SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service Theologian
ENTAIL OF THE COVENANT
CHAPTER II
A preceding page records a pleasing
incident of many years ago. An episode of a very different character still
rankles in my memory. The sons of the 1860 revival, like the early converts of
Pentecostal times, were zealous in making known to others the gospel which
brought blessing to themselves. Not a few, however, were embarrassed and
restrained by the doctrine of Election. One of my friends in particular was
greatly troubled on that score ; and after a brief correspondence with him I
arranged to visit him at his house in the country.
On my arrival I
found he had another visitor, a famous preacher of those days ; and on the
Saturday evening we had an earnest discussion, during which I sought to unfold
the clear distinction between the Scriptural truth, and the theological
doctrine, of election; and I told how my own difficulties on the subject had
been removed by the teaching and counsel of Dr. Horatius Bonar. His book, God's
Way of Peace, had helped me much. He there warns his readers against "the awful
thought" that "the sovereignty of God " could ever be a hindrance to a sinner,
or a restraint upon the Spirit's work on his behalf; "The whole Bible (he
declares) takes for granted that this is absolutely impossible."
These
and other kindred statements in his most helpful book seemed unequivocal; and
yet they failed to satisfy me, for I was aware of the treatment accorded by
Christian teachers to some of the plainest statements in Scripture on this
subject. Just at this time, however, Dr. Bonar came to stay with us at my
father's house, and I thus found ample opportunities for unreserved
conversation with him. And I was relieved to find that he was utterly opposed
to "handling the Word of God deceitfully." When I pressed the question how we
could reconcile certain seemingly conflicting statements of Scripture, his
answer was honest and clear: truths, he said, may seem to us irreconcilable
only because our finite minds cannot view them from the standpoint of the
Infinite. Never therefore should we allow our faulty apprehension of the
counsels of God to hinder unreserved acceptance of the plain words of the
gospel of grace.
Great was my surprise and distress to find that all
this was vehemently opposed by my fellow-guest. Taking his stand upon the
teaching of the Latin Fathers, he boldly repudiated the great basal truth of
the Christian revelation - the sovereignty of Divine grace. And in his sermon
to the villagers on the Sunday morning he took "election" as his subject, and
his exposition of it reached a climax in the following words: " I have a little
child of my own : if he is elect he will be converted, he will be saved; if he
is not elect, he will be damned, he will be damned, he will be damned!" Three
times, with dramatic emphasis, he repeated these awful and evil words.
To record them here save for a useful purpose would be an offence against
good taste. But the blackest of clouds makes the rainbow shine all the
brighter; and I use them as a dark background for the Saviour's words of grace.
Seated in the living room of a house in Capernaum - presumably the Apostle
Peter's home - He called a little child to Him, and setting him in the midst of
His twelve disciples, He used him as an object-lesson to teach them some
much-needed truth. And then, taking the child in His arms - a proof that it was
but a little one, perhaps about the age of the preacher's child of my story -
He spoke those words of infinite tenderness and grace:-"It is not the will of
your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
1 "The form of the proposition has all the force that belongs to the
rhetorical negative . . . i.e. that the will of the Father is the very opposite
of that."- Bishop Ellicott's New Testament Commentary; Matt, xviii.
14.
Words such as those of that village sermon leave us benumbed and
crushed by the hard and inscrutable decrees of a far-off God, immutable and
stern; but here we are at peace in the presence of "our Father which is in
heaven," whose heart-thoughts about our little ones are thus revealed to us.
For as we listen to the Saviour's words we remember the voice that fell from
the cloud which overshadowed the disciples on the
Transfiguration Mount,
"This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." "It is not the
will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should
perish." What a text to display in the nursery of every Christian home! What a
text to cheer the heart and stimulate the faith of every Christian parent! And
we might bracket with it, not indeed on the nursery wall, but in memory and
heart, the Apostolic precept, " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord."
The language of the English Bible is a national inheritance;
but it sometimes fails us, and this hard, stiff phrase, "bring them up," is a
poor rendering of the Apostle's word. He uses it again in the verse, "No one
ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it." The thought is
not of a disciplinarian's duty task, but of the care of a loving parent. And
losing sight of this, the passage is sometimes made an excuse for the very evil
which the Apostle's precept is designed to warn against. The Revised Version
reading is better, "Nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord."
