Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org
Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. Adam Clarke XXI.—PARENTS AND CHILDREN. [9] To many God gives children in place of temporal good. To many others he gives houses, lands, and thousands of gold and silver; and with them the womb that beareth not; and these are their inheritance. The poor man has from God a number of children, without lands or money; these are his inheritance: and God shows himself their Father, feeding and supporting them by a chain of miraculous providences. Where is the poor man who would give up his six children, with the prospect of having more, for the thousands or millions of him who is the centre of his own existence; and has neither root nor branch, but his forlorn solitary self, upon the face of the earth? Let the fruitful family, however poor, lay this to heart: "Children are a heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward." And he who gave them will feed them; for it is a fact, and the maxim formed on it has never failed: "Wherever God sends mouths he sends meat." "Murmur not," said an Arab to his friend, "because thy family is large; know that it is for their sakes that God feeds thee." Education is generally defined, "that series of means by which the human understanding is gradually enlightened, and the dispositions of the heart are corrected, formed, and brought forth between early infancy and the period when a young person is considered as qualified to take a part in active life." Whole nations have been corrupted, enfeebled, and destroyed, through the want of proper education: through this, multitudes of families have degenerated; and a countless number of individuals have come to an untimely end. Parents who neglect this, neglect the present and eternal interests of their offspring. A spirit of inquiry is common to every child. The human heart is ever panting after knowledge; and if not rightly directed when young, will, like that of our first mother, go astray after forbidden science. If we wish our children to be happy, we should show them where happiness is to be
found. If we wish them to be wise, we should lead them unto God, by means of his word and ordinances. It is natural for a child to inquire, "What do you mean by this baptism? by this sacrament? by praying? by singing psalms and hymns?" &c. And what fine opportunities do such questions give pious and intelligent parents to instruct their children in every article of the Christian faith, and every fact on which these articles are established! O why is this neglected, while the command of God is before our eyes, and the importance of the measure so strikingly obvious? A child should be taught what is necessary for it to know, as soon as that necessity exists, and the child is capable of learning. Among children there is a great disparity of intellect, and in the power of apprehension and comprehension. Many children have such a precocity of intellect as to be more capable of learning to read at two than others are at five years of age: and it would be high injustice indeed to prevent them from acquiring much useful knowledge and some hundreds, if not thousands of ideas, by waiting for a prescribed term of "five" years. When a child is capable of learning any thing, give that teaching: but let the teaching be regularly graduated; let it go on from step to step, never obliging it to learn what it cannot yet comprehend. We begin very properly with letters, or the elementary signs of language; teach the child to distinguish them from each other, and give them in their names some notion of their power. We then teach them to combine them into simple syllables; syllables into words; words into sentences; sentences into speeches, or regular discourse. This process is as philosophic as it is natural: but who follows it through the successive steps of education? Scarcely any. Because a child can understand a little, and shows aptness in learning, parental fondness, or the teacher's ignorance, comes into powerful operation; and the child is pushed unnaturally forward to departments of learning to which it has not been gradually inducted. The mind is puzzled and bewildered; a great gulf is left behind which cuts off all connection with what has been already learned, and what is now proposed to the understanding; and the issue is, the child is confounded and discouraged, and falls either under the power of hebetude, or learns superficially, and
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CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.<br />
Adam Clarke<br />
XXI.—PARENTS AND CHILDREN. [9]<br />
To many God gives children in place of temporal good. To many<br />
others he gives houses, lands, and thousands of gold and silver; and with<br />
them the womb that beareth not; and these are their inheritance. The poor<br />
man has from God a number of children, without lands or money; these<br />
are his inheritance: and God shows himself their Father, feeding and<br />
supporting them by a chain of miraculous providences. Where is the poor<br />
man who would give up his six children, with the prospect of having<br />
more, for the thousands or millions of him who is the centre of his own<br />
existence; and has neither root nor branch, but his forlorn solitary self,<br />
upon the face of the earth? Let the fruitful family, however poor, lay this<br />
to heart: "Children are a heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb<br />
is his reward." And he who gave them will feed them; for it is a fact, and<br />
the maxim formed on it has never failed: "Wherever God sends mouths<br />
he sends meat." "Murmur not," said an Arab to his friend, "because thy<br />
family is large; know that it is for their sakes that God feeds thee."<br />
Education is generally defined, "that series of means by which the<br />
human understanding is gradually enlightened, and the dispositions of the<br />
heart are corrected, formed, and brought forth between early infancy and<br />
the period when a young person is considered as qualified to take a part<br />
in active life." Whole nations have been corrupted, enfeebled, and<br />
destroyed, through the want of proper education: through this, multitudes<br />
of families have degenerated; and a countless number of individuals have<br />
come to an untimely end. Parents who neglect this, neglect the present<br />
and eternal interests of their offspring.<br />
A spirit of inquiry is common to every child. The human heart is ever<br />
panting after knowledge; and if not rightly directed when young, will, like<br />
that of our first mother, go astray after forbidden science. If we wish our<br />
children to be happy, we should show them where happiness is to be
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