God, the Children’s Teacher

God, the Children's Teacher

(No. 3271)

A SERMON TO CHILDREN.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH
2,1869.

"O God, You have taught me from my youth." Psalm 71:17.

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 15, 1911– THE DAY OF
SPECIAL PRAYER FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND OTHER WORK AMONG CHILDREN.

[SPECIAL NOTE TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS, PARENTS, ETC. Mr. Spurgeon
seldom preached especially to children–his Sermons are all so simple
that boys and girls as well as the common people heard him gladly and
understood his words easily. The accompanying discourse is one of the
very few delivered to a congregation of young people by the beloved
preacher who has been for nearly 20 years at Home with the Lord. It was
preached at the Tabernacle during a series of special services in
March, 1869–and it is now published in the regular weekly series at
the time of special prayer for the children and young people in Sunday
schools, Bible classes, Christian Endeavor Societies, etc., in the hope
that all who are interested in the spiritual welfare of the young will
aid in its widespread circulation among them.]

DAVID was a very great man and at the time he used these words he ruled
a kingdom and wore a crown. But he needed to be taught and he tells us
that he had been to school and that the wisdom he had was given to him
by the great Teacher who taught in that school. You who are at school
now must take care that you use well the privilege you have. You will
not be wise without learning. Learning does not grow up in our heart
like weeds do in the fields, but it must be sown in us–as good wheat
and barley must be cast into the ground if there is ever to be a
harvest.

David did well in life because he had been well taught in his youth. He
was one of those in whom God fulfilled that text, "Train up a child in
the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
You know when boys go to school, their teacher feels very anxious that
they should turn out well and be a credit to him. The teacher is very
sorry when, after all his trouble, the boy becomes a dunce. But he is
very happy when he sees some lad prosper in life because he says, "I
trained that boy." The success of the scholar brings honor and credit
to the teacher. So David speaks of God having taught him in order that
he may give honor and Glory to God. David feels that he owes so much to
his God that he cannot help saying what he does. "Lord," he seems to
say, "if I have learned anything–if I have learned how to fight giant
Goliath, if I have learned how to bear my troubles, if I have learned
how to pray, if I have learned how to preach and how to be a king–I
got it all from You. I was the scholar, you were the Teacher, and unto
Your name be all the praise." Now, I shall not keep on any longer with
the preface to my sermon. It is a cold, damp night and people do not
like to be kept outside the doors at such a time. We will just put our
finger on the latch and get to the inside of our sermon at once.

I. As soon as we come into it, the first thing we see is THE GREAT
TEACHER. Who is the Teacher? David says, "You have taught me from my
youth." Who taught David? THE CHILDREN: God!

Mr. SPURGEON: Yes, that is right, God was David's Teacher. He says in
the text, "O God, You have taught me from my youth." I have no doubt
that David had other teachers, but all the teachers he had would not
have been of any practical use to him if he had not also been taught by
God.

Now, if God is the Teacher, we shall notice, first, that God is an
effective Teacher. David had been taught by his good mother. I know he
had a godly mother, for he says, "Lord, truly I am Your servant. I am
Your servant and the son

of Your handmaid." He calls his mother, God's handmaid, which shows
that she was one of God's servants. I have no doubt that she took David
on her knee and taught him God's Word while he was but a child, for he
had such a love of it afterwards that he must have had a love of it
while he was yet little! After his mother, I have no doubt his father
taught him. What was the name of David's father? THE CHILDREN: Jesse!

Mr. SPURGEON: Quite right. And we believe that Jesse was also one of
God's people and that he would have been sure to teach his son wisely
and train him up in the way he should go. I think there was another
person who taught David, namely, the Prophet Samuel. You recollect that
Samuel anointed David while he was yet a youth. He poured oil on his
head and told him that he would one day be a king of God's people. I
feel sure that Samuel told him what God's will was and tried to train
him so that he might, when he became a king, do God' s good pleasure
rightly. But all these teachers–his mother, his father and the
Prophet–could not have taught David if God had not taught him, too.
You see, dear Children, your teachers, though they are very good and
kind, can only get at your ears–but God gets at the heart–and that is
where we most need to be taught. Suppose my watch should get out of
order so that it would not run and I could not get it open? All I could
do in polishing up the gold outside, or cleaning the glass, would not
make it run! I must take it to some watchmaker who could get at the
inside and who could touch the mainspring, or clean out the wheels.
Now, your teachers cannot get at that which is inside of you as they
could wish, unless God helps them. But God can get at the heart, which
is like the mainspring of the watch. He can get at our thoughts and
feelings, which are like the wheels. I trust that you, my dear
Children, may be taught of God from your youth because God is an
effectual Teacher!

