REMEMBER ELI.

BY PASTOR R. M. McCHEYNE.

Introduction
Part I
Part II
Part III
Address to Parents

"His sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not"—1 Sam 3:13.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God."—Rev 20:12.

There is a report in heaven, as well as among us, that many of you are guilty of your children's blood. It is believed that many of you allow your children to perish miserably. We wish you to inquire whether or not you be really chargeable with this fearful crime.

You know that every minister and elder has a twofold account to give at the judgment-seat of Christ; and so has every father and mother. One of these accounts is to be regarding their own souls; and the other is to be regarding how they attended to those under their care. This last account will be as strict as the first; for one of the holy prophets declares that there is an unutterable woe lying upon those who "feed themselves, and do not feed the flock," Ezek 34:2.

Now, parents, you "feed yourselves," and fall under this woe, when you are content with getting meat, and drink, and clothing, while you let your children become a prey to wolves, that is, to wicked companions, bad example, temptations to sinful amusements and pleasure, by which their souls are ruined forever.

Oh! remember you have to give an account for your own souls! and that will be fearful enough, and sad enough! God will open the great book of judgment, and turn to the page wherein your sins are written. His bright light will shine on the page, and you will be forced to come up the steps of the judgment-seat, and read what is written against you. Your conscience will testify that every word is true; and the devil will be a witness, for he led you into the mire; and holy angels will declare how they saw and shuddered at your sin; and many of your neighbours will be brought up to tell how you and they sinned together; and God himself will speak, and declare it to be all true! Oh! how awful is the prospect! You will, on that day, be damned, if all these things are found in the book! But there is another account even after all this is done, namely, the account you have to give for your children,—for each of your children, and each of their sins! You will be reckoned guilty of their sins, if you did not check them; you will be accounted chargeable with their follies and vices, if you agreed to let them go on in what way they pleased, 1 Sam 3:13. And who will be the witness against you here? Will it be conscience, and the devil, and your neighbour, and the Holy God? Yes, but in addition, your own little children! Your own children will face you at the judgment-seat, and condemn you! Alas, their agonized looks,—their tears,—their cries,—their gnashing of teeth, will then awaken your conscience, and you will be proved before the universe to be murderers of your own children's souls!

The mother of a little girl used to teach her to pray, but only at times that suited her own convenience. One day this little girl looked in her mother's face, and said, "Mother, when I die and go to heaven, and God Almighty asks me, 'Did your mother teach you to pray?' I will tell him, 'yes, except on washing days.'" Was not this a case where the child seemed already to be beginning her office as witness against her parent's sin? But there was another girl, whose history was far more awful. She had once cared about her soul, and sought a Saviour, till her father led her away back to the world and its sins. In the course of a year after he had succeeded in making his daughter thoughtless and gay, a rapid fever attacked her. She called for her father in her last moments, fixed her eyes on him, and was able to utter, "Father, last year I would have sought Christ, but now, father, your child is—." She had not time to finish the sentence, death arrested her! but, oh! what a witness she will be when she meets him again, and reproaches him with having ruined her soul! There is a hymn which has often struck us as being very solemn and alarming,—a hymn that represents lost children upbraiding their parents. They are crying from the lowest hell, telling their parents that if they had taken an interest in their souls, they would never have come into that place of torment.

"Father, weep with shame and rueing,

Weep for thy child's undoing,

For the days when I was young,

And no prayer was taught my tongue—

I ran the world's race well,

And find my portion, Hell!

Weep, mother, weep; but know

'Twill not shorten endless woe!—

Weep my lost spirit's fate,

But know thy tears too late!

Had they sooner fallen—well,

I had not wept in Hell!"

O parents! are any of you already stained with this crimson guilt? Have any of you cause to fear that you have sent some of your children to hell by your conduct? Or have you reason to fear lest you have set them on the way, although they are still alive? Up, and flee to the city of refuge! You are like the ancient manslayers, (Num 35,) the avenger of blood is at your heels! there is no remission for your sin, except in the blood of Jesus. And Jesus has made so full and ample an atonement that, on the ground of it, even a murderer of souls may be forgiven. Manasseh was a murderer of souls, and he was forgiven through this precious blood. (2 Chron 33.) You, too, may be forgiven, if your blood-stained conscience be washed in the precious blood of the Lamb. Your souls may now be sore vexed, and ill at ease; your peace may be broken up, and remorse may have well nigh begun that gnawing which shall never end; but hearken to the words that bring you glad tidings: "The chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him." (Isa 53:5.)

