(_A Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon._)
vii. 16. _The child shall know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good._
These words, taken above, form a complete sentence; yet they occur in
the clause of a sentence which is intended to denote a space of time.
Before the child which Isaiah held in his arms[1] should know the
difference between right and wrong certain events would take place:
in other words, before a space of four or five years at the most
would elapse, certain things would occur. But it is not our intention
to discuss the prophecy itself; we shall find it more in harmony with
the present occasion, and perhaps more profitable, to consider what
may be suggested to us by these words thus taken apart from their
context.
_"The child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."_
There is nothing else so important for any child to know as this
(H. E. I. 1751). Seldom made the object of education; consequently
the majority of lives are failures. No child knows this without
training: the child's natural tendencies are precisely the reverse of
this. But, if this training is urgently needed, how immense and
difficult is the task of those who undertake to give it! How
difficult it often is to discern between what is good and what is
evil--in all the realms of thought and activity; especially in the
moral realm. The difficulty of the text is not to cause us to decline
it. We have wonderful helps in it. 1. GOD'S WORD. What a wonderful
help that is! What a proof that in the Bible we have God's Word is
this, that for helpfulness in this task no other book can be compared
with it (H. E. I., 506, 508, 509). Our text reminds us of what should
be our object in the Scriptural teaching we give our children. What
value is there in any so-called Scriptural instruction that does not
tend to cultivate spiritual discernment--hate of what is evil, and
love of what is good? 2. THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST, "the law drawn out in
living characters." Let us not overlook or neglect to use this
marvellous instrumentality and help. 3. THE HOLY SPIRIT. Always ready
to co-operate with us. Christian parents, let the remembrance of
these helps encourage you to resume this supremely important task
with fresh vigour. Keep it ever in view, aim at the whole of it. The
training which consists merely in fighting against evil is foredoomed
to fail. The child must be taught, not merely to refuse the evil, but
to choose the good. Do not be content in the field of your child's
heart merely to plough up the weeds; so there the corn which, when it
is full grown, shall overshadow and kill the weeds which, in spite of
all your efforts, will struggle for a place there. In those who
undertake to give this training, there is imperative need of
seriousness, humility, hopefulness, and a wise comprehensiveness.
Consider what will be the result of success in child-training such as
this. 1. Our children will be spared from indescribable misery.
2. They will grow continually in all that is noble and love-worthy.
3. Learning to choose what is good, they will necessarily choose God
as He has been thus revealed to us in Jesus Christ. 4. Beholding them
thus allied in heart and will to the supreme source of all goodness,
and daily becoming more like Him, we shall feel that all our labours
and sacrifices for them are overpaid.