The next point is that God is a condescending Teacher. Have you ever
thought of this? The great God made yon blue sky, the sun and the moon,
and all those bright stars that we see at night. He piled up the big
mountains and poured out the great seas and oceans from the hollow of
His hands and He is so great that all the things in this world are just
like nothing when compared to Him–and yet He stoops to teach children!
He stooped to teach David. David says, "You have taught me from my
youth." Would not some of you girls like to go to school if the Queen
would but teach a class? I am sure that nearly all the young ladies and
all the little girls in London would be tearing away to the place if
the Queen would but teach a class! You would think it such a great
honor to be taught by Her Majesty. Oh, but when God teaches, what a
wonderful stoop of condescending love that is! He who made the world
and bears all things up by His everlasting might, condescends to be a
teacher of little children! "You have taught me from my youth." Perhaps
you have heard of that holy man, Mr. John Eliot. He went away from all
his home comforts, out among the Red Indians, and spent his life in
preaching to them. And when he was sick and near to death, he was lying
in a hut upon a hard couch–and what do you think was the last thing he
did? He had a New Testament and he was teaching a little Red Indian boy
his A B C, and making him spell out some simple text from God's Holy
Word. "Oh, but," one said, "does this great missionary teach that
little red-faced, copper-colored boy?" "Yes," replied Eliot, "I prayed
to God that I might never live to be useless. So now I cannot preach, I
am trying to teach Jesus Christ to this one little boy." That was very
kind of him, but think of the kindness of the great God who wheels the
stars along and calls them all by their names–that He should
condescend to teach us! Dear Children, do not refuse to be taught by
God! But on the contrary, let this be your resolve, "My Father, You
shall be the Guide of my youth." Ask the Lord to teach you, for as
surely as He taught David, He is willing to teach you!

My next remark is that God is a loving Teacher I know you boys and
girls in the Sunday school classes like to have a smiling-faced
teacher. You do not care to have one who is very cross and
short-tempered with you and inclined to give you a box on the ear! You
like somebody who is very kind. I cannot tell you how kind God is to
us, how patient, how compassionate, how tender. A good mother was
telling her little girl a lesson over ever so many times–I think it
was 19 or 20 times–and someone said, "How can you have the patience to
tell the child the same thing 20 times?" "Why," she replied, "I tell
her 20 times because 19 are not sufficient." Now, our God not only
tells us 20 times, but twenty thousand times if necessary! "For precept
must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon
line; here a little, and there a little." From our very earliest
childhood, right on, God keeps teaching us with great patience, and yet
some of us are so wicked or so thoughtless that we forget what He
teaches us almost as soon as we hear it! And we go on to do the wrong
thing which He tells us not to do, and we forget to do the right thing
which He bids us do. Yet He does not strike us dead! He still continues
preaching to us, teaching us on the Sabbath and on the weekdays by His
Book, and by

His Spirit, and by His ministers, and by our teachers, and in a
thousand ways! Oh, what a kind and patient Teacher the Lord our God is!
But I must not keep you long on any one point.

The next Truth is that God is a wise Teacher. Have you ever thought
what a wise Teacher God is? I will prove to you that He is very wise,
for, do you know He teaches not only men, but He can teach beasts? Did
you ever see a beaver? Perhaps you did at the Zoological Gardens. Well,
those beavers have flat tails and they know how to use them just like
bricklayers use their trowels! And they will go and nibble away at
trees, get bits of wood and go down to a river and build a house!
Nobody could build such a house, so fit for beavers, as they build!
They daub it, and plaster it–you would think that they had been
apprenticed to a plasterer, they do the work so well! Who taught the
beavers to build a house? Why, God! And how wise He must be to teach
even the animals He has created! How wise He must be to teach the
beaver to build a house! But God not only teaches beasts, He also
teaches fish–and I never heard of any man who could teach a fish as
God does! The fishes of the sea know exactly the day of the month when
they ought to begin to go round the English coast. And the herring and
the mackerel come exactly to the time, though nobody rings the bell to
say to them, "It is such a day of the week, and such a month of the
year and you ought to swim away." When the time comes for them to go
back again, away they go–and they seem to understand everything that
they should do! If God can teach even the fish of the sea, what a wise
Teacher He must be!