We know that if you would bathe in the blood of Him who "his own self bare our sins, in his own body, on the tree," [1 Pet 2:24] then would your souls be delivered from the oppressive and intolerable thought of the past, and you would be refreshed in the future, by the glorious prospect of bringing those that remain, to the same Saviour that redeemed you. It is true you may feel like the South Sea murderers of their children, who, on being awakened, and taught the power of the blood of Christ, even then found the consciousness of that sin—the murder of their children—the last which they could bring to his atoning blood. Some lamented in agony over seven, others over seventeen or twenty, whom they had destroyed. Yet even these did at last find their souls cleansed in that full, deep fountain. And you may find the same! You will then be like pardoned Manasseh, who, when justified from all things by bathing in the ocean of Immanuel's blood, could walk at evening round Zion, and look down into the very valley of Hinnom—the black, gloomy valley where he had made so many of his children pass through the fire to Moloch,—and still retain his peace with God, and say, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died." (Rom 8:34.) If you would thus try the power of Christ's sacrifice to purify your guilty conscience, you would soon care for and yearn over your children's souls. You would discover their guilt, and perceive their danger, and you would long to see them saved and made "accepted in the Beloved." [Eph 1:6] We know, also, in regard to those of you that have sought Christ for yourselves, but have not been sufficiently careful to fulfil your baptismal promise, and comply with the demand of the Lord, by bringing your children to Christ; we know that the cause is to be found in your meager views and most inadequate feelings of the Saviour's glorious work. Your sense of the heinousness of the sin which it purges away, is so dull, and your apprehension of its infinitely urgent necessity and overwhelming grace, is so dim, that your languid feelings are not stirred, though your offspring are living in the open neglect of the great salvation. Were you to die in your present unfaithfulness to your family and be saved yourselves, "so as by fire," [1 Cor 3:15] you would need to take an eternal farewell of your children. Like Eli, you might be saved; but your feelings on reaching glory would be like his. No doubt he learned in heaven what he dreaded to think upon on earth, that his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were cast away as brands for the burning; and now all that he could do, as he stood before the throne—himself saved, but none of his offspring—was first to adore the sovereign grace that had led himself to wash in the blood of the Lamb that removed even that sin of crimson and scarlet dye, and next to join the hallelujahs of the company that were praising the righteous wrath of their God, against the lost souls of Hophni and Phinehas, while they saw the smoke of their torments rising up for ever and ever. (Rev 19:3)

Bearing these solemn truths in mind, hear us when we propose to you that your children should be sent to the Sabbath School.

I. You that care about your own and your children's souls. We believe you are seeking out the best means of benefiting those under your care. We, therefore, do no more than ask you to consider whether or not it would be useful to send your children to our schools. If other circumstances are suitable, then your example might influence some of your neighbours; and by your attention to your children, in preparing them at home for the Sabbath School, you would have the satisfaction of seeing your children become a pattern to others.

II. You that care about your children, though you are not yourselves converted. We know that this is no uncommon case; even infidels have wished their children to know Christ. Now, if you feel that you yourselves have got no change of heart, we entreat you to send your children to the Sabbath School. There, by the blessing of God, they may be led to Christ. The teacher's whole aim is to bring them to the cross of Christ, to carry them to the Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep, and to bathe them in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. But if you allow them to spend Sabbath evening, and perhaps all the day too, in whatever manner they please, you may expect soon to hear them uttering oaths, and be grieved by their profanity, their contempt for the ordinances of God, their filthy and foolish deeds, and other signs of a hardened heart. But oh! if they were saved, you would be freed at the great day from the reproach of their ruin. And perhaps they might even carry home salvation to you! What if they should lead you by the hand to Jesus? What if your experience should be that of a parent who said, "I was thirty years old before I knew that I had a soul. But one of our boys went out on a Sabbath to play, and was brought in with his anklebone out of joint. Next Sabbath another of the boys got himself lamed. I resolved to send them to school to be out of the way. It was there that they learned, and I learned through them, that I had a soul."

