THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN – REV. E. P. HAMMOND AND R. A. TORREY

No revival is what it ought to be if a good deal of attention is not given to the children, and much prayerful effort put forth for their conversion. If Christian people use the divinely appointed means to lead souls, young or old, to Christ, they may confidently expect God’s blessing, but this is pre-eminently true in dealing with children. Dr. Duff, of Scotland, went to India and labored for the conversion of the heathen, yet with all his eloquence I heard him say in the Free Church Assembly Hall of Edinburgh, that his labors were a comparative failure until he turned his attention to the children, and held up Christ as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, then their hearts were touched, and many repented and believed in the Lord Jesus. From that time on he began to speak of certainties instead of continuing to speak of possibilities. “Take heed,” said Jesus, “that ye despise not one of these little ones. ’ ’ The word trans­lated “despise” is a very suggestive word. It means literally to think down, to think little or nothing of. Take heed that ye think not down one of these little ones. The conversion of a child may be of very little importance in our sight, but it is of immense impor­tance in Jesus’s sight.

I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN

1. The conversion of a child is important in the first place because children oftentimes die. Most people in Chicago die in childhood. For every one who dies between twenty and forty there are many who die between birth and twenty. So with very many of the children at any time upon the earth, they must be con­verted in childhood or pass into eternity unconverted. In spite of the large number of children’s caskets that pass us in hearses, it is hard to bring people to realize how likely children are to die. We look at the white- haired man and say he is likely to die soon, but we look at the little child and think that child has many years before it. That is not at all sure. We have very rude awakenings from this dream. Mothers and fathers do you realize that your children may die? Up quick, then, and lead them to Christ before that day comes. If you do not it will be the darkest day you ever knew, but if you have led them to Christ it will not be a dark day. Lonely it will be but not dark. Nay it will be glorious with the thought that the voyage is over and the glory land reached quickly by one you love. Sunday School teachers do you realize that any one of the boys or girls in the class you teach may die any day? Up, then, and win them to Christ as speedily as you may.

2. The conversion of children is important, in the second place, because it is much easier to win a child to Christ than an adult. I once heard Dr. E. N. Kirk, of Boston, say, ^“If I could live my life over again, I would labor much more among children. ” During a series of meetings lasting sometimes five or six weeks, I have seen more children converted the first week than adults in all the weeks following. Children have no old prejudices to overcome as many grown people have. With the help of the Holy Spirit they are easily led to feel the great love of Christ in giving Himself to die for them, and when the simple story of His suffer­ing and death is read and explained from God’s Word, they believe it, and exercise saving faith, and there and then the Holy Spirit effects a change of heart. Mr. Spurgeon once said in my hearing, “I could spend days in giving details of young children whom I have known and personally conversed with, who have given evidence of a change of heart,” and he added, “I have more confidence in the spiritual life of such children whom I have taken into my church, than I have in the spiritual condition of adults thus received. I will go further and say that I have usually found a clearer knowledge of the Gospel and a warmer love toward Christ in the child convert than in the man convert. I may astonish you by saying that I have sometimes met with a deeper spiritual experience in a child of ten or twelve than in some persons of fifty or sixty. I have known a child who would weep himself to sleep by the month together under a crushing sense of sin. If you would know deep and bitter and awful fear of the wrath of God, let me tell you what I felt as a boy. If you want to know what faith in Christ is, you must not look to those who have been bemuddled by the heretical jargon of the times, but to the dear children who have taken Jesus at His word, and believed on Him, and therefore know and are sure that they are saved. ”

Every year that passes over our heads unconverted our hearts are less open to holy impressions. Every year away from Christ our hearts become harder in sin. That needs no proof. The practice of sin increases the power of sin in our lives. God and heaven and Christ and holiness lie very near child­hood, but if the child remains away from Christ, every year they become farther and farther away. When I see a child walk into the inquiry room of a Sunday evening, I feel quite certain that if a worker of any sense gets hold of that child it is going to be con­verted; but when I see a man or a woman walk in there I do not feel at all as sure. The adult has become so entangled in sin, the mind has become so darkened by the error and skepticism that arise out of sin, there are so many complications added by each year, that the case of an adult is very difficult as com­pared with that of a child. The fact is, that with very many if they are not converted in childhood they will never be converted at all. Fathers and mothers, that is true of the children in our homes. Sunday School teachers, that is true of the children in your Sunday School classes. It is now or never.

