The GOSPEL TRUTH

THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN ....OR,

 HOW TO MAKE THE CHILDREN INTO

SAINTS AND SOLDIERS OF JESUS CHRIST

 By

 WILLIAM BOOTH

GENERAL OF THE SALVATION ARMY

 1888 - SECOND EDITION

 

 CHAPTER I:

THE DUTY OF PARENTS.

 

 

 

1. What is the supreme duty of parents with regard to their children?

 

The duty of parents to their children is so to govern, influence, and inspire them, that they shall love, serve, and enjoy God, and in consequence grow up to be good, holy, and useful men and women. "The father to the children shall make known thy truth."-Is. xxxviii. 19.

2. Can such a course of conduct be followed with children as may be reasonably expected to make them good and Christ-like?

We think so; nay, we go further. We maintain that such early training is the God-appointed and only method which can be reckoned upon with certainty to develope children into godly men and women. As surely as the child makes the man, so surely does training make both child and man. Let the child develope and strengthen that which is mean, selfish and devilish in him, and you will have a bad man; whereas' if you prune, subdue, and eradicate the evil, and develope, strengthen, and encourage the good, inspiring him with the love of all truth, holiness, and benevolence, he will grow up to be a good, godly, and benevolent man.

3. But do not many who have not been thus trained get converted In mature life, and become both good and useful?

Yes, thank God, they do. It is not uncommon for a child who has been allowed to grow up selfish and wilful, with his evil propensities unsubdued, and who has gone off to a prodigal's life, to be stopped on the highway to Hell by The Salvation Army, or some other Divine agency, converted, and made ever afterwards godly and useful; but for every one thus saved, it is to be feared a hundred perish. Surely you don't want your children to go after " the prodigal," and run such a risk of damnation. God's way for the Salvation of the children of His saints is not that they are to be trained in sin and their converted, but that they are to be converted in being trained in His fear and grace.

But even if you were sure that your children would be converted in mature life, after a childhood and youth of sinful indulgence, how dishonouring to God and injurious to your child and others would be such a career I Why not save your boy from so miserable an experience by moulding him in childhood for a holy life, thus leading him to give himself to God in his youth, with every faculty and force of body, mind, and soul trained, instructed, and all on fire for suffering or sacrifice in the service of his generation and of his God? Surely this must be the idea of being trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

 

 

 

 

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