In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching the word of God to children. He encourages teachers to love, pray, and live with their students, guiding them towards salvation. The speaker also advises against introducing new songs or ideas, instead focusing on the timeless truths of the Bible. He shares a personal story of five of his students who went on to become preachers and emphasizes the need to encourage oneself in the Lord. The sermon concludes with a reminder to prioritize the salvation of children and the joy of seeing them grow in their faith.

Chapter 30, there's a verse on my mind, and if I don't get rid of it, I'll probably lose a night's sleep, and I don't want to do that. 1 Samuel 30, please, and one verse only, and that is verse 6, 1 Samuel 30 and 6. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved. Every man for his sons and for his daughters, and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. A little sentence that I'm impressed with, and that I'm going to get rid of just now, is the end of the verse, and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. You remember that, and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. The first speaker tonight, let it on up, that I taught. The second person, let it on up, that I taught. I put them both together, and both of them put together led me to the verse I read with you 1 Samuel 30, what the first brother said was, give them plenty of the book of God, I say amen to that. There's no substitute for it, Sunday school teacher. And I tried the job for 20 years, and the first class I took, I had to get the children to find a place for me. I'm not going to dig in on that. I want you to encourage yourself in the Lord your God. And you'll come to a place where nobody else can encourage you, only the Lord. But they'll have to keep in good terms with them. Our first brother said quite a lot of good things, and the one I taught was, give them plenty of the Bible. There's no substitute for that, brethren. You say we know that, yes. The people that Peter wrote to knew quite a lot of things. But he didn't write to tell them anything new. He wrote but a script of pure minds by way of remembrance. Let me do the same with you tonight. Give them plenty of the Bible. It's settled in heaven, it will never pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away. But my word shall not pass away. And the word of the Lord endures forever. Give them plenty of the Bible. But don't you think, please, for a moment that you can run the country on Saturday night and make a sign of a fool yourself and get help from God. You can't do it. You may lose illustrations, we don't find fault with that everywhere. A good illustration of good faith. But you can't live what way you like during the week. Run the country on Sunday. Or spend a couple of hours at the TV and get God to help you on Sunday. You can't do it. The other remark that seconds Peter made was visit the houses. I'm a firm believer in that. Always was. And I hope always will be. A little word of advice, if you please, about visiting houses. If you were too proud to visit joshy little houses in Buck Street, you were too proud to be a teacher. And if I were the superintendent, I wouldn't give you a class. God can get nowhere with proud people. Only take the pride out of them. Visit the houses. Whether they're sick or not. Whether they're absent or not. Don't wait for the lack of that. Get in your class. You were their teacher. And God will hold you responsible. It's just as strong to take a Thunder School class. As it takes to stand and preach the gospel. And I hope with all of you it's obnoxious to listen to a lot of jokes and things on the platform. It's a gospel meeting that I have a Thunder School class. I know you can use simpler language. I know that alright. I know you can use illustration, good and simple. But always keep this one thing before you. It's that child's soul that I'm after. And if you get this in your mind, that it's the child's soul I'm after. And if it's not that, you should be a teacher. If you haven't got the salvation of the children before you, you shouldn't be a teacher. It's the first qualification to make an unsuccessful teacher. You want to see the children fail for eternity. And at our last Bureau meeting, I'm after everybody sat down. I want to repeat it in different language. In these days, when there's so much damning, ridiculous infidelity taught in the day schools, and the elementary schools, and the high schools of Australia put plenty of the Bible into the word Jesus said. I hope you think I'm not erratic. I'm talking about what I know. And I'm prepared to say that any place, any time, to anybody. And the only thing that will counteract the heresy that will heal on Sunday and the rubbish that will heal during the weekdays such as evolution, which is a fraud and a farce and an insult to the monkey. I mean that, brother. I mean that. The only thing to counteract is a good old book of God. Give them plenty of it. Look at the holes. Did you do that? I sure did. I'm going to get. And