The child's father was in the army, and some years ago 
 the news came to the mother that he was shot She was 
 left with two little children. A day or two afterwards, the 
 landlord came to ask for his rent. The poor woman told 
 him she had no money, and m.ore than that, could not 
 tell where to get any, as she had nothing but what she 
 earned by her needle, and the cold weather was coming. 
 The landlord left the house with an oath, declaring that she 
 must go, as he could have no lodgers but those who paid 
 the rent regularly. As soon as he was gone, the poor 
 mother threw herself into a chair and began to weep. The 
 youngest of the two children, about four years old, ran to 
 her side and said, 
 
 " Don't God give us everything we ask for?" 
 
 ** Yes, if we ask in faith, and it's for our good.** 
 
 " Well, isn't it for our good to have a house to live in ?" 
 
 " I suppose it is," said the mother, hesitatingly. 
 
 " Then, mayn't I go and ask Him ?" 
 
 " Yes, you may, if you want to." 
 
 The little girl went into the adjoining room and knelt 
 down, and the mother heard her pray as follows : — 
 
 " O God, you have come and taken away my father ; 
 and mother's got no money to pay the landlord the rent, 
 and he will turn us out of doors, and we shall sit on the 
 doorstep and catch cold and die. Won't you, please, lend 
 us a little house to live in ?" She paused, and said, " Please, 
 God ! " Then, coming out to her mother, she said, " Don't 
 weep any more, mother; God will take care of us.'* 
 
 The prayer was answered. Christian friends, hearing of 
 
120 CARRIE AND HER FA TIIER. 
 
 the death of the husband, sent her means, and paid hei 
 rent from that time to this. Some time after the relief had 
 been given, the mother related the foregoing facts with tears 
 in her eyes. 
 
 While in Nashua, N. H., two years ago, a lady wrote me 
 the following letter, giving an interesting account of how 
 her httle sister, only six years of age, was used by God's 
 Spirit to lead her prayerless father to Christ : 
 
 CARRIE. 
 
 She wrote : " Twelve years ago, when you were holding 
 meetings in Lewiston, Maine, my little sister, six years of 
 age, used to attend them. I think it v/as on the third day 
 of the n eetings you closed your address as follows : * If 
 there are any little boys or girls present whose papa or 
 mamma does not pray with them, if they will come to me I 
 will give them a little book for their parents to read.* My 
 Utile sister immediately started up the aisle after a book for 
 her papa. You gave her one, telling her to ask her papa 
 to read it to her, and while he was reading she must pray, 
 and after that sing the beautiful hymn, * Just as I am,' which 
 was printed with the book. 
 
 "When father came home to dinner, Carrie ran to 
 him with the little book, and coaxed him to go out in 
 the garden and read it to her. During the reading her 
 little hps kept repeating, * Our Father, who art in 
 heaven. Our Father, who art in heaven;' for she said, 
 'Jesus' told her, when you gave her the book, to do so. 
 That evening father stayed at home with her as usual, wliile 
 mother was at the meeting. The next evening mother 
 invited him to go with her, but he refused. He was a 
 prominent business man, and his high morality was well 
 known. Soon after the commencement of the exercises, 
 mother was surprised and delighted to see father entering 
 
A ZEALOUS WORKER, ICX 
 
 the pew and taking his seat beside her. After the meeting 
 the Christians went downstairs by themselves to leave room 
 for the others. You invited any and all who wished, to 
 speak for Jesus. The first to speak v/as my father. Mother 
 was called upstairs to hear him testify to the love of Jesus. 
 All were surprised, for it was well known that he never 
 spoke in public. Throughout the remainder of the meetings 
 he worked zealously. He always loved to say, ^A liitle 
 child shall lead them: " 
 
 A MOTHER LED TO CHRIST BY HER LITTLE BOY. 
 
 At one of the Children's ^Meetings in Washington, in 
 Dr. Rankin's church, sat a young mother and her boy. 
 Dr. Rankin, who had laboured most earnestly in all the 
 meetings, and who has the strongest faith in the conversion 
 of children, approached the two, and addressed himself first 
 to the mother with no effect. He then turned to the Uttle 
 boy, and soon found that his heart had already been 
 touched with a view of Jesus on the cross "lifted up for 
 him," and very soon the little fellow was weeping for his 
 sins. He prayed with him, and the boy prayed for himself, 
 and finally looked to Jesus and beheved on Him as the 
 Saviour of little children. It has since been evident that 
 he was truly converted by the Spirit of God. The uncon- 
 verted mother sat looking upon all this with much dis- 
 pleasure. Finally, she expressed her belief that the boy 
 was too young to understand such difficult problems. But, 
 said Dr. R. to her, " You need not shake your head ; this 
 boy knows more than you do on this subject." 
 
 On the way home the little fellow seemed very much 
 interested in his mother's salvation, and said, "Mamma, 
 what did Dr. Rankin say to you ! " She avoided giving an 
 answer; and he added, "Did you not give yourself up to 
 Jesus, who died for us? I did, and oh, it's so easy, 
 
zsa Jl CHILD 'S WORDS BLESSED. 
 
 mamma. Won't you come to Him too? I know He'll 
 receive you, and v/e shall all be so happy ? " The mother's 
 heart was deeply moved, but she did not promise she would 
 become a Christian. That night, after he had retired, he 
 called his mother to his bedside and said, *' The devil has 
 been here, and tempted me to curse God." He then arose, 
 knelt down and prayed to God to forgive him and help him 
 to resist the devil. 
 
 The boy v/ould not rest until his mother promised to go 
 back to the meeting with him the next evening. She vrent, 
 and was glad enough to have Dr. Rankin talk with her as 
 he had with her little boy, and now she and another of her 
 children are rejoicing in Jesus. Her husband was also 
 drawn to the meetings. Every evening this mother and 
 both of her little boys might be seen at the church, talking 
 and praying with anxious souls. 
 
 One evening a converted infidel stated, in relating his 
 experience, that it was the sight of his little children amongst 
 the young converts that first made an impression upon him, 
 and led him to realize that after all the Gospel was so simple 
 that children could understand it, and that if he would ever 
 be converted he must humble himself and become like 
 them. He is now an earnest worker in Washington. 
 
 A minister from Scodand came upon the platform, and 
 stated that he was led to Christ v/hen a little boy at some 
 Children's Meetings the Lord permitted me to hold sixteen 
 years ago in that country. He said he knew of several 
 children who were converted in the same meetings who are 
 
 now MINISTERS OF THE GoSPEL. 
 
 May the Lord help every Christian reader, and especially 
 every Sunday-school teacher, to labour most earnestly for 
 the immediate salvation of the little ones who are now under 
 their influence, and then perchance in years to come, their 
 hearts will be cheered by mccli.ig those in the Gospel 
 
PO WER OF PR A YER, 123 
 
 ministry whom they were permitted to lead to Him who has 
 said : " Suffer little children to come unto 'Mq." 
 
 PRAYING CrULDKLN. 
 
 In a town in Western New York, two little sisteis with 
 their little brother were returning from an afternoon Child- 
 ren's Meeting, and one of them said, 
 
 " I wish we could get father to /,■) to the meeting for 
 groitni-vp people to-night." 
 
 *• How can we do it?" 
 
 " I'll tell you," said the little boy ; " we'll all pray for 
 him." 
 
 *' But where can we get a good place to pray for him?" 
 
 '* Why, you go into the parlour, where father hardly ever 
 goes, and I will go off out to the barn," said the little boy. 
 
 So into the parlour the two girls went, and knelt down 
 and began to pray. While they were pleading most 
 earnestly, the father, who was a farmer, came in from the 
 field, and instead of going round the back-way, started to 
 pass right through the parlour ; but as he opened the door 
 quietly they did not hear him. Ke listened a minute, and 
 felt he could not go through that room. Away he went 
 to the barn, and there, too, up on the hay-mow, he heard his 
 boy's voice in pleading prayer. As the little fellow slid 
 down from the mov/, his father put his hands upon his 
 head, and with tears said, " Oh, pray for me ! I will go 
 TO THE MEETING." And SO he did; and, what is better 
 still, I think he came to Jesus. 
 
 PAPA, HOW OLD ARE YOU? 
 
 In Harrisburg two years ago many children and youths 
 were led to Jesus. Among them was a little boy, son of a 
 gentleman of high literary standing. 
 
X24 "PAPA. HOW OLD ARE YOU f" 
 
 In his study he said to me, " I was sitting here by the 
 fire yesterday afternoon, when my Httle boy came in from 
 the Children's Meeting. He sat quietly looking at the fire 
 for awhile, as if something important was upon his mind. 
 He then began to twist and shrug his shoulders, as if he 
 had something difficult to express. Then, looking up, he 
 said : 
 
 " * Papa, how old are you ? ' — * Fifty-six, my son ? * 
 I "*How old Y/as grandpa when he died?* — * Sixty, I 
 believe.' 
 
 " * Well, papa, are you a Christian ? * — * I don't think I 
 am, my son.* 
 
 " * Hadn't you better become one now, my dear father ? 
 You haven't much time to wait before you will be as old as 
 grandpa was when he diedJ 
 
 " I gave myself up to Jesus, and He made me a happy 
 Christian." 
 
 " The little fellow," he added, " came close up to rae, 
 and begged me to love Jesus. / have heard sermons all my 
 life^ but never such a powerful one as front my little boy^ sitting 
 here by the fij-e yesterday afternoon." 
 
 Children's prayers are always short and to the point 
 They do not ask God, as grown people do sometimes, to 
 give them what they can get themselves. At the close of a 
 long prayer by a father who had prayed for a poor family, 
 his son said, " Father, if I had as much wheat in the bain 
 as you have, I would answer that prayer my self ^^ 
 
 Eleven years ago, in a city in Illinois, a little child came 
 to my meeting just because the others came, but with no 
 thought of being a Christian. But Christians had been 
 praying earnestly that all the children present might be led 
 
FATHER AND MOTHER CONVERTED, 1-33 
 
 to see their lost condition, and that Jesus had loved them 
 and given Himself for them. 
 
 When this child went home she had found the Saviour, 
 and her father and mother were very much astonished at 
 her words and manner. They thought she was too much 
 ** excited," and determined not to let her attend any more 
 such meetings. But she cried bitterly, and begged to go to 
 the next meeting, that she might hear more about tlic 
 Saviour, 
 
 Finally, the father said to the mother, 
 
 " You had better go with her, and if the meetings are 
 very had we '11 not let her attend another one." 
 
 But, while at the m.eeting, the mother found her heart 
 turning in love towards the precious Saviour. When she 
 found how much He loved her and had done for her, she 
 could reject Him no longer, and so she yielded herself up 
 entirely to Him, and God, for Jesus' sake, forgave her all 
 her sins and filled her soul with peace and joy ; and she, 
 too, went home as much " excited " as her child had been. 
 Her ungodly husband was astonished when she said to 
 him, 
 
 " You had hefter go yourself to the next 7?ieeting, for there 
 is nothing at all had ahoiit them.''^ 
 
 He was thus drawn to attend the house of God, where 
 he had seldom been before. God met him v,dth His Spirit, 
 and showed him what a great sinner he had been. He felt 
 , at first that he was too great a sinner to be saved. For a 
 long time he could not see how God could be just and yet 
 forgive him ; but v/hen he heard how Christ had died, "the 
 Just for the unjust, that He mighi bring us to God," he 
 bowed at the foot of the cross, and cried, "God be merciful 
 to me a sinner, for Jesus' sake." 
 
 His prayer was answered, and he, too, went home 
 "excited." Yes, he was so much "excited" that he at 
 
ia6 A BOY'S PRAYER MOVES HARD HEARTS. 
 
 o!ice resolved to give up making whisky. He had for a 
 long time been a distiller of that which leac's so many down 
 to a drunkard's grave. But God showed hiii: his ?ins, and 
 he resolved never to distil another drop of liquor, for nc felt 
 that by so doing he was adding to the long train of sixty 
 thousand who fall into the drunkard's grave every year in 
 the United States. 
 
 A hoy's prayer moves hard hearts. 
 
 A New York daily newspaper gives the following account 
 of an occurrence of a ver}- affecting character, which took 
 place on an English steamer,,: 
 
 *• A little ragged boy, aged nine years, was discovered 
 on the fourth day of the outward voyage from Liverpool to 
 New York, and carried before the first mate, whose duty it 
 was to deal with such cases. 
 
 ** When questioned as to the object of his being stowed 
 away, and who brought him on board, the boy, who had a 
 beautiful, sunny face, and eyes thc^ looked like the very 
 mirrors of truth, replied that his steptutlicr did it, because 
 he could not afford to keep him, nor to pay his passage out 
 to Halifax, where he had an aunt who was well off, and to 
 whose house he was going. The mate did not believe the 
 story, in spite of the winning face and truthful accents of 
 the boy. He had seen too much of stowaways to be easily 
 deceived by them, he said ; and it was his firm conviction 
 that the boy had been brought on board and provided with 
 food by the sailors. The little fellow was very roughly 
 handled in consequence. Day by day he was questioned 
 and requestioned, but always with the same result. He 
 did not know a sailor on board, and his father alone had 
 secreted him and given him the food which he ate. 
 
