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THE CHILD, THE YOUTH AND THE ETERNAL TRUTH
PRESENTED BY WORLD WIDE WEB WITNESS INC.
©
Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson
PREFACE
There has been a vogue in the last four-score years or so, to move from man to child, as the ultimate, as if men were in their various wars, such a hopeless, talkative, vying, prying and sighing mess that it was better to look for something, not so soiled and spoiled. Mankind has looked to junior for senior wisdom. It did not of course work, since junior has the senior as a role model, his ways so often appear as a pollutant, and inspiration is more needed than water or food.
Without it, there is a darkness that can be felt. Means of life merely aggravate it! That is precisely why some civilisations, like that of the Amorites were ground into judgment (cf. Genesis 15). Adults tend to be riddled with rebellion, children brought up in defiant declivities from the first. The continuation is a process so despicable, and a cessation is a total bonus from the anguish, souls awry, spirit-dried, heart fried residues that burn life into distortions unimaginable and decrepitudes before age supervenes. Judgment was already within; then it came outside as well!
Wallowing in the will does not work. Nevertheless, the idea was there. It was to be a matter of largely undisciplined, really living, creative children; but alas as in other presumption all but habitually, it soon faded. The children, so great and all but inspiring in theory (and they CAN be an inspiration when in the Lord), turned increasingly into sour selfish, self-indulged, unprepared partisans, often parasites on their parents, untrained and residues of non-performance, frequently aided by sensation-drugs and sensational ways. Even the much famed Dr Spock, whose ideas were in the ultra-creative mode, renounced the trial as a failure.
Fashion began to turn instead to women. Surely if man and children were not so good, man too macho and child too immature, then woman, that waiting wife while men marred each other in war, that nurse who cared for the wounds of the gored, that emblem of sympathy and sense: this was the way.
So, with this amongst other grounds for its genesis and arrival, there was at least a new boost to feminism. WOMAN must have equal opportunity, at work, even when it was manifestly unequal, by having such and such a percentage of given posts required of women, in this or that industry or professional echelon, irrespective - and that statedly, of SKILL.
It surely added something, just as the stress on creativity has added something, just as a flower garden adds something to your back yard. It does not CREATE your backyard; but provided you have the thing otherwise in order, it surely adorns it. Creative children, not slaves of convention, may give an additive of liberty. PROVIDED self-discipline and knowledge were not omitted as another outing, that could indeed be a useful premiss. More fairness at least in pay for women was only justice, for their pay had often been ludicrously uneven. Yet even so, it is not entirely just for women to have leave for child-birth, and so to jeopardise a business for longer than a man does, other things equal, and yet to HAVE to be employed as readily on some rote basis.
If you want 'social justice' in the sense that SINCE women DO bear the children and it DOES take time, then that is only ONE aspect of it. The business that suffers differentially with woman for the above reason, IS being penalised, if law FORCES the ratio of men to women. If you say, It is all equal! yet is it ? for the fact is that in some areas of profession, woman appear less, and the desire-talent input is not the same. Moreover, some women have far more children than others! That could spell RELATIVE ruin for some businesses - that is, a far greater trend towards it.
It is not in this volume our purpose to look at the various aspects of justice in this matter, at least not here; but it is our concern to note the excessive emphasis which drew to women an aura which was partly as idealistic and vague, as was that formerly accorded to children
Of course children ARE different, CAN be delightful and so can women. Due attention to the diversities of ALL provides due and additional pleasantness, instead of a droning pre-occupation with man; and a more diversified approach can have great merit in both cases: but there is no need to re-write the facts with fantasy, in order to correct an over-emphasis. There is a design in view, and it has certain specialties, the ignoring of which is as wise as ignoring the propellers on a motor boat, because you decided that they have had too much emphasis before. You need to see it ALL and to see it whole.
In this book, however, we plan to dwell on the distinctives of CHILD and YOUTH, and to consider some of the problems, pangs, wonders, opportunities, vision, understanding, inspiration which is required both for them, and in understanding them; and all is to be looked at in the ultimate perspective of Jesus Christ, so that the full value of His approach can be realised, instead of the vacillatory approach of culture and counter-culture, mood and exaggerated reaction.
Child and youth alike have potential in the uttermost degree; it is good to see how to aid it to be realised, always remembering that potential is not a thing, like a glove box or a boot in an automobile; it is an ASPECT of a person, and you need to see it in that light, just as much as you see a car on wheels. To ignore the wheels is not too sad, provided you KNOW that they are there; but if you tend to overlook that consideration, you are, to be short, not likely to get far.