It is said that many years ago, there was a very wise man who lived at
Cambridge and he taught scholars Latin and Greek, and many things that
seemed very strange to the people who lived there. And the news flew
abroad that there was a wonderful man there who knew everything–a
little about the stars and a great deal about all sorts of things! The
young men all over Europe began to flock to him and that is how there
came to be a University at Cambridge, for the fame of the man's
learning drew those who wanted to be taught, to come and be his pupils.
Now, when God can teach even the beasts and the fishes, you boys and
girls and grownup people, too, ought to say, "Lord, let us be scholars
in Your school!" Why, my dear friend over here, Mr. Johnson, is such a
good teacher that the boys come and fill the school-house! If he were a
bad teacher, he would not have half the number of boys that he has. A
good teacher is sure to draw pupils–and God is the best and wisest
Teacher. Oh, may His Grace draw you to His school, that you may be able
to say with David, "You have taught me from my youth"!

I have only one more point to speak upon under this head, so do not
grow weary. God is a necessary Teacher. It is really necessary that
everyone of us should be taught of God, for if we are not, somebody
else will teach us–and that somebody else will so teach us that we
shall lose our souls forever! There was a sad sight seen some years
ago, I daresay the likes of it have been seen far too often. A minister
called at a house and he saw a woman crying, oh, so bitterly, and she
refused to be comforted! The minister said, "My good woman, what is the
matter?" She answered, "Oh, my boy, my boy, my boy!" "What, is he ill?"
"Oh, no, Sir, worse than that!" "Is he dead?" "Worse than that." "What
is the matter?" "Oh, my boy, my boy!" "Where is he?" "Oh, Sir, he is in
prison–in prison for stealing–and it is all my fault!" "How is that?"
he asked. "Why, I took him to the theater, and if there is any place
where children can learn to do wrong, it is there!" And so she began to
cry again. "I took him there and that was the first step in his ruin!
And now my boy is lost." Ah, if you do not go to God to teach you, the
devil will teach you! Do you know the devil has plenty of teachers? I
see them on Sunday–I mean bad boys and bad girls who teach other boys
and girls to do wrong–the devil can make a Sunday school teacher out
of a very small boy! "Come," he says, "I'll teach you." And he teaches
that boy to say bad words and to do wrong things–and then away the boy
goes and teaches others! A bad boy is like a sheep that comes into the
flock with a disease in it and the disease goes from one sheep to
another–

"One sickly sheep infects the flock, And poisons all the rest."

But if we have God for our Teacher, we shall not be taught to sin, but
we shall be taught everything that is good. II. But now we are going on
to the second head and that is, THE LESSONS WHICH THE GREAT TEACHER
TAUGHT DAVID.

One of the lessons which God taught David was to value his soul We all
need to be taught that lesson. We generally value our bodies and take
care of them and, up to a certain point, that is right. Some of us like
to look into the mirror, for we think we are rather pretty. But there
is danger in that mirror as well as in others. I like to see the boys
well-washed and clean, and I am pleased when they keep themselves tidy.
And though I do not like to see girls dressed very finely, yet it is
very nice to see them neat and trim. But, after all, you know the body
is only like the shell of the nut–the inside is

the nut itself. It is the soul hat is the thing we ought to care about.
Some time ago there was a great fire. What a noise there was in the
street! Here come the engines! People are gathering together all round
the house and there is a woman shouting and crying, "Oh," she says,
"come and help me! Do come and help me! I want to save some of my
things. She gets a bed downstairs, she brings out a box, she has
secured some little trinkets and jewelry and she gets everything that
she can out of the fire, and then says to herself, "Dear me, am I not
fortunate in having saved so much?" The fire is burning, the house is
crackling, everything is being consumed and all of a sudden the woman
starts up and says, "Oh, dear! Where' s my child?" The neighbors cry,
"What? Did you not think of your child first?" "Oh," she replied, "what
a foolish woman I've been! I have saved these paltry things and
forgotten my child, my precious child!" That is like a person who cares
only for his body–what he shall eat, what he shall drink, what he
shall put on, and then at last, when he comes to die, he says, "Oh,
dear! I have forgotten my soul and now my soul must be cast away
forever into the everlasting burning that never shall be quenched."
Dear Children, I hope God will teach everyone of you in the Sunday
school to look after the welfare of your soul and to remember that if
you were to gain the whole world, and lose your own soul, all the gain
would be an eternal loss!