 *' At last the mate, wearied by the boy's persiiitency in 
 
TO BE HANGED IN TEN MINUTES. xvf 
 
 the same story, and perhaps a little anxious to inculpate the 
 sailors, seized him one day by the collar, and dragging him 
 to the fore hatch, told him that unless he confessed the 
 truth, in ten minutes from that time he would hang him on 
 the yardarm. He then made him sit down under it on 
 the deck. All around him were passengers and the sailors 
 of the midday watch, and in front of him stood the inexor- 
 able mate, with his chronometer in his hand, and the other 
 officers of the ship by his side. It was the finest sight, said 
 our informant, that we ever beheld, to see the pale, proud, 
 sorrowful face of that noble boy, his head erect, his 
 beautiful eyes bright through the tears that had fled. The 
 mate had told him he had but two minutes, and advised 
 him to speak the truth and save his life ; but he replied, 
 with the utmost simplicity and sincerity, by asking the mate 
 it he might pray. 
 
 "The mate said nothing, but nodded his head. All 
 eyes turned on him, this brave and noble fellow, this poor 
 waif whom society owned not, and whose owti stepfather 
 could not care for ; there he knelt with clasped hands and 
 eyes upraised, while he prayed the dear Lord Jesus to take 
 him to heaven. 
 
 " Sobs broke from strong hard hearts, as the mate sprang 
 orward to the boy and clasped him to his bosom, and kissed 
 him and blessed him, and told him how sincerely he now 
 believed his story, and how glad he was that he had been 
 brave enough to face death and be willing to sacrifice his 
 life for the truth of his own word." 
 
 THE CHILD AND THE INFIDEL, 
 
 A speaker in the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting said that 
 he went from a Brooklyn mission-school to a far-off home in 
 Missouri. He went with several boys, who were placed 
 in good Christian families. When one of them, named 
 
128 THE CHILD AND THE INFIDEL. 
 
 Tommy, left the mission-school in Brooklyn, it was peculiarly 
 hard to part with him, for he was a good boy. Tommy 
 shed many bitter tears at the thought of going so far away. 
 There God had met him in mercy, and had given him a 
 new heart, and instilled into it an earnest desire for the 
 salvation of others. Living in the same town v/as an 
 old GREY-HEADED INFIDEL. He had been many years in the 
 place, and had grown up with it. He v.-as a man who never 
 went to church, and paid no heed to religious things wliat- 
 cver. 
 
 When this little boy, who was only tvrelve years old, 
 became a Christian, he felt very anxious for the salvation of 
 this poor old infidel. So he went to him and asked him to 
 go to meeting with him. " No, no," said the old man, " I 
 have not been inside a church for tvventy years, and I do not 
 wish to go." " Oh, come with me," said the young disciple, 
 ' come with me. It will do you no harm, and it may do you 
 some good." " No, no," the infidel replied, " you do not 
 catch me going there. I know better. I am not going to 
 begin now, after staying away from church for twenty years. 
 No, no, you don't catch old birds with chaff." 
 
 The boy began to shed tears. He could not help it. 
 The old man, seeing this, said that he thought he would go 
 just to please his little friend, for he did not know when any 
 one had manifested such anxiety for him. The next night 
 Tommy went for the old man again, and with some per- 
 suasion he got him to go a second time. That night the 
 old man got an arrow in his heart. The third night there 
 was no trouble in getting the infidel to go to the meeting. 
 The fourth night he went of his own accord. That old 
 infidel was awakened, convicted, and converted ; and he 
 often now, in the prayer meetings, speaks of his experience, 
 and says, " What would have become of me if it had not 
 been for Tommy's tears and entreaties ? " Thus the poor 
 
•• WB Y DON 'T YOU LOVE JES US f " la^ 
 
 tnission-school boy has begun to be a real missionary, and 
 has been enabled, by God's grace assisting, to win over the 
 stouL-hearted infidel to the cause of Christ. 
 
 INFIDEL AND CHILD IN ST. LOUIS. 
 
 My attention was often called, in the inquiry meetings 
 which followed the morning prayer meetings in St. Louis, tc 
 an infidel lawyer, who seemed to delight to engage and 
 perplex the Christians who were seeking to lead others 
 to Christ. I was asked to contrive some way, if possible, 
 to reach him. It seemed worse than useless to argue with 
 him. 
 
 One day, I found in different parts of the building, six 
 converts who had been noted infidels. I asked each of 
 them to gather around this young la^\7er, and told them I 
 should be there, and ask them to relate their experience. 
 
 After awhile I approached one of them, and inquired, in 
 the presence of the scoffer, " Are you a Christian ? " This 
 question brought out successively the experience of the con- 
 verted infidels, but, to my astonishment it seemed to have 
 no effect on the infidel la\\7er. 
 
 A {q.\n weeks after, when the Children's Meetings were 
 held in Rev. Dr. Foot's church, the lavvyer's daughter, about 
 six years old, was present, and after a day or two was led, 
 as she believed, to trust in Jesus. Returning home from 
 the meeting, she asked : 
 
 " Fapa^ why don^t you lov2 Jesus ? He was so kind to die 
 for us, how can you help loving Him 7 He bled and died on 
 Ihe cross for you and me. If you will only come to Him, 
 He will make you happy too." 
 
 Thus with great tenderness she pleaded with him to 
 come to Christ. When she was about to retire, she begged 
 her father, who was in the room, to let her kneel down and 
 pray with him. This was too much for his proud heart liii 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 NOBLE PRENTISS^ 
 
 little daughter's words were more potent than all tha 
 arguments or sermons he had ever heard. 
 
 Not long after, he related, in Dr. Burlingham's church, 
 the story of his conversion. Many hearts were melted. He, 
 with about seventy others, went with me to JcOerson City, 
 the capital of the state, and held a meeting in the senate 
 chamber. There he related his experience in a most powerful 
 and touching manner, telling how his little daughter 
 had been used by God in leading him, a sceptical infidel, to 
 Christ. 
 
 NOBLE PRENTISS AND THE LITTLE CRIPPLE. 
 
 In Lawrence, Kansas, Mr. Noble Prentiss attended the 
 union meetings for the purpose of reporting them for a 
 paper of which he was one of the editors. He listened 
 attentively to the sermons, and wrote excellent reports of the 
 meetings, but was entirely unmoved himself. 
 
 One day as he was passing out of the church during the 
 inquiry meeting, a beautiful little crippled child, with large 
 black eyes, lifted up her finger, as she stood exactly in front 
 of him, and said, " Mr. FrentisSf woji^t yozi come to Jesus and 
 he a Christian 2 " He tried to evade her question and pass 
 on. But still she hedged up his way, and with tearful eyes 
 pressed him with questions, still more pointed. At last he 
 was almost forced to promise ner that /le luouldbe a Christian, 
 That promise was faithfully kept. Mr. Prentiss not only 
 became a Christian, but a most active one. He was a man 
 of fine ability, well known in all the region, able at once 
 to command the attention of any audience, but he had been 
 sadly addicted to strong drink. After this great change, he 
 went from town to town and city to city, addressing large 
 numbers. I have no doubt that many by his earnest words 
 were led to Christ. 
 
 God grant that the facts related in this chapter may be 
 
CHILDREN'S INFLUENCE, 
 
 X3I 
 
 the means of leading its readers to realize the great 
 INFLUENCE ^V\z\i converted children may exercise in winning 
 souls to Christ. And may this truth, brought home by the 
 Spirit of God, act as a powerful stimulus to induce our 
 readers to labour more earnestly in the Sabbath-school, by 
 the fireside, and everywhere, for the immediate sai, 
 
 VATION OF THE CHILDREN. 
 
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 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TEST/MONIES ABOUT THE WORK, AND FROM CHIL- 
 DREN THEMSELVES. 
 
 "OUT OP THE MOUTH OP BABES AND SUCKLINGS THOU HAST ORDAINED 
 
 strength" (or, as Prof. Tholuck translates it, "prepared thyself 
 AN army "). Psalm viii. 2. 
 
 HEN a la^^yer has a cause to plead in court, he is 
 anxious to secure competent witnesses. He well 
 knows that if the truth is on his side, and that if 
 his witnesses are unimpeachable and clear in their testi- 
 mony, he has every reason to expect the jury will decide in 
 his favour. 
 
 I once heard an eminent lawyer say he gained his case 
 solely through the testimony of a little boy not ten years 
 old. 
 
 We have asserted in these chapters our belief in the 
 conversion of children. We shall therefore call before us, 
 among other witnesses, children who testify that they have 
 experienced the grace of God in their hearts. 
 
 This chapter will no doubt be passed over by some of 
 our readers, while others, who have had opportunities of 
 more intimate acquaintance v/ith the young, will read its 
 various testimonies with the deepest interest. 
 
 The Lltters fro:.i Children, which it contains, have 
 
CHILDREN'S LETTERS. 133 
 
 been selected from numerous packages of such letters, care- 
 fully filed away, some of them in years gone by. We have 
 endeavoured to choose only those from children under 
 twelve or thirteen years of age. 
 
 It has been stated, that George Wliitefield, after one of 
 his field days in London, when he had been preaching to 
 fifteen thousand people, received one thousand letters from 
 those whose hearts had been that day touched. 
 
 An appointment had been given out that he would 
 preach the next evening in his tabernacle ; but instead of 
 delivering a sermon, he drew from his pocket letters v/hich 
 he had received from anxious inquirers and young converts, 
 making remarks upon them which deeply interested the 
 audience. 
 
 No doubt some expressed disappointment in not having 
 heard a sermon from the fam.ous preacher, but ]\Ir. White- 
 field well knew the power of these simple experiences and 
 heartfelt utterances. I mention this to show how natural it 
 is for new-born souls to say with David, " Come and hear, 
 all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done 
 for my soul" (Ps. Ixvi. 16), Many who are not moved in 
 the least by a logical sermon, are often powerfully wrought 
 upon by the narration of an experience. Dr. Taylor, of 
 New Haven, once said to his friend. Dr. Lyman Beecher, 
 " We need more experimental preaching." 
 
 In a former chapter we referred to the Hon. and Rev. 
 Bap list Noel, of London. We now quote from a sermon 
 which he preached during the union services in that city : 
 
 *' The Lord Jesus has declared His purpose v/as, and is, 
 to draw all men to Kim, and therefore He has been doing 
 that during t\vo thousand years. No one can say how niany 
 He has drawn to Himself who are now living in glory. That 
 is His work still, and, unless we are greatly mistaken. He has 
 brought a number of children to believe and be blessed in 
 
'34 
 
 "BRING THEM TO JESUS. 
 
 Him during the past week. * I, if I be lifted up from the 
 earth, will draw all men unto Me.' Of course, that doe^ not 
 exclude children ; children are a part of the * all.* It is not 
 surprising that He should call children to Himself as soon 
 as they are able to sin, and that is very young. They can 
 understand what it is to have a Saviour from sin as soon as 
 they know what sin is, and that another can bear their 
 punishment." 
 
 The following lines were written by a lady who was 
 deeply interested in the Children's Meetings in Rev. Baptist 
 Noel's church : 
 
 " Oh, bring me many, many 
 S weet flowers for Jesus'brow, 
 Blossoms and buds and gar- 
 lands, 
 Breatiiing glad beauty now. 
 
 •• Oh, bring them all for Jesus, 
 Ye children, come to Him. 
 Loving the blessed Savlonv, 
 Who suffered for your sin. 
 
 " Oh, flock to Him in numbers 
 Who bids the children come, 
 Watching so kindly o'er you, 
 He '11 safely guide you home. 
 
 ** Oh, come then now to Jesus, 
 Whose heart with love o'er- 
 flows, 
 And early twine your beauty 
 Around sweet Sharon's 
 Rose, 
 
 ** For He is — oh so loving — 
 Among ten thousand chief, 
 Kinder than any brother 
 In every care and grie^ 
 
 ** Oh, now your voices loudly 
 In hallelujahs raise ; 
 Hundreds of little children 
 Unite to sing His praise, 
 
 *' See ! they are coming, fxocking 
 To Jesus' loving arms, 
 Who little children blesses, 
 And shields from all alarms. 
 
 ** And hark ! the happy chorus 
 Their childish hearts out- 
 pour : 
 * We've come just now to 
 Jesus, 
 Who all our sorrows bore.* 
 
 " And oh, we love the Saviour, 
 Who died on Calv'ry's tree, 
 And we will always follow 
 Just where He bids us be. 
 
 " And noAV ! just now 1 we 'li 
 praise Him : 
 * Hosanna to the Lord ! 
 Hosanna ! He has saved us !' 
 They shout with one accoidi 
 
FROM " THE christian: 
 
 >3S 
 
 • '^''e bow our heads in wonder, 
 Speechless, adoring praise; 
 And — silent — our hosannas 
 With little children's raise. 
 
 ' For God is now among ns. 
 His Spirit is outpoured, 
 Drawing in tender mercy 
 To Christ the risen Lord. 
 
 * And at the river gathered, 
 And at the crystal sea. 
 We '11 meet these little chil- 
 dren 
 That Jesus has set free. 
 
 "We shall gather where the 
 
 river 
 Flows by the throne of God, 
 And we shall be so happy 
 For ever with the Lord. 
 
 " For ever ! oh, for ever 1 
 
 What mind can grasp the 
 
 thought ? 
 Eternity and Jesus 
 
 For those His blood hath 
 
 bought 
 
 " O Saviour I blessed Sa\'iotir ! 
 Now let us work for Thee ; 
 That many more may meet U3 
 Beyond the crystal sea." 
 