3. Conversion of the children is important, in the third place, because converted children are among the most useful workers for Christ. They can reach per­sons who are inaccessible to everyone else. They can reach their schoolmates and playmates, the Jewish chil­dren, the Catholic children, the children of worldly parents and infidels. They can bring them to Sunday School or to children’s meetings, and to Christ. You and I cannot get close enough to them to show them how beautiful Jesus is, and what joy and blessing He brings. They can. Then they can reach their par­ents oftentimes when we cannot. They will not listen to us, but they will to their children. There was a rough, drunken gambler in Minneapolis, Minn. He often went by the mission door, but when a worker invited him in he repelled him with rude insults. But his child, about ten years old, was gotten into the Sun­day School and won for Christ. Then she began to work and pray for her drunken papa, and a cottage meeting was at last held in his wretched home. The father took down his overcoat to go to the saloon. Little Annie asked him if he would not stay to the meeting. He roughly answered, “No.” “Won’t you stay for my sake, papa?” The man hung up his coat. The meeting began, and the man was surly and wished he was out of it. They knelt in prayer while he sat on the end of the sofa. One after another prayed. Then all were silent. Then Annie’s little voice was heard in prayer something like this: “God, save my papa.” It broke the wicked man’s heart, and then and there he accepted Christ. He afterwards became a deacon in my church. When New Year’s day came and many had testified for Christ, Annie arose and said: “Papa used to drink and mamma used to drink, grandpa used to drink, and grandma used to drink. But papa is a Christian now, and mamma is a Christian now, and grandpa is a Christian now, and grandma is a Christian now, and Uncle Joe is a Christian now, and auntie is a Christian now. I guess we are all Christians down to our house now.” But the little girl herself led the way. Wasn’t the conversion of that child important? Many a hardened sinner and many a skeptic has been led to Christ by a child.

When in Scotland I heard a touching story, showing how a child’s simple question was used in leading a scoffing skeptic to the feet of Jesus. It is a true story. I was acquainted with the father of the child. Let the skeptic tell the story:

“As I stepped upon the platform at the railway station, a hand was laid upon my arm, and a voice said, ‘Norman, is this you?’

“I turned and looked at the speaker. It was an old classmate, Richard , with whom I had agreed to pass a few weeks and had not seen for years. After we had pushed our way through the noisy crowd and were seated in his carriage I looked at him again, and exclaimed :

“ ‘Richard, how you have altered! how different now from the wild youth of old!’

“ ‘Yes, Norman, there have been many changes with me since we parted; but the greatest has been here, ’ said he, smiling and gently touching his breast.

“ ‘Humph!’ was my ejaculation, which elicited no reply.

“That evening, as he, his wife, and myself were walking in the conservatory, and I was admiring some jessamines, he said to me, ‘Norman, I have yet a little treasure to show you, and, although it is small, it is greater than all these, almost the greatest one I have. Can you guess?’

“When we went back to the drawing-room he showed to me his beautiful little girl, his only child, his little Bessie. I was not fond of children, but strangely did the little maiden win her way to my heart. Eight cloudless summers of her sunny life had passed, and had each one as it gently glided by left with her all its charms she could not have been more beautiful.

“That evening, sweet in memory to me, we became firm friends. She loved me because, when she asked papa, he said he did.

“The next day we all went out for a drive. Little Bessie was bright and beautiful as the day, but some­times there was a strange thoughtfulness of expression upon her face which troubled me as being beyond her years.

As I was talking to her father I said something jeeringly about Him Who had led the only pure life on earth. Richard said not a word in reply, but motioned me to look at Bessie. She was looking into my face with a gaze of mingled horror and surprise—an expression such as I never saw before nor since, and which I shall never forget. It was for a moment. No one spoke. Then the little maid burst into a flood of uncontrollable tears, and I felt a certain shame that in the presence of one so pure I should have spoken what she had never heard before. Then she looked at me in a sort of pitying way, and said, ‘I thought you loved my Jesus; oh, how could you have said that of Him?’ During the rest of the drive she lay upon her father’s bosom in perfect silence.

