We will not hide them from their children.
Children
I. The interesting objects of our solicitude mentioned. Consider--
1. The love which welcomes them.
2. The evils which surround them.
3. The possibilities which await them.
II. The sacred duties which we owe to them.
1. They are weak; we must protect them (Genesis 33:1-20.).
2. They are helpless; we must provide for them.
3. They are ignorant; we must instruct them.
III. The object which we hope shall be realized.
1. The knowledge of truth shall be perpetuated.
2. Our children will put their hope in God.
3. They shall be better than their fathers. (The Study.)
The knowledge of national benefits and deliverances transmitted to the rising generation
I. Point out a few of those things which we have heard and known, or which our fathers have told us, and which we, with the psalmist, may style “The praises of the Lord, and His strength, and the wonderful works that He hath done.”
II. Recommend and enforce the resolution in my text. The great Gad may justly expect that we acquaint ourselves with His ways and works; that we endeavour to trace Him in the natural, providential, and civil world, and in the world of grace; and that we treasure up in our hearts each signal deliverance He hath wrought. But a genuine disciple of Jesus, and a child of God, will neither wish to live nor to die unto himself. What we have known of the wonderful works of God in favour of our fathers, of ourselves, or of ages to come, we should transmit to the rising generation. I am apprehensive that one cause of the languishing state of public spirit, and of pious zeal, in this age, is the want of knowledge. Had the minds of persons in the present day been early and deeply impressed with the conduct of God to this highly favoured country, the privileges they enjoy would be more dear and important in their esteem, and patriotism would not be that empty boast which we have too much reason to apprehend it now is. With the knowledge of those “things we have heard, and known, and which our fathers have told us,” transmit, as far as possible, the things themselves. On our part let nothing be left untried, that they who are soon to fill our places in civil and religious life, and that their descendants, even to the world’s last period, may stand forth, under God, the guardians of each important and sacred right, and approve themselves the unshaken friends of their country, of Jesus, and of the Gospel. (N. Hill.)
The transmission of Scriptural truth to posterity
The text presents four grand arguments why we should zealously devote ourselves to this duty.
I. The peculiar character of scriptural truth. Consider it--
1. As a revelation of God.
2. As a law of duty.
3. As a history of God’s conduct.
II. The manner in which we have been put into its possession. As we have received the knowledge of God and the way of happiness from our fathers, who showed us by their lips and their lives the way of happiness, we are bound, by every consideration of gratitude, to give to others what has been so freely given to us.
III. The divine arrangements as to its transmission. Fathers are commanded to make known the commands and the character of Gad to their children. Various powerful reasons might be assigned for this infinitely wise arrangement. The young come into our world with an awfully strong bias to evil, and it is unspeakably important to check the workings of their depravity by presenting the most powerful considerations which tend to the accomplishment of such an end. Nor must it be forgotten here, that, as immortal creatures, the character of man is usually formed in youth for eternity.
IV. The great results which it is intended to accomplish. Every individual who receives the knowledge of God, in the love of it, becomes a moral sun, diffusing light and warmth around him, the glorious effects of which shall be felt through all the changes of time, and in eternity itself. (J. Belcher.)
The true method by which generation helps generation
I. True religious knowledge is a thing imparted to man. It is that “which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.” It is not inbred nor discovered. Without denying that man has a capacity to discover God as the Creator, all history shows that he has never done so; and as to His redeeming capacity, that, in the nature of the case, transcends all human conceptions. As sinners, this is the knowledge of God we require, and it involves the former. And we have it, not by intuition or discovery, but by impartation. It has been transmitted to us through many generations.
1. They have handed it down to us by inspired documents.
2. They have handed it down to us by their own teaching.
II. True religious knowledge is imparted to us, not to monopolize, but to transmit (Psalms 78:5-8). The transmittory arrangement implies--
1. That the children of every generation have a capacity for receiving this knowledge. There is no danger of teaching religion boo soon.
2. That the children of every generation will require this knowledge. Coming generations may not require our philosophies, poetries, and governments; they may out-grow our sciences, and despise our civilization, but they will require our religion. Though they may not require our lamps, they will need our sun.
3. The eternal harmony of all God’s operations. The Eternal does not contradict Himself. The first Divine act on earth’s theatre will harmonize with the last. The whole will form one great anthem filling eternity with music.
III. True religious knowledge is to be thus transmitted in order to elevate posterity.
1. The grand result aimed at is threefold--
(1) Rightness of intellect. “Not forget the works of God.” A constant recognition of Divine agency.
(2) Rightness of heart. “That they might set their hope in God,” and “set their heart aright”; the heart fixed on God as the supreme Good.
(3) Rightness of conduct. “Keep His commandments.” To bring immortal man to this sublime rightness--this rightness in thought, feeling, and action, is the grand and ultimate end of all this teaching. Glorious end!
2. It is coming slowly but surely. Humanity is rising, and every true thought arid virtuous act helps it on. (Homilist.)