 The Editor of The Christian, speaking of one of the 
 C^\ldren's Meetings at the late Mr. Noel's church, said : 
 
 " One evening a boy of tv/elve was brought to Mr. H. 
 by his elder sister, who said he wanted to speak to him. 
 We shall never forget the rapt expression of that dear child's 
 face. There was no tear, for there is a joy as well as a woe 
 too deep for tears, but his voice and his whole frame 
 quivered with suppressed emotion as he said, * I have come 
 to thank you for the ^vords you have spoken; they have 
 brought me to Jesus.' We cannot recall the brief conver- 
 sation which ensued, but if we could, we should still be 
 unable to convey the sense of God's presence which was 
 manifest in the steadfast tearless gaze of that believing boy, 
 who appeared, like Stephen, to behold the heaven opened, 
 and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. 
 
 " Many boys and girls were weeping bitterly that they 
 were such sinners, their conviction not arising so much 
 from their outward acts as from not having loved so kind a 
 Saviour ; and thoughtful Christians will readily perceive 
 that conviction of sin on this account is deeper in its 
 
136 LETTERS. 
 
 character, and has more the elements of permanence, than 
 conviction produced by the sense of active transgression. 
 
 " He received, while in the meeting, about thirty letters, 
 some of which he read. The following are a few of 
 them: 
 
 ** *I have felt very happy since I attended your meetings. I camej 
 en Monday night, and I felt veiy sorry for my sins. And on Tuesday 
 night we had a little prayer meeting at Calthorpe Street Schools, where 
 there was about thirty of my school-fellows. How kind was Jesus to 
 forgive so great a sinner as I was for eleven years. I am eleven years 
 old, I hope to love Jesus as long as I live. 
 
 ** * I am, your young friend, . * " 
 
 Many of the follov/ing Letters are instructive as to the 
 methods the Spirit uses, not only to point the anxious to 
 Christ, but also to awaken the careless. 
 
 ** I am veiy happy to say that I attended your meeting on Tuesday 
 night, and was not much impressed till a gentleman came and spoke to trn 
 of the love of the Savionr^ which made my heart melt. He then prayed 
 with me, and I got up with renewed strength, and went home rejoicing 
 in Jesus. I came again on Wednesday, which strengthened me in 
 grace. I am now, I believe, a lover of Jesus, and one of the redeemed. 
 What makes me think so is, whereas before I was so weighed down 
 with my sins, now I am happy and light-hearted. I think that these 
 meetings have done great good. I now conclude, wishing you every 
 happiness in Jesus. Also, I am greatly indebted to Mr. Noel, and hope 
 that he may still continue happy in Jesus. I am thirteen years of age. 
 •* Yours sincerely, • ," 
 
 This letter shows how God blesses personal effort, 
 
 ** Dear Sir, — I am happy to say that I think I have found Jesus. 
 It was last Monday night, whett a lady came and spoke to me, and I then 
 saw that it was no use depending on ourselves. We must look to Jesus, 
 and to Hivi only. I then went home and prayed, and since then I am 
 a great deal happier. The hymns that we sing are very nice, my 
 favourite being 'Just now.' I wish we could have prayer meetings 
 among ourselves to strengthen our faith, and to give us courage to go 
 and show many others the way to liappiness while on tliis earth, and 
 
FAITH IN PR A YER. 137 
 
 eternal life in the world to come. Christian friends going round the 
 chapel do a great deal of good, I am sure ; as if somebody had not I 
 should not now be so happy. I hope you will bring many others to lay 
 hold of the first link of the golden chain. Give my very best thanks to 
 Mr. Noel, for the kind way in which he speaks to us, and I hope your 
 meetings will continue for some time. 
 
 *• Your affectionate friend, ." 
 
 Many of the letters express the deep gratitude and 
 affection of the writers. Faithful pastors are never more 
 beloved than during a time of religious awakening. Evan- 
 geUsts who labour wisely with pastors will do all in their 
 power to strengthen the bond of union between the shep- 
 herd and his flock. 
 
 ** Dear Sir, — I have been to your meetings three times. I am very 
 sorry they are not going to continue, as I like to come very much. I 
 hope, from this time, I shall ever love Jesus, and be a true Christian, 
 and never forget the five links of the golden chain, especially the first 
 one (Jesus). My dear mother came to hear you preach on Sunday 
 evening, and liked you so much that she detennined to bring me, but 
 she was not able to before Wednesday night, and then I told her I 
 would not come, and when she said I should, I laughed at her, and she 
 told me she would tell you what a bad girl I v.- as, and so she did, and 
 you and the gentleman who spoke first last night, came and spoke to 
 me, and prayed that Jesus would make me a good girl, and I trust that 
 He ha3 pardoned all my sins. You said last night that you wanted to 
 see five hundred more children, and then you would see whether you 
 could not continue the meetings another week, and I have brought 
 seven to-night. Please do try and continue these meetings, and kindly 
 thank Mr. Noel for having the meetings in his chapel. Please do 
 gpeak to the little girls I bring, and I will ever pray for all the kind 
 teachers that speak with us. , aged ten years." 
 
 child's faith in prayer. 
 
 How true it is that "Prayer is the Christian's vital 
 breath." Yes, the new-born soul at once learns the language 
 of prayer. The Spirit of God is a wonderful teacher. He can 
 Epeak in a way that the youngest cannot fail to understand. 
 
i^ ** BECAUSE HE FIFST LOVED MB. 
 
 I could but write these words after reading the lettei 
 below, from another, wlio attended the same meetings in 
 London ; 
 
 ••because he first loved me.** 
 
 **Dear Sir, — I write to tell you that I trust I have peace In Jesus, 
 because He ilioJ in order to save me. I was at the meeting on Sunday 
 evening, and felt how very wicked I was not to love Him, when you 
 read how He siUfcred for us, and you showed us that crown of thorns. 
 I feel now that I love Him because He first loved me, and died on the 
 cross to save me. Four of my schoolmates have been, I trust, con- 
 verted, and we are going to ask our governess on Monday if bhe will 
 let us have .1 prayer meeting in a little room which we are not always 
 allowed to go into. 1 do not think she will refuse. This morning I 
 prayed that God would put it into the heart of some little friend who 
 had found Jesus, to want to liave a pril^er meetiiig, and this afternoon, 
 as I was helping one to put some books into the cupboard, she said to 
 me, • Don't you tliuik it would be very nice to have a prayer meeting 
 in the luncheon ht)ur?' Then I said I should be very glad, and we 
 have agreed to ask our governess on Monday. She has a little sister 
 wiio went home last night aficr she had been to the meeting, saying, ' I 
 can't help crynig, Ou- I 'ni not quite sure if I love Jesus or not.' An- 
 other little schoolmate went home and shut herself in her room, and 
 knelt down and prayed. She is either seven or eight years old. Pray 
 that she may find Jesus. Pray that my parents and school-fellows may 
 be brought to Jesus ; and pray for me. 
 
 ** Your little friend, , aged thirteen yeaxs." 
 
 LETTER FROM A BLIND CHILD. 
 
 I have received numerous letters from them. I quote 
 but one : 
 
 •'Institute for Blind, April '^o^ 1869. 
 <« • » » • Yox several years I have at times been made to 
 feel that I wanted to be a Christian, though only from a feeling of fear 
 of punishment ; not because I loved Jesus, and wanted to please Him, 
 as I do now. I attended your meeting for children on Sunday after- 
 noon. I was interested in the stories, and was glad to be there, though 
 that day I had no serious impressions. I went again on Sunday even- 
 ing. While Mr. McGowan was speaking, I felt that my heart was 
 somewhat moved, but after leaving the house I threw it off to a greali 
 
"/F / /IM MOT A SAINT. I AM A SlNNERr 133 
 
 extent. On Monday or Tuesday evening I went to church, and you 
 preached about the death and sufferings of Christ. I felt then myself 
 to be such a great sinner that it seemed to me 1 could see the Saviour 
 so plauily bleeding on the cross for my sins. I cannot express how I 
 felt on that evening. Some Christian gentleman spoke to me about 
 my soul and prayed for me. I then felt willing to give myself entirely 
 up to Jesus, who died for me. I felt a relief from my burden of sin. 
 I came home, went to my room, and prayed ^^nth such a joy as I had 
 never felt before. I loved to pray so, it seemed t'lat Jesus was right 
 therewith me. I feel that Jesus has [.aido.iod my si as. I feel so 
 happy now. I feel that I love the Saviour mt a c all the time, and I 
 want everybody to Ive Him. I love all Chn?tiav,s, everybody who 
 loves Jesus ; and I pray for those '.vhi> do riot love Hmx, for T want them 
 to come to Tesus. I f It so happy here this morning ^t our meeting at 
 the Institute. It seemed that (iod was right in our imdst — Pray 
 for us. — — ." 
 
 DEAF AND DUMB CHILDREN. 
 
 One Sabbath, in the Academy of Music, Indiana, among 
 the three thousand who were present, I saw a man standing up 
 and making all sorts of strange m.otions. I thought at first 
 that he was insane. But after a little 1 saw that in front of him 
 were a large number of boys and girls wlio could not hear 
 a word that was said. They were all deaf and dumb, and 
 so their teacher was translating foi them. I did not think 
 at the time that he could make them understand much 
 that was said. But in a day or two 1 visited their insti- 
 tution, and I found that they knew all that had been said. 
 One of the teachers said to me, " I do not believe there 
 are any that heard you, who can tell more of what you said 
 than these deaf and dumb children." 
 
 "if I AM XOT A SAINT, I 
 
 At one of a series of Children's Meetings in Mr. 
 Spurgeon's Tabernacle, where thousands gathered day after 
 day, a little child who liad been converted some months 
 
140 A DIRECT QUESTION, 
 
 before in Mr. Noel's chapel, handed me the following 
 letter : 
 
 ** With much pleasure I write to tell you how I found Jesus. The 
 first time I came to your meetings at IMr. Noel's, I liked the stories 
 very well, but when I found Christians going about and asking, * Do 
 YOL LOVE Jesus?' I went away as quickly as I could ; but somehow 
 or other I did not feel happy. But I came the next night, and a little 
 friend with me. We were both impressed during the meeting, but 
 Satan would tell me to look at something somebody had on, and I am 
 afraid I yielded, for I was too proud to be seen cr}'ing ; but as we were 
 passing out, you were standing in the aisle, and asked us if we loved 
 Jesus. My heart was too full to answer, but you led us to a side seat 
 and put a little prayer into our mouths, and talked so kindly and gently 
 it overcame my wicked heart : it was just what I wanted. I gave my- 
 self to Jesus ; He washed all my sins away, and I could sing, * Yes, I 
 love Jesus.* I do not think I should have cone to Him if I had not been 
 spoken to personally, I should have gone out, and the impressions 
 would have been effaced by other things, and, perhaps, I never should 
 have thought anything more about them. I must say, that when I saw 
 you coming, it ivounded my pride, and for a minute I wished you had 
 not been there ; but the next night I came, I could not help loving you, 
 and not only you, but Jesus. When you went away, Satan told me it 
 was all fancy and excitement ; I used to reply, * If I am not a saint, I 
 am a sinner,' and then go and give myself to Jesus again to make sure. 
 I cannot think how it is so many Christians do not believe in children's 
 conversions. Children are not born without understanding of these 
 things ; and I am sure of this, that when a child knows who Jesus is, 
 its own conscience tells it it is a sinner, and is old enough to be con- 
 verted, however young it may be. I am sure you will be glad to know 
 that I am a member of the Chiurch." 
 
 " AS I WAS COMING OUT, A LADY ASKED ME IF I LOVED JESUS.*' 
 
 The following letter shows the power of a word at the 
 right time. Had that lady allowed this boy to pass at that 
 time, without speaking to him, he might have crowded out 
 with the thousands who thronged Mr. Spurgeon's Taber- 
 nacle that day, and soon lost all his serious impressions. 
 
 Does not the Spirit of God often in vain sound the 
 words in the ears of Christians, " Run and speak to that 
 
PERSONAL EFFORT BLESSED, 141 
 
 young man," or that child? It is my prayer that these 
 simple letters may be used to stimulate direct personal 
 effort for the salvation of souls. 
 
 *« Dear Sir, — When I came to your meeting on Sunday last, I did 
 not love Jesus. I was a sinner ; I did everything that was bad. But 
 as 2 was coming ont a lady asked me if I loz'cd Jesus. I replied, ' No.' 
 She said, * Would you like to love Jesus ? He is very good and kind. 
 He died on the cross to save sinners.' When I began to feel I was a 
 sinner and wept, the lady said, * Let us pray,' and we did so. I asked 
 God to give me a new heart. So when it was time to go, I went home, 
 and my sister said, * Let us have a prayer meeting.' When my brother 
 prayed that I might be saved, I prayed myself, and God answered my 
 prayer. I thank you for coming to the Tabernacle. God bless you. 
 I feel so happy I cannot express my feelings. I love the Saviour ^ and 
 I want otJicrs to do the same. 
 
 <* My age is twelve, and I write this, so that you may tell others as 
 young as myself that they are not too young to be converted. 
 
 ** Yours very truly - 
 
 FILLED TUMELERS. 
 
 We may illustrate the importance of the lesson taught 
 by the above letter, as foUov^'s : you may take a glass per- 
 fectly dry, and carefully fill it v/ith water, and even after it 
 is full you can gently pour in more till it is rounded up 
 into a convex shape above the rim, yet none trickles over 
 the edge. Now if you gently touch the edge of the glass, 
 the water will at once begin to run ove::. 
 