The next lesson that God taught David was to value the world aright.
David, I am sure, valued the world aright because he says, "There are
many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift You up the light
of Your Countenance upon us!" And he says again, "Whom have I in Heaven
but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside You." Young
people generally think of this world. I will tell you a story and ask
you a question. There was a little boy carrying a basket of peaches and
he had to cross a railway. Just as he crossed it, the train came up and
went right over him and crushed him to atoms. A little girl heard that
story, and I do not think you could guess what question she asked,
because it was such a silly question that you never would guess it, I
think. Her mother said the dear little boy was all crushed to pieces by
the train going over him, but the little girl was silly enough to say,
"Mother, what became of the peaches?" Was not that a foolish question
to ask? Now, when I hear of people dying, and I often do hear of
persons who have been living without God and without Christ, and they
have been said to be "worth" perhaps £20,000, or £50,000, what silly
question do you think I hear people ask? They say, "How much money did
he leave?" As if that was of any consequence at all compared with the
other question, "What has become of his soul? Where is his immortal
spirit?" The little basket of peaches that the child carried was
nothing compared with the boy, himself, and all that you can ever gain
in this world is nothing compared with your own self, your own real
self–your soul! So I hope you will be taught by God's Grace to put the
world in its right place and look at it as being nothing compared with
the saving of your soul!

Another thing that David was taught of God was to see his sin. I know
that, in your classes, you have read the 51st Psalm. How much David
talks about his sin in that Psalm! He says, "My sin is always before
me." This is one of the lessons that every boy and every girl here must
learn if they would enter Heaven. You must learn that you are a sinner
and learn it so that it makes you mourn and cry out before God. I saw,
last week, in the West End of London, two soldiers, with bayonets
fixed, one walking on one side of a soldier, and the other on the other
side of him. And the man who was walking in the middle had a coat over
his hands. I knew what that meant–he had handcuffs on his wrists. He
had been deserting and he had his hands chained together, but he did
not want the people to know it and, therefore, he had asked his
comrades to be kind enough just to throw a cloak over his hands so that
he might not look as though he was chained. I do not blame him for
that. But, you know, the devil–though men are all chained by nature
and are, all of them, slaves–puts something over them so that they
cannot see their chains and they walk on believing that they are free,
whereas they are in the worst possible bondage! One of the best lessons
you can learn is to find out that you are a slave and that you need
someone to set you free! To find out that your soul is sick and needs
to be healed! Oh, may God's Spirit teach you that–and teach it to you
in your youth!

But, better still, the next lesson that God taught David was, where the
remedy was for all his sins. If you read the 51st Psalm, you can hear
him say, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow." David knew that the blood of Jesus Christ
could take away his sin. I have heard, but I do not know whether it is
true, that a little creature called the ichneumon, which lives in
Egypt, lives by killing and eating snakes. It is a very useful little
creature, for it destroys many things that would be deadly to men. But
sometimes these snakes bite the ichneumon and he would die, but the
story goes that there is a kind of grass growing near the river which
heals snakebites–and as soon as ever the ichneumon gets bitten and
feels the poison–he runs away to this little herb and nibbles at it,
and gets healed

directly. Whether it is true or not, you and I have been bitten by the
old serpent, Satan, and there is "the Plant of Renown," the Lord Jesus
Christ–and if we go and feed upon Him, all the wounds that sins can
make will soon be healed!

Well, these were very good lessons to be learned by David. Let me
remind you what they were. God taught him to value his soul, to value
the world aright, to see his sin and to see the remedy for it. Another
thing David learned was to live as in God's sight. How wonderfully
David talks, in various parts of the Psalms, about God seeing him! When
I was a boy, about the size of many of these boys that I see before me
here, my father made me learn that long Psalm, the 139th in which Dr.
Watts puts thus the great Truth of God that God is everywhere and can
see everyone–

"If mounted on a morning ray

I fly beyond the Western sea,

Your swifter hand would first arrive,

And there arrest your fugitive.

Or should I try to shun Your sight

Beneath the spreading veil of light,

One glance of time, one piercing ray,

Would kindle darkness into day.

The veil of night is no disguise,

No screen from Your all-searching eyes;

Your hand can seize Your foes as soon

Through midnight shades as blazing noon.