when you get to a little hole in a little back street, don't put your head in the air like as if you fell down from Jupiter. Get into the hole. Don't pronounce what I pray. I'm speaking to sisters as well as brothers. And I'm as fond of assembly principles as any man on the platform and a bit more than some of them. Even if there are men present, it's not assembly meeting. It's only an evening. And God won't listen to your preaching. And God won't listen to your preaching. They'll be bound to listen to you. I dig it down to pray alongside of them. Call me a friend. Oh, it's a dirty house. You're stuffed full of pride. That's your problem. And there's no remedy for it. The doctor can do nothing about it. But I tell you what. If you get this to be told you, which I hope you do, that I'm speaking to children now that there'll soon be men and women of colour and they'll go out into the world to be an influence for good or evil, to win them for Christ or to damn them. And I'll keep the soul of salvation before me. I'll be thick at them and I'll pray with them when they get there. They'll be around the circumstances. They'll be around a few jobs, nothing about it. They'll be around a few cats, nothing about it. Leave your pride at home if you have any. They'll be around the dust of the floor, get down. And not to take pride of heaven or hell for the people in the home and for the children you speak to. I built a house for an old woman. Don't want anybody smiling, please. I built a house for an old woman. It was a little country house. I got this old woman to come to the meeting every night on a contract. She never missed a night for six weeks. I called to pray with her before I left the country and I got down to pray. Don't want you to laugh, please. If I'm preaching what I don't practice I'm a hypocrite. Don't listen to me. But I challenge you on that. I got down to pray and the first thing I felt was my toes sticking to the floor. Well, after me. I felt God was going to help me to preach to pray and the next thing I felt was a cat on the back of my neck. And the third thing I felt was a little chicken on the heel of my boot. Ah, good brethren in spite of all that the blessed God send me a little help to pray and I can pray when I can't preach. Make your children the subject of your prayer. Not only a little while on Sunday, but do the apostasy. Don't have to be a buffoon. Down to the jaw. I pray for your children every day you live at least once and ask God to give you real help and a real love to see these children saved look at their houses specially and not very far from where I was sitting there was a sister visited a scholar, yes in a little back street the mother was a Roman Catholic the father was a Roman Protestant and one's worse than the other and this teacher insisted on the little girl coming to school. She did come. She prayed. You can't pray there's something between your soul and God. Don't tell them they were backward because you don't believe that. If you've got a soul a lot of other souls do not mind your backwardness. That's not the name for it. And some special meeting come along and this girl teacher went back to get this woman who used to be a Roman Catholic and she said no and she went back again and she prayed and she prayed with her and she got her and she got saved and she got her pride and she abolished it. You see visiting the homes of the children opens the door for you to get into the homes to invite them to the gospel meetings when they come along. Are you doing anything of it? Are you doing anything of it? Is your Sunday school teaching only a pledge and a superintendent? Are you doing anything of it? Listen Mark this to Mark well. Take a note of it. The north of Ireland will never know what's been accomplished by the Sunday school as I've met in every country I've been to overseers, preachers, missionaries that used to be in the Sunday school in Belfast and elsewhere. You go in for the soul salvation you preach with them about that you speak to them about that you be honest with them, be kind to them to be sure don't give them a lot of stuff that will do them no good. No inventions no new things no new things. A glorious gospel of the blessed God first to Mary 11 the deliverer of God and the salvation Romans 1 16 is all we needed in the north of Ireland this last 90 years 40 years that I've been at it and it's all we need still. I'm going to give you time to think that over do new things please no matter who suggests them and it's the superintendents business for to see that the classes are getting taught the blessed good of God and that the teachers not do nothing we can have the teacher of mood either to remove a class or out of the school altogether some of these teachers are short I'll grant you that but let us face up to fact you have to double the classes to be sure you have to give one teacher two sometimes three classes never mind that but to have that and one real teacher then somebody's only playing at the job the rest of the business is done for eternity I don't suppose anybody ever made a worse shape of teaching