 Just so, I have often seen a company of children listen- 
 ing to the Gospel, when no deep impression seemed to be 
 made, and yet, as the ministers and Christians have imme-i 
 diately moved about among these same children, I have' 
 seen the tears begin to fall, shoAving that their little hearts 
 were full, though previously there was no special indication 
 of it. 
 
 I believe that often superintendents and those who 
 
143 THE WONDERFUL CHANGE, 
 
 address children and labour for their salvation, would be 
 astonished at the amount of anxiety in their hearts if they 
 would adopt this plan of personally dealing with the little 
 ones, and praying with them one by one. 
 
 THE WORDS OF MR. JOHN SANDS, 
 
 spoken at the meeting of the London Sunday-school Union, 
 show how the children who wrote the above letters, and their 
 friends, were looked after by the pastor of John Street Chapel. 
 
 " The great truth of Jesus' mission, His sufferings and 
 death, were explained, with interesting anecdotes, all of 
 which, however, bore upon the one subject of Jesus' 
 love to sinners. The result before the close of that even- 
 ing was what he (Mr. Sands) had never before witnessed. 
 There could not have been less than three or four hundred 
 children who bowed their heads and wept, feeling deeply 
 their sin in never having loved so precious a Saviour. The 
 following evening the meeting was continued. The children 
 did not need to be invited to come ; they felt constrained 
 to come, and a similar blessing followed. Each evening of 
 the week, except Saturday, they met, and it was difficult to 
 get the younger ones away. Not only children but youths 
 and grown people all seemed alike interested and moved. 
 The following week the services were more for adults, but 
 still there was great blessing, and although the children 
 were requested not to come, many of them came. 
 
 "After the fortnight had expired, Mr. Noel invited those 
 who believed that they had found Jesus and were trusting ia 
 Him, and those only, to come on the Monday evening to 
 the chapel, and he would have tea provided for them at 
 six o'clock ; but those only were to come who in their hearts 
 and minds believed that they had found Jesus. 
 
 "On the Monday evening three hundred and thirty 
 children came, and before any of them were admitted they 
 
PERSLCV TKyN. I43 
 
 trcre subjected by the senior tearhers and others to a scru- 
 liny, and a number of those who hatj come merely expect- 
 ing to get tea were sent home. He hrid conveiscd with 
 teachers who were sound, excellent Christians, and who said 
 the change in the school was something wjnderfu'. One 
 female teacher had told him she believed all the children 
 in her class were converted except two, and eveii tiiese two 
 were awakened. He could ascribe it to nothing but to the 
 blessing of God's Spirit upon the loving way in which the 
 mission of our blessed Saviour was told to these children. 
 Christ had been precious to his heart for many years, but 
 he had never had his owm heart so drawn out in affectionato, 
 tender love for the blessed Jesus, and never did he so feel 
 how little he had loved Him, and how much He deserved 
 to be loved before." 
 
 "ke locked me up in a room." 
 
 Even in a Christian country converted children arc 
 sometimes called upon to endure persecutions. This is al' 
 the more hard when it comes from a father and mother. 
 
 To make sure that the little child really wrote tht^ 
 following letter, I sent down w^iere she lived to find out al. 
 about it, and I have reason to think that all she says is 
 quite true. 
 
 "Newark, N. J., March i^th, 186^. 
 
 "I have felt very happy since you spoke to me. I went there on 
 Wednesday, and I felt very bad that night, for I thought that I was a 
 sinner. So after meeting you spoke to me. I went home crying. My 
 motlier asked me what was the matter. I told her that T was crying, 
 for I felt that I was a sinner, and I didn't like Jesus. She called me a 
 fool, and told me that I had no business to go to meeting ; and sh^ 
 began to swear at me, and said if I went again, she would beat me 
 almost to death. The next morning I prayed and read two chapters 
 in the Bible, and picke<-l out all tl;e nice verses and learned them ; aod 
 was talking to my moiher about Jesus, and ail about what you told 
 
£44 co^:f:uj:xce in cueist, 
 
 rae, and she told me thut she dJci not want to hear any more of my 
 preaching, and told ine to go nlong about my business. She didn't 
 want to hear my voict any more. Father came b.orae, and he was mad, 
 and I told him about my feeling as tlinugli I was converted, and told 
 him all that you told me ; and he bc;;r.ii to swear at me, and he 
 locked me up in a room, and said he Nvould let me out if I vrould 
 promise not to go to meeting, for he did not like me to go to 
 meetings. He said it was a bad place to go. He kept me locked 
 op in a room a week, and fed me on bread and water. But one day 
 father went out and mother was sick, and Jie wanted me to wait on 
 her. So she let me out, and about half-past three o'clock I asked my 
 mother whether I could go to meeting, and she said yes. She said that 
 she was glad to get rid of me. So I went, and when I came home, 
 father was home, and he gave me a whipping, and so did mother ; and 
 father gave mother a scolding because she let me out of the room, and 
 let me go to meeting. I hope you will pray for mother and father, 
 that they may become converted, and pray for lxq too, so that I may 
 have strength to cling to Jesus." 
 
 "I KNE'.V I HAD FOUND JESTS." 
 
 **I am a little girl eleven years old, and I hope I have found a 
 Saviour in Jesus. Two weeks ago last Wednesday night, I attended a 
 children's prayer meeting, held in Stewart Street Church, and con- 
 ducted by a boy who has recently found the Saviour. Here I first felt 
 how great a sinner I was. I tried to lead a Christian life, but I found 
 it very hard, and I kept doing wrong things. But yesterday I attended 
 one of your Children's Meetings, and we sung the beautiful hynrn, 
 * Jesus paid it all.' In the fourth verse it says — 
 
 * Till to Jesus Christ you cling, by a simple faith, 
 *' Doing" is a deadly thing; doing ends in death,* 
 
 **I then Icnew that I had been 'doing'; trying to save myself 
 instead of leaving my burden at Jesus' feet. When 1 went up on the 
 platform with the other little children as having a new heart, I was 
 afraid I was acting a lie. But when I got home and was ready for 
 bed I knelt down and praj^ed to God to give me a new heart. For a 
 time it seemed as if God would not answer my prayer, hat suddenly I 
 felt so happy I had to burst right out singing, and I knew I had fotmd 
 Jesus. To-day I have written out the definitions of a new heart, and 
 whenever I think I have sinned in one of them I mean to put a black 
 mark against it, and pray that that heart may be restored to me. I 
 put 'Obedient heart' and * Working heart ' first, as J. thought tho:3 
 
"I WOULD NOT CRY.** 145 
 
 would be the ones I vould find it hardest to keep without a mark. I 
 mean to read my Bible every day, and select some text to learn. Last 
 night my text was, * Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation : 
 the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' I want you to 
 pray for me, that I may never turn back from the right road. May 
 God bless the meetings wherever they are held. — From your little 
 convert, " E. M." 
 
 **I THOUGHT TO MYSELF THAT I WOULD NOT CRY." 
 
 ** I want to tell you how I found Jesus. I went to hear you speak 
 to the children on Friday night. May 31st. I had heard about the 
 cliildren crying for their sins, and I thought to jnyself that I would not cry^ 
 nor let it have any effect on me. I know now that it was the devil 
 who made me think so, but Jesus is stronger than the devil ; and all 
 the time you were speaking He softened my heart, yet Satan kept 
 whispering to me not to be sorry for my sins, not to ask Jesus for a new 
 heart. But at the close of the service a dear friend asked me if I loved 
 Jesus. I cried then, for I could not say no, and I dared not say yes ; 
 then a gentleman came and talked with me ; then I felt what a sinner 
 I v/as, how wicked I had been ; then I prayed that Jesus would forgive 
 me, and give me a new heart ; and so He did ; and I went home from 
 chapel that night happy in the Lord. I have had many little trials to 
 bear at home, but I \.xy, with Jesus* help, to bear them patiently. 
 Satan often tries to make me unhappy, and doubting whether I have 
 really found Jesus ; but when I pray to God, Satan goes away, for he 
 hates to see me on my knees ; but he comes again and tempts me as 
 before, but the dear Saviour keeps me from yielding, and then I feel so 
 happy. Day by day I love Jesus more, but I want to serv'e Him. Oh, 
 how I long to do something for Jesus, who has done so much for me 1 
 I mean to try and get as many of my companions as I can to come and 
 hear you ; then I sincerely hope that they will go home rejoicing 
 because they have found a precious Saviour. 
 
 **I can now sing with all my heart, 'Jesus is mine,' and *I love 
 Jesus.' Do pray for me, that I may keep in the way ' that leadeth unto 
 everlasting life/ and, please, pray for my papa and three brothers, who 
 have not yet sought Jesus. I like that hymn best, 'Nothing either 
 great or small.* — With much love to yourself and Mrs. Hammond, and 
 many thanks to Mr. Noel for his kindness, I remain yours ever, 
 
 '* 1 thirteen years old." 
 
 Little Grade, eight years of age, whose home is in 
 Cincinnati, says : 
 
 20 
 
X46 THE COVENANT^ 
 
 " Cincinnati, Z>^r. 30. 
 
 ** Jesus says, * I love them that love Me, and they that seek Me early 
 shall find Me.* 
 
 ** I am trying to seek the Saviour while He may be found. I am 
 veiy much interested in the meetings, and I hope they are doing me 
 some good. I have a little friend that goes to the meetings with me, 
 and I like to talk to her about Jesus. I love the songs they sing there. 
 I love one more than the others, and that one is * My Jesus, T love 
 Thee.' I love to read the Eible, and I do read it every evening. I 
 feel that I am a wicked sinner, and ought to pray for myself, but it 
 seems as if I can never get in the right way. I cannot keep my eye 
 on Jesus all the time. I feel that I must pray and love Jesus if I want 
 to go to heaven when I die. I feel like singing all the time. I love 
 those sweet songs so much that tell about Jesus and His love. I hope 
 you will pray for me that I may find the Saviour, and that He will 
 help me to pray earnestly for myself. 
 
 ** From your little friend, 
 
 **Gracie B , aged eight years." 
 
 It IS much more interesting to read children's letters 
 from their own pens than on the printed page. 
 
 No doubt some who peruse these pages will wonder if 
 the authors of these little letters did not receive some 
 assistance from their parents while writing them. But a 
 sight of the originals would generally convince a sceptic of 
 their genuineness. 
 
 THE COVENANT. 
 
 About fourteen years ago I became acquainted v/ith 
 Miss M. E. Winslow, of Brooklyn, at that time a teacher ia 
 the Parker Institute. 
 
 Her own soul was greatly blessed in the meetings fox 
 children which she then attended, and from that time she 
 became an earnest worker. Especially was it her delight to 
 lead children to Jesus. 
 
 Sonie time after, she wrote me the following concerning 
 a covenant she presented for the children to sign who pro* 
 fessed to have been converted. 
 
ITS OJilGIN, X47 
 
 1 have not much faith in a man signing a pledge in his 
 own strength. Cut when a person, young or old, after being 
 examined by judicious ministers or laymen, is found to be 
 able to give a reason of the hope that is in him with meek- 
 ness and fear, it seems to mc most proper that he should 
 *' subscribe with his hand unto the Lord," and thus enter 
 into covenant with Him who has said, 
 
 " I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT WITH THEM, 
 THAT I WILL NOT TURN AWAY FRO.M THEM, TO DO THEM 
 GOOD ; BUT I WILL PUT MY FEAR IN THEIR HEARTS, THAT 
 THEY SHALL NOT DEPART FROM IMe " Qer. XXxii. 40). 
 
 Miss Winslow says ; 
 
 "There had been quite a revival in one of our large schools among 
 the little ones, many of whom hoped they had found Jesus, and were 
 veiy happy. They loved to come to the prayer meetings which we 
 held after school, and they loved to join in the sweet hymns and listea 
 to the stories of His wonderful love ; and they loved to tell their Uttle 
 companions and friends of their new-found Saviour. 
 
 ** One day the teacher who presided at the meeting brought a. little 
 blue booh in her hand, in which she asked them to sign their t«^mes, 
 after reading what she had written on the first page. It was as follows : 
 
 *• * We, the undersigned, hope that we have found Jesus 
 
 TO BE OUR precious SAVIOUR; AND WE PROMISE, EV HiS HELP, TO 
 LIVE AS His loving children and FAITHFUL SERVANTS ALL OUR 
 LIVES.' 
 
 *' Many of the children signed their names; but when it came to 
 Ella's turn she said : * I am afraid to sign that. It would be so dread- 
 fully wielded to do anything wrong afterward, or to forget. And, 
 besides, I am not sure that I am a Christian, and I Jo not dare tell a 
 lis' 
 
 •*The teacher explained that this was a covfuant which only 
 expressed a hope and a trust in the power of Jesus to enable us to keep 
 our promises ; that it would indeed be a dreadful thmi;:to forget or turn 
 back again, but that Jesus would not let her do so if she trusted in 
 Him. So at length, with many misgivings, Ella sign-'d her name in 
 the book ; and soon after the meeting closed and the school broke up 
 for the vacation. The scholars were all scattered abroad, and I feai 
 Buany of them forgot all about the meeting^ but Ella did notv 
 
148 ELLA'S VICTORY, 
 
 " When the next term began, she came at once to her teaclier and 
 said: *I am so glad I signed that covenant 1 I do not know how I 
 should have got along without it. All summer, when I felt like doing 
 wrong, something seemed to whisper in my ears, * remember the 
 covenant,* and I couldn't do it. When I was in a hurry and likely to 
 forget my prayers and my Bible, I would suddenly think, there is my 
 promise to be a faithful servant of Jesus, I can't be unfaithful to Him. 
 When others would laugh at me and try to make me forget all about 
 last winter, and give up trying to be a Christian, I couldn't forget that 
 my name was dowm among the others, and I did not dare to turn back 
 from following Jesus. I wouldn't not have signed it for the world.' 
 
