A Promise For Us And For Our Children

A Promise For Us And For Our Children

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1864, BY THE REV. C, H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant. And Israel, whom Ihave chosen: thus
says the Lord thatmadeyou and formed you from the womb, which will help
you. Fear not, O Jacob, My servant. And you, Jesurun, whom Ihave
chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon
the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon your seed and My blessing
upon your offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as
willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's, and
another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. And another shall
subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name
of Israel." Isaiah 44:1-5.

WE ought not to overlook the first and immediate meaning of these
words. There can be no doubt that we have here a promise made to God's
ancient people, the Jews. Whatever their sins may have been, God has
not forever cast them away. They have become like the dry and thirsty
desert, but the day will yet dawn when God's sovereign love shall again
visit them and His Spirit shall distil upon them until Israel shall be
glorious among the nations and her children shall be multiplied and
saved. O that the long-expected day would hasten! Break, hallowed
morning, for earth's watchers are growing weary! The twelve tribes
right longingly wait for the appearance of Messiah the Prince and we
also who believe in Jesus, joyfully expect His advent and the gathering
together of Israel.

How great will be the day of the Lord's gracious visitation! "For if
the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall
the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" If the fall of them
is the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of
the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? The vision tarries, but it
will surely come! The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Be it
ours to rejoice in that ancient promise, "There shall come out of Sion
the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is
My Covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins."

Leaving this interesting view of the text, we will meditate on it, for
practical purposes of comfort to ourselves. Observe that the text
begins with the word, "Yet." What an ominous word as to the past! What
a cheering word as to the future! "Yet." "Yet." What black words are
those which come before it? Surely all is not well. Look at the
preceding verses and see. God's people were represented as being in a
sadly backsliding state. They had lost their love to the service of
God. They neglected His altar. They brought Him no thank offerings. No,
they had fallen into a state of sin until they wearied God with their
iniquity.

Consequently they fell into a condition of sorrow–God gave them up to
the curse and the reproach. It may be that such is our case this
morning, though we are God's people. Perhaps our soul lies cleaving in
the dust. We have forgotten to run with diligence in the way of God's
Commandments. We have fallen into a lukewarm state. We are following
afar off. It may be that we have even fallen into sin and sitting in
this House of Prayer we confess with Pharaoh's butler, "I do remember
my faults this day."

It is very possible that we have been made too smart for our sins. God
may have hidden His face from us. Our faith may be flagging–our graces
may be withering. It will be so, it must be so when we forsake our God.
If we leave the flowing Fountain to trust in broken cisterns, we shall
soon know the bitterness of thirst. "Yet." "Yet," says the text–"yet,"
though you have fallen into this state, do not despair! Though you have
transgressed very foully, do not think God has cast you away! "Yet now
hear, O Jacob, My servant. And Israel, whom I have chosen." Yet–the
word is a star of the morning, prophetic of brighter rays–yet I love
you! Yet you are My chosen! Yet My loving heart is true to you! Yet
will I return unto you in favor! Yet shall you rejoice in Me and be
filled with My goodness!

Come then, Brothers and Sisters, if we have wandered ever so far, let
this word sound like the shepherd's call to bring us back. You need not
always be sad–there is no necessity that you should be always weak in
righteousness and abundant in sin–yet the promise is yours! Yet God
loves you! Yet He invites you to come to Him! Return now and seek His
face once more. You have lived in the feverish lowlands, yet climb the
mountains! You have groveled in the dust, yet ascend as on eagles'
wings! You have been covered with sackcloth, yet put on your beautiful
array! Your neglect of the promises has not made them the less sure.
The key of your faith may be rusted, but it will still open the door of
mercy.

You may have been unbelieving, but God abides faithful. Up! Enjoy your
sure inheritance. Let us feel comforted by the very first word of the
text and let it encourage us to lay hold, despite our own unworthiness,
upon the great promise of the Lord. The Lord, in order to comfort His
people and bring them out of their present state, first, reminds them
of what He has done for them. Secondly, He repeats His promise of what
He will do. And thirdly, He adds to this a most gracious and full
promise of what He will do for their offspring.