O may these thoughts possess my breast,

WhereverIrove, whereverIrest!

Nor let my weaker passions dare

Consent to sin, for God is there." One other lesson David learned was
this, he learned to prepare to die. This is one of the grandest lessons
that any man can ever learn for, you know, we must all die. There was a
great king who was a great warrior as well as a king. His name was
Saladin and when he was very ill in his tent, he said to his generals
who gathered round him, "Go and fetch the crescent banner around which
my warriors have always rallied in the day of battle." So they brought
it in, on a long lance, and they unfurled the colors right before him.
And the dying man said, "Take off the colors, and look, there is the
shroud that I have had prepared to wrap me in when I am dead. Now, put
the shroud on the lance instead of the colors." And they did so. These
were the last words he uttered, "Go and take that shroud on the lance,
and go through every street of the city and cry aloud, 'This is all
that remains of the mighty Saladin! This is all that remains of the
mighty Sa-ladin!'" And this is what will be said of all of us, "This is
all that remains of that fair girl with the beautiful hair!" "This is
all that remains of that dear boy who was once so full of mirth and
laughter!" "This is all that remains of that gray-headed man, so wise
and learned!" "This is all that remains of the merchant with all his
wealth!" Or, "This is all that remains of the preacher with all his
speech." Oh, to be ready, thoroughly ready, whenever the summons shall
come for us to leave this world behind us and go to the better land!

III. Now the third head is about WHEN THE SCHOLAR WENT TO SCHOOL. I
hope none of these boys who go to school ever go too late. "Dilly,
dilly dollar," don't they say? "Ten o'clock scholar." He is always a
bad scholar who comes in late. Those who go to God's school are never
very good scholars if they go too late. When did David go to God's
school, according to the text? THE CHILDREN: "In his youth!"

Mr. SPURGEON: That is right–in his youth. He says, "O God, You have
taught me from my youth." He went to school in his early days and that
is one of the reasons why he turned out so good a scholar, because he
went to school early. Why should we go to God's school early? I think
we ought to do so, first, because it is such a happy school. Schools
used to be very miserable places, but nowadays, I really wish I could
go to school again. I went into the Borough Road School the other day,
into the Repository where they sell slates, pencils, books and all such
things. The person who was there said to me, "Do you want to buy any of
these things?" I said, "What are they?" He opened a box, and I said,
"Why, they are toys, are they not?" He answered, "No, they are not.
They are used for the lessons that are taught in the Kindergarten
school." I said, "Why, if I were to take them home, my boys would have
a game with them, for they are only toys!" "Just so," he said, "but
they are what are used in the Kindergarten school to make learning the
same as playing, so

that little children should play while they are learning." Why, I
thought, if that were so, I would like to go at once! Now, those who go
to God's school are made much more happy than any toys can make
children! He gives them real pleasure. There is a verse, I don't know
how many of you know it. I will say the first line, you say the second,
if you can.

Mr. SPURGEON: "'Tis religion that can give"

The CHILDREN: "Sweetest pleasures while we live!"

Mr. SPURGEON: "'Tis religion must supply

The CHILDREN: "Solid comfort when we die!"

Another reason why boys and girls should try to get to God's school
very early is because they will not have so much to be sorry for
afterwards. Two or three times during the last fortnight I have heard
good men pray in the Tabernacle, and each one has said something like
this, "O God, save my dear children! Grant that they may never go into
sin as I did, that they may never have so much to repent of and to weep
over as I had!" That was the father of some boy here, I expect. And oh,
I know if he were here tonight, he would say, "Dear Boy, dear Girl, do
not go into sins which will afterwards cause you to weep." This story
will show you what I mean. A boy's father once said to him, "Now, John,
I will tell you what I am going to do to make you look at yourself a
little. Every time you do wrong, I am going to drive a nail into that
post–and every time you do right, and are a good boy, I shall draw one
out." "Well," John thought, "I will not have any nails in that post if
I can help it." But they did get in somehow–boys will be boys and
girls will be girls–and there were a lot of nails in the post! And the
boy felt very sorry as he saw them, for they seemed to speak to him,
and to say, "You disobeyed your father that day. You disobeyed your
mother another day," and he thought he would be a good boy. So he tried
with all his might and got half the nails out–and after a while, he
got every nail out of the post. And what do you think he said, then?
His father said to him, "You have got all the nails out, John." "Yes,
Father," he said, "but there are the holes still there. There are the
holes still there." Now when God's Grace comes to a man who has led a
wicked life from his boyhood, it pardons him and takes the nails out.
"Ah," he says, "but there are the holes still there! I remember the
sins I did and they have done me serious hurt, though God has forgiven
me." One good man said, "I never shall forgive myself, to think that I
lived so long without serving God." Get then, dear Children, to God's
school early, that you may not have the holes in the post, nor have so
much to be sorry for in your later life!