 ** Don't you see how it was ? She had entered into covenant with 
 the Lord, and He was keeping His part of the covenant by not letting 
 her forget, or fall into sin." 
 
 During the past seven years I have presented the above 
 covenant in all the places in which I have laboured. 
 
 In many places only about half tlie number sign it, which 
 afterwards are examined and join the churches. 
 
 This shows that some are deterred from signing it, who 
 afterwards come to the conclusion that they have been 
 regenerated. 
 
 One advantage of the covenant is, that some who, for 
 one reason or another, are discouraged from connecting 
 themselves with the Church, are, by signing it, led to feel 
 that they are committed, so that they fmtsf not go back. 
 
 I have received many letters from those, young and old, 
 who, with little Ella, have rejoiced in the steps she took. 
 
 HOUSE OF REFUGE. 
 
 During the revival in Rochester, in 1869, we held a 
 number of meetings in the House of Refuge. The Rev. 
 Dr. C. P. Bush wrote as follov/s : 
 
 "The most remarkable feature of this revival is that 
 which has manifested itself in our House of Refuge. Here 
 are three hundred and eighty boys, none over sixteen years 
 
THE HOUSE OF REFUGE. i ^ 
 
 of age, but many of them already old in crime. But, 
 fortunately, the superintendent, Mr. Carpenter, is a religious 
 man, and knows that the best way to reform these vicious 
 boys is to get them to be Christians. 
 
 " He brought some of them two or three times to Llr. 
 
 H 's meetings. They came up first only for the sake of 
 
 the ride, and to gratify their natural curiosity. But soon 
 some were interested, and they carried the fires kindled in 
 their own breasts back to the institution itself The flames 
 spread rapidly. The boys are now holding meetings daily 
 among themselves. It was our privilege to attend one 
 of these gatherings. It was held at ii a.m., the time of 
 play; but instead of being out at their sports, a hun- 
 dred and fifty of the boys came together of their own 
 accord. 
 
 " This was one of the most remarkable meetings which 
 it was ever our privilege to attend. Fourteen of those boys 
 stood up and spoke for Christ, expressing hope in His 
 mercy, and exhorting their companions most fervently and 
 touchingly to come and trust in the same Saviour. Five of 
 them offered prayer, no one being called on by name save 
 the last ; all volunteering, speaking readily and rapidly, 
 losing no time by waiting one for another, and speaking 
 and praying with a fluency and propriety which could not 
 be accounted for except by supposing them specially taught 
 by the Spirit. 
 
 "And when the meeting v/as near closing, those who 
 were indulging hope were requested to stand up. Seventy 
 were immediately on their feet. Next, all those who 
 desired to be Christians and wished others to pray for 
 them were requested to rise, and some thirty or forty more 
 arose. The superintendent then called upon one of the 
 older boys to offer the closing prayer, especially for those 
 who had just said, *Pray for us.' It certainly seemed as 
 
i:o LETTERS FROM THE DEAF AND DUMB, 
 
 though that boy was taught of the Spirit, his prayer was so 
 tender, so appropriate. We aftenvards learned that he vas 
 a poor cripple, made such for life by the cruelty of a step, 
 father, who showed his parental tenderness by kicking the 
 boy into the street and breaking his hip-bone. We were 
 rdso told that many of those now indulging hope in Christ 
 were among the worst boys of the institution. One had 
 tried several times to fire the buildings. Some have since 
 confessed fearful crimes, which they had before concealed. 
 Some also who spoke and prayed v/ere very young, not 
 more than ten or twelve years of age. 
 
 "We need hardly add, that a great change has come 
 over the entire institution. It is now truly a reformatory. 
 It is much more easily managed than it was. And it is 
 pleasant to think how much better it will be for those boys 
 when they come out of that place, that God has met them 
 there and made them new creatures ; how much better also 
 for society, that they are truly reformed, and prepared to 
 become good citizens, rather than greater adepts in crime." 
 
 JACKSONVILLE INSTITUTION FOR DEAF AND DUUIB. 
 
 A work somewhat similar to that in Rochester was wit- 
 nessed in the Jacksonville (Illinois) Institution for Deaf and 
 Dumb, presided over by Dr. Gillett, who was among the 
 select number of those who were chiefly instrumental iii 
 introducing the international S. S. Lesson Series. 
 
 My heart was deeply moved as I witnessed numbers of 
 those mutes coming to Christ. 
 
 I received one day thirty or forty letters from them. 
 Though I had spoken through an interpreter, I found they 
 had perfectly understood all I had said. 
 
 I was quite astonished to find that a number of them 
 had been in the habit of swearing, but they seemed 
 fully to repent of it. 
 
*' IT'S YOUR LAST aiANCSr igs 
 
 One of them by the name of Willie says : 
 
 " I am sorry for my sins ; I have been a wicked, bad boy ; but I 
 think now Jesus has \T^ashed my heart clean, and I will trust and work 
 for Him until I die," 
 
 Another says in her letter : 
 
 "I feel very badly for my sins ; but now I love Jesus, who died on 
 the cross for me. 
 
 "I pray to God that I may love and work for Hun as long as 
 Hive. 
 
 "I love the dear Jesus because He died on the cruel cross 
 for me." 
 
 A third says : 
 
 "I was a very bad boy and wicked until April 2i, 1874; now I 
 have confessed my sins. I want to serve Him, and go to heaven wlien 
 I die. I used to pray, but I was without faith. I have faith now, and 
 am happy, and will serve God until I die, thea I will go to be happy all 
 the time* I am thirteen yeais old." 
 
 "it's your last chance." 
 
 Even young children, taught by the Spirit of God, are 
 led to realize the danger of delay in the matter of their 
 soul's salvation, as we see by the following letter from a 
 child in Kansas : 
 
 " Lawrencb, Dec. \2, 1863. 
 "The first time I went to the Children's Meeting I went out ol 
 curiosity ; but when you asked us to stop to the inquiry meeting my 
 heart beat very loud ; but I succeeded in getting out of the church; but 
 before I got half-way home there was a still small voice said, * Better go 
 back ; it is your last chance ! ' but I did not heed the voice of conscience, 
 and I went home. The next day I went again, and did the same. 
 When I got home I prayed to God to give me a new heart, but He 
 didn't seem to hear my prayer ; and then I said, I have been so wicked 
 that God %\on't hear my prayers. The next day I went and stayed to the 
 inquiry meeting. When you came and spoke to me you asked me if I 
 
i^a PRAYER ANSWERED. 
 
 was willing lo give up all to Jesus. I told you I was. Then 3'ou knelt 
 and pjayed with ms, but I did not feel any better. I went home and 
 prayed myself to sleep ; and still I found no relief. I awoke before 
 light the next morning, and began praying as before ; but this time I 
 asked Him if there was anything that I was not willing to give up^ to 
 tell me, and I would give it up. And He did tell me. Then I said, 
 ''Dear Lord, I give it all up ; take me just as I am ; it is all I can do. 
 I give myself to Thee.' And I was a new creature from that moment. 
 I found Jesus then and there, for I was detennined not to leave my room 
 until I found Jesus. Oh ! I did feel so happy. I went downstairs ai:id 
 I commenced to plead widimylitile brother to ^o to meeting with me, 
 I wanted him to love Jesus. He would not go ; but I shall try and bring 
 him this afcemoon, and I hope he may learn to love Christ, who died 
 for him. I intend to live for Christ ; and not only live, but work for 
 Him, " Your little friend, ." 
 
 ''can't we have a prayer meeting?" 
 
 A little girl went away into a neighbouring town where 
 there was a revival. She attended the meetings, and heard 
 the story of the cross, and gave herself to Jesus. When she 
 returned home, she went to an old man who was a Christian, 
 and said to him, 
 
 ** Can't we have a prayer-meeting?'* 
 
 " We ? " said he ; "I don't know of another Christian in 
 this district." 
 
 "Well," said she, "you are a Christian and I am a 
 Christian. Can't we have a prayer-meeting ?" 
 
 "Well," said he, "we can say we, then," 
 
 They did have a prayer-meeting. The next day two 01 
 three more came. God answered tlicir prayers, and now 
 between twenty and thirty have found the Saviour. 
 
ors^c^o-;;::^!:^!::^^ 
 
 CHAPTER DC 
 
 TESTIMONIES FROM MINISTERS. 
 
 'THAT WHICH WE HAVE SEExV AND HEARD DECLARE WE tTNTO YOIT, 
 THAT YE ALSO MAY HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH US. " 
 
 I John i. S. 
 
 gURING the progress of this book I have received 
 letters from distinguished ministers of different 
 ^^^i denominations concerning child conversion, v/hich 
 I insert in this chapter. 
 
 FROM REV, C. H. SPURGEON, 
 
 ** Nightingale Lane, Clapham, 
 " London, Sept. 15, 1877. 
 " Rev. E. P. Hammond : 
 
 " Dear Sir, — My conviction is that our converts 
 
 FROM AMONG CHILDREN ARE AMONG THE VERY BEST V/S 
 HAVE. I SHOULD JUDGE THEM TO HAVE BEEN MORE 
 NUMEROUSLY GENUINE THAN ANY OTHER CLASS, MORE 
 CONSTANT, AND IN THE LONG RUN MORE SOLID. 
 
 " I speak of those who are tried and kept under tlie 
 wing of the Church. 
 
 " May you prosper evermore. 
 
 "Yours truly, C H. Spurgeon." 
 
 FROM REV, EZRA TINKER, A.M., B.D. 
 "My dear Brother, — I am happy to add my testi- 
 mony in favour of early conversion. It is a subject that 
 
154 CONVERSION. 
 
 Lhould be more thoroughly discussed and more generally 
 n.-lvocated. In our eagerness to reach adults we too often 
 overlook the children. In the minds of some there is a 
 kind of scepticism in respect to early conversion. While 
 iJicy admit the possibility, they give a toss of the head, 
 ;. which clearly indicates the state of their minds. 
 
 ** In the fall of 1853, a series of revival meetings wag 
 held. The preachmg was earnest, powerful, and touching. 
 Tlie house was crowded to its utmost capacity. A large 
 number oi ptjrsons m^ade a profession of religion. In age 
 they varied from fifteen to sixty. 
 
 "Those were the first revival meetings that I ever 
 attended. I was ten years old. I was present at all those 
 meetmgs, listened attentively to the preaching, was thrilled 
 by the singing, was often in tears as I thought of my sins, 
 went home cniy to toss all night long upon my bed, and 
 rose m tlie morning to nnd myself no calmer. 
 
 ** The day was spent in gieat anxiety. No one seemed 
 to notice me or care for my soul, or, if they observed me, 
 they evidently thought, * He does not know what he is 
 weeping about.' So I was left to myself 
 
 " As no o]ie noticed me, or tried to aid me, I was left 
 to endure the most excruciating agony of mind. I suffered 
 all that a sensitive childish mind could suffer. I knew not 
 what to do. I knew not how to pray. I was in utter dark- 
 ness. Meanwhile a brother and two sisters were con- 
 verted. 
 
 "They saw my anxiety, and talked with me. They 
 tried to Lake me through the A B C of Christian experience. 
 But as they were comparatively young themselves, and only 
 just initiated, they gave me but Httle light upon the subject. 
 Immediately revival meetings were started in the Methodist 
 Church, under the supervision of Rev. Walter Gerome, oi 
 precious memory, and of Rev. Daniel Cobb, of Norwich, 
 
FRANK Y REEVE. 155 
 
 N.Y. It was during this last meeting, which continued till 
 tlie month of May, that I was converted, and received the 
 evidence of my adoption. I have enjoyed constant peace, 
 although twenty-five years have passed away since I united 
 with the Church 
 
 « Since I entered the ministry there have come under 
 my observation some remarkable instances of early conver- 
 sion, one of which I wish to narrate. 
 
 " During the most noted revival of religion that has 
 taken place in the village of Goshen, Orange County, N.Y., 
 in twenty-five years, a Mr. Charles A. Reeve and his wife 
 were converted. 
 
 » They had a bright little boy six years of age. He 
 came to the meetings with them. He became very serious, 
 went to the altar, was converted. I baptized him, received 
 him into the Church, and admitted him to the Lord's 
 Supper. There was not a person converted who gave better 
 evidence of it than little Franky Reeve. 
 
 " He was allowed to follow the bent of his own mind, 
 and every step was taken of his own accord. 
 
 " He came out of his room one day, and said to his 
 mother, * Mamma, I am going to be baptized. I have been 
 praying about it, and I feel that I ought to be.' 
 
 " He was manly and wise beyond his yean^ and he 
 seemed to apprehend spiritual truths with great readiness. 
 
 " If children are properly nurtured, I believe tkey will 
 continue steadfast in the faith. I gather them into classes 
 by themselves, appoint a competent leader, generally a lady, 
 and have her meet them at least once a week in class. 
 
 «I have such a class in my church in Yonkers. An 
 estimable Christian lady is the leader. I appoint ladies 
 leaders of children's classes, because they seem better 
 adapted to instruct them, to sympathize with them, and to 
 
156 DR. NEWTON'S LETTER. 
 
 !iold them. He who gathers the children into the fold of 
 Christ, will do invaluable service for the Master. 
 