I. First, then, and O may the Lord refresh our memories by revealing to
us the way by which He has led us–first of all HE COMFORTS HIS PEOPLE
BY THE REMEMBRANCE OF WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR THEM. Come, my

Brothers and Sisters, reach down for your biographies. Turn over your
diaries. Go back with me a little while to that spot where first you
knew the Savior. Then march on along the way by which the Lord has led
you till you reach the day and hour which found you in the House of
God, listening to His promise.

1. Taking the text as our guide, let us notice, first, the Grace we
have experienced in its practical effect. The practical effect of
Divine Grace in our case has been to make us God's servants–"Yet now
hear, O Jacob, My servant." We may be unfaithful servants–we certainly
are unprofitable ones–but blessed be His name, if not awfully deceived
we are His true servants! We were once the servants of sin and the
slaves of our own passions, but He who made us free has now taken us
into His family and taught us obedience to His will. We can say with
David, "I am Your servant. I am Your servant and the son of Your
handmaid: You have loosed my bonds."

We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could. There
are some of His Commandments which we forget, but there are none which
we would despise. We do, through infirmity, turn aside unto crooked
ways, but we find no comfort in them. Our meat and our drink is to do
the will of Him who sent us and our prayer is–

"Make me to walk in Your commands,
It is a delightful road.
Nor let my head, nor heart, nor hands,
Offend against my God."

Beloved, if God has made us His servants, let us be comforted. It is so
great a change and so wonderful an effect of Irresistible Grace upon a
man to transform him from an heir of wrath into a servant of the living
God that we have herein ground for comfort.

2. Observe again, this Grace is peculiar, discriminating and
distinguishing. He calls us, "My chosen." We have not chosen Him first,
but He has chosen us. If we are God's servants, we were not always
so–to Sovereign Grace the change must be ascribed. We might have been
left, like other men, to continue in sin and to be rebels against the
King of Heaven, but the eyes of Sovereignty singled us out from among
others not more unworthy than we were and it was the voice of Love
which said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Long before those stars were kindled into flames–long before the sun
begun his mighty course–long before the mountains lifted their hoary
heads, or the deep clapped its hands in the tumultuous joy of tempest.
Long before time began, or space was created, God had written upon His
heart the names of His elect people. He had selected them, never to
change His choice. He had united them unto the Person of His Son Jesus
Christ by a Divine Decree never to be revoked. He had predestinated
them to be conformed unto the image of His Son and had made them the
heirs of all the fullness of His love, His Grace and His Glory.

Have you and I been chosen? Can we see the connection between the link
of calling and the link of predestination? Have we made our calling
sure? If so, we may infer most certainly that we must have been
predestinated. What comfort is here! Would the Lord have loved us so
long and will He cast us away? I know you are dead and barren and your
soul feels heavy and your sins stare you in the face, but did not your
God know all this beforehand? He made the choice, knowing all–why
then, should He change His purpose? He knew how stiff-necked you would
be! He understood that your heart was evil and that the imaginations of
it would be only evil, and that continually, and yet He loved you!

Ah, my Savior is no fickle lover. He does not feel enchanted for awhile
with some gleams of beauty from His Church's eye and then afterwards
cast her off because of her unfaithfulness. No, my Brethren, He married
her in old eternity and though, according to the words of the Prophet,
she has played the harlot and done exceedingly evil, yet it is written
of Jehovah, "He hates putting away." There is no divorce in the court
of Heaven. Christ has espoused His people to Him in faithfulness and
they shall know the Lord. Be this your comfort then–the activity of
Grace has made you God's servant. The distinguishing character of Grace
has made you His chosen.

3. Reflect again, in the light of the text, upon the ennobling
influence of Grace. The people are first called Jacob, but only in the
next line they are styled Israel. You and I were but of the common
order. If we had boasted of anything we should have been called Jacobs,
supplanters, boasting beyond our line. But as Jacob at the brook Jabbok
wrestled with the angel and prevailed and gained the august title of
prince–prevailing prince–"For as a prince have you power with God and
with men and have prevailed," even so has Grace ennobled us!