“The next morning I was alone in my room think­ing of all that had occurred, and a strange unaccount­able feeling of seriousness was creeping over me, a sort of longing to be like her, when suddenly the little one was at my side. I started as I saw her, and met the tender gaze of love and pity which she bent upon me. Her head was laid upon my arm, and for a moment both were silent. Then the silence was broken with the words, ‘Won’t you love my Jesus?’ and she was gone.

“I could not ridicule that lovely spirit. The next morning, and the next, and the next, the little girl came in the same way, said the same words and disap­peared. I never answered her, and at no other time did she allude to the subject; but she never failed to come at that morning hour.

“One day I said to her: ‘Tell me how, Bessie.’ She looked at me a moment, and the next was seated on my knee, and the words that flowed, those simple, childish words in which she told the story of Christ’s love, never shall I forget. My eyes were far from dry when she went away, but there was less sorrow on her face than usual. Morning after morning she came, and never seemed weary of telling the sweet tale. But one morning she did not come, and I waited a long time in vain. No little feet came pattering along the hall; no little hand was clasped in mine; no little words of instruction were lisped in my ear. Presently there came a hurried knock at my door. It was opened without waiting for permission, and her father was with me.

“ ‘Norman,’ said he, ‘she has just waked from a long and heavy sleep and is fearfully ill. Will you come? Tell me if you know what it is. ’

“I went. There lay the little one with eyes closed, and in a sort of stupor. I knew at a glance it was scarlet fever. How I told those two aching hearts I know not; but they were wonderfully calm in their anguish. The doctor soon confirmed my statement, but there was so painfully little to be done for the dear sufferer that two days passed almost in silence as we watched over her precious form. We knew from the first that she was no longer of the earth, and, indeed, it was a heavy burden for us to bear to think that she no longer would be the light of our hearts. I say we, for, though I was perhaps mistaken, the little one had so taken possession of my heart, that it seemed to me that she could not be dearer to those who had the first earthly claim upon her affections. At the end of the second day her life seemed partially to return. She opened her eyes and, smiling, said, ‘Dear Uncle Nor­man, won’t you love my Jesus? Mamma loves Him, papa loves Him, and I love Him, and am going to Him, and I want to tell Him that you will love Him.’

“ ‘Bessie,’ said I, “tell Him my heart and life are His forever more. ’

“ ‘Mamma, papa, I am so happy now. Now I have all I want. Now I come. I come, Lord Jesus!’ and the youthful spirit, so pure, so holy, returned whence it came. God’s little messenger had turned a soul to righteousness, and was called home. “

4. The conversion of children is important because persons converted in childhood make the best Chris­tians. If one is converted when he is old he has learned many bad tricks of character and life that have to be unlearned, and it is generally a pretty slow process. But when one is converted in childhood character is yet to be formed, and it can be formed from the beginning on right lines. If you wish to train a tree into a thing of beauty and symmetry you had better begin when it is young. If you want to form a character of Christlike symmetry and beauty you would better begin in childhood. That Christlike man of the olden time, Polycarp, who ended his life as a martyr at ninety-five, was converted at nine. That fine young man of the New Testament, Timothy, was brought up on Scripture from a babe. I rejoice with all my heart when an old broken-down drunkard is brought to Christ. It means so much. But it means so much more when a child is brought to Christ.

5. The conversion of children is important once more because there are so many years of possible service before them. If one is to live to eighty, say, if converted at seventy there is a soul saved plus ten years of service. When the boy Polycarp was con­verted there was a soul saved plus eighty-six years of service. I think enough has been said to show that the conversion of the children is tremendously impor­tant, in fact, the most important business the Church of Christ has on hand. Surely it was well that Jesus said, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.”

II. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE CHILDREN?

Now we come to another question, Who is responsible for the conversion of children? An easy question to answer.