In this work, there is planned to be both a compilation of what has already been written by this author on the topic, with various possible additions, all suitably arranged topic-wise, and an addition of various new aspects, foci and features. The addition is very largely to be found in Chapter 16, which being a work estimated at more than 14,000 words, is a significant addition in itself.
It is desired to give a tissue for this theme, a composition for its aspects and a stimulus for its understanding, while at all times showing the wonder of what God has done, to be ignored or suppressed only for the further ruin of the race.
Not for nothing did Christ indicate the mill-stone apt and appropriate for the neck of the one who makes one of these little ones who believe in Him, to stumble. Irrational rumbles make strong medicine for the young, but alas, instead of 'worming' them, they merely add pollution, more incessant and more ruthless that the curling columns of smoke which invest our atmosphere, and the gaseous distortions of our lack of care.
CONTENTS
The current Chapter title will be given first, at each actual chapter,
followed by the Title in the Original Work, where applicable.
This volume
concerns youth, children and the eternal truth; but there is an allied listing, YOUTH INDEX, including some
different elements than these"
not presented as a volume, they relate more directly to youth as such:
and this is to be found HERE.
The Construction before us with the Child
Little Children ....
from Little Things Ch. 3
In view of this, we need like kindly pathologists to consider ...
The Misconstruction that Mars the
Face of the Race,
Starting with the Child
Childishness on the
part of those who are not Children
and Care on the part of Him who Made them
from Section 11, Ch. 7, SMR
This misuse of youth by its own hand or that of another should not misorient us, as if
there were no wonder and joy available for youth, for the opposite is the case ...
The Sheer Joy of Godly Youth, with
Potent Potential
Because of the Prince of Life, their True Leader, Truth Itself
from Youth 4 -
and The Kingdom of
Heaven
Ch. 8
The Spirit of Envy -
and
The 'God'
of this World
(II
Corinthians 4:4) :
left for dead by
...
The Truth in its Beauty
Seeing it in Verse and Drama
(Children - Scene III)
Peaceful shores however are select in the Saviour, and many are ...
The Storms of Youth
from
The Dispossessed, the Repossessed and the Possessed
These things teach us that there is a proper way for youth and it needs to be found, not merely for the body, but for the mind, nor for that alone, but for the spirit, that readily damaged and easily twisted function. It is not found in the stars in their courses, or in the fires of events, but rather in the Truth who wrote the text for our bodies and inscribed logic into our minds, liberty into our thoughts, including the power for vexatious misuses of it which make the earth more and more like an unserviced car, though its structure continues, while the gears are successfully stripped. We must therefore look constructively at ...
The Way for Youth
from News 51,
YOUTH IN THE SEAS ?
PIRACIES AND SCUTTLINGS OF THE SOUL
YOUTH,
FAMILY,
BAPTISM
AND THE WORD OF GOD UNCHANGED
MODES OF STABILITY AND STRENGTH,
BAPTISM OF SPIRIT AND HEART IN SALVATION and the
UNCHANGED CHARACTER OF GOD,
HIS COVENANT, HIS WORD and CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
GOD IS THE SAME, HIS WORD IS THE SAME: MAN NEEDS TO CHANGE
This reminds us of the sheer beauty which led Christ to speak not only of the millstones available for those who bring down one of these little ones who believe in Him, but of the impressive receptivity and unsubtle scope for finding the truth which relatively, often belongs to the child , so that we consider ...
The Tranquillity of the Light-Lit Child, Awake to the Truth
from The Lame Man and the Children,
Allegory 7, TMR Ch. 4
Such considerations all but demand a consideration of contrasts, and of the end of the epic called human life, when the child becomes youth, youth man or woman, and when the mature result comes to its designed destiny, not by force of circumstances, but in the mercy and love of God ... or despite it.
Children in Contrast, Sand-blast and those who Ever Last
from Stepping Out for Christ, Ch. 7
A Walk along the Beach, A Talk within the Breach
These considerations weigh and are weighty, but let us look at something practical, simple and expressive, where there is something a child may teach age, and that straightforwardness may stir even in the long mature ...
The Child and Courtesy
from Joyful Jottings Epilogue
Like a river
course, first in the stream which wandering this way and that, responding
to this opportunity and that, or diverted by this or that plan, so the child
needs not some force to simply tame it, nor yet some adulatory worship to let it
do what it wants, you name it.
Rather does it need the love in which it ought to have been begotten, now
spilling over the wall of the dam of life with sheer abundance from the partners
to procreation, down the spillway of care into the peace of the product. This
exuberance of love is ready to bring reality home, not too readily as if to
suppress, not too slightly, as if to create wild pretence. It requires truth for
its blessed use, which must first be found by those responsible, and with this,
it brings up the aspect that many shun, but which must be faced ...