It may be that we wear today the common well-worn garb of labor. Our
names never glitter in the rolls of earth's mightiest–but we are
allied unto the King of kings if the life of God is in our soul! We are
of the royal family! We are princes of the blood imperial! We shall
take our seats among those lordly spirits who forever dwell before the
Majesty of the Most High. Priests and kings unto our God has Christ
made us by virtue of His own position. Oh, to think that we, who were
worse than dogs, should sit among the children! That we, who once stood
at the swine trough and gladly would have filled our belly with the
husks, now feed upon the fatted calf!

What love is this, that whereas we said, "I am not worthy that you
should come under my roof," He has been pleased to make our bodies the
temples of the Holy Spirit and God dwells in us and we in Him! My
Brethren, what an honor to be one with Christ–to be united to the
Person of Him who counts it not robbery to be equal with God–to be
made at last to sit upon His Throne, even as He sits upon His Father's
Throne! Why, when I look upon the dignity which belongs to the meanest
Christian, the imperial pomp of all emperors and kings sinks into
insignificance and like a shadow melts away. Think of this, my
Brethren, and despite your low state of Grace this morning, take
comfort. He would not have made you such mighty ones as you are in Him
if He had not intended to bless you still.

4. Furthermore, the text conducts us onward to notice the creating and
sustaining energy of that Grace. "Thus says the Lord that made you and
formed you from the womb." How did you become Believers in Christ? By
any internal energy of your own? Speak, Believer–was it your free will
that brought you to the Savior's feet, or was it God's Free Grace? Men
may hold free will doctrine as a matter of theory, but you never find a
Believer hold it as a matter of experience. We can all say–

"Oh, to Grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be."

It was all of Your Grace I was brought to obey, while others were
suffered to go the downward road! About this you can have no
difficulty, for your own experience tells you that you were dead in
trespasses and sins and it must have been something beyond any power of
yours that quickened you into spiritual life. Men might as well claim
the honors of creation or resurrection as boast of commencing their own
spiritual life! The Lord alone shall have the Glory of that opening
hour of love.

Since that happy day what has sustained you? Has your fire of piety
been fed by internal, self-produced fuel? Have you kept yourselves from
the power of Satan? My Brethren, have you kept yourselves in communion
with God? You know that you have not. You are debtors for your soul's
daily bread to your Father who is in Heaven. Every good thing which you
have you have received from Him. The great Father of Lights, with whom
is no variableness or shadow of turning, has given you every good and
perfect gift which you have received. You have profited in nothing by
the flesh, but in all things by the Spirit of the living God.

Taking you from your first conviction and tracking you to the present
moment, it has been God's creating and forming. In the womb of
conviction He fashioned you and He has nurtured you until now. Let this
be your comfort–if God could quicken you when you were absolutely dead
and if He has kept you until this moment, can He not revive you again?
Can He not make that spark again become a flame? Have you fallen too
low for Him? Is His arm shortened that He cannot save? Is His ear heavy
that He cannot hear? No! He that has delivered you aforetime will
deliver you yet again. Therefore be of good comfort.

5. We will leave this part of the subject when we notice once again
that this Grace has the characteristic of intense affection in it. This
is not very plain in our translation but I think we can make it clear.
God gives to His people the title of Jesurun, which means the righteous
people, according to some translators. But most interpreters are agreed
that it is an affectionate title which God gives to His people. Perhaps
it may be considered to be a diminutive of Israel. I do not know that
we could pronounce it so as to make it plainly appear here, but very
likely it is so–a diminutive of Israel.

Just as fathers and mothers, when they have great affection for their
children, will frequently give them an endearing name–shorten their
usual name–or call them by a familiar title only used in the family,
so in calling Israel, Jesurun, the Lord sets forth His near and dear
love. God's Grace to us is not merely the mercy of the good Samaritan
towards a poor stranger whom he finds wounded by the way. It is the
love of a mother to her sick child. The fondness of a husband towards a
weeping wife. The tenderness of the head towards the wounded members.