Another reason why I would have boys and girls go to God's school early
is because it will make them most useful A man cannot be very greatly
useful who has only the end of his life to use for God. The tree that
has been transplanted very lately cannot be expected to bear much
fruit. But a tree that was put into the soil when but a cutting and
that has continued to grow there, year after year, is more likely to
become a good fruit-bearing tree.

One other reason why I would have you go to God's school soon is that
you will die soon. Even if you live long, life will be very short. Oh,
that God's mercy would take you into God's school now, even tonight,
that you may be able to say with David, "O God, You have taught me from
my youth." Let this be your cry–

"Soon as my youthful lips can speak

Their feeble prayer to Thee,

O let my heart Your favor seek;

Good Lord, remember me!'

IV. Now the last thing and this is the most important of all tonight,
and it will not take many minutes to tell you about it. The last thing
is this. David said, "God, You have taught me from my youth." But David
is now dead. I wonder whether there are some here tonight who can say
the same as he did? I hope there are many. So the last head is, THE
SCHOLAR–WHERE IS HE? THE SCHOLAR–WHERE IS SHE?

Pass those questions all round the building and I hope there are many
who will be able to say, "O God, You have taught me"–Mary, Jane,
Thomas, William–"You have taught me from my youth." I do not suppose
you could make much of a speech tonight if you were on this platform,
but do you know, if I could have my choice between being able to speak
as well as Mr. Gladstone, who spoke so grandly last night, or only be
able to say, "O God, You have taught me from my youth"–if I could only
have one of the two–I would certainly choose the latter! There is more
music in that sentence than in all the eloquence of the greatest
orator!

I shall now ask a question or two, and then I shall have done. All the
children here believe that when we have gone from this life, we shall
go into another world. And you are all hoping, I am sure, that when you
die, you will go to that happy land of which we sometimes sing–

"There is a happy land,

Far, far away,

Where saints in Glory stand,

Bright, bright as day!

Oh, how they sweetly sing,

Worthy is our Savior King,

Loud let His praises ring,

Praise, praise forever!

Come to this happy land,

Come, come away–

Why will you doubting stand?

Whystill delay?

Oh, we shall happy be

When from sin and sorrow free

Lord, we shall live with Thee,

Blest, blest forever!

Bright in that happy land

Beams every eye!

Kept by a Father's hand,

Love cannot die.

On then to Glory run,

Be a crown, and kingdom, won–

And bright above the sun,

Reign, reign forever."

May we have that crown and kingdom! That is what we are looking for. A
little girl came home one Sunday and asked her mother a question.
Little boys and girls will sometimes ask questions which cannot be very
easily answered. She said, "Mother, do you believe what Teacher told me
today?" "What's that, dear?" "Why, she said that we are only going to
stay in this world for a little while, and that we are going to another
world. Do you believe it, Mother?" "Oh, yes, my Dear, of course I
do–the Bible says so!" "Then, Mother, you know aunt Eliza is going to
Australia?" "Yes, what about that?" "She is getting ready, is she not?"
"Yes, she is packing up her trunks and getting ready." "Then, Mother,
if you are going into another world, why don't you get ready, too?" A
very proper question for a child to put, and a very proper question for
me to put to you here! If you are going to another world, dear
Children, may God's Holy Spirit help you to get ready to go!

Dear Children, I hope you will be scholars who will learn that the next
world is the one for us to look for This world is but a very poor thing
at the best. A great man, a very rich man and a mighty emperor, invited
a friend of his youth to come and stay with him. And this friend, when
he entered into the palace, was quite dazzled by the marble, ivory,
gold, silver and gems on every side, and he said to the great man, "How
happy you must be with all this wealth! I never saw such a palace, nor
such servants in livery, nor such gardens!" "Ah," said the other, "I
will, one of these evenings, tell you what I think of all I have." So,
one evening, a servant brought to this gentleman, on a golden dish, an
apple so lovely that it seemed as if such an apple never grew! It was,
as we sometimes say, like wax, perfect. He took it off the golden dish
but put it back again, and the servant took a knife and cut it down the
middle–and inside it was full of black dust and a great worm dropped
out of it! The emperor said nothing, but looked at his friend, and his
friend knew that he meant, "That is like my life–all outside looks
very beautiful, but inside there is a worm." Now, in all the joy that
this world ever gives to us there is a worm! The only apples that have
no worms grow only in Paradise, and there, dear Children, if God shall
teach us, we shall sit and pluck new fruit from the celestial tree. Let
us go there and leave this poor world behind, seeking a better rest,
where immortal fruits grow!