 ** Yours truly, Ezra Tinker." 
 
 FROM REV, RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. 
 Author of " Bible Wonders," "Bible Jewels," etc, 
 
 •'Mount Airy, Philadelphia, 
 
 " Sepember 2^, iSjj, 
 
 " Mrs. E. P. Ha^imond. 
 
 " My dear Friend, — In answer to your questions let 
 me say : 
 
 " I St. /do believe in the early conversion of cJiildren, 
 
 ** Let me quote here from a paper which I read before 
 the Congress of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which 
 met in Boston last fall. The paper appears in the printed 
 report of that Congress. 
 
 " ' Who shall say at how early an age in the child's expe- 
 rience this blessed change (not vision) may not be effected? 
 
 " * I speak with assured confidence here, because I can 
 point to the cases ol earnest Christian men respecting whom 
 I know that they were converted in the cradle. 
 
 " ' Certam it is that the earliest unfoldings of their 
 infant faculties v/ere all under the manifest guidance and 
 control of the Holy Ghost. Those most intimately con- 
 cerned in their Christian nurture can say without a doubt 
 that they never knew the time when, as children, they did 
 not seem to be just what Christian children ought to be. 
 
 " * In regard to the second question, " How young 
 should children be received into the Church?" I do not 
 think it possible to fix any uniform rule. It depends 
 entirely on the training and character of the child, and the 
 nature of its spiritual experience. 
 
PEV. A. A. BONAR, D.D, 157 
 
 " * I have in rare instances received children into the 
 Church as young as ten years of age, and have never had 
 reason to regret it' 
 
 " This answers your second and third questions both 
 together. 
 
 « Miss has turned out to be a most exeni' 
 
 plary and devoted Christian. I pray God that your husband 
 may be the instrument of multitudes of such conversions in 
 early life. 
 
 " And wishing you and your husband God-speed in your 
 work, I remain, very truly yours, 
 
 "Richard Nev/ton." 
 
 FROM REV. A. A, BONAR, D.D. 
 
 ** Glasgow, Scotland, 
 
 September 18, 1877. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Hammond, — We often, often remember 
 you, though few letters have passed between us. My 
 daughters and myself will never forget your visit and the 
 time of blessing then, and they as well as myself send you 
 most hearty salutations. 
 
 " Dear brother, my thoughts on the subject of the 
 conversion of children are the same as when I wrote that 
 tract you refer to.* I think I agreed with you in almost 
 everything but one, viz., expressing publicly an opinion on 
 cases. It seems to me that we should be cautious in so 
 doing ; for children themselves mistake feeling for faith ; 
 how easy, then, for us who do not know the heart, to 
 mistake in them a manifestation of feeling for evidence 
 cl faith. 
 
 • T/14 Confer sivn of Children, By Dr. A, A. Bonar, 
 
iS8 REV. IVM. S. PLUMER, D,D, 
 
 " But in the awakening which took place under your 
 labours here, and in awakenings that have been given us 
 since, the cases of young people have been as entirely 
 
 SATISFACTORY AS ANY CASES WE HAVE HAD. If COnversioit 
 
 be Goifs wotJz, in which the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to 
 the soul, surely His work can take place in children as 
 really as in the old ; for it is the young soul meeting with 
 Christ in the one case, and the adult in the other. 
 
 ** One day, about the time, or perhaps after the time, 
 you were among us, in the vestry of my church, an old 
 Christian woman, who had watched the work going on, 
 came to me and said, * Sir, you will find many people 
 speaking lightly of the young who come to Christ, as if 
 there was nothing but feeling in their case ; but never mind 
 what these people say. / was cotiverted in the days of Dr. 
 Kidd, of Aberdeen, when I was hut a child, and two others 
 of my age were converted at the same time ; and we have 
 all three gone on to this day, following the I.amb.' 
 
 "The Lord blesses you amazingly. Surely you will 
 need to ' walk circumspectly,' ' sober, vigilant,' for Satan 
 will not fail to watch you and seek to injure you, that he 
 may injure God's work through you. If the way be opened 
 for your revisiting Scotland, many among us shall rejoice. 
 
 " Meanwhile, wc pray for you, and will not cease. Pray 
 for us still, dear brother. 
 
 " Yours truly, in Him, * Whose v/e are and whom we 
 serve.* Andrew A. Bonar." 
 
 FROM REV. IVM, S. PLUMER, D.D, 
 
 Dr. Plumer, of the Theological Seminary, Columbia, 
 South Carolina, in his article headed " YouNG Children 
 MAY BE TRULY Pious," says : 
 
DR. HOGB. 1S9 
 
 **The revivals of modern times are full of interest. 
 They are working out and bringing into prominence many 
 great truths. Among them has been the appearance of a 
 general and increased confidence in the possibility and 
 reality of very early piety. Is it not true that many good 
 men of former days doubted whether any child could be 
 truly pious ? And has not public sentiment, of late years, 
 undergone a desirable change ? 
 
 "The Rev. Moses Hoge, D.D., of Virginia, was a man 
 greatly revered and beloved in his day. John Randolph, of 
 Roanoke, pronounced him the most eloquent speaker he 
 ever heard. He was the father of three eminent ministers 
 of the Gospel, one of whom, Pvcv. James Hoge, D.D., oi 
 Columbus, Ohio, still lives to preach Christ He also had 
 several grandsons in the ministry. This venerable man, 
 who died in 1822, often said to his friends, that he could 
 not remember the time when he did not love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Was not this much better than to be able to 
 remember the time when he hated the Saviour, and de- 
 spised His blood and righteousness ? 
 
 "It requires no more intellect to love than to hate 
 Christ, to please than to displease Him, to serve than to 
 disobey Him. \Vhen Samuel J. Mills was yet a child, he 
 was so overcome by a sense of his responsibilities, that he 
 said, *0h, my mother, I wish I had never been born.* His 
 mother did not dare to relieve his mind by any false view, 
 and said, * My son, you are born.' It would have required 
 TxO more mind to have said with Halyburton, * Oh, blessed 
 be God that ever I was born ! ' 
 
 " The first and one of the happiest deaths I ever wit- 
 nessed, was that of a full-grown young man vrho was pre- 
 paring for the ministry. I learned from reliable sources 
 the history of his religious character. Among other things, 
 I remember that, when he was not /7«r years ol^ he set 
 
i6o *'0n, HERE IS A LITTLE CHRISTIAN/** 
 
 down his cup of bread-and-milk, and burst into tears. 
 When his mother asked the cause, he answered, * I am 
 afraid I shall die, and not live any more.' Surely this 
 child had then intellect enough to receive Christ as He is 
 offered in the Gospel ? 
 
 " More than twenty-five years ago, I attended the m^eet- 
 ing of a Presbytery in the South. There was preaching 
 for several days. On the Sabbath the Lord's Supper was ad- 
 ministered, and some persons were added to the Church. 
 Among them was a small boy. I had never seen so 
 youthful a communicant. I was interested to know his 
 subsequent history. The Monday after joining the Church, 
 he went to school as usual. At play-time he went with the 
 rest to engage in their usual exercises. Eut the old contro- 
 versy between Cain and Abel re\aved with virulenca A 
 number of the boys surrounded him, crying in bitter scorn, 
 ' Oh, here is a little Christian ! ' But God was with His 
 young servant, and enabled him to bear with meekness all 
 these taunts. He held on his way, and is now at the head 
 of one of the colleges of our country and a successful 
 preacher of righteousness. 
 
 " The last visit paid me by Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander 
 was for the purpose of preaching several days to my newly. 
 formed Church in Baltimore. One of his sermons was on 
 love to Christ, and was founded on i Cor. xvi. 22. He 
 began his sermon by saying, *■ I am in favour of early taking 
 children to the house of God. When I was not more than 
 four years old, I heard a minister preach on this text. 
 From the time he began his sermon I was interested to 
 know the meaning of Anathema-Mai-anatha — words which 
 I had never heard before — and I watched till he gave the 
 usual explanation, and I never forgot it.* Children know 
 more than we are apt to think. I remember, too, that the 
 excellent John Brown of Haddington says, * About the 
 
CHILDREN NEED S YMPA THY. i6x 
 
 eighth year of my age, I happened in a crowd to push into 
 the church at Abernethy on a sacrament Sabbath. Then it 
 was common for all but intending communicants to be 
 excluded. Before I was excluded, I heard one or two 
 tables served by a minister, who spoke much to the com- 
 mendation of Christ. This in a sweet and delightful 
 manner captivated my young affections, and has since made 
 me think that children should never be kept out of the 
 church on such occasions. 
 
 " Let us begin early. Let us call young sinners to re- 
 pentance. Let us commend Christ to their tender affections. 
 Let us tell them they must hate sin and love Christ. 
 
 * Feed My sheep ' is no more a binding command than 
 
 * Feed My lambs.' 
 
 " Surely little children greatly need not only the comforts 
 which a mother can give, but also' those which the Saviour 
 gives. I know not how it was with others, but I can safely 
 say that I never needed the supports and consolations of 
 true religion more than in my childhood, though I had the 
 kindest of parents. Perhaps my feeble health and excited 
 nerves subjected me to unusual sadness. However this 
 may be, I find no persons in the world more ready to 
 confess their need of special comfort than children. The 
 Gospel has a balm for every wound, a cordial for every 
 aching heart. Children need the sympathy of Jesus. If 
 they ask for it, they get it as readily as their parents. 
 Every child has sorrows which require the help of God, and 
 are quite beyond the power of man to relieve. I believe 
 the following statement is correct, and insert it as quite to 
 my purpose : 
 
 "What do you do without a mother to tell all your 
 troubles to ? " asked a child who had a mother, of one who 
 had not, for her mother was dead. 
 
 " * Before she died, mother told me to whom to go,* 
 
 zi 
 
tSa THE PIETY OF CHILDREN, 
 
 answered the little orphan ; * I go to the Lord Jesus ; He 
 was mo:her's Friend, and He is mine.* 
 
 " * Jesus Christ is up in the sky ; He is away ofT, and 
 has a great many things to attend to in heaven. It is not 
 likely He can stop to mind you.' 
 
 *< ' I do not know anything about that/ said the orphan ; 
 * all I know is, He says He will, afid that 's enough for me.^ 
 
 " The little orphan was right Jesus Christ was once a 
 little child. He remembers and knows how to minister to 
 the sorrows of childhood as well as those of riper years. It 
 is not six months since a little child, not three years old, 
 v;hen dying, said to its parents, * Papa, mamma, don't cry ; 
 I am going home.' Who can doubt that Christ is with such 
 little sufferers? Why should it be thought a thing in- 
 credible that the great Shepherd should be very tender and 
 peculiarly near to His dear lambs ? 
 
 " It is sometimes said that the piety of children is apt to 
 be very deficient in just views of the holiness of God. This 
 may be so. But is not this lacking also in the piety of many 
 adults? Where is the score of professors, taken promis- 
 cuously in any church, whose piety did not, from the first, 
 need great improvement in this respect? Read the account 
 of Phcebe Bartlett, given by the elder President Edwards, 
 and where can you find an account of a first conversion, 
 in wliich God in all His excellent character had greater 
 prominence ? I know not of any. 
 
 *' Others have thought that the piety of children was 
 apt to be very deficient in the sense of the evil of sin. 
 But read the life of James Laing, written by McCheyne, 
 and tell me what man or woman ever seemed more truly to 
 loathe sin in the inmost soul. 
 
 *• Others suggest that children are very liable to self- 
 deception respecting their own exercises of mind. This is 
 true of persons of every age, and is a good reason for 
 
YOUNG CONVERTS IN THE CHURCH, 163 
 
 cnution and discrimination in all cases, but cannot justify a 
 discouraging course of procedure towards the early religious 
 impressions of children. 
 
 " Nor does it seem to me that more is to be made of 
 the appearance of a desire in pious children to be free from 
 needless and unreasonable restraints. In an important 
 sense a pious child is to be regarded and treated still as 
 a child, but it should not be placed under a system of 
 espionage or sitrvcillance. Indeed, no child should be dealt 
 with unreasonably. 
 
 "In fine, I can sympathize with McCheyne when he 
 says, ' Jesus has reason to complain of us, that He can do 
 no mighty work in our Sabbath-schools, because of our 
 unbelief. Let us pray for the children. Let us labour for 
 the children. Let us hope for the children. 
 
 " I trust a better day is dawning. One excellent and 
 judicious brother of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, a 
 few months since, received forty children into full com- 
 munion on a profession of their faith. I trust others will 
 have good cause for doing similar acts of love. 
 
 " It seems to me that a sober discussion of the subject 
 of early piety cannot fail to be useful. It is interesting to 
 almost every family that is not wholly given to worldliness. 
 
 "A gentleman of high standing in one of the churches 
 of New York writes thus : * During the past year, our 
 Church has been gi'eatly blessed by the presence with us, as 
 we believe, cf the Holy Spirit. More than a hundred have 
 been hopefully converted, of whom a goodly number were 
 children, and considerably more than half members of the 
 Sunday-school and Bible-classes. I think we have had 
 some beautiful cases of early piety, which have afforded us 
 examples of deep conviction of sin, and implicit trust in the 
 simple Word of God, such as are not often seen in oldei 
 
«64 **1 AMSO WICKEDr 
 
 " ' I aslced a child, " How do you know that the Lord 
 Jesus will receive you, if you have truly repented of sin and 
 are trusting in Him alone for salvation ? " " Why, because 
 He says so," was the reply. I asked a boy who was speaking 
 to the session of the delight he took in prayer, why he found 
 it necessary to pray now, seeing he hoped his sins were 
 forgiven, and he had resolved henceforth to be the Lord's. 
 He looked up with a sorrowful expression, burst into tears, 
 and said, " Oh, I am so wicked, I could not get along at all 
 without prayer." 
 
