There is a sphere of blessing into which God has brought His child, and in which He has surrounded him with wife and children, in order that the light which He has lit up in the heart of the head of that house may shine out brightly and carry by His grace, the knowledge of God into the hearts of those in the house around him.
All this is different from the nature of those thus privileged and outwardly blessed of God. Of course it is just the same ruined, undone thing as in the rest of mankind around.
But if God regarded them merely as "children of wrath," He would not tell the Christian parent to bring them up in the Lord's discipline and admonition. And it should not be supposed that it is believing children who are before the mind of the Spirit in Eph. 6:1-41Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2Honor thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1‑4). The Apostle leaves it without defining whether they are or are not addressing them simply as "children." And he tells the parents to "bring them up" for Him (as Jochebed brought up Moses for Pharaoh's daughter) "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," and surely He does not direct this if He intends to cast them off again.
I think there is much involved in the Lord's nurture and admonition. He exercises it over and with us, and we are to observe a similar course with our children. His tender patience and His persevering love never cast off their object until the end is gained. His faithfulness never flatters us, but deals with us, so that we may disallow practically all that savors of our evil nature, and the world from which He has delivered us. This disallowance of the flesh and of all that savors of the old Adam and his ways on the one side, and complete conformity to the Son of God on the other, is His aim, and characterizes His ways of discipline with us that He may be glorified. And as we grow conversant with them as observed towards us whom He has brought to Himself, we learn to bring up our children under Him. We must seek to show them whence the tendencies and wills of the flesh spring, and where they end. We must disallow them in our children, as the Lord does in us, seeking to draw their minds and hearts to Jesus, and thus with patient grace and persevering love discipline and admonish them for their good.
I feel, too, that the family circle is the normal place for the conversion of the child. I am sure that much of what we are told of children's conversions is but the bringing to a definite point what has long been there in the soul. It is most desirable that it should take its definite form in the way of a confession of Christ in the child. But I fear anything in the way of excitement, by which the young, susceptible heart is easily wrought upon, thus forcing into immature development the hardly perceptible pulsations of life in the soul. I believe that in general such cases give a weakly tone to the soul, and in result they are often like the too-early removal of the shell from the little bird, a feeble state of soul will supervene.
My impression too, is, (and the exception proves the rule,) that the child of the believing, Christian parent will, as a rule, seldom if ever, be able to tell when he was converted, as we speak. It is true that, at the same time, the child or the parent may be able to look back to some moment when the faith and life took definite shape, and burst forth into activity and energy. It is like the bursting forth into beauty and fragrance of the flower, which has grown up from the little unseen germ, or hardly perceptible bud, until the genial warmth of the sun and the gentle showers of the rain caused it to open its petals for the first time.
How lovely was the unquestioning faith of Hannah! Her son, the fruit of her prayer, was brought up to Shiloh, with the offerings of faith in her own and her husband's hands. At as early an age as his weaning time, before living faith could work in the soul of the babe, she said to Eli, "Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I have returned, whom I have obtained by petition to the Lord; as long as he liveth he whom I have obtained by petition, shall be returned to the Lord." 1 Sam. 1:26-2826And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. 27For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there. (1 Samuel 1:26‑28). marg.
The contrast, too, in the case of Eli's house is solemn and instructive; it illustrates the linking of the saint and his house in the sight of God. "In that day (said the Lord to Samuel) I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." 1 Sam. 3:12, 1312In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. 13For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. (1 Samuel 3:12‑13).
Considering the conversion of the child of a saint, and noticing that the time of such is seldom known, if known at all, in the normal state of things, I would cite the case of young Timothy. He was brought up "from infancy" (άπὀ βρἐφους) in the knowledge of the holy scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus, and trained by a pious, believing mother, and grandmother. The aged Apostle speaks of the unfeigned faith of both of these women in a most touching manner in 2 Tim. 1:55When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. (2 Timothy 1:5). The blessed knowledge of the Word of God thus early implanted in his young and impressible heart, paved the way for that moment when the life it brought to his soul burst forth into the liberty of grace and knowledge of Christ through the Apostle Paul at Lystra, who names him his "own son in the faith.”
Such I believe to be a true example of the conversion of the child of believing parents. He has the priceless boon of being in the circle where the name of Jesus is a household word, where the things of the Lord are the central focus of the lives of his parents. His parents feel that they have received him back from the Lord to be brought up under the yoke of Christ from the earliest moments of his existence, and they feel, too, that the One who has directed them to do this, will, not in vain, be trusted in for that quickening of soul which he needs, as all of us do, that he may live indeed. They bring him up in the faith of Christ, never for a moment casting a doubt across his young and impressible heart that he is not the Lord's. They teach him the way that God forgives and saves through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. They explain how the grace of God is received. They show the little one the awful results of unbelief, and of the rejection of Christ. They explain how real faith is known from the false and hollow profession around. They teach him that obedience and those desires to please the Lord, under whose yoke he is brought up, are the true way in which the life of God displays itself in man. And thus by these teachings the conscience is awakened, and when failures in these things are seen, the necessity and meaning of the confession of sins, and the unburdening of the soul to Christ is pressed and encouraged. The desire, too, to make known to the Lord the wants of the heart for self or others is directed to its proper outflow- prayer. All these things lead the child onward to a confidence in God, and he grows up to Christ, as he does by the food of infancy by which his natural powers have been gradually developed.
While all this training goes on, a true-hearted parent will wait on God in secret, that that sovereign quickening power which belongs to Him alone may be put forth in behalf of his child, who is by nature "dead in trespasses and sins.”
You will notice, too, that it is in the "nurture (discipline) and admonition of the Lord." This implies reverence for and owning the authority of One who is over the child. It does not imply a relationship, as "Father" or "Christ," the co-relatives of which would be "son" or "child" and "member of His body." This is important, too, because while none can truly please Him but those who are in relationship with Him, still the word "Lord" does not necessarily and exclusively mean this.
Moses indignantly refused such a compromise of Satan as that proposed by Pharaoh in Ex. 10. The suggestion was made that only the men should go to worship the Lord, but Moses replied, "We will go with our sons and with our daughters," etc. How often do Christian parents fall into the same wile of the enemy and separate as to the external ground of blessing between the parents and the children both in their own minds and the training they give them. All must be, as with Noah of old, in the same place of blessing. "Come thou and all thy house into the ark,” tells this blessed way of God's goodness and mercy. "Thee have I seen righteous before me," tells of the head of the house being blessed in his soul. Even his son, who afterward dishonored his father, entered with him into the place of safety.
Surely a wise parent will not regard his child as a child of God until he sees the signs of a quickened conscience, and the fear of the Lord in him, but he seeks to lead his heart to Christ in practice, conversation, and ways. Thus dependence upon God. thankfulness of heart for His mercies and obedience to His will are impressed upon his heart, and the faith of a parent will be answered of God in giving living faith to his child. I believe we ought to count on God for our children-every one of them-and where there is true faith in a parent as to this, He who gave it will answer it in making them His own. Words of Truth