Christopher Dock

“ But hatred, envy and hostility have an odor of death to death in themselves, and lead him who follows to death and destruction, since they are the opposite and contrary to love. This is also the case with belief and unbelief, with mercy and inclemency, with righteousness and unrighteousness, with chastity and impurity, with humility and pride. Upon the whole all godly acts have life in themselves, and bear an odor of everlasting life with them. He who will labor and let himself be governed by their strength and operation comes through them to be born again, out of death into life. ”

“ But may God, Who is a light, in Whom there is no darkness, send us His light and His truth, that they may lead and conduct us through this dark valley and shadow of death to His holy mount and to His dwelling, that we also, in truth, may say with David, Psalms xxxvi, In Thy light see we the light. ”

“ I considered my own unworthiness, and the unequal influence of parents in the training of children, since some seek the welfare and happiness of their children in teaching and life with their whole hearts, and turn all their energies to advance the honor of God, and the welfare of their children, but, on the other hand, others are just the opposite in life and teaching, and set evil examples before their children. ”

“ The natural sparks of love which, after the fall, God has not permitted to be entirely quenched, but has allowed to appear and be seen in reasoning and unreasoning creatures according to their natures and attributes, will also, through improper worldly love in many respects be weakened and overcome. I will only cite the natural love among natural men. They are impelled through these sparks of love in their hearts to unite with each other in marriage. ”

“ A child which at home is treated with blows and is accustomed to them will not at school be made right by blows, but still worse. If such children are to be made better it must be in some other way. Obstinate children, who have no hesitation in doing wrong, must be punished sharply with the rod, and at the same time addressed with earnest exhortation from the Word of God, to see whether the heart can be reached. But the diffident and dumb in learning must be advanced by other means, so that as much as possible it may be done willingly and they may be inspired with a love of learning. ”

“ Oh! that we not only may look upon this light with the eyes of belief, but also walk in this light, and through it may finally conquer and overcome the power of darkness. From my heart I wish and pray for help and strength of belief from the Most High. ”

“ Concerning the means to prevent these evil growths from getting the upper-hand, I see clearly that it is not an the power of man to destroy the root in the ground. God alone through the strength of his Holy Spirit must gives us this blessing. Still it is the duty of preachers and elders, parents and schoolmasters, first to themselves and their neighbors and fellow men, and then to the young to work as much as they are able through God's mercy, not only to make this stained coat hateful, but that it may be taken off. ”

“ Still all Christian duties are steps upon which we must place our feet, and tread from step to step. If we wish to be participators the Lord Jesus has left behind for us many teachings and warnings. Although no man can deny God's mercy to another since the one as well as the other cannot live without God's mercy, there is still found in the teaching of Christ an express difference between the foolish man and foolish maid, and the wise man and wise maid, between the true and untrue knights. ”

“ While this old injury and serpent's bite is the same, we should all seek earnestly for the right cure for this wound, and also the means which he has ordered for us to use for such injury, and turn to the remedy for ourselves and our youth, since without this remedy we cannot have true peace, but must feel to our everlasting destruction the gnawing worm which, through this bite of the snake, at all times gnaws our conscience. May God in his mercy support us all that we do not ne glect to receive the promise for our peace, and no one of us remain behind! ”

“ But if we turn away from our own ambition according to the instruction of Christ, and become as humble as children, it not only aids us to the kingdom of God, but it brings about a child-like union which can be much more useful than all the holding up of ourselves, since, he who raises himself here will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be raised up.
There are, beside, very many other duties to be performed, which are useful and beneficial in implanting love, through which the honor of God may be increased, and the common good be furthered. ”

“ To protect against it I have made an order that no child at school, or on the road, or at home without my knowledge, and that of their parents, shall give away or trade anything; also that whenever they find anything in school, or on the road, or wherever it may be, they must show it to me. What they find belongs not to them for themselves, but to him who lost it; but if after it has been made known a long; time he cannot be discovered, it belongs to him who found it. ”

“ If any one comes up again and fails as many as three times it is shown with a word to the scholars that he has failed three times, and all shout out at him “Lazy” and then his name is written down. Now whether a child naturally fears the rod or does not fear it, this I know from experience that this shaming cry of the children gives them more pain and drives them more to study than if I should hold the rod before them and use it all the time. If such a child under these circumstances has friends in the school who can and will teach it, it will try more earnestly than before. ”

“ From these words of the Lord Jesus we all have enough to learn. If we wish to come into the kingdom of heaven and to be eternally happy, we must not picture to ourselves that the way there is to show enmity to children, or to reprove and punish them, because they have not in words and gestures given us enough honor or made for us enough compliments. ”

“ It is far better that a man here in the time of mercy go upon the way in which God has promised and offered his mercy, than that man should come to sin against God's mercy and become hardened in sin so that by this the mercy will be the greater. See Rom. vi, verses 1, 2. It is, as has been said, the duty of a Christian to bring it about, as I confess and believe, that Christ is the head of His community and also the head of each man. It follows from this that it is a man's bounden duty that what his head lord and master teaches him he also should teach his wife, to whom he is given for a head. ”

