Biblical Essays
CHILDREN
The grand point in dealing with children is to insist on obedience. It is of great importance. If this be carried out from the very first, it will save a world of trouble to both parents and children.
Children are called to yield implicit obedience to their parents. This is their divine role. Parents are to beware of provoking their children to wrath by arbitrary conduct, by exhibiting partiality towards one more than another, and by needless crossing of the will of the child merely to make a display of parental authority. The child should always see that the parent has his real interest at heart and that true love is the motive spring of every act. We believe in the obedience of children, even in this age of independence – an age specially marked by disobedience to parents and by gross disrespect.
Too many young people in this present age seem to regard their parents as belonging to the old school and being deficient in education – thus, the readiness to contradict parents, pursuing their own opinion. All this is unnatural and ungodly. It should not to be tolerated. And we also add a hint regarding the objectionable habit adopted by some young people of calling their father and mother by heartless, objectionable names. We encourage our young friends to stand against these things and against the spirit from which they proceed, and to cultivate a reverential spirit that will surely lead to a respectful manner towards their parents. It is proof of a good education when children respect their parents. Need we add that in all matters where God is concerned, His authority must rise above all other claims. Let us pray for the adjusting power of grace and truth.
We cannot understand how anyone calling himself a Christian parent can adopt a system of harsh and cruel treatment towards his children. Not only is such treatment – child abuse – against the laws of society, it can only result in making them liars and infidels. They will tell lies to escape the treatment. They will despise the religion that is in any way connected with such inordinate severity. Such treatment as is more worthy of a cruel slave-master than of a Christian parent. There are cases in which some discipline is necessary, but it should be administered in such a way as to convince the child that it is only for his good and not the fruit of bad temper or of arbitrary severity. American laws in this age do not permit the use of the rod against children – the majority of society is against it. No doubt, such laws exist as a result of cruel and harsh treatment, i.e., the rod being used in anger and not as the very last resource. As his model, the Christian parent must always keep in mind his heavenly Father’s dealings with him. Does He inflict punishment for confessed sin? The thought is blasphemy. He only chastens in love, to make us partakers of His holiness, and it grieves Him to have to do so. “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.” This should be the Christian parent’s pattern.
We believe that the father and mother should be one in the administration of discipline. For a child to appeal to one parent to shield him from the other, reveals a condition of things in the domestic circle that is shocking to the well-regulated mind. The father and mother should not have a single divergent thought regarding the system of training. They should appear before their children as one authority, one influence. The firmness of the father and the tenderness of the mother should be so sweetly blended that their joint action might be felt in the entire system of training. But how is all this to be realized? By the parents being much on their knees together before God. This is the true secret of domestic training. If the father and mother do not pray together, they will not act together; and if they do not act together, the education of the children will definitely suffer. In His infinite goodness, may the Lord help all Christian parents to correctly discharge their high and holy functions, so His name may be glorified in the households of His people.
We do not see any difficulty as to the term “children” in Ephesians 6:1. In the entire context, the Holy Spirit is exhorting Christians in their various relationships to discharge the functions given them therein. Only Christians are addressed or exhorted in the epistles. Hence, it follows that the “children” here addressed are Christians. Christian parents are exhorted to bring up their children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. This takes in all our children whom we are to train for the Lord from the very beginning, counting on Him for them, and He will never fail a trusting heart. From their birth, we are to take God’s ground for our children in the entire system of moral training. He will always honor the faith that thus counts on Him for the children and trains the children for Him. He cannot deny Himself, blessed forever be His holy name.
1 Corinthians 7:14 stands in contrast with the Mosaic enactment that obliged men to put away, not only strange wives, but the offspring of mixed marriages. It is now not a question of the practical state of the children themselves – whether they are saved or not saved. The passage simply states that the children were sanctified by the fact of their relationship with the believing parent and need not therefore be put away. But the idea of building on such a passage the monstrous error that the children of Christian parents are saved, without obeying the Gospel of Christ, is too gross to need a moment’s consideration.
As Christian parents, we have only to train our dear children for God and count on God for them. The Spirit of God alone can make a child understand divine things, and it is not for us to fix a limit as to the precise age at which a child can take in the truth of God, obey the Gospel, and be born again. It is the Spirit’s work. He can make babes as well as mature people understand. A little child is the model on which every person who will enter the kingdom of God must be formed.
We believe that Matthew 18:10-14 furnishes the foundation of the precious truth of the salvation of infants. We are fully persuaded that all who die in infancy are saved; that because their little bodies undergo the penalty of Adam’s sin, their precious souls partake of the benefit of Christ’s atonement. The heart of a parent should not be troubled regarding the destiny of an infant child in the event of death, or in the event of the Lord’s coming. Can we not fully trust that blessed One who, in the days of His flesh, said with such touching tenderness, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God?” Can our hearts entertain for a moment the unworthy thought that our gracious Lord comes for His people, could take the mother to be with Him and leave her babe behind to perish?
One might ask, “Is there any Scripture that shows what becomes of the infant children of believers when the Lord returns?” The answer is Matthew 18:10-14: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.1 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”
Is not this a precious answer to the question? Is it not divinely calculated to hush all our anxiety in reference to our precious babes in the event of the Lord’s coming? How can we think the loving Savior who uttered these words, will ignore them when He comes again? The very thought is blasphemy. No; our loving Lord will be fully glorified in receiving to His bosom and taking to His home the infant children of His people. It is not His will now, and it cannot be His will then, that one of these little ones should perish. May our hearts find settled rest as to this question in the eternal truth of God and in the rich and precious grace that shines so brightly and blessedly in Matthew 18:10-14.