Beloved, did you ever did try to grasp the thought that God loves you?
Whenever I try it, it brings tears into my eyes and I can go no
farther. That the Eternal God should pity me I can understand. That He
should regard my misery and deliver me I can comprehend. That He should
look upon me with eyes of benevolence seems reasonable enough. But that
He should LOVE me? Love me, too, with a love infinitely stronger than
any love I have to my own children, or to my own spouse! That He should
so love me that His own darling Son, the Only-Begotten, was not better
loved than I have been–this is a wonder of wonders!

1 must not say that Jesus was not so well loved as poor sinful men, but
I will say when the question came to this– whether those poor sinful
but beloved ones should die or Christ should die–He spared not His own
Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all. Oh, what mysterious love!
That Christ should suffer that we may go free! That the Father's
Darling should hang upon the accursed Tree and bleed away His life that
we might be received into the eternal bosom of Jehovah and might be
forever accepted as the favored ones of His electing love! He loves
you! Oh, there is nothing can melt the heart like this–God loves you!

And while it melts, it strengthens. While God loves me, whom shall I
fear? If Jehovah has chosen me, if He has set His heart upon me, of
whom shall I be afraid? Verily, with this I may walk through the valley
of the shadow of death and fear no evil! With this in the midst of war
I may have confidence! Upon this in famine I shall be fed. And in
affliction I shall not be afraid. Oh, the joy which dwells in the
thought that God loves His people! Jesus loved me and gave Himself for
me! Can you say this, my Hearer? If you can, you can say more than
Demosthenes or Cicero were ever able to say with all their eloquence.

It may be, as we have said before, that we have fallen into a low sad
state this morning and are trying to get ourselves out of it by
chastening ourselves with many dark and doleful fears. Now that is not
the way to rise from the dust. It is not the Law but the Gospel which
saves at first. And it is not a legal bondage but a Gospel liberty
which can restore the fainting Believer. It is not slavish fear that
brings back the backslider to God, but the sweet wooing of love allures
him to Jesus' bosom.

As I sat the other night in my study, musing on my message for the
coming Sunday, some little unbelief crossed my mind. Would the Lord
sustain me in my ministry among such multitudes? Would He give fresh
matter on the morrow? And there stood on my shelves nine volumes of my
sermons, the records of nine years of gracious help. What witnesses did
those volumes seem to be of the faithfulness of the Lord! Now you can
look back, some of you, to ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years, which
are like so many volumes of Grace received! Dare you distrust your God?
David went forth to fight Goliath with past experience as his comfort,
"Your servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them."

Cannot you use the same argument? You have already slain your
adversaries–what can stand against you? Be of good comfort and dash
forward to the fray! Take as your war cry, "His mercy endures forever,"
and you need never quail, whatever difficulties assail you. So much for
the first point. Now let us turn with great brevity to the second.

II. We are encouraged, in the second place, this morning, by THE
PROMISE OF WHAT GOD WILL DO. He says "Fear not, I will help you." And
then He adds, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods
upon the dry ground." You feel thirsty this morning, that is,
uncomfortable in heart. You have lost much of the joy of religion and
your prayer is, "Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation."

You are conscious, also, that you are barren, like the dry ground. You
are not bringing forth that fruit unto God which He has a right to
expect of you. You are not so useful in the Church nor in the world as
your heart desires to be. Well then, here is His promise of what He
will do, "I will help you." You cannot pray this morning. You cannot
wrestle as you desire–"I will help you." You feel unable to overcome
sin–"I will help you." You are engaged in service too heavy for
you–"I will help you."

Whether it is to suffer, to sacrifice, to labor, or to endure, take
this comfort–"I will help you." I love this promise! It is a very
short one, but it is all the longer in meaning because it is short in
expression. You may avail yourself of it in all cases. The promise
turns every way and blesses in every form. It is like a weapon which
may be used for fifty purposes. It will be to you, if you will, a sword
and you may beat it into a plowshare. Or it will prove a shield, a
spear, a chariot, and I know not what besides. You cannot find any
possible position into which the child of God can be brought in which
this promise will fail to bless him!

