Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-11-19
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
SUNDAY READING.
Every Church Responsible for its own Chill
drpn


"Why do never see your children at
the regular morning services of the church
on Sunday" enquired a pastor of an of
fetal member.
"Oh, they attend the Baptist school at
nine, the Presbyterian at twelve, and the
Methodist at three o'clock. This is ali
they are able to do in one day."
Quite enough and twice too much.
"But why do your young people so sell
dom come to church ~ asked another pas
tor of a leading member"
"Well, we tried to train up our children
in the fear of the Lord. They used to at
tend Sunday school twice and three times
on Sunday, but now they are irregular
attendants at one, and we cannot get them
to go to church with us. John inclines to
be Baptist, Henry likes the Meshodist,
and Mary prefers the Congregationalists !;
and when they go anywhere, they go to
these churches"
This is not an unusual parental expert
ence, when the early spiritual supervision
of the children is taken from the family
and the church-school to which the chill
dren properly belong.
The habit of attending Divine worship
regularly in one place should be formed in
early youth, and every Christian household
should be an unbroken circle there.
AS soon as children are old enough to be
instructed and form habits, they should
have place in the house of God, and be
in that place regularly. Every one needs
a home for his own good and for the good
of society. Childhood is particularly sad
without home where there is love for it
that is sweeter than that which all the
world can give. How we pity the child
that cannot run to mothers heart for
sympathy and love in its trials and griefs.
This is no less true of the religious ma
ture, and it is part of the home training
to cultivate this. The church supplements
home instruction, and the Sunday school
is one of the means it employs. Every
church is responsible for the religious train
ing of all the children whose parents proper
ly belong to it, 1t cannot divide its re-
spOnsibilities with others, and others
should not interfere with its work by en-
couraging children to come to their servi-
ces. 1t. would destroy the efficiency of a
church if its members we're itinerating be-
tween three and four denominations, and
had as much interest in them all as they
do in their own.
Stable Christian character grows best in
one fold God plants churches where there
is work for them to do, and part belongs
to each member. Those who come into
the church are to be instructed and built
up and those who are without are to be
brought in and converted. Within each
church is nursery-the Sunday School
and this is a part of its service. The chill
dren of the families in this church natu-
rally and by divine appointment, belong
in that school. Nothing is gained to the
cause of Christ by taking them to anoth-
er school. If they are properly instructed
by one teacher it is better for them to re-
tain the instruction thus impaired and the
impressions made, than to have them dis
CT NY SooOOd Teacher hours off or
ward. The child should be made to feel
that the church is its spiritual home, and
all the churches may well unite in fixing
this impression upon their children by dis
missing those from their schools that be-
long properly to neighboring church
school. The good of the child calls for
this, and the cause of Christ needs more
labor, time and money, to gather in the
multitudes who have no church nor Sun
day School home than the churches can
give, even if they economic their strength,
and do not duplicate each others efforts.
If farmer were TO employ fifty men to
cultivate his corn, what would be his sur
prise to find two or three hoeing the same
hill one after another? Every man must
do some aggressive work, or the field will
never be cultivated. We often see the
Lords vineyard in patches, worked over
and over, the.same vines trimmed by many
hands, and dwarfed or killed by the pro-
cess, when one skillful hand would have
made them fruitful There are millions of
other branches that are never touched by
the pruner's knife, and portion of them
grow over against every church and Sun
day school. Why, then, waste the Lords
time and labor on those who are already
being cultivated, and leave those who are
ready to perish without?
This is neither caring for our own, nor
going into the high ways and hedges for
the lost but into another part of the fold
to catch those whom God, in His wisdom,
has committed to other hands.
EARNEST WORKER.