at Thunder School than I did in the year 1906 I was forced to it more or less because the July holidays came round and the superintendent said to me Frank I don't get off to take a class that I thought I could take no class I'm not long saved and I couldn't find a place he said Frank I want you to take a class I said I can't do it he said I've doubled up five classes already I've taken two classes myself and there's one left he said I want you to take a class there it is, over there are a lot of little boys from 8 to 10 all Christian children I see one of them in the meeting tonight in front of me it's a good thing to be able to stand over what you say especially on a platform and especially with brothers 95 the younger must obey the older and I went and sat down and these little boys they wanted to hear my twang but I was just over from England after 12 years in there I went there and I was 8 and I left when I was 20 and I couldn't do anything I only speak English, well in the Lord's name will you use your own language and not try to be somebody else man it's obnoxious so I sat down among these little boys they knew that I spoke English because they heard me tell an hour's tale and 10 of them got their heads right round me and I got my head round them and I said Lord help me what will I say I didn't know and they were all wishing to hear what I would say and I was wishing for them to get something to say and I think maybe Ailish would help me, I don't know and I said and I began to speak I said we've just sung wonderful things in the Bible I see and I said no we have been singing wonderful things in the Bible I see although I say we have been singing wonderful things in the Bible I see I know God will forgive me but I couldn't help it I couldn't speak any other way now that got their attention and I said if we've been singing the hymn of truth every one of you will tell me some wonderful thing you've seen in the Bible so this little boy started off he took 2 or 3 minutes of the woman at the well and said aye that's good I never asked her that in my life forgive her but I'm just telling you what happened and I'm doing this to encourage young teachers can't teach them in the English dictionary anybody can say it and I said now it's your turn and this little boy he started to tell me about a woman and the Lord Jesus at the well I said that's quite good my boy though I never heard tell of it before and then I said it's your turn now and he told me 2 or 3 minutes about a blind man that the Lord Jesus healed I don't know what but the whole ten of them took 2 or 3 minutes each and I give them all credit for doing well and they didn't know whether they were doing well or not but you know whenever they got round and all told of the little story the bell rang it's 5 minutes to 4 and like the apostle Paul I thank God and took courage and I'm going on to say love your scholars visit your scholars pray with your scholars pray with them in the home pray with them harder pray with them harder now start well what is that? that's the blessed book of God there's no substitute for it take heart dear brethren and sisters in Christ it's the only thing God has promised to bless he has always blessed it and he will bless it in the future and avoid new things no matter who introduces them in the Sunday school there's no substitute for the blessed book of God Psalm 30 and for Psalm 30 and I finish David encouraged himself in the law of his God you get plenty of discouragement so did I you get discouraged by the teachers and you get discouraged maybe by the superintendent he doesn't understand you you get discouraged by the scholars and a whole lot of other things you maybe get discouraged in the home and when you get there remember it's the Lord his God and when they were going to stone David after all his kindness to them was over the stone David David encouraged himself in the law of his God many a time I done the same when I was teaching class for 20 years I loved that I would have stayed there only I had to clean out the Sunday school and go to preach the gospel because I got, I wouldn't join the union and I had to leave my job and consequently I had to go to preach God bless you brethren and sisters in Christ God bless you teachers, but listen it's not a play job, get down to the praying and whatever difficulty may arise, take it to your God and Father and encourage yourself in the Lord his God, especially give them the Bible as the first preacher said, especially visit them as the second and certainly keep the soul's salvation before you I saw don't forget that good big topical line, I saw five of my scholars saved and one in the assembly which I belong to and the whole five of them belong to the same family, one of them is a missionary in India another is the wife of a preacher and I think the other three has gone home to heaven David encouraged himself in the Lord his God you do the same and God bless you and may you have the immeasurable joy of seeing your children getting saved for eternity and growing up to be men and women for God, for our all Jesus Christ