 " * Some of these children, by faithful and most judicious 
 efforts in behalf of others, have been instrumental in doing 
 much good. I may safely say to you that the most satisfactory 
 cases, so far at least as their appearance on examination for 
 the communion is concerned, have been those of children 
 and quite young persons.' 
 
 " I believe the following statement is correct, though I 
 cannot at present vouch for it. A little girl was not well ; 
 Ghe said she was in pain. Her mother told her, * I will give 
 you some medicine, my dear, v/hich will make you quite 
 well to-morrow.' Her brother was present, and said, * Oh, 
 no, mamma, medicine alone will not make her well. When 
 I wns ill I took a great deal, but it did me no good until I 
 prayed to God to viake me well, and then I was better the 
 very next morning, when I thanked God for making m.e 
 better ; and now I am quite v;ell, and so will Ann be, if she 
 prays to God.' Though this boy had not learned to limit 
 the efficacy of prayer to things agreeable to God's will — 
 and the recovery of sick children is not always so — yet he 
 practically and firmly believed in the insufficiency of means 
 without the Divine blessing. 
 
 "On the whole, so far as we have liglit on this subject, 
 lot us walk by it. Let us remember that out of the mouths 
 of babes and sucklings God in every generation ordains 
 
CHILDREN REMAIMNG STEADFAST, 165 
 
 Strength. Let us exhort our offspring, and earnestly pray to 
 God that to Him they may give the dew of their youth. 
 * Instead of the fathers shall be the children.' * The child 
 shall die a hundred years old.' 
 
 *' Who can doubt that as the millennium approaches, 
 much more when it shall actually come, the lambs will l:n j^v 
 the voice of the Good Shepherd, and will not follow a 
 stranger. 
 
 "Should any pervert these thoughts to purposes of 
 fanaticism, or anything inconsistent with the sobriety of the 
 Gospel, the fault will be his own. 
 
 *' Let us all pray and labour for the early con- 
 
 FROM DR. R H. HELMER, 
 
 *' LocKPORT, New York, Sept 22, 1877. 
 
 "Dear Brother, — I believe there are many more 
 saved ones as the result of those meetings in 1869 than 
 there were then thought to be, and many more than will 
 ever be known in this world. 
 
 "Many who have since confessed Christ before men 
 were young children then, and I well remember their glad 
 and happy smiles of joy as the way of salvation was opened 
 to them in so plain a manner that they could comprehend 
 the truth. I^Lany of those v/ho have since united with the 
 two churches (with which I am the most famihar), have 
 come from the Sunday-schools, and many of these I 
 rem.ember as eager listeners to 'he truth as presented by 
 you at that time. A ver> large number of children and 
 youth united with yaz churches at that time, and although 
 some have wandered, still the majority are firm, and true 
 believers and workers in the vineyard. The children then 
 converted are, as a rule, better workers than the adults, 
 
z6« RF.VIVAL AMONG THE LITTLE OXES. 
 
 and my observation leads me to believe this to be true 
 everywhere. 
 
 ** I am sure this is true of my own dear children, who, I 
 believe, were converted at that time, and two of them you 
 know were very young — AVillie only four years old. 
 
 " Yours in Jesus, 
 
 " R H. Helmer." 
 
 JKEVIVAL AMONG THE LITTLE ONES, 
 By Rev. G. H. Morse. 
 
 "It came about on this wise. The teachers of our 
 Sabbath-school met together to pray for and consult as to 
 what more we could do for the spiritual welfare of the 
 children and young people. It w^as decided to hold class 
 prayer meetings. Each male teacher was to be responsible 
 for the conducting of the meeting with his class, the super- 
 intendent being responsible for the conduct of the meetings 
 of classes taught by female teachers. 
 
 " The meetings commenced in private houses ; but soon 
 it became apparent that larger room must be sought, and 
 we were obliged to go to our mission schoolroom. From 
 the first meeting religious interest was manifested \ the chil- 
 dren were deeply affected and in tears. 
 
 " Dr. Todd's * Lectures to Children * were read to 
 them, remarks m^ade upon the subject thus introduced, 
 prayers offered interspersed with singing. Soon the inquiry 
 arose from many hearts, "WTiat must I do to be saved? 
 Ard after each meeting personal conversation was had with 
 those who wished it Our Sabbath service was followed 
 by prayer and inquiry meetings. A deep and quiet 
 interest pervaded each session of the school. Conversions 
 were frequent, till soon twenty-five were rejoicing in a neiy- 
 (bund Saviour. 
 
•- JESUS WAS there:* xS7 
 
 « Beside the class prayer raeeting, the teachers' prayer 
 meeting was kept up during the religious interest, and 
 several appointed special seasons of prayer, each agreeing to 
 be in his closet at a certain hour each day, pouring out 
 their hearts to God for each individual member of their 
 classes, expressed by name. The children, also, deeply 
 pervaded by the Holy Spirit's influence, of their own accord 
 met together, and prayed for their classes, teachers, and the 
 uncdhverted members of the school ; spending a half hour 
 thus, at some private house, on Sabbath afternoon before 
 the session of the school; meeting also on Wednesday 
 afternoon for the same purpose. 
 
 " An incident connected v/ith this meeting illustrates the 
 faith of the children. They were under ten years of age. 
 'Ihe Sabbath after their first meeting one of them said to 
 her teacher. 
 
 " We had a little prayer meeting last week." 
 " * Had you ? ' said the teacher. * Who was there?' 
 " The little girl mentioned the names of two schoolmates, 
 ** * Was that all ? ' asked the teacher. 
 " * No,' was the quick reply ; * there was one more.' 
 " * And who was that? ' asked the teacher. 
 " * Jesus,' said the child. 
 
 *' * But,' said the teacher, * how do you know Jesus was 
 there ? ' 
 
 "* Because,' she replied, *He has said, "Where two 
 or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in 
 the midst of them," and we/^// He was there.' 
 
 "The genuineness of the conversion which took place 
 became apparent, not only in their countenances and words, 
 but in little, though touching acts of kindness towards each 
 other at school, and in a very marked change in their 
 behaviour at home, to which their parents bore witness 
 While this was a mission school, most of these converts 
 
i63 PRESIDENT CHADBOURNR. 
 
 subsequently connected themselves, we believe, with some 
 church. 
 
 "The measures adopted to bring about this religious 
 interest were such as might be made practicable in Sabbath- 
 schools where there are also church privileges. The class 
 prayer meeting, not directly after the Methodist order, 
 though that is good, may become a helpful aid to the 
 teacher in making the spiritual application of the truths 
 taught on the Sabbath. Try it, teacher. Try it, super- 
 intendent" 
 
 FROM PRESIDENT P, A, CHADBOURNE. 
 
 "Williams College, 5<^/. 29, 1877. 
 "My dear Brother Hammond, — I doubt not the 
 Great Master is still saying to His disciples, ' Suffer little 
 children to come unto Me.' How young children may be 
 converted no one can tell ; but we may be sure that it is 
 not the will of our Heavenly Father, that the child should 
 walk a single hour in conscious rebellion against Him. 
 That Spirit that maketh intercession for us with groanings 
 that cannot be uttered, even that blessed Spirit that leads 
 into all truth, can lead the little child to the Saviour, long 
 before it can understand the doctrines of the Bible as set 
 forth in Church creeds or as explained by loving lips. The 
 child can have, in a large degree, that blessed experience 
 which every Christian must have in some measure, of doing 
 His will and then knowing of the doctrine. I have full 
 faith In the conversion of very young children. The con- 
 version can be shown owly by subsequent fruits and by 
 growth in the Christian life as the intellectual life is deve- 
 loped. It is a blessed thing to have the early years con- 
 fessedly given to Christ, to have the child feel the power 
 of the divine life increasing as all tlie powers of body and 
 
REV. DR. PEASE. ' l6? 
 
 mind increase, bringing them into sweet subjection to God's 
 holy law, and into willing, joyful service in the Redeemer's 
 kingdom. — Very truly, your friend and brother, 
 
 "P. A. Chadbourne." 
 
 REV. DR. PEASE, 
 
 w!io latoured for several years as an evangelist in New England, gives 
 us his testimony with regard to the perseverance in a course of piety, of 
 children converted in revivals about thirty-iive years ago, as follows : 
 
 " RocKviLLE, Connecticut, Sept. 12, 1877.. 
 
 •*Dear Brother, — At your request I will state the 
 result of my observation respecting perseverance in piety, 
 of persons converted in early childhood. 
 
 " I frequently saw in seasons of revival numerous cases 
 of children, of six years of age and upwards, giving evidence 
 of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, as distinct and 
 clear as in the case of those in adult years. 
 
 " After careful observation, I have found cases of defec- 
 tion from a correct religious life as infrequent among chil- 
 dren as among those corverted at a later period of life. 
 
 " A case in illustration. 
 
 "In my pastoral visits, I found a mother with three 
 daughters, the eldest of whom was not over nine years of 
 age. Had conversation with the mother and children, 
 chiefly with the eldest. 
 
 "After leaving the house, as afterv/avds the mother 
 informed me, the second daughter said, * Mother, I don't 
 think our pastor thought that I was old enough to become 
 a Christian, as he didn't say anything to me. But I think 
 I can give my heart to Jesus, and become a Christian as 
 well as ray older sister.* She did give her heart to the 
 Saviour, as well as her sister, and both gave equally sntis- 
 tactory evidence of true conversion to God.'' 
 
 *'G. Fease." 
 
I70 EARLY CONVERSIONSi 
 
 FROM REV. % B. SHAW, D.D. 
 
 ** Rochester, Oct. 2, 1877, 
 
 "My DEAR BpxOTIIER, — I believe that children may 
 and should grow up in the love and fear of the Lord. Not 
 only that they may be converted early fhxsX so early 2iS not to 
 know when the change takes place. 
 
 " Never yet in all my ministry have I kept a little child 
 waiting on the doorstep of the Church, if he gave me any 
 satisfactory' evidence that he loved the Saviour, and was 
 trusting in Ilim ; and I believe it is a growing conviction, 
 that those are the best Christians who come earliest to 
 THE Lord and earliest into the Church. 
 
 ** And I believe still further, that it is the unbelief of 
 THE Church which is keeping so many of these dear ones 
 away, from Christ. 
 
 "It is the old scene over again; instead of bringing 
 little children to the Saviour that He may take them up in 
 His arms, and put His hands upon them, and bless them, 
 we chide those who are trying to do it, as if a child could 
 be too young to receive the Lord's blessing. 
 
 " I believe in the Master. I believe also in the work of 
 His servant — my dear friend and brother, E. P. H. 
 
 «* Yours, 
 
 "James B. Shaw." 
 
 FROM 11 R. WM, REYNOLDS, 
 
 " Peoria, Illinois, Sept. 29, 1877. 
 " Dear Brother, — More than eleven years have passed 
 since you laboured here. A large number of children pro- 
 fessed conversion at that time. Some of them are in the 
 world, not supporting their profession by their works. 
 Others have grown up into strongy earnest Christians^ good 
 
TRAINING YOUNG CONVERTS. 171 
 
 workers in the Church and Sunday-school, The difTerence 
 is, in the attention they received after professing 
 Christ. 
 
 " Those who united with churches who believe in con- 
 version in childhood, and looked after them, instructing 
 them in the doctrines of God's Word, organizing them into 
 bands of Christian workers, showing them how to work, 
 etc., are to-day living witnesses of the truth of their 
 profession. Others who were neglected went back to the 
 world. 
 
 "We want to use common sense in this matter of 
 Christian training. I have as much confidence in the 
 conversion of children as adults, and I think God's Word 
 supports us in this opinion. 
 
 " Glad to hear from you. God bless you in your work 
 everywhere, and all the time is my prayer. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 "Wm. Reynolds." 
 
 I am not surprised at what Mr. Reynolds writes about those 
 children not holding out, who were neglected after professing con- 
 version. — E. P, H, 
 
 FROM REV, E, F. HATFIELD^ D.D, 
 
 " New York, October 13, 1877. 
 •* Rev. E. P. Hammond. 
 
 " Dear Brother, — I rejoice greatly that God has pul 
 it into your heart to seek so faithfully the conversion of the 
 rising generation, in the days of their childhood and early 
 youth. And I rejoice still more in the fact that God has 
 crowned your labours in this direction with such remarkable 
 Buccess, May the great Head of the Church spaie you 
 
Z79 NOTHING TOO HARD, 
 
 long, and give you still more abundant grace, to gather the 
 little ones into the fold of the Good Shepherd. 
 
 « < Why should it be thought a thing incredible ' that 
 little children should be made the subjects of renewing and 
 saving grace ; that they should intelligently apprehend, and 
 effectually receive, the simple truths of the Gospel of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. * Is anything too hard for the Lord ? ' 
 said a worthy member of my Church on one occasion, when 
 I was talking with him about several cases of conversion 
 j that had recently taken place among the children of the 
 I congregation. * Too hard ! ' I replied. * Why, my dear 
 ■ brother, what a mistake \ it is in the case only of the full- 
 grown sinner, whose habits of disobedience and unbelief 
 have been confirmed by constant and long-continued repeti- 
 tion, that such a question is appropriate. In the case of 
 the simple-hearted child and the ingenuous youth, it is 
 altogetlier (;ul of place.* 
 
 "The instances of such conversion are quite too 
 numerous at the present day, and too well assured, to be 
 called in question. In the gi-acious visitations of the Spirit 
 with which it has pleased God so abundantly of late to bless 
 the churches of Great Britain and America, quite a large 
 number of little ones have been hopefully converted, and 
 are now bringing forth the appropriate fruits of the Spirit. 
 Nor is this a ' new thing under the sun.' The history of 
 the Church, in almost every age, furnishes ample testimony 
 to the practicability and genuineness of early conversion. 
 
