King’s Business Christian Home Feature
The Necessary ingredients of a Christian Home by Margaret Bailey Jacobsen
E v e r y M e t h o d i s t C h u r c h around the world stands | as a quiet monument to Susanna Wesley. She was the mother of John Wesley, Episcopalian forerunner of the Methodist Church, and Charles Wesley, who wrote “ Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” as well as other well-known hvmns. She purposed that each one of her family should live for the glory of God, and to that end bent every effort to teach her children their religious duties and privileges. “The children of this family were taught,” she wrote in later years, “ as soon as they could speak, the Lord’s Prayer, which they were made to say at rising and bed time constantly; to which, as they grew bigger, were added a short prayer for their parents, and some collects, a short catechism, and some portion of Scripture, as their memories could bear. “ They were very early made to distinguish the Sab bath from other days, before they could well speak or go. They were as soon taught to be still at family prayers, and to ask a blessing immediately after, which they used to do by signs, before they could kneel or speak. “Then was begun,” she says, “ the custom of singing Psalms at beginning and leaving school, morning and evening. Then also that of a general retirement at five o’clock was entered upon; when the oldest took the youngest that could speak, and second the next, to whom they read the Psalms for the day, and chapter in the New Testament; as, in the morning, they were directed to read the Psalms 'and a chapter in the Old. After which they went to their private prayers, before they got their breakfast, or came into the family.” In addition to the religious and scholastic instruction which the young Wesleys daily received, Mrs. Wesley was accustomed, once a week, to converse with each of her children separately, concerning the things of God, and their spiritual interests. “ I take such a proportion of time as I can spare every night,” says she, in a letter
to her husband, “ to discourse with each child apart. On Monday, I talk with Molly; on Tuesday, with Hetty; Wednesday, with Nancy; Thursday, with Jacky; Friday, with Patty; Saturday, with Charles; and with Emily and Sukey together on Sunday.” Today’s Christian parents have equal opportunity to train each child for the glory of God. A parent is not permitted to know when his child will have sudden insights into great spiritual truths, nor when he will make an irrevocable decision. In the course of growing up, children do have such insights and do make great decisions. But the Lord is the Shepherd of children as well as grown-ups. He, alone, knows the innermost se crets of a child’s heart. He alone can lead in paths of righteousness (Psa. 23:3). We who are parents are “ workers together with Him” (II Cor. 6:1). We cannot supply grace to our children, for that is God’s work; but we can make the means of grace available to them. We cannot convict our chil dren of sin, righteousness, and judgment; only the Holy Spirit can do that (see John 16:8-11). But we can put them under the heading of all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27), not just once or occasionally, but as long as they are under our care. We cannot make the decision for our children to receive Christ as Saviour or Lord, but we can show them that we consider their spiritual decisions the most important events of their lives. There are many ways of having a family altar, and certainly both the length and depth of reading and pray er need to be geared to the ages of the children. The important thing is to help children establish the habits of listening to God’s Word and speaking freely to Him in thanksgiving, praise, confession, and petition for their own needs and those of others. There will be times when to some members of the family circle this activity will seem dull and routine and not worship at all. But these times will be lessened if care and thought and
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