SOME few weeks ago I had the pleasure of Listening to an instructive address delivered in our Sunday school by one who is a great lover of little children, and I am surf a short account of it will prove both interesting and profitable to the young readers of FAITHFUL WORDS.
The speaker brought with him a brown paper parcel, on which all eyes were fixed. On its being opened, it was proved to contain a powerful magnet and several nails of different sizes.
These were carefully spread out upon a table in the midst of the children, who were seated in rows on either side of it. A verse of a hymn having been sung, the speaker asked a boy to read from Eccl. 12:11Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecclesiastes 12:1), these words: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”
It so happened that the lad who sat next to me read the words. How it rejoiced my heart as he did so, to know that he had already given his heart to the Lord! And all the more, because he is my own precious little son in the faith. In that very same room, within four yards of the place where he was standing up and reading the verse, he had, about sixteen months before, found joy and peace in believing, while kneeling at my side.
The more firmly to impress the verse upon the memories of all present, the speaker bade the children repeat it together, and, after various attempts, they performed the task to his satisfaction.
The speaker, now holding up the magnet, and pointing to the nails, said they must be understood as representing little children, older boys and girls, and men and women.
He bade them notice some very tiny and bright nails, which he had laid in order on the table. These, said he, resembled those children who in infancy gave their hearts to Jesus, and were very bright and happy.
“You can tell them,” he said, looking upon his hearers round, “by their bright and happy faces.”
Just behind me sat two dear little girls, whose little faces beamed in the sunshine of Jesus’ love, Whose they are, and Whom they desire to serve.
He passed the magnet over these tiny nails, and in a moment each one leaped up to it. And how they clung to it! Just so, he said, are little children that believe, attracted by the power of love to Jesus, to Himself. They are ready at any moment to spring up into His strong and loving arms; and how they cling to Him!
He then applied the magnet to some larger nails, and the bright ones amongst them clung so tightly to it, that it required a violent jerk to throw them off. “The dear lads and lasses, who are growing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, have certainly grown older and stronger since they first came to Jesus,” continued the speaker, “yet there is the same attractive power in His love affecting them as at the first. They are bright in His love; and how they cling to Him!”
The magnet was then passed over some rusty nails of about the same size as the others, but it had very little power over them.
These rusty nails, the children were told were like those youths and maidens who, for getting their Creator, were growing each day older in sin and more hardened in heart, and having less and less desire to come to Jesus.
Some large, stout, straight, and bright nails were next tested, and, in a moment, all could see how powerful was the magnet’s influence over every one of them. The parable was that these resembled believers of mature age, who had been converted in their youth―that just as these nails were fit to be employed in all cases where large, stout, straight, and bright nails were required, ever so “full-grown” believers prove to have become, through grace, strong in the Lord upright in walk and conduct, and fit for His service, and that they, as well as the smallest, are attracted to Christ.
Then the speaker held up two big, rusty; crooked nails of about the same size, and the dear children laughed aloud as he called one a man, and the other his wife. These made no response to the magnet. They are, said he, like people who, in their youth, refused knowledge, and who grow perverse and stubborn in their willful way, and just as the magnet had scarcely any perceptible influence over them, so the story of Jesus and His love has little or no attraction for sinners of ripen years.
He next held up a very long nail, and bade all the children notice that its head or face was quite as bright as were those of the tiniest nails they had before seen. So, he said, the aged believer, who had sought and found peace in believing in his youth, is no less bright and joyous in old age while he clings to Christ. The Scriptures say, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Last of all he held up some very long, very rusty, and very crooked nails; and these were greeted with a general outburst of loud laughter. But the speaker’s words became very solemn. He said the crooked, rusty nails made him think of men and women, advanced in years, who had forgotten then Creator in their youth, who had lived all then lifetime afar off from God, by sin and by wicked works, and who, now that their evil days had come, cared not even to hear of Jesus and the story of His love. He pressed the magnet against these old, crooked and rusty nails, but it had no perceptible attraction over them at any point. He could but think, as he did so, of a wretched old drunkard, known in his village as “Old Uncle Joe.” This hardened sinner had no desire to hear of Jesus, no hope in this world, no longing to live a better life, no hope for the next, but his one absorbing desire was to satisfy his craving for strong drink.
This solemn warning of the consequences of going on in sin, and its hardening results, formed a suitable end to the lesson on the magnet and the nails. I trust that that Sunday afternoon’s lesson, so aptly illustrated, will not be forgotten by any of the dear children who were privileged to hear it; and may God grant to every youthful reader of FAITHFUL WORDS, obedience to His Word, which solemnly charges each one “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” A. J.