 "The venerable divine, whose pastoral ministrations I 
 enjoyed in my younger years, and whose most useful life 
 was prolonged more than fourscore years, was converted in 
 the eleventh year of his age. So he told me, fifty years ago, 
 when, with many other children of a tender age, I was in 
 attendance on one of his inquiry meetings. Ivly own appre- 
 hensions of the guilt of sin and of the need of salvation, as 
 
INSTANCES OF CHILD CONVERSION, 173 
 
 well as of the atonement made for sin, were, as I distinctly 
 ivimember, both clear and scriptural. The beloved pastor 
 of one of our city churches was brought under conviction of 
 sin, as he once told me, at seven years of age, and after a 
 considerable struggle with unbelief, he was presently con- 
 verted and admitted to the fellowship of the Church. Two, 
 at least, of my own beloved children gave abundant evidence 
 of their living ' in the fold ' before they had completed their 
 tenth year. A ministry of nearly half a centurj^ has furnished 
 me with numerous similar examples. 
 
 " That such cases may be indefinitely multiplied, and 
 that all who love the Lord Jesus Christ may be led to 
 expect, and pray, and labour, for the early conversion of the 
 little ones, is the prayer of 
 
 ** Yours in the Lord Jesus, 
 
 ** Edwin F. Hatfield." 
 
 FI^OM REV. I. N. CARMAN, 
 Pastor of the North Baptist Church, Indianapolis. 
 
 « Indianapolis, Oct. 18, 1877. 
 "Rev. E. P. Hammond. 
 
 " Dear Brother, — I am glad to hear of your proposed 
 work on the ' Conversion of Children.' I have four children 
 who gave clear evidence of conversion at the ages of eight, 
 six, ten, and nine years. Very speedily they asked, every 
 one of them, the privilege of Church membership, and 
 received it. As I did not think their physical welfare likely 
 to be furthered at their birth by living in the barn instead o 
 my house, I did not favour any corresponding policy at 
 their second birth. I may thankfully testify that from six 
 to tv/elve years' experience since these children started in 
 Christian and Church life, satisfies me more and more con- 
 tinually, that ordinarily the conversion of little children may 
 
174 CHURCH TRAINING, 
 
 not only be properly laboured for, prayed for, and confi« 
 
 dently expected, but that, with due home and Church trainings 
 such converts glorify God and bless the world greatly more 
 than do those converted at mature age. Indeed, I have 
 been led to seriously question whether it is not a censurable 
 presumption to claim the promise * he will not depart from 
 it,' for the child who is but trained for instead of in the 
 
 * way he should go.' Till my child is i7i Christ, * the Way^ 
 I dare not hope to train him in the way he should go. 
 
 " I may add that a good deal of pastoral experience in 
 receiving children into the Chiwch on their profession of Christ, 
 and afterwards trying to train them, strengthens rny belief 
 not only in the wisdom, but the urgent necessity of such 
 additions to our churches. But, consistently with this, I 
 make persotial care of my young people's meetings a marked 
 specialty of my ministry. 
 
 " But you want facts * bearing on these points,' net 
 theories. 
 
 " It is a fact that we had the influence of your book, 
 
 * Children in Jesus,' in our household in the infancy of my 
 children. It is a fact that the youngest boy I ever received 
 into the Church seemed called to the ministry at once, and 
 became a strong and steadfast helper of his pastor while 
 growing up. 
 
 "It is a fact that the youngest little girl I ever so 
 received testified to having loved Jesus from the time she 
 first knew He died for her, and lives loving Him still. God 
 bless you and your book I 
 
 ^ In Gospel bonds, L N. Carman." 
 
Books ly the Rev. E. P. HAMMOND, 
 
 THE CHILDEEN'S EVAl^GELIST. 
 
 the: 
 
 /CONVERSION 
 
 -OF— 
 
 W^ith Hundreds of Incidents. 
 
 N 
 
 PtEV. E. P, HAMMOND, the Chtldken's Eyangelist. 
 
 EVERY PREACHER, TEACHER AND PARENT SHOULD 
 HAVE THIS BOOK. 
 
 Paper Bound, 30 cents ; Cloth Bound, 75 cents. 
 
 C0^4TENTS. 
 
 Chap. I.— The Conversion of Children. 
 
 Chap. II.— How Early may Children be led to Christ ? 
 
 Chap. III.— Will Children Continue Steadfast? 
 
 Chap. IV. How can Children be Led to Christ? 
 
 Chap, v.— Preaching to Children. 
 
 Chap. VI.— Hov/ Early may Converted Children Join the Church ? 
 
 Chap. VII.— The Influence of Children. 
 
 Chap. VIII.— Testimonies About the "Work and from Children 
 ThemBclves. 
 
 Chap. IX.— Testimonies from Ministers. 
 
Significant and Suggestive Testimonials. 
 Rev. C. H. SPURGEON says : 
 
 " My conviction is that our converts from among children 
 are the very best we have. I should judge them to be more 
 numerously genuine than any other class, more constsnt, 
 and in the long run more solid." 
 
 MARK HOPKINS, D. D., says : 
 
 "I wish it great success." 
 
 RICHARD NEWTON, D. D., says : 
 
 " I do believe in the early conversion of children." 
 
 D. L. MOODY, the Evangelist, says : 
 
 " I fully believe in the conversion of children." 
 
 President CHADBOURNE, of Williams 
 College, says : 
 
 '< I have full faith in the conversion of children. 
 
 "aONS HERALD, Boston, says: 
 
 *' It is a useful and suggestive volume." 
 
 The CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, N.Y., says: 
 
 *• The book will do good." 
 
 The CHICAGO ADVANCE says : 
 
 "Even very young children can become intelligent and 
 earnest disciples of Christ." 
 
 The CHRISTIAN AT WORK, N.Y., says : 
 
 "A careful perusal must convince the most skeptical 
 mind, not only that young children are converted, but a 
 full belief in the possibility of yery young childj*ea being 
 converted/* 
 
The CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, Pitts- 
 burgh, says : 
 
 "Parents will find this work material for most i)rofitable 
 reflection." 
 
 The METHODIST, N. Y., says : 
 
 "The excellence of the work is that it gathers up a large 
 body of experience and of opinion upon the important 
 theme." 
 
 The FOUNTAIN, Dr. Joseph Parker's, 
 London, says : 
 
 "The facts and narratives here furnished cannot long be 
 ignored." 
 
 The CHRISTIAN AT W^ORK, England, 
 says : 
 
 " This book is written for adults, and siDecially for those 
 engaged in Sabbath-school teaching, or other work for the 
 soul's good of children. Wise and precious counsels are 
 presented to parents and guardians of youth for the godly 
 u^ bringing of the children committed to their care." 
 
 The PENUEL, England say : 
 
 "We devoutly wish that by some means or other a copy 
 could be placed in the hands of every Sunday-school Super- 
 intendent and every Pastor of a Church." 
 
 PUBLISHERS, 
 
 lO & 12 Dey Street, New York. 
 
T H li: (y 
 
 JESUS. 
 
 By Rev. MTM. REID, M. A., 
 
 — WITH AN — 
 
 IT«fTE.0I>UCT50IS 
 
 — ^BT — 
 
 Rev. EDAATARD PAYSON HAMMOND. 
 
 Price in Paper, 10 cents ; Cloth, 40 cents. 
 
 This most precious volume has reached a circulation of 
 over 500,000 in this country and in Great Britain. It has 
 jwso been translated into various foreign languages. 
 
 In issuing this edition at a reduced price, we desire to 
 place it in the hands of every person within our reach. We 
 know of no work that more clearly and helpfully sets forth, 
 in language that alJ oaa mderstand, the ground of joeace 
 with God. 
 
In the Introduction Mr. HAMMOND 
 says : 
 
 " While in Scotland I often met with those who spoke of 
 it as having been used by the Holy Spirit in leading them 
 to rest solely upon the tiuished wrrk of Christ as the only 
 ground of their acceptance with God. 
 
 "It was my privilege to spend several months with the 
 author in scenes made both solemn and joyful by the 
 mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God, Avhere hundreds 
 and even thousands v/fre asking (he question, ' What shall 
 I do to be saved? ' or rejoicing to find, bj'' happy experience, 
 that ' the blood of Jesus Christ Rls Son cleanseth us from all 
 sin.' 
 
 *' When, therefore, the author intrusted me with his favor- 
 ite work for publication in America, I could but feel 
 thankful for this opportunity of extending the field of its 
 usefulness." 
 
 It is intensely objective, holding up continually to the 
 sinner's gaze, " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 
 of the world." 
 
 Volumes might be -^Titten in speaking of the vast amount 
 of good this book has accomplished. It has been the means 
 of leading multitudes to Christ, and it has taught thousands 
 of ministers and Christians how to hold tip Christ in such 
 a way that sinners are drawn to him. 60,000 were circulated 
 by the Christian Commission in tJie prmy during the war. 
 
 Mr. Hammond was the first who introduced it in this 
 country. It is now being largely 'Circulated in the place of 
 *' James' Anxious Inquirer." Good judges pronounce it on 
 the whole a better and more practical book than Br. 
 J. A. James' excellent work. 
 
 Says President Hopkins, of Williams College: " It is the truo 
 view of the Gospel, and adapted to do great |o :id." 
 
 "<',mo, io8 pages ; Price, postaj:e free, bound in 
 Manila, . . . .cents. 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS. Publishers, 
 10 & 12 Dey Street, NEW YORK, 
 
-THE 
 
 IDE 
 
 TO HEAVEN. 
 
 OE, 
 
 STORIES FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. E. PAYSON HAMMOSTD, 
 
 THE CHILDRSN^S KVANGSLIST. 
 
 PRICE, IN PAPER, loCts.; LEATHERETTE 25 Cts. 
 
 The object of this precious little book is to show 
 children the way to Jesus, who is "The Child's 
 Guide to Heaven." It is replete with Bible truth 
 and forcible illustrations, abounding throughout 
 with those tender persuasives which draw young 
 hearts to the Savior. 
 
 READ WHAT OTHERS SAY OE THIS WORK. 
 
 *« This is one of the sweetest and best of boots for chil- 
 dren, explaining the way to be saved in such very simple 
 
language, that it would seem strange for the very youngest 
 not to comprehend." — Edigious Herald. 
 
 ' ' The book is one well suited both to interest children 
 aud lead them to the Savior." — S. S. Tinus. 
 
 "This is really a delightful book. It is a book for the 
 young, written by one who has learned by long experience, 
 and by intense de light in the work, how to find his waj'^ to the 
 hearts of children, and lead them in the road to Heaven." — 
 Berwick Warder. 
 
 "Little ones cannot but be deeply interested in the 
 author's narrative, which is written in a language the most 
 appropriate for a child's understanding." — Sunday Teachers' 
 Ti easury. 
 
 "We admire the simplicity and earnestness of this work. 
 It is broken bread adapted to the youngest minds, and 
 those who read what is herein written will be both fed and 
 fxied." —Evangelical Theology. 
 
 "Mr. Hammond has a special gift of talking to children 
 on religious subjects. His stories are simply told, pointed 
 and impressive, appealing to the intelligence and the heart." 
 Journal and Messenger. 
 
 ?mK S, WAQNALLS, Publishers. 
 
 lO & 12 Dey Street, N. Y. 
 
A NEW BOOK FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 GATHERED LAMBS. 
 
 SHOWING HOW JESUS, "THE GOOD SHEPHERD/ 
 
 LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR US, AND HOW 
 
 MANY LITTLE LAMBS HAVE BEEN 
 
 (FATHERED INTO HIS FOLD. 
 
 BY REV. EDWARD PA&OIf HAMMOND, 
 
 Author of " ChilcVs Guide^'' '•'•Blood of Jestcs,''' ^^ Conversion, of 
 Children,'" etc. 
 
 12nio, 176 pp. Paper, 10 cents; clotlt, 40 cents. 
 
 OPINIONS OF CRITICS. 
 
 rresbijterian Observer, Bal- 
 timore : 
 " In this volume IMr. Hammond 
 blends in a charming manner short 
 btories and interesting anecdotes, 
 illuminating them all with the 
 tihining rays of Gospel Truth." 
 
 Interior, CJticago : 
 
 ■' A series of stories for children 
 by one ;vho has had a large expe- 
 rience with them, and who knows 
 exactly how to gain and hold their 
 attention. The children will be 
 delighted with the book." 
 
 Evangelical Messenger, Cleve- 
 land : 
 " In a simple, clear, and illustra- 
 tive style, with apt, telling incidents 
 and ])ertinent application, it is ad- 
 mirably adapted to fasten saving 
 truth upon the young mind." 
 
 St. Louis Evangelist : 
 
 " This book has been read by 
 thousands with delight and encour- 
 agement. It is Scriptural, tender, 
 impressive in style. It will direct 
 attention to th^J guiding of children 
 into the shepherd's fold." 
 
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