“ Those who read letters and news sit together, and those who cipher sit together. When I find among the little ones any who have progressed so far in reading that they will soon be ready to read in the Testament, I point them out to the Testament scholars to try whether a good reader among the Testament scholars will receive them for instruction. Whoever is willing walks out, takes the said scholar by the hand, and they sit down near each other. ”

“ In order to avoid prolixity, as has been said, there are many useful and valuable exercises and instructions in piety, which I cannot particularly describe, of belief, love, hope and patience. In fact all the exercises of virtue, which in the Holy Scriptures point the way to piety, and have been left behind and marked out as useful for instruction for us, should at certain times be placed before the youth, but to give specific information here of all would take too long. ”

“ The slap with the hand, the hazel switch, and birch rod are all means to prevent the breaking forth of the evil, but they are no means to change the depraved heart, which since the fall, naturally holds us all in such control that we are more inclined to evil than to good, so long as it remains in this condition unchanged, and it is not cleansed through the spirit of God. Still though the seed from youth up in man is such that he is inclined to evil, it could not so mature in him if our old injury was recognized and felt. ”

“ The murderer of souls all the time seeks to combat the true upright love with his false Delilah, the worldly love, which with its burden of lust is dead to the good, so that he may crush out the natural sparks of love which were remaining after the fall. ”

“ He who remains last on the bench is a Lazy Scholar. When they are all together, and are examined to see whether they are washed and combed, a morning hymn or psalm is given them to sing and I sing and pray with them. Whatever can be intelligibly implanted in their minds concerning the Lord's Prayer and the ten commandments, according to those gifts which God has imparted, for remembrance and instruction, is done. To the very little ones short prayers and quotations are recited. So much for information concerning the assembling of the scholars. ”

“ The Holy Scriptures instruct us further that God in his great mercy has given the promise to the fallen human race, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, through which they again should be redeemed from the curse and damnation, through an everlasting redemption. ”

“ When children quarrel with each other, either in school or on the road, and it is found on examination that there was wrong on both sides and each is blamable, the transgression and the deserved punishment are put before, and adjudged to each, if they do not agree together. It is said to them that if they are not inclined to come into accord, they shall be separated at once from the other scholars and shall sit together upon the punishment bench until they do agree, and if not the merited punishment will follow. But it rarely goes so far that they separate and go upon the punishment bench ”

“ The poor beggar child, scabby, ragged and lousy, if its conduct is good, or it is willing to be instructed, must be as dear to him, though he should never receive a penny for it, as that of the rich, from whom he may expect a great reward in this life. The great reward for the poor child follows in the life to come. ”

“ Since many children say the prayers they have learned at home with half words and swiftly, especially the Father or Our Father, which form of prayer the Lord Jesus taught his disciples and contains everything it is necessary to ask of God for our bodies and souls, I am accustomed to say this prayer kneeling with them and they all kneeling repeat it after me. ”

“ It is indeed not to be doubted if the man follows his head in the teaching and life of Christ, and the woman the man, the children will follow their parents and schoolmasters and be obedient. In this way upright love produces a sure outcome through Christian duty, and still has nothing more been done in the whole than what ought to be done, and happiness is and still remains an undeserved gift of mercy. ”

“ It is a good while before they learn to speak and when they once can do it they are not easily kept from it. But in order that something orderly may be constructed and for improvement be implanted among children in school, it is necessary that speaking have its time and quiet also have its time, although it is so hard for children to accustom themselves to this rule. And it appears that we older ones have ourselves not properly learned this lesson that speaking and silence have each its time, which we ought to take more into thought in speaking and silence. ”

“ The true saving belief must contain all which serves for life and a godly walk, and nothing is deemed more worthy, by and in Jesus Christ, than the belief which, through love, shows itself active. He to whom the true belief in the Lord Jesus is given by the Lord Jesus himself for a shield, is a weapon-bearer of Christ, not only to overcome the world, as is to be seen, 1 John v, verses 5, 6, but also to put out all the fiery arrows of evil, as we may read, Eph. ”

“ If a child is found who will have the upper seat, and abandons his own place, and forces himself to the uppermost without any right to it in reading, writing, &c., he is put at the bottom for a warning until, by industry, he again reaches the place that belongs to him. When the children once see this the difficulty is already cured. But who will bring down the old like the children, if they will not humble themselves according to the teaching of Christ? ”

“ Since some here in the country have a long way to come but others live near to the school, so that the scholars cannot be all together at a fixed time and at the stroke of the clock, as in those places where men live together in a city or village, the rule and arrangements are that all of those who come first who can read in the Testament sit down on a bench, the boys together on one bench and the girls on another by themselves. ”

“ The Holy Scriptures give further witness how, through the envy of the devil, death and temporal and everlasting destruction came into the world, and how the human race, through the coming of Satan, fell into sin and transgression and that through this transgression sin came into the world, and through sin, death, and that death has become the lot of all men because they have sinned. ”