Yet even here we must be on our guard, lest we should put a one-sided meaning
upon chastening.1 We need ever to keep in mind that it is "the chastening and
admonition of the Lord" and that grace is the ruling principle of all His
dealings with us. The barriers and bolts by which we protect our houses are
intended to keep out thieves and other law-breakers, not to restrain, nor even
to guide, the law-abiding citizen as he passes on his way. And so here, "The
law is not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient."
"The grace of God has been manifested . . . training us ... to live soberly,
righteously, and godly." It is not law but grace that characterises the Divine
discipline of the Christian life. And yet it is a deplorable fact that in the
nursery of many a Christian home these Divine principles are ignored, and the
children are ruled by law.
1 In English, " chastening " is not a synonym for
chastisement, although that element may not be foreign to it. For in Eph. vi.
4, paideia is rendered by "nurture," and in 2 Tim. iii. 16 by
"instruction." And in Titus ii. 12 the kindred verb is translated " teaching."
Another aspect of the contrast between law and grace is given us in the
32nd Psalm. " I will counsel thee, with mine eye upon thee "- that is grace. -
"Be not as the horse, or the mule, which have no understanding; whose trappings
must be bit and bridle to hold them in." "Brute force" is needed with the brute
creation. But it is not thus that God deals with His people; and yet it is on
that principle that many Christian parents control their children. Obedience
enforced on the bit-and-bridle system will last only while the child is within
reach of the parent's arm; for law is impotent beyond the sphere in which its
sanctions prevail. But to the grace-taught child the influence of an absent
parent is what the eye of an unseen God is to the Christian.
The late
Mr. Justice Wills, who combined the heart of a philanthropist with the brain of
a lawyer, used to deplore the ill-advised legislation which so multiplies petty
offences that high-spirited lads, without any criminal intention, are caught in
the meshes of the criminal law. But the traps laid by modern bye-law
legislation are few as compared with the "don'ts" which confront the children
of many a home during all their waking hours. And against this it is that the
Apostle's "Don't" is aimed: "You fathers, don't irritate1 your children."
1
The word is used again in Rom. x, 19.
For the children his only precept
is "Obey your parents"; let parents see to it then that they deserve obedience;
and more than this, that they make obedience easy. The law, which for the
Christian is summed up in the word " love," is formulated in " thou shalt not"
for the lawless and disobedient. And the " thou-shalt-nots" of Sinai have their
counterpart in the "don'ts" of the nursery. Grace teaches us to keep His
commandments, law warns us not to break them. And it is on this latter
principle that children are generally trained. " Don't be naughty " is the
nursery version of it.
The story is told of William Carey, that pioneer
and prince of missionaries to the heathen, that when sitting as an honoured
guest at the Viceroy's table in Calcutta, he overheard a fellow-guest's inquiry
whether it was really true that he had been a shoemaker. And he intervened by
replying, "No, it is not true, I was a journeyman cobbler." This was the man
who wrote to his son, "Remember, a gentleman is the next best character to a
Christian, and the Christian includes the gentleman." And if a little of the
effort used to teach the children not to be naughty were devoted to training
them to be gentlemen and ladies, parents would come nearer to fulfilling the
Apostolic precept!
The words "good" and "naughty," like disciplinary
punishments, should be reserved for very exceptional occasions. Moreover, they
are often unintelligent; for the "good " child may be a heavy-headed creature
with a sound digestion, who takes life placidly and gives little trouble;
whereas the "naughty" child is one who has high spirits, and wants to know
things and to do things. And it is the "naughty" children that will make a mark
in life, and prove a blessing to their generation - unless indeed they are
crushed or soured by ill-advised efforts to make them " good." Here comes in a
warning which the Apostle adds, when giving the Christian parents of Colosse
the precept above quoted from his Epistle to the Ephesians: "You fathers, don't
irritate your children lest they be disheartened"1 Children are never made
really good by enforcing bye-law "don'ts" but by constantly appealing to their
better nature, and keeping ever before them a worthy standard and a right
motive. (1 Col. iii. 21. )
A book that won a well deserved popularity half a
century ago records a father's parting admonition to his boy when sending him
to school. "Remember (said he) that you are the son of a gentleman, and don't
disgrace your father." What a charming illustration of William Carey's
admirable dictum! Indeed it displays, though on a lower plane, the system and
the spirit in which a Christian's children should be trained.
