May, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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C hild Evangelism— The Testimony o f Experience [Continued from page 169]
many children attended Sunday-school from non-Christian homes. Among others were two little girls, nine and eleven years of age, whose father was an infidel, and whose mother had not attended church in the nine years that I had known her. I had called in the home repeatedly, but had seemed to make no impression upon the adults, although I did get the children into the Sunday-school. These two little girls I led to Christ on the ground of grace, dealing with them privately, and telling them to tell no one about it. (You would not call this method one of sound evangelism, would you?) About three months later, several churches, including my own, joined in a union evangelistic meeting. The first night of these special meetings, the mother of these two little girls attended. She came every night, and when the first invitation was given, she was the very first one to ac cept Christ. I was deeply interested to know what had in fluenced this woman to attend the meeting and to accept Christ. When I put the question to her, she said, “It was the changed lives of my two little girls that made me see my own need.” How richly God had blessed my small and wavering faith! After seeing this evidence of His working, how could I doubt any more that a child truly could be re generated ? I began at once to lead children to Christ, singly and in groups wherever there was an opportunity. Where there was no opportunity apparent, I endeavored to make one. I sought to interest my adult Bible classes in child evan gelism, for I felt that the Lord was calling us to evengelize the nonchurched children. Three teachers were employed, and week-day Bible classes for children were begun with a view to evangelizing every child in that vicinity. The work grew, and in time there were hundreds of classes, with thousands of children being won for Christ. It was my privilege to lead comparatively few of these boys and girls to the Saviour through my personal dealing with them, but thousands were won for the Lord by the teachers whom I had the joy of training for this task. Thirteen years have passed since those first classes were started. I recently have visited the cities where they were held. Wherever I have gone, I have met or heard of young people who were led to Christ as little children, ten to thirteen years ago, who gave unmistakable evidence then of being regenerated, and who have remained faithful to Christ through the years that have followed. Many of these young people are now in training for full-time Chris tian work. Every teacher who taught in those early classes, so far as I know, still believes thoroughly in the evangeliza tion of the children—the conviction having been deep ened through the accumulated evidence of years of experi ence in this work. The Word of God, which promises regeneration to those who receive Christ, does not limit the promise to adults. Salvation is for “whosoever,” and we limit the scope of the promise if we do not apply it to children: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3 :16). of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). *
T h e S ad E x per ience of M any W ho S eek C h r ist
I shall never forget a prayer meeting that I attended in the Lakeview Mission Covenant Church, Chicago, of which Paul W. Rood was then pastor. Dr. Rood had asked me to speak on the subject of Child Evangelism, and at the conclusion of the message he said to the people: “Will all of you who were converted when you were children please tell us about your experi ence?” Three or four individuals gave wonder
ful testimonies of having been saved as little children and of having been kept through the years by God’s grace. Then, one after another, the members of the group arose and told that, as children, they had known deep soul agony and had tried to find Christ; that no one had made any effort to lead them to Christ or to show them the way; that even when they went to others for help, their requests were ignored, because the older people felt the questioners were mere children and could not understand. These speakers testified sadly to the fact that they had not found Christ at all in their childhood, but had been converted only after many years of sin and wandering, after they had become men and women. It seemed to me that, as they told their stories, every person in the audience was weeping. What a tragedy it is that we do not lead boys and girls to the Saviour! E x p e r im en t in g in C h ild E vangelism Even when we have had unfortunate experiences our selves when we, as little children, have longed to be saved, we are not always awake to the necessity of winning other children for Christ. Although saved as a young man, and led to become the pastor of a small country church, I did not believe at all in child evangelism. I had come to accept a rather complicated plan of salvation—one too difficult for a child to comprehend. But in time, a great spiritual awakening came to me, and I came to see that salvation was obtained through grace, that to be saved one must renounce all claim to human merit or conduct or service, and must accept salvation as a free gift from Christ on the ground of His finished work on the cross. About that time I was reading one of Spurgeon’s ser mons and was astonished at his saying, “A child of five, if properly instructed, could as truly believe, and be regen erated, as an adult.” I was a great admirer of Spurgeon, but I thought he was utterly wrong about this matter. The statement, however, troubled my conscience. I did not have faith to think in terms of five-year-old children, but I saw that if it was true that children of nine or ten could believe and be regenerated, a wonderful door of oppor tunity was open for evangelism. I determined to make an experiment—I can call it nothing else. I decided to endeavor to lead several chil dren to Christ, secretly, and to watch their lives carefully to see whether there was any evidence that they were born again. You will know that my faith was very'weak, for I had children of my own, but I did not experiment with them. Neither did I approach the children of the members of my church. As I look back now upon the incident, it seems that I thought I would try those that would not be hurt if the experiment failed! We had a small church and a large Sunday-school, and • “For WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name
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