III. You that care neither for your own nor your children's souls. Whether you care or not, still it is true that there is a Saviour standing with open arms, saying, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." (Mark 10:14.) Will you allow us to be kind to them, and lead them to this Saviour? You would wish them to be obedient, to be well behaved, to be useful; you would not wish to see them grow up to be thieves, drunkards, and pests to society. Let us, then, do what we can to lead them to Christ. Do not hinder us from showing kindness to your children. We entreat you not to be unmerciful to their souls. Let not your eye be evil toward the children of your own bowels. Would you wish that any of them should yet curse the day that ever they were born in your house, and had you for their parent?

And now that we have ended our few words of expostulation, we must say to those of you who agree to put your children under our care for a few hours on Sabbath, that we do not in any degree free you from the obligations you yourselves are under to attend to their souls. No; we cannot take upon us your responsibility, which became yours at your children's birth, and was sealed on you at their baptism. We cannot stand in your place at the judgment-day. You must yourselves at home watch over them, pray for them and with them, help them in their lessons for their classes, and speak to them on their returning home, as anxiously as if we had never said a word. We offer only to help you. It will prove your more sure condemnation at last, if it be the case that strangers cared more for your children's souls than you yourselves do,—the father that begat them, and the mother that bore them. But, oh! how blessed, if, led by the Holy Spirit yourselves, you become the means of leading your children to Jesus! We will stand by, rejoicing to hear you say, "Behold, Lord, I and the children whom thou hast given me!"

Suffer me to come to Jesus,

Mother dear, forbid me not;

By his blood from hell he frees us,

Makes us fair, without a spot.

Suffer me, my earthly father,

At his pierced feet to fall;

Why forbid me? help me rather;

Jesus is my all in all.

Suffer me to run unto him;

Gentle sisters, come with me;

Oh that all I love but knew him,

Then my home a heaven would be.

Loving playmates, gay and smiling,

Bid me not forsake the cross;

Hard to bear is your reviling,

Yet for Jesus all is dross.

Yes, though all the world have chide me,

Father, mother, sister, friend—

Jesus never will forbid me!

Jesus loves me to the end!

Gentle Shepherd, on thy shoulder

Carry me, a sinful lamb;

Give me faith, and make me bolder,

Till with thee in heaven I am.

AN ADDRESS TO PARENTS.

We feel deeply concerned to be useful to the souls of your children; and, no doubt, you feel a strong desire that they may be happy; but in order that this may be the case, you must help us to bring them up in the fear of the Lord; that is, you must pray for them, and pray with them. If you answer, "I never prayed for myself; how, then, am I to pray for my children?" we ask, how will you, how can you, answer for this awful neglect at the day of judgment? Oh begin at once; begin today; kneel down with your child, and say, "Lord, pardon my sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Pray on in this way till you receive an answer. You must be born again, or die to all eternity. You often feel very unhappy, very angry, and wretched; and you feel so because your heart is wicked, proud, sinful; opposed to God, to holiness, and your own happiness. Now you will never be right till you obtain peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, you must take your children to the house of God. Many parents allow their children to run in the streets on the Sabbath, where they hear all manner of bad words, and learn to act shamefully, and not like those that must give account of themselves to God. It is owing to these sins that we have so many wicked boys and girls around us, and that many of the people die in such a miserable way. You know these things are true; and you must die in the same hopeless manner, except you repent and turn to God. You have had many calls, many seasons of sickness and want; your sufferings have been great, but they are nothing to the pains of hell. Shall these warnings be lost upon you? Do you wish to die in sin, to be shut out of heaven, and shut up in the bottomless pit forever? You say, "I hope not;" but your hope will be vain, if you do not turn to God. Many go on till death, without repenting of their sins. Do not let Satan deceive you in this way to your eternal ruin. We want to do you good; we cannot bear to see you so wretched. God does not desire the death of sinners; Christ died for them; the Holy Spirit strives with them; they may be happy in this world and in the world to come. Seek the mercy of the Lord now while it is called today. Lead a new life; and may the Lord give you his blessing and life forevermore.