1. First of all, the parents are responsible for the conversion of the children. The first and greatest responsibility of parents regarding their children is their salvation. The responsibility to feed and clothe and educate our children is nothing to our responsi­bility to bring them to Christ and bring them up in Christ. The parent who fails to bring his children to Christ has failed at the main point of parental responsi­bility. Yet parents are willing to leave the conver­sion of their children to others, to the minister, to the Sunday School teacher, or even to chance. What would you think of yourself if you left the feeding of your children and the clothing of your children to others or to chance? You would despise yourself, and well you might, but you would not really be as despic­able as if you left the salvation of your children to others. This is your highest and most solemn obliga­tion as a parent to bring your children to Christ. Have you done it? If not, then go at it at once. I sat in the station at Evansville, Ind., one day waiting for a train. A man and wife came in with two babes, one a year and a half old, the other three. They sat down to wait for another train. I turned to the man and said, “Are you a Christian?” “No, sir.” “Then,” I said, “you are not fit to be the father of those chil­dren. God has laid a solemn responsibility upon you in giving you those children to bring up for Him.” And I say to every parent who is not a Christian, an out and out Christian, you are not fit to be a parent. The highest responsibility of fatherhood and mother­hood, you are unfit for. Get fit to-day by taking Christ and then begin at once to lead your children to Christ. And you who are professed Christians, seek power for this work and begin at once.

2. In the next place, the responsibility for the con­version of the children rests upon all pastors, evan­gelists and preachers of the Word. We are too exclusively occupied with the grown-up people. But Christ’s first direction to the great preacher Peter was that he was to prove his love by feeding the lambs. The minister or evangelist who overlooks the young is disobeying Jesus Christ, and the warning of Christ should come to him with great power, “take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” The fact is that it is our pride that leads us to neglect the children. It is gratifying to our vanity to think that the grown people and especially the men flock to our ministry. Anyone, we fancy, can interest the children, but it takes men of our own great mental caliber to interest the men. Oh, take heed, take heed! In the eyes of our Master the children are of first importance.

3. In the third place, the responsibility for the con­version of the children rests upon the Sunday School teacher. The first and highest duty of the Sunday School teacher is to lead his scholars to Christ. The Sunday School teacher has not done his whole work when he interests his scholars or even when he instructs his scholars with good, sound, orthodox Bib­lical doctrine. His business is to convert them, to win them to Christ. Sunday School teacher, the proba­bility is that there are scholars in your class that will be led to Christ by you or else will never come. Do you realize that? When you next sit before your class let this thought sink deep into your heart, some of these scholars are to be won to Christ by me or lost forever. Oh, it is a glorious thing, but it is a solemn thing to be a Sunday School teacher. What an oppor­tunity! What a responsibility! Yet many and many a Sunday School teacher allows scholars to drift into their class and drift out of their class without any definite word to convert and save them! Under the first sermon I ever preached in Chicago a young woman was deeply stirred. She was elegantly dressed, and occupied a respectable place in society, but only because her history was not yet known. She was as truly a sinner as any woman of the street. The next night, in conversation, she told me all her shame­ful story. I pleaded with her to accept Christ, and have her vileness washed away. She said that I was the first person who had ever spoken to her about her soul. Her mother was worldly, but for six years she had been a regular attendant at one Sunday School, but never once had her teacher approached her personally about accepting Christ. And she had gone out into the world to sin and shame. What a responsibility rests upon the heads of that young woman’s Sunday School teachers! Oh! teachers, be soul winners, realize the immense importance of the conversion of the children to Christ and feel deeply your own responsibility for those in your class.

4. After Sunday School teachers the responsibility for the conversion of the children rests upon all work­ers. We must save the old if we can, and, thank God, in many cases we can, but we must save the children anyhow. In church, in inquiry meeting, on the street, in the home, everywhere, look out for the children, and take every possible opportunity to bring them to Christ.

III. HOW TO CONVERT THE CHILDREN

We come now to the last question and the all-impor­tant one, How can we convert the children?

1. First of all, by prayer. True conversion and regeneration is the Holy Spirit’s work. It is He con­victs of sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11). It is He that leads to saving faith. It is He that makes children as well as adults new creatures in Christ Jesus. And He works in answer to prayer. There must, then, be very definite prayer for the con­viction and conversion and the regeneration of the children. We had one child that did not seem natu­rally as religiously inclined as the rest. One night I was led to ask prayers for that child. That very night (or perhaps the next) when I went home I was told that the child burst into tears as she went to bed, and when her sister asked her what was the matter she replied, “Oh, I am afraid I shall die and go to hell!” She did die, but, thank God, before the hour came prayer had been answered, and she was trusting Jesus and went to be with Him forever. Oh, parents, pray for your children. Sunday School teachers, pray. Pray definitely, pray earnestly, pray expectantly. Of all that I heard in my own Sunday School days nothing impressed me so as a story of a teacher who prayed earnestly for all her scholars and all were converted. I was a mere boy when I heard it, but when in later years I got back into Sunday School as a teacher I remembered it and I prayed. My class was composed of reckless boys, but I saw every one of them, with possibly one exception, make a profession of faith in Christ.