Sit down no longer in lethargy! Lift up the hands which hang down and
confirm the feeble knees, for if God says, "I will help you," how can
you be afraid? Then comes a promise, fuller in words and as rich in
Grace, "I will pour water on him that is thirsty." You shall have the
Grace you want. Water refreshes the thirsty–you shall be
refreshed–your desires shall be gratified. Water quickens sleeping
vegetable life–your life shall be quickened by fresh Grace. Water
swells the buds and makes the fruits ripe–you shall have fructifying
Grace. You shall be made fruitful in the ways of God!

Whatever good quality there is in Divine Grace, you shall enjoy it to
the full. All the riches of Divine Grace you shall receive in plenty.
You shall be, as it were, drenched with it! And as sometimes the
meadows become flooded by the bursting rivers and the fields turn into
pools, so shall you! The thirsty land shall be springs of water. O my
Brothers and Sisters, when the Holy Spirit visits a man, what a
difference it makes in him!

I know a preacher, once as dull and dead a man as ever misused a
pulpit. Under his slumbering ministrations there were few conversions
and the congregation grew thinner and thinner. Good men sighed in
secret and the enemy said, "Aha, so would we have it!" The revival
came–the Holy Spirit worked gloriously! The preacher felt the Divine
fire and suddenly woke up to energy and zeal. The man appeared to be
transformed! His tongue seemed touched with fire! Elaborate and written
discourses were laid aside and he began to talk out of his own glowing
heart to the hearts of others. He preached as he had never done before.
The place filled. The dry bones were stirred and quickening began! They
who knew him once so elegant, correct, passionless, dignified, cold,
lifeless and unprofitable, asked in amazement, "Is Saul also among the
Prophets?"

The Spirit of God is a great wonder-worker! You will notice certain
Church members. They have never been good for much. We have had their
names on the roll and that is all–suddenly the Spirit of God has come
upon them and they have been honored among us for their zeal and
usefulness! We have seen them here and there and everywhere diligent in
the service of God and foremost in all sorts of Christian labor, though
before you could hardly get them to stir an inch! I would that the
quickening Spirit would come down upon me and upon you–upon every one
of us in abundance–to create us valiant men for Truth and mighty for
the Lord!

O for some of the ancient valor of apostolic times, that, like good
knights of the Cross we would dash forward against the foe and with
irresistible courage deal heavy blows against the adversary of souls
and his vast host! We may do this! We have only to plead the promise!
God will be enquired of, but the promise stands true, "I will pour
water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." Do not
lose the blessing through remissness, but ask and you shall receive.
Brethren, pray for me! For I need more Grace and in return I will plead
the Lord's words on your behalf.

III. As a very great comfort to His mourning people, the Lord now
promises A BLESSING UPON THEIR CHILDREN. You will observe, dear
Friends, that they must get the blessing for themselves first, for the
third verse has it–"I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and
floods upon the dry ground"–that is first. And then afterwards–"I
will pour My Spirit upon your seed."

We must not expect to see our children blessed unless we ourselves grow
in Grace. It is often the inconsistency of parents which is the
obstacle–the outward obstacle to the conversion of their children. No
doubt there have been multitudes of children of professing parents who
have been damned instrumentally by the ungodliness and inconsistency of
their parents at home. The parents, let us hope, were Christians–but
there has been so much of apparent inconsistency about them that the
ruin of their children has been the consequence. It is a notorious fact
that some of the worst of men have been the children of godly parents.
I could give living instances but I forbear.

When good Mr. Williams was murdered at Eromanga–the fact should be
well-known–the natives had first been exasperated by the most
abominable conduct on the part of the son of a missionary, who, having
gone there, had practiced all sorts of evil upon the natives. And then
good Mr. Williams was sacrificed to their fury. You will find that
among the most fearfully depraved there are a few of the very deepest
dye who received an early Christian education and dashed down all its
restraints that they might run greedily into iniquity.