A gentleman bought a pear tree, and planted it in his garden. The first
year it did not have any pears on it, but the second year there was a
good show of bloom and after a while there was one little pear. So the
gentleman said to his wife, "Now we shall know whether that really is
as good a pear tree as the gardener told me it would be." To his
children he said, "Now, mind none of you touch that pear, for I am very
particular to know about it–to see whether it is worthwhile to keep
the tree." One of his little boys was very fond of pears and he watched
that pear and saw it grow. It kept on growing and his father said to
him, "Now, John, I know you will not touch that pear. You may have any
of the other

fruit in the garden, but you must not touch that pear." John said, "No,
Father." Yet, somehow, as that pear began to swell and get ripe, John's
mouth watered after that particular pear and he thought, "Oh, I should
like to eat it!" He passed close by it, sometimes, but he did not touch
it. At last, one night, a beautiful, bright, moonlight night, as he lay
in bed, he looked out of the window and he could see the pear tree down
in the garden, and he thought, "Father won't know I took the
pear–he'll never think I would go out at night. I'll put on my
slippers–it's a nice moonlight night– and I'll slip down and get that
pear."

He went downstairs, though he hardly liked being out alone at night
and, opening the back door, he went out into the garden and stood
underneath the tree. He was getting on his tiptoes to reach the pear,
when, between the leaves, a ray of light came right straight into his
eyes. It was the gleam of a star and that star seemed to be watching
him! And at the same moment that ray of light came through the leaves
from that particular star, his heart seemed to say the four words which
he said were the best words he ever heard, for they were, all his life
long, a blessing to him–"You, God, see me." Down he went on to his
feet, no more on his tiptoes, glided upstairs, took off his slippers
and went to bed, so thankful to think that the star had looked at him
and saved him from doing wrong! It seemed to be like God's light
looking right through the trees and the text seemed to be God's Word
reminding him how wrongly he was acting!

Now, he who goes to God's school, and has learned to live as in God's
sight, has learned one of the best lessons that ever could be taught
him. I hope that none of us here, whether men, or women, or boys, or
girls, will ever be satisfied till, in everything, we act as in God's
sight! Nobody would cheat in the shops, then! Nobody would tell a lie,
then, if they knew that God was always looking upon them!

One other thing and I will finish. I think some dear boys and girls
ought to be very earnest just now, and ask the Lord to take them into
His school because there are many who are very anxious about them.
There was once a boy of the name of Stoddart, and he was a very bad
boy, or rather, he was a very bad young man. One night his pastor met
him outside a little Chapel into which several people were going. The
young man said, in a joking, saucy, naughty tone, "What are you doing?"
And the minister, who was an old man, turned round and said, "Young
man, this is what we are doing–your mother asked us to meet tonight
and pray for you." Young Stoddart walked away and said, "Then, if these
people are praying about me, it's high time I should pray for myself!"
And before the meeting was over, in he crept and you cannot tell the
joy there was when he came in to say he thanked them for praying for
him–and desired to pray for himself! He became a famous preacher in
America and brought many souls to Christ–and was the man who preached
a sermon at the chapel where afterwards Jonathan Edwards became a
minister of Christ, and was the means of a great revival of religion!

Now we are praying for you! And John, and Mary, and William, and James,
I want you to say, as this young man did, "Then it is high time we
should pray for ourselves." God bless everyone of you, and bless you
tonight, for Jesus Christ's sake!

And I must say just this one sentence or so. The way to go to God's
school is this–Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, died on the Cross to open
the door into that great school. And if any of you, my dear young
Friends, will trust in Jesus Christ to save you, because He died for
sinners, you are then inside His school and you shall be taught and
trained. And as I told you about the little ichneumon that ate the
grass and was healed, so shall you have all your sins forgiven and your
soul-wounds healed–and you shall go on your way rejoicing!