The Child and Discipline
from Joyful Jottings 13
This discipline however is by no means to program the child, and in fact programmers whether in misled teaching stultifying children with secular myths, or mischievous culture providing them with the dynamics of distortion, are all too numerous.
The departure from the directives of the Director-Creator is mere madness of spirit (Hosea 9:7 cf. LOVE IS PURER with REASON, REVELATION and the REDEEMER), and readily brings horrors of spiritual prematurity.
This we see as we study ...
Birth of the Young into Mini-Adulthood
Resembles Premature Natural Birth
and has all the Vulnerabilities of the Same
PREMATURE CHILD GENERATION
The Australian, Oct. 2, and The Advertiser, Oct. 3, 2003
from His Time is Near Ch. 7
Such considerations stir us to look at some
of the least expert of programs, and the most
mischievous of social tools, damning deity, in effect through its presumptions,
and bypassing the God of truth, in order to open its own mouth, based on
nothing, to prescribe what shall be, the whole acting as its own little
god.
One must be faced, and this develops in the U.N. ...
DRILLING THE CHILDREN WITH UN UNMORAL MOSES GEN
If your own land cannot land the children and transport the youth into the prematurely aged,
the ravaged and the empty, try for sheer mouth-power, the United Nations.
from Mystery of Iniquity
AUSTRALIA'S INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION:
DON'T
JUST SELL THE FARM SELL THE FARMERS
More subtle social forces may also contend to bypass the beauty which is available to the child by unillustrious pretences, not only illogical and inept, but excruciatingly unrealistic.
An example must be provided ...
THE OTHER NET
A Place for
DENYING THE BEAUTY OF TRUTH
Educative Freedom ?
or Crucifying the Children
?
If all else fails, then crucify the children ?
You know, they protect even SHARKS ... !
from News 16
Indeed, now that we have cited examples, it is wise to direct our regard to a broader scope of moral deformity and spiritual decline into which many of the young are sucked, like logs of wood, manoeuvred by the currents, in a mêlée of mismanagement,. There forces are at work that having left the wisdom of God, often make havoc with the ignorance that is not bliss, or other implements of the ignoble decline of man.
This leads us to the topic of ...
Youth Lost, Glossed or Bossed
Amid Human Contrivances
from NEWS 118
The Generation: Stolen, Grabbed, Stripped - but Which ?
From such things, how vital is the process of disentanglement!
This obviously needs to come from above, so severe in principle and practice is the log jam and so misled is a multitude of the careers of speculative forces: social, academic, ecclesiastical where churches decline and become their own bosses, and as to this, let us consider a case ...
DISENTANGLEMENT
from Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 7
A Walk on the Beach
Indeed, let us follow the restoration needed, through a dialogue...
RESTORATION
from Doubt to Delight -
A Travel Dialogue that takes you far and brings you near, if you will come.
Now let us consider further the very
structure of things for the child, the youth, as he or she grows, and the
building as it progresses, what it needs and how it may be placed.
There is the thrill of truth, the wonder of its fitting into the wings of life
and the heart behind them and the deliverance which this constitutes. It comes
of course with a cost, both to God and to man, to the One to provide it, to the
other to receive it, though it be free ...
Filling in the Gap:
Building the Programmatic Shield
While the Heart Grows -
CHILD-YOUTH PREPARATIONS,
AND ETERNAL TRUTH LIAISON!
It would be a short-cut to our survey, if we did not ponder the seminary population, that is often spiritually molested and sometimes a directly embattled group, the prey of wolves, no better for being in sheep's clothing. Courage and conviction in Christ can readily resolve things, though not without cost and suffering ...
Youth and the Seminary
Subversion not so Subtle
from The Kingdom of Heaven
Ch. 10, Section III,
Blood Sport - or
The Modern Mark Anthony with Another Body - a one-act Play
If they're still sound by seminary, then it is time to splurge with the spurs, disregarding the blood!
is the advice diabolical.
What remains is a look at things that have been, and that come, and for this, it is best to consider the NOVEL aspect, starting with
but continued for those who so desire, with its sequel,
JOURNEY TO GOD
OR FANTASY'S FLIGHT
TO THE INFERNAL
The Dynamics of Disintegration and
the Delights of Restoration
the NOVELS are here related, but merely listed for reference, rather than incorporated; yet through THE MOON SOON and its sequel, we come to the topic ...
Youth and the Megalomaniac,
sub-set of much modern history, but set near the end to come.