I think the children of godly parents are like Jeremiah's figs–the
good are very good, but the bad are very bad– very naughty figs, such
as cannot be eaten. Some of the children of God have been the parents
of great offenders. Eli begets Hophni and Phinehas. David has an
Absalom. Noah is father to Ham. Isaac begets profane Esau. The wise
Solomon is followed by Rehoboam the fool. And pious Hezekiah is sire to
persecuting Manasseh. Oh, how sad it is that it should be so, but so it
is! We must, therefore, look to ourselves and our own careful walking
before God, for we shall not get the promise for our offspring till we
obtain its fulfillment in our own case.

But now, supposing that this is done. If we have had faith to receive
much Grace from God, here comes a blessed promise for our children–"I
will pour My Spirit upon your seed," in which, observe first of all,
the need. Our children need the Spirit of God. They are not like
children educated in the street, the tavern, or the low theater. They
have not heard from our lips words of lust or profanity. They have been
hushed to sleep by the name of Jesus as their lullaby. They breathe the
air of religion. But for all that they need the Spirit of God!

We love to see the children of godly parents brought into Church
membership, but we would avoid, above all things, anything like
hereditary profession or inherited religion. It must be personal in
each individual or it is not worth a gnat. I believe that the idea of
birthright membership has tended materially to weaken the strength of
that most respectable and once powerful denomination, the Society of
Friends. Believing that their children have an inward Light which they
ought to follow, I do fear they often teach their children to follow
inward darkness rather than light. Forgetting the necessity of the Holy
Spirit, which is infinitely superior to ordinary light of conscience,
their children have grown up to attend meetings and to wear a
particular garb without receiving the Spirit–certainly without that
grand enthusiasm which honored their sires in bygone days.

We must not adulterate our membership by the reception of the children
of godly parents unless we have clear proof that they, themselves, are
converted to God. Your children need the Holy Spirit quite as much as
the offspring of the Hottentot or the Kaffir. They are born in sin and
shapen in iniquity–in sin do the best of mothers conceive their
children, and, however well you may train them, you cannot take the
stone out of the heart nor turn it into flesh. To give a new heart and
a right spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit
alone.

In the second place, the source of the mercy which God will give. "I
will pour out My Spirit." It was the work of the Spirit which
transformed their fathers–it is that which must transform them. The
Word may come to them and not be blessed. We may be silly enough to
take them to baby-Baptism and they would not be blessed. We may
persuade them to come to the Lord's Table, but they would not be
blessed. But when the Spirit of God comes upon them, then it is all
done. Now comes the broken heart! Now comes the humble spirit! Now is
breathed the earnest prayer! Now love to Christ flames forth and trust
is built upon Him!

Do pray, dear Friends, for your children, that God will pour His Spirit
upon them. And as to the rest, you may depend that all the fruits will
come in due time. I do not know that the parent needs to say much to
his child about Baptism or the Lord's Supper, except, sometimes, a
gentle word as to the duty of the Believer, and a clear explanation of
the meaning of the ordinances. But I do hold that the duty of the
parent is to look first and foremost for the work of the Spirit and
insist upon it that he must be born again or else no profession can be
made. Tell the child that he his dead in trespasses and sins. Let there
be no doubt about his natural condition and let this always be your
prayer, "Almighty Grace, renew his heart! Turn him from darkness to
Light and make him Yours!"

I think that in some Sunday school addresses there is not always the
Gospel so clearly and decidedly proclaimed as it should be. It is not
very easy, I know, to preach Christ to little children, but there is
nothing else worth preaching. To stand up and say, "Be good boys and
girls and you will get to Heaven," is preaching the old Covenant of
Works, and it is no more right to preach salvation by works to little
children than to those who are of mature age. We are all dead and as
the Spirit of God can alone renew us, so He alone can renew them and
there is no natural goodness, no amiability, no generosity of character
which can supersede the work of the Holy Spirit. We must remember this
and hold to it, that we pray to God to work by His Spirit in their
hearts.

