Teaching Our Children the Word of God

By Samuel Worcester, D. D., October 1811

"Children should be taught early the important truths of God's Word. They should early be taught that there is a God; that He is a being of infinite power and wisdom, knowledge and goodness, justice, mercy, and truth, one God in three persons; that He is to be loved with all the heart, and obeyed in all things with the most dutiful respect; that His law is holy, just, and good; that all mankind are by nature sinners, and are exposed to everlasting destruction; that God has freely given His own Son to die for sinners, and to bring in everlasting righteousness for their justification; that everyone ought immediately to repent and embrace the Savior; that all the unconverted reject the mercy of God, and will continue to reject it to their eternal ruin; and that all who are thus renewed and made alive to God will be pardoned and sanctified, and finally received to honor, glory, and immortality.


These and other gospel truths connected with these should be taught to our children with diligence and faithfulness. They are truths which concern their eternal salvation. Nor are we to say that children cannot understand them; for it has been found by pleasing experience that, if proper means are used, children will very early get so much knowledge of divine truth as to be of the greatest benefit to them in all their future lives."