Children are a charge always; a comfort sometimes. 1194.532

For my part, I am more and more persuaded that the study of a good Scriptural
catechism is of infinite value to our children, and I shall see that it is reprinted as
cheaply as possible for your use. Even if the youngsters do not understand all the
questions and answers in the “Westminster Assembly’s Catechism,” yet, abiding in
their memories, it will be of infinite service when the time of understanding comes, to
have those very excellent, wise, and judicious definitions of the things of God. If we
would maintain orthodoxy in our midst, and see good old Calvinistic doctrines
handed down from father to son, I think we must use the method of catechising, and
endeavour with all our might to impregnate their minds with the things of God. 564.215

We are not among those who are suspicious of youthful piety: we could never see
more reason for such suspicions in the case of the young than in the case of those who
repent later in life. Of the two we think the latter are more to be questioned than the
former: for a selfish fear of punishment and dread of death are more likely to produce
a counterfeit faith than mere childishness would be. CC6

Jesus will not be dishonoured by the children: we have far more cause to fear the
adults. CC20

I have sometimes met with a deeper spiritual experience in children of ten and
twelve than I have in certain persons of fifty and sixty. It is an old proverb that some
children are born with beards. CC24

Capacity for believing lies more in the child than in the man. We grow less rather
than more capable of faith: every year brings the unregenerate mind further away
from God, and makes it less capable of receiving the things of God. CC24

God forgive those who despise the little ones! Will you be very angry if I say that a
boy is more worth saving than a man? CC25

It is assuredly a noble part of benevolence to deliver the gospel to the sons of men;
and, if possible, this benevolence is of a still higher kind when you deliver the truth
of God to children, for as prevention is better than a cure, so is it better to prevent a
life of vice than to rescue from it; and as the earlier a soul has light the shorter is its
night of darkness, so the earlier in life salvation comes to the heart the better, and
greater is the benediction. WCo91

Conversion saves a child from a multitude of sins. WCo126

To reclaim the prodigal is well, but to save him from ever being a prodigal is better.
WCo126

Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they
have won the laurels of literature or art. 1148.710

If you are professing Christians, but cannot say that you have no greater joy than the
conversion of your children, you have reason to question whether you ought to have
made such a profession at all. 1148.710

We know that infants enter the kingdom, for we are convinced that all of our race
who die in infancy are included in the election of grace, and partake in the
redemption wrought out by our Lord Jesus. Whatever some may think, we believe
that the whole spirit and tone of the word of God, as well as the nature of God
himself, lead us to believe that all who leave this world as babes are saved. 1439.583

Refrain from undue weeping, for they shall come again from the land of their
captivity. Thy dead ones shall live again. Mother of mortals, thou didst well to weep;
but thy children live, so that thou art the mother of immortals; then, why canst thou
sorrow? Dry thine eyes, and bless God that thou hast another link with heaven, and
that thou hast helped to fill the choirs that, day without night, circle the throne of
God with hallelujahs. 2645.513

It is a wondrous joy to be the father of those who, day and night, wait upon God in
heaven, and see his face, and serve him evermore; so be not sad or downcast if that is
your case. 2726.225

I hope many of us, so soon as our children saw the light, if not before, presented them
to God with this anxious prayer, that they might sooner die than live to disgrace
their father’s God. We only desired children that we might in them live over again
another life of service to God; and when we looked into their young faces, we never
asked wealth for them, nor fame, nor anything else, but that they might be dear unto
God, and that their names might be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 581.417

There cannot be tears in heaven; but if there might, the celestials would look over the
bulwarks of the new Jerusalem and weep their fill at the sight of their children in the
flames of hell, for ever condemned, for ever shut out from hope. What if those to
whom we gave being should be weeping and gnashing their teeth in torment while
we are beholding the face of our Father in heaven! Remember the separation time
must come. 1148.715

To bury a child is a great grief, but to have that child live and sin against you is ten
times worse. 673.69

No cross is so heavy to carry as a living cross. Next to a woman who is bound to an
ungodly husband, or a man who is unequally yoked with a graceless wife, I pity the
father whose children are not walking in the truth, who yet is himself an earnest
Christian. 1148.715

We could well put up with the little mistakes, and petulancies, and follies, and even
sins of their earliest days; but the sting is when, having left our roof, they leave our
teaching; when, having gone from our trainings, they do not abide in them, but
plunge into sin, and prove to us most sadly that grace does not run in the blood, but
that natural depravity most certainly does. 3356.254

I think we never ought to repine so much about the death of a child as about the
ungodly life of a child. 3499.77

Very well, I am willing to look at children, and I am unwilling that any should say a
word that is harsh or severe against children’s nature; but I will say that any man
who declares children to be born perfect never was a father; for if he would only
watch his own child, not merely when that child has its toys around it and is pleased
and happy, but when its little temper is ruffled, he would soon perceive evil nestling
there. Your child without evil!—you without eyes, you mean!! 615.104

Striking is that text, “They go astray from the womb, speaking lies.” An old Puritan
puts it, “They go astray before they go: they speak lies before they speak;” and so it
is. 1007.471

Do not leave your children to wander out without the guardianship of holy
knowledge, for there are seducers abroad who will mislead them if they can. AM172

The voices of childhood echo throughout life. The first learned is generally the
last forgotten. CC47

Do not hesitate to tell the child his ruin; he will not else desire the remedy. Tell him
also of the punishment for sin, and warn him of its terror. Be tender, but true. CC71

Before you can teach children, you must get the silver key of kindness to unlock their
hearts, and so secure their attention. CC84

Be sure, whatever you leave out, that you teach the children the three R’s,—Ruin,
Redemption, and Regeneration. CC90

Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin. PP69

When fathers are tongue-tied religiously with their offspring, need they wonder if
their children’s hearts remain sin-tied? TD44:1

Whether we teach young Christians truth or not, the devil will be sure to teach them
error. They will hear of it somehow, even if they are watched by the most careful
guardians. 1684.569

Cultivate in your children a desire to understand everything connected with our holy
faith. 2268.373

An ounce of obedience is better than a ton of learning. CC78

You are twisting the sapling, and the old oak will be bent thereby. CC94

To be snatched out of the vortex of vice is cause for great gratitude, but to have been
kept out of it is better. GS213

Prevention is better than cure, and grace gives both. GS213

A child’s back must be made to bend, but it must not be broken. He must be ruled,
but not with a rod of iron. His spirit must be conquered, but not crushed. PP70

Give to a pig when it grunts, and to a child when it cries, and you will have a fine pig
and a spoiled child. PT37

If we never have headaches through rebuking our little children, we shall have
plenty of heartaches when they grow up. PT38

Never promise a child and then fail to perform, whether you promise him a bun or a
beating. PT38

Young colts must be broken in or they will make wild horses. PT93

Not to cross our children is the way to make a cross of them. Those who never give
their children the rod, must not wonder if their children become a rod to them. PT93

Cultivate a child’s heart for good, or it will go wrong of itself, for it is already
depraved by nature. TN80

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth, for youth, when honoured and
esteemed, is too apt to lift its head and grow self-conceited, vain, and froward. 487.7

We cannot impart to our children new hearts, but we can see to it that there shall be
nothing within our gates that is derogatory to the religion of Jesus Christ. I charge
you see to it. But you cannot control your children, you say. Then the Lord have
mercy upon you! It is your business to do it, and you must do it, or else you will soon
find out they will control you; and no one knows what judgment will come from God
upon those who suffer sin in children and servants to go unrebuked. 1097.102

The most difficult part of the training of young men is not to put the right thing into
them, but to get the wrong thing out of them. 1894.198

I have heard of one man who said that he did not like to prejudice his boy, so he
would not say anything to him about religion. The devil, however, was quite willing
to prejudice the lad, so very early in life he learnt to swear, although his father had a
foolish and wicked objection to teaching him to pray. If you ever feel it incumbent
upon you not to prejudice a piece of ground by sowing good seed in it, you may rest
assured that the weeds will not imitate your impartiality, but they will take
possession of the land in a very sad and shocking manner. Where the plough does not
go, and the seed is not sown, the weeds are quite sure to multiply; and if children are
left untutored and untrained, all sorts of evils will spring up in their hearts and lives.
2731.278

No confined holiness—that is superstition; universal holiness—that is Christianity;
not the bowls upon the altar holy—that is Judaism; but the bells upon the horses
holy—that is true living godliness and vital Christianity. 399.413

There is a great difference between nominal Christianity and real Christianity, and
this is generally seen in the failure of the one and the continuance of the other. 1361.361