Then you have in the promise in the third place, the plenty of Grace
which God gives. He says, "I will pour My Spirit upon your seed"–not a
little of it–but they shall have abundance. It has charmed me,
especially of late, when I have conversed with very many children–many
of them children of godly parents and others we have brought into our
school and instructed by good and loving teachers. I have been charmed,
I say, in examining them for membership, at the profoundness of their
knowledge and the abundance of their Grace. I have questioned them in a
way I would not question some gray-headed men and women.

I have gone into points of intricate doctrine with many of them in a
way which I would not use with many of middle age because I know I
would take them out of their depth. But these children have been able
to tell me from Scripture– and generally their answers have been
quotations of a text–the great plan of salvation and the doctrines
connected with it as explicitly as the best Doctor of Divinity in any
of our Universities. And I have been often pleased to notice that the
very babes are those out of the mouths of whom God has ordained
strength and He gives the perfect wisdom of the upright full often to
those who are but as babes and sucklings. It is so good to notice this!

You are not to expect children merely to exhibit faint traces of Grace,
but in the strength of this promise you may look for great things. In
the deathbeds of your children–and very often children who are early
saved are early caught up to Heaven–many very wonderful expressions
have fallen from their lips. Mr. Janeway, in his, "Token for Children,"
has preserved many examples, showing that some dying children have been
wondrously mature in piety and the expressions they have used have
perfectly astounded the most experienced of the saints.

You ought not, in the case of children, to look merely for life–you
will find vigorous life! You may not expect a little surface-knowledge
only, but you may expect to find in them a depth of knowledge in the
things of God, for so God's promise has it, "I will pour My Spirit upon
your seed." I must not leave the text without noticing the blessedness
of all this. "And My blessing upon your offspring."

Oh, what a blessing it is to have our offspring saved! God give us each
to see it! What a blessing to have our children enlisted in Christ's
army! Beloved, we wish them well, we wish them the best of God's gifts.
But if we were asked whether we would have them famous or wealthy, we
should pause to ask whether it were good for them. But if it were put
to us, "Shall they be saved?" we feel we would cheerfully give our life
if that must be the price, to know that our children walked in the
Truth of God. "I have no greater joy than this," said one in Holy
Scripture and there can be no greater joy than this to the Christian
parent. How happy the family becomes!

And when they grow up and go out from us, married in the Lord–for how
else can they be gracious?–we should expect to see a gracious house
built up. There is a very sad verse, I think you will find it in the
second chapter of Judges, which runs thus–"And also all that
generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another
generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which
He had done for Israel." Oh, that is sad to see how soon religion dies
out in a nation! But without household piety–without constant
instruction both in the Sunday school and at home–the next generation
in our case will be as ignorant of God as if Christ had not been known
by their fathers!

Unless we are careful over the young, there may be none to bear the
Lord's banner when we sleep among the clods. In matters of doctrine you
will find orthodox congregations frequently change to heterodoxy in the
course of thirty or forty years and that is because too often there has
been no catechizing of the children in the essential doctrines of the
Gospel. For my part I am more and more persuaded that the study of a
good Scriptural Catechism is of infinite value to our children and I
shall see that it is reprinted as cheaply as possible for your use.
Even if the youngsters do not understand all the questions and answers
in the "Westminster Assembly's Catechism," yet, abiding in their
memories, it will be of infinite service when the time of understanding
comes, to have known those very excellent, wise and judicious
definitions of the things of God.

If we would maintain orthodoxy in our midst and see good old
Calvinistic doctrines handed down from father to son, I think we must
use the method of catechizing and endeavor with all our might to
impregnate their minds with the things of God. It will be a blessing to
them–the greatest of all blessings–a blessing in life and death, in
time and eternity, the best of blessings God Himself can give. I will
not prolong this, but there are still two points I must mention.

Carefully notice the vigor with which these children shall grow. "They
shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses."

