WHY YOUR CHILDREN ARE UNSAVED

Why Children Are Not Saved -- Prayer and Fasting Solve Things

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. -- Prov. 22:6.

     And now I want to say something I could not say thirty years ago. I wrote and preached about child-training back there when I had no children of my own. It is easy to do this, and yet anyone who has read and observed a great deal ought to acquire some good ideas as to how it should be done. But now, after these years of practice, perhaps it is not amiss to tell how wife and I, through grace, have succeeded in getting and keeping all our children saved and called to the ministry. We rejoice with trembling, and pray that Satan may not yet slip up on us and our household.

     Beloved, I can't help saying it -- I don't care who you are, or what you profess -- if your children are unsaved, somewhere, somehow YOU are to blame. How?

     1. Prayerlessness. In the very first place you did not seek an heir of the Lord as did Samuel's parents -- God was not consulted. The poor little thing was simply the product of lust. A highly-educated Free Methodist physician recently told the writer that scarcely one child in a thousand was properly begotten and given a full chance, during the prenatal period, to be well born. Think of it! What an awful ratio! And even after a child has been well born, it will require a great deal of prayer and weeping on the pt of the parents over the little thing to turn its mind toward God. Dear parent, do you feel it? Do you realize it? Before you in that little crib is a precious soul. He did not ask to come her you are responsible. It will require "strong crying and tears" to keep him from breaking your heart, disgracing your name, and finally plunging headlong into hell.

     2. Stinginess. While it is true that we cannot buy our way into heaven, I am more and more convinced that one reason many children are unsaved is because their parents did not give their full share to the support of God's work. Oh, this accursed thing, closeness! covetousness! Property --good wages -- money earning interest, and yet withholding the tithe, and giving less in proportion than a poor washerwoman! "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me saith the Lord." No wonder God does not "rebuke the devourer" for your sakes -- you failed to bring in all the tithes.

     3. Harshness. Another reason why so many children grow up unsaved is because of the harsh, critical spirit prevailing in the home. At the table, in the parlor, and everywhere there is a fault-finding spirit. True, most children need reproofs and admonitions; but many times a nice meal or an otherwise delightful evening is utterly spoiled because of a selfish, unlovely spirit. So, parents, no matter how you pray and shout in meeting, it is all vetoed and forgotten when you fail to keep sweet and courteous around the home. Don't deceive yourselves into thinking that it will hurt your influence or authority if you apologize to your children. Break down and weep, begging their pardon for everything, and nine times out of ten they., in turn, will do the same. This is a sure way of endearing them to you but it takes a big soul to do it. Can you do it? Will you do it? God help you! The salvation of your offspring may depend upon it!

     4. Worldliness Some children are unsaved because of the worldly atmosphere in the home. Lack of prayer, fiction-reading, jazz music, and fashionable company will damn any household. Friend, you and your loved ones can belong to any church and profess all sorts of grace, but unless a good season of prayer is in order at any time, your children will slip away from God. We taught our children to drop upon their knees for a word of secret prayer just before going, and after returning from school. And on Saturdays, when they could have earned considerable, we considered it a good investment to have a revival at our home. Sometimes the morning prayers lasted until 10 o'clock, but it paid!

     5. Fasting. Here's where many parents fail, they seldom, if ever, have a season of prayer and fasting for their little ones. Frequently we were led to do this for several meals or days at a time, and the children immediately perceived that God was giving the parents warning in advance as to one or all in the household. The little ones became concerned along with their parents, and after a season of breaking-up before God, we again went on our way rejoicing. Parents, you can do more in one such season of prayer and fasting, to righten things and keep the devil out, than by reproving and lecturing for a month! In this way God has helped us to break up undesirable matches, head off worldly entertainments, keep the children at home in the evenings, and unite them to God and to ourselves more successfully than in any other way. Moreover, fasting several times a week is good for one physically when done in the Spirit. But, few are willing to practice self-denial.

     Let us look at facts. Hardly one in a hundred begins to realize the great responsibility of begetting children. The thought of glorifying God never once enters their minds. The idea of praying would seem absurd. Where children are born to such parents, -- parents who are careless and prayerless, it will be readily seen that such children are about half damned when they are born and many of them entirely damned when but fifteen years of age. Poor little things, unsought, how can they be a blessing in the earth unless some one teaches them the good and right way. No wonder they are vicious and licentious at an early age. What a pity that these parents went to so much suffering and expense to bring forth children, then raise and educate them, for what? To be a curse in the earth, then die and be eternally damned.

     Parents, have you no pity for these little ones who are not responsible for being here? Can you not feel for them, yea pray and fast for their salvation? Their salvation is much more important than their education. Do not think for a moment that you must let them wait till in their teens before they can "intelligently" decide for Christ. No! As soon as they can manifest self-will they can be taught to seek forgiveness.

     Finally, dear parents, please do not console yourselves by saying, "Well, they have been taught right and know the way." Go further and insist on their salvation. We not only insisted that each one of our children should be saved, but inasmuch as we were spiritual "Levites," one or more of our offspring must carry on the same line of work -- writing, preaching, and soul-winning. "According to your faith (or lack of faith) be it unto you."

      "Jesus the name high over all,

     In hell, or earth, or sky;

     Angels and men before it fall,

     And devils fear and fly.

 

      "Jesus the prisoner's fetters breaks,

     And bruises Satan's head;

     Power unto strengthless souls

     He speaks.

     And life into the dead."