It will be a very great pity if ever it should be thought that benevolence is divorced
from Christianity, for hitherto the crown of the faith of Jesus has been love to men; it
is, indeed, the glory of Christianity that wherever it comes it erects buildings
altogether unknown to heathenism—hospitals, asylums, and other abodes of
charity. 1422.374

Now, I venture to say that all history proves that the truth has very seldom been
accepted by the rulers of this world, and that for the most part the poorest of the poor
have been more able to perceive the truth than the greatest of the great have ever
been. There would have been no Christianity in the world at the present moment if it
had not found a shelter in workshops and in cottages. 1453.27

Is it not probably true that the selfishness of Christians is the main reason for the
slow progress of Christianity? 1778.250

Do you not know, dear friends, that the very essence of Christianity is for a man to
deny himself? 1830.160

Christianity is a life which grows out of truth. 1890.154

Charity and purity are the two garments of Christianity. 2313.289

Secularism teaches us that we ought to look to this world. Christianity teaches us
that the best way to prepare for this world is to be fully prepared for the next. 2916.10

A man is made by that which he feeds upon, and for the best manhood you need the
best food. As certain silk-worms have their silk coloured by the leaves on which they
feed, so if we were to feed on Christ, and nothing else but Christ, we should become
pure, holy, lowly, meek, gentle, humble; in a word, we should be perfect even as He
is. BA84

The Christian should take nothing short of Christ for his model. ME161

There never lived a man who was too holy, and there never will live a man who will
imitate Christ too closely, or avoid sin too rigidly. WE113

No law but that of absolute perfection could come from a perfect God, and to give us
a model that were not absolutely perfect, were to ensure to us superabundant
imperfections, and to give us an excuse for them. God sets before his servants no rule
of this kind, “Be as good as you can,” but this, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect.” Hath any man ever attained to it? Truly we have not,
but for all that, every Christian man aims at it. I would far rather my child had a
perfect copy to write by, though he might never write equal to it, than that he should
have an imperfect copy set before him, because then he would never make a good
writer at all. 845.689

There must be a perfect model before us before we can discern our own departures
from perfection. 1206.679

If God were to create free agents, knowing both good and evil, and put them where
man will be in heaven, without their undergoing any preparatory process, it would be
a dangerous experiment; but for him to let them know evil to the full, and yet be for
ever bound to perfect holiness, because infinite love sways them with omnipotent
obligations of gratitude, this is to make creatures which bring exceeding glory to
their author. These are not merely fashioned on his wheel, but dipped into the blood
of his own suffering self, and indwelt by his own mighty power, and well may they be
precious in his sight. 1240.356

There is no holy walking without careful watching. Depend upon it, no man was
ever good by chance, nor did anyone ever become like the Lord Jesus by happy
accident. “I put gold into the furnace,” said Aaron, “and there came out this calf,” but
nobody believed him. 1526.148

Hang that question up in your houses, “What would Jesus do?” and then think of
another, “How would Jesus do it?” for what he would do, and how he would do it, may
always stand as the best guide to us. 1599.287

You, my boy, are not to invent a system of writing; yours is a much easier task, keep
to your copy, imitate every letter, ay, every turn and twist of your master’s hand.
Scholars can only learn by imitation, and we are all scholars. It may be something to
aspire to be the head of a school of painting; but the first thing for the young artist to
do is to copy. He who cannot copy cannot originate; depend upon that. 1725.327

Nearness to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God the more of God will
be seen in you. 1725.334

We do not desire that our pattern should be lowered, but that our imitation should be
raised. 1778.245

He has taken off some of the coarsest surface, but he will polish you yet to an
exceeding beauty. I verily believe, if we could see ourselves as we shall be, it would
make us laugh for very joy. 2036.427

Never do what you could not suppose Christ would have done. 2449.41

The man who is deeply discontented with himself is probably growing fast into the
full likeness of Christ. 3325.508

What Jesus loves, we love; what Jesus hates, we hate; what Jesus seeks, we seek;
what Jesus shuns, we shun. This is true friendship when there is but one heart in
two bodies, and when one heart in the twain produces with undivided strength one
object. 3437.602

I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any
religion in keeping Christmas-day. 57.25

We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe
in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do
not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in
English; and secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing
any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance is a
superstition, because not of divine authority. 1026.697