Close by the water's edge the grass grows very green and the willow is
a well-known tree for speedily shooting forth its branches. Our farmers
lop their willows often, but they very soon sprout again. As the old
proverb has it, "A willow will buy a horse where an oak will not buy a
saddle, because the willow being often lopped and then springing again,
yields much to the grower." The willow grows fast and so do young
Christians. If you want the eminent men in God's Church, look for them
among those converted in youth. There are, of course, exceptions, but
after all, our Samuels and Timothy's must come from those who knew the
Scriptures from their youth.

O Lord! Send us many such whose growth and advance shall as much
astonish us as the growth of the willows by the water courses. Why,
since I have been among you these ten years and more, lads who used to
come into the school and were the objects of our hope, where are they
now? Why they are preaching the Gospel this very morning! And as I look
at the happy parents here and remember the time when the now useful
minister sat as a lad in the pew and remember that at this very moment
they are preaching in the name of Jesus, they do seem to have grown
quite as fast as the willows. They grow so fast and so well and serve
the Lord so admirably! The promise has, indeed, been fulfilled to the
very letter!

Then comes, last of all, the manifestation of this in public. It
appears from the text that not only are our children to have the Spirit
of God in their inward parts, but they are to make a profession of it.
One shall say, "I am the Lord's"– he shall come out boldly and avow
himself on the Lord's side. And another shall so ally himself to God's
Church that he "shall call himself by the name of Jacob." And then
another who can hardly speak quite so positively, but who means it
quite as sincerely–"shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord," and
a fourth shall, "surname himself by the name of Israel."

Oh, it is a joy, indeed, when those who know the Lord come forward and
declare themselves to be on His side! May we, by God's Grace, be helped
to train our children to an open avowal of that which is within them. A
hint sometimes will do our sons and daughters good when we believe that
they fear God. Indicate to them that religion is not meant to be kept
under a bushel, that the Grace of God is not to be covered and
concealed–and before long, seeing their duty– God will help them to
walk in the way of it and it shall be your privilege and mine to
rejoice at seeing them added to the Church. The promise upon which I
have preached this morning needs to be pleaded before God, for God does
not fulfill such promises as these without our bringing them before Him
in earnest fervent prayer.

A banker gives me a check and it is a very good one, but I can never
get the cash for it without going to the counter and presenting it for
payment. And if God gives me a promise conditional upon my pleading it,
I must never expect Him to fulfill it unless I enquire concerning it. I
look upon some here who can remember the way by which God has led
them–who look upon their children and their children's children
walking in the Truth of God–you, my Brethren, can confirm the faith of
the younger parents among us and make us feel that as God has dealt
well with you, He will deal well with us!

Some of us, in looking back, can speak of a godly father and a godly
grandfather. We can look for generations back, till as far as we can
trace a line–Divine Grace has run in our family. O that the line may
continue for years to come, till as long as generations are born there
shall be one of our kith and kin to carry the standard and sound the
trumpet and fight for the Lord of Israel! I invite you, therefore, to
much earnest prayer, especially during the coming week, which is
selected by the Evangelical Alliance as a prayer week for this special
object. And I trust with regard to this promise none will be backward
in pleading it.

As for you who are unconverted, you cannot pray for your children if
you do not pray for yourselves. You never can expect a blessing, for
you are under the Divine curse! Nevertheless I pray God to make you
thirsty and if He makes you hunger and thirst after righteousness, then
you can put your hand upon this promise, "I will pour water upon him
that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." And afterwards the
remainder of the blessing shall be yours. God bless the Word for Jesus'
sake. Amen.–

"Wake, parents of Israel!
O hasten to plead
For the Spirit of Grace to descend.
The Word has gone forth and the faithful have need
Of your prayers the great cause to defend.
From the youth of our country shall armies arise,
The Gospel of peace to proclaim.
Over the land and the seas, the glad message that flies,
Shall re-echo Immanuel's name.
Wake, parents in Israel!
O, wrestle and pray
That Grace to our youth may be given
For the hands that in faith are uplifted today
Shall prevail with our Father in Heaven."