A TIMOTHEAN
A reader has asked that we reproduce this article from The Herald of the Coming Age, dated March 1855:
Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, Timothy, from a child” – Paul
At one of our visits to Washington DC, we spent a very agreeable day with brother Little, who resides upon his farm, about three miles from the city. The day was spent in talking about the things of the Kingdom, asking questions, and answering them. It was quite a holiday; for several of the brethren suspended work and companied with us at the same place. In the course of the day, brother Little introduced his little boy, who was then not six years old, to tell us what he had learned from the Scriptures. He was placed on a chair before us, when brother Little proceeded to question him. The questions were many, and all of them very Scripturally answered; besides which he repeated the first and second Psalms, and another we have forgotten. We were all very much gratified, both at the child’s proficiency, and at brother Little’s perseverance and Scriptural intelligence, reflected from his pupil. If all true believers would take the same trouble with their children, we should have many Timothies, and a rising generation that would take care of the Truth when we are gone into sheol. Brother Little’s son has been taught to think Scripturally; so that no clergyman hereafter will be able to spoil him with philosophy and vain deceit. Timothy knew the Scriptures of the Prophets from a child, and so might any one else, if due pains were bestowed upon their instruction. If friends Joseph Marsh, Nathaniel Field, and others of their type, had only the Scriptural intelligence of this child of less than six years old, they would never have become Millerites, and would not now be deceiving themselves with fables, vainly supposing they had obeyed the Gospel, when manifestly they knew nothing about the subject as they ought to have known it.
We were so much pleased with the examination, that we requested brother Little to let us have a copy of the questions and answers for publication in the Herald, that our readers might see what could be done with their children by a little pains. A few days since we received we received the following questions, with the little boy’s answers annexed to each. They are a selection which, we hope, will put to shame the ignorance of every clergyman, editor, president, and “evangelist” to whom they may come greeting, and induce them to throw away their foolishness, and become as the little child, in whom is much wisdom and knowledge in comparison of them.
(Jan. 4, 1859)
Questions Scripturally Answered
By William Little
Aged 6 years
- Who was it that called Abