The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-08-08
Take the Children TO Church.


Laudation of the past and complaint Of
the present are both easy and cheap. 1t
is also very ancient custom, for in every
country and century the golden age"
has always been in the past. There is,
however, an element of truth in it-just
a saving flavor. The "good old times"
had indeed something good in them,
something that perhaps our own time
would be better if it had also. Many
good old custom has died out, or is
fast dying, to leave the world so much
the poorer.
One such custom was the way, once
general and now 80 uncommon, of the
entire family going to church regularly
of Sunday morning. The family pew
was an institution in those days, now
that We think oft, 80 was the family.
Father and mother and all the children
land a lot Of them there were, big and
little) were to be found in their places as
regularly as the minister was in his.
Those were the days of long sermons, too
long and awfully dry for little heads,
with their first, and secondly, and so on
to thirteenthly, and finally my brethren.
That is custom Of the good old times
that no one regrets or wishes back; but
the pews have lost as many heads as the
sermons since The days Of our grand
fathers. The little children are no
longer seen there because "they are too
little," and the older children are likely
to be absent because, in their own esteem,
"they are too big"
Let us revive this good old custom and
take the children to church. The Sunday
school is no substitute for the church-a
useful supplement we all concede it to
b., most useful and deserving Of fullest
development and support, but not snb.
stitute. If for any reason the children
can not attend both The morning service
and the Sunday school, by all means
take them to the former. By all means,
ne say and we mean that precisely. 1t
is of greater importance that they get
correct religious habits and right religi-
Gus impressions just at the time when
habits are so easily fixed for life and
when Impressions once made are most
indelible. 1t is great thing that
parent has done for his child when he
has helped form a habit Of church going.
The chances are that it will stick by him
through life; and the chances are still
stronger that if the habit is not formed
in childhood it never will be formed.
1t is thing for which, ne venture to
say, every Christian man is profoundly
thankful if among his earliest recollec-
tions is joining in his childish way in the
worship of God-if he can not recall 8.
time when regular church. going on
Sunday was not as much part of his
life as play was on the other six days of
the week.
OF course ne recognize the fact that
church. going is in itself valueless form
that the grace Of God is the one thing
that can change the heart of old or young.
Butts it not true that the due observance
of forms ordained of God has much to do
with the action Of Gods grace On the
heart? We all remember the negro
servants happy answer to his master, q
politician, who jokingly asked, one day,
"Well, Sam, am I elected to be saved ?"
"Dunno, massa, but never heard of
anybody's bein' 'lected ,,less he was
candidate" We cannot make our chill.
dren Christians by all our efforts, but can
not we put them in the way Of becoming
candidates for Gods election? This is
the exact Office of the religious training
of youth, to subject them to auch inau-.
ences as are likely to make them respond
to the grace of God working on their
hearts.
And how much more useful Chris.
tian and church member one is likely to
be whose earliest associations are with
the church, who has grown up familiar
with its usages, who is not an alien to its
spirit and life, but one of the family
from the first. We complain sometimes
that the members of onr churches do not
understand distinctive Baptist principles
and are unfamiliar with "Baptist usage"
This is because so many of them lack the
familiarity that can only come through
this early habit of church going. Many
of our members were converted in adult
years, or come from other denominations,
but large proportion have come from
Baptist families. There, at least, it was
possible so to have trained that they
would not have been, what 90 many of
them are, like aliens and strangers un-
knowing our customs.--Eaan,iner.
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