CONVERSION OF CHILDREN.
We are so helpless, Lord,
Thou art all power and might;
Our path is often drear,
Be thou our light.
We have no hope but thee;
Oh, leave us not alone,
Till life's brief day is o'er,
Still guard thine own.
Her joy in bringing children to the Sabbath-school was great, but when
she led them to Christ it was sublime. Why should she not be interested
in their early conversion, when Jesus said, "Suffer the little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of
Heaven." I desire to state here, that when I was a boy, about nine
years of age, I attended a prayer-meeting between the morning and
afternoon services, led by an elder of the Relief U.P. Church,
Greenock, and was so deeply impressed with Divine truth that I gathered
my playmates together, and invited them to a meeting of my own across
the burn at the foot of grandfather's garden, near Dr. McCulloch's
established church, where we boys read God's Word in turn sang the
sweet psalms of David, and offered prayer.
Rev. E. P. Hammond is doing a grand work among children at the present
time in New York. I assisted in his meetings, and found a goodly number
of children inquiring after Jesus, and one afternoon there were a dozen
young men and women rejoicing in their sins forgiven, who had signed
the covenant.
The following letter will speak for itself regarding Mr. Hammond's work
here in this city among children, many of whom were brought to Christ:
"NEW YORK CITY, March 3, 1887.
"DEAR BROTHER YOUNG: I am engaged, night and day, holding meetings
here, I wish you could come up and attend some of the services; I
thank you for all your kind words. I am to be to-morrow at the
prayer-meeting as per bill. If you can be there I shall be glad to
see you.
"_One hundred and twenty_ here, gave their names to us yesterday,
saying they had been converted in these meetings (for the most
part). To-morrow night we go to Carle Hall. It will hold, perhaps,
three or four thousand. Pray for us.
"Yours in Jesus,
"E. P. HAMMOND."
The afternoon I visited the scene of his labors, he presented me with a
copy of his work entitled, "The Conversion of the Children," in which I
have found a very encouraging letter to workers among the little ones.
I use it here to illustrate the power of Divine grace, and to show that
wherever the effort is put forth to save the children, God blesses it.
The following letter will testify also to the power of the Gospel. It
is the production of one whom God has been graciously pleased to bless
in a marvellous manner among the young.
"GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, September, 18, 1877.
"MY DEAR MR. HAMMOND: We oftentimes remember you, though few letters
have passed between us. My daughters and myself will never forget
your visit and the time of blessing then, and they, as well as
myself, send you most hearty salutations.
"Dear brother, my thoughts on the subject of the conversion of
children are the same as when I wrote that tract you refer to.[5] I
think I agreed with you in almost every thing but one, viz.,
expressing publicly an opinion on cases. It seems to me that we
should be cautious in so doing; for children themselves mistake
_feeling_ for _faith_; how easy, then, for us who do not know the
heart, to mistake in them a manifestation of feeling for evidence of
faith.
"But in the awakening which took place under your labors here, and
in awakenings that have been given us since, the cases of young
people have been as entirely satisfactory as any cases we have had.
If conversion be God's work, in which the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ to the soul, surely His work can take place in children as
really as in the old; for it is the young soul meeting with Christ
in the one case and the adult in the other.
"One day, about the time, or perhaps after the time, you were among
us, in the vestry of my church, an old Christian woman, who had
watched the work going on, came to me and said, 'Sir, you will find
many people speaking lightly of the young who come to Christ, as if
there was nothing but feeling in their case; but never mind what
these people say. I was converted in the days of Dr. Kidd, of
Aberdeen, when I was but a child, and two others of my age were
converted at the same time; and we have all three gone on to this
day, following the Lamb.'
"The Lord blesses you amazingly. Surely you will need to 'walk
circumspectly,' 'sober, vigilant,' for Satan will not fail to watch
you, and seek to injure you, that he may injure God's work through
you. If the way be opened for your revisiting Scotland, many among
us shall rejoice.
"Meanwhile, we pray for you, and will not cease. Pray for us still,
dear brother.
"Yours truly, in Him 'Whose we are and whom we serve,'
"ANDREW A. BONAR."
[5] The Conversion of Children, by Dr. A. A. Bonar.
But what makes us to differ from each other? Surely it is simply the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our heart. It is all of free
sovereign grace and mercy, as Paul says, to the Church at Corinth:
"By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not found vain: but I labored more abundantly than they
all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Whether then it
be I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed."