It is absolutely impossible to overestimate the importance of reaching the human soul while in tender years. The Jesuit says, and says wisely, “Give me your child for the first seven years of its life, and I will give it to you for all the rest thereof.” The infant mind is in that receptive and fertile condition, that what is then implanted is rarely, if ever, got rid of or completely destroyed. If error be then diligently and effectively instilled, the blightful fruit of it will be manifest in the whole life. On the other hand, if the truth of God is deposited in the child, then there is material which the Spirit of God in later years can, and very frequently does, utilize and bring to fruition.
Hence my sympathies go most heartily with Sunday school work and all efforts to reach the young, carried on after a godly sort. Personally, I owe everything to early tuition and instruction in the Scriptures. As soon as I knew my letters, my dear mother taught me to read the Scriptures, particularly the historical parts thereof, and as a child of seven I could frequently have been found, cross-legged under the dining room table, reading in the big family Bible in which my father had been reading at prayer time. Although then untouched by the Spirit of God, and quite unconverted, the Scripture history and stories which I was encouraged to read got into my mind and have never gotten out. When brought to the Lord at twenty, I found myself the possessor of a vast mass of Scriptural information which, as a servant of God, has been of immense use to me in seeking to help and teach others.
It may be argued that this was the result of home teaching. Granted, but if you are aware that there are children whose parents do not give them this privilege, it should be your happy privilege to get hold of them and teach them the Word of God. This demands prayer, self-denial and perseverance, but it is sure to be rewarded of the Lord. Of one thing we may be certain, that there will be no reward by-and-by for our laziness — laziness which often is the outcome of disinclination to put ourselves out, though we may sometimes flatter our indolent souls with the thought that Sunday school work and the like is “not in our line.” If we got to the bottom of the matter, we would probably find out that we were not sufficiently interested in the little children to give up our comfortable home for the hard bench, the noise, and the general work connected with Sunday school work.
To all my young brethren and sisters I would say — devote yourselves to the Lord, perhaps in this special line of work. Remember that you have but one life — live it and use it for Christ.
W. T. P. Wolston,
writing to Sunday school teachers