2. The second step towards the conversion of the children is the use of the Word of God. The Word of God is the instrument God has appointed for convic­tion, conversion and regeneration (1 Pet. 1:23; Jas. 1:18). Fathers, mothers, Sunday School teachers, study your Bibles to find out just how to use them in leading a soul to Christ, and then use them in that way with the children in the Sunday School class, in the home, in the inquiry room and everywhere.

3. If we are to convert the children we must be bap­tized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Holy Ghost power is what every parent needs and must have. Holy Ghost power is what every Sunday School teacher needs and must have. I once met a gentleman and lady who had read an address on the Baptism with the Spirit, and they had sought and received this baptism; so when I visited the city where they lived, they came to see me. Their hearts were full of joy. The man told me what won­drous things God had done for him by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then the wife broke in and said, “Yes, and the best part of it is that I have been able to get into the hearts of my own children, which I was never able to do before. ’ ’ Ah! that is what we want, parents, to get into the hearts of our children. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is the secret. It is not enough that we can interest and amuse and instruct the children. It is not enough that we can draw pretty pictures on the blackboard and play kindergar­ten games, and sing bright songs, and get texts of Scripture, and pretty notions into the children’s heads. We must get Christ into their hearts. We must get them to take Jesus as their own Savior, to trust in the shed blood of Calvary and to surrender to Christ as their Lord and Master, and confess Him as such before the world. We must get them saved. Much of our Sunday School work and of all our children’s work in this day is tomfoolery and an abomination in the sight of God. We get the children—yes, vie get them in droves, and we amuse them, and we instruct them, and we delight them, and we send them home happy and resolved to come again, and then we fancy we have done a good work for God, but in reality we have done nothing for God but much for the devil. If the children are not converted your work is a failure. The conversion may not always be immediate. It takes time to effect real conversion, and sometimes the fruit may not appear until years after, but if there is not converting power in your work either now or ultimately, your work has been a failure. That there may be converting power in our work we must have the Holy Ghost. It is not enough that we know the lesson, it is not enough that we understand all these new-fangled ways of teaching and interesting the scholars, we must have the Holy Ghost. Ah! the teacher that knows nothing about using the blackboard and that sort of thing, but knows the power of the Spirit, is worth a hundred who have gone to all the schools of methods and can draw as well as Frank Beard himself, but don’t know the power of the Holy Ghost.

4. We should hold special meetings for children. In these meetings as the children come in they should be placed in classes of four or five, with a teacher at the end of each class. There should be first a class of boys and then a class of girls. This will prevent dis­order and noise. There should be a good deal of sing­ing, and the hymns should be bright and fresh and of a character that the children can understand. They should be taught the hymns verse by verse, and the meaning of the hymns should be explained. Hymns setting forth God’s love and the atoning death of Christ should be especially used. Children enjoy sing­ing the same verse over and over again until the truth has sunk itself way down into their hearts.

The sermon should be short and simple, emphasizing the great facts, that all, including children, are sin­ners, and that Jesus has borne our sin in His own body on the tree. It should be made very clear just what one must do to be saved. When the sermon is over, there should be a few moments of silent prayer, then the conductor of the meeting should lead in a simple direct prayer to God, having the children follow him audibly, sentence by sentence. When this is done, each teacher of a class should deal personally with each child in the class, seeking to bring each one to an immediate and intelligent acceptance of Christ as Sav­ior. I have found this prayer, that is simple and easily remembered, of great help:

“Jesus take this heart of mine,

Make it pure, and wholly thine.

Thou hast bled and died for me,

I will henceforth live for thee.”

(For further description of how to conduct children’s meetings, see chapter on “Decision Day in the Sunday School. ’ ’)