For a
gentleman is not a person who has learned by the study of a Book of Manners to
avoid vulgarities; he is one whose bearing and conduct are governed by
consideration for others. "Don't be looking each of you to his own interests,
but each of you also to those of other people." Anyone who acts in the spirit
of these words is in the best sense a gentleman. And yet these are the very
words in which the Apostle exhorted the Philippian Christians to cultivate the
mind that was in Christ Jesus.1 William Carey was right! "Now, children,
remember that Uncle and Auntie are coming to-day on a visit, and while they are
here you're not to and you're not to and you mustn't
be naughty." This is law. And any poor little brat who succeeds in fulfilling
it will develop into a prig, which is the nursery phase of being a pharisee.
The other method is, "Now, children, you must all do what you can to make Uncle
and Auntie's visit a pleasant one: we must find out what they like and what
they don't like, and do our best to make them happy." Such is the teaching of
grace; and whatever the uncle and aunt may think of the result, their visit
will prove a blessing to the children.
1 Phil. ii. 4." Lest they be
discouraged."
Here is the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey's account of her
home life : " When I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I
speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing,
playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it even so perfectly as God
made the world, or else I am so sharply taunted or cruelly threatened. . . ." 1
A peculiarly flagrant illustration this, of the evil warned against by the
Apostle's words, " Don't irritate your children."
1 Roger Ascham's Germany,
in which he records his leave-taking visit to Lady Jane before he left England.
The present generation is fast forgetting the great Lord Shaftesbury ;
and few there are who know anything of the story of his childhood. His parents,
we are told, were content as long as he kept out of their way ; and the sort of
teaching and of sympathy that most of us associate with a mother's love, the
lonely child received from a devout and faithful servant maid, who used to take
him on her knee, to read the Bible to him and tell him about Christ. And in the
day when all things shall be brought to light, her humble ministry, ignored and
forgotten now,1 will be openly rewarded by Him who immortalised the poor
widow's farthing gift to the Temple Treasury ; and the name of Maria Millis
will be for ever associated with all that made Lord Shaftesbury's life such a
signal blessing to this nation and to the world.
1 It was not forgotten by
Lord Shaftesbury himself, albeit she died while he was still a schoolboy. Her
gold watch, which she bequeathed to him on her death-bed, he treasured as a
keepsake, and wore it all his life.
What an incentive her story ought
to be to any Christian servant who is entrusted with the care of children ! And
has it no voice for Christian parents ? Many a mother takes less care in
engaging a nursemaid than the owner of a stud devotes to the choice of his
grooms. And yet just as a high-spirited colt may be ruined by an ill-tempered
groom, permanent harm may be done to a high-spirited child by an ill-tempered
servant. And many a Christian mother leaves her children for hours every day in
the charge of a servant who is not herself a Christian. I do not mean who is
not " religious " ; for no one is more "religious" than a Jesuit; and religion
without Christ is generally anti-Christian. To plead that in the case of very
young children, considerations of this kind may be neglected displays ignorance
of human nature and indifference to the will of God.
Another element of
much practical importance claims a passing notice here. Most of us are
intelligent enough to recognise that not only our temper but our conduct may be
influenced by purely physical causes. In a vastly greater degree is this the
case with little children; and when thus thrown off their balance they are apt
" to run amuck " in any home that is bristling with "don'ts." Many a child,
moreover, is injured by nagging discipline at a time when its real need is a
dose of medicine, or careful doctoring. But this is a digression. For these
pages are not meant to be a vade mecum on the general subject of training the
young. Their aim is to elucidate the precepts and principles which Scripture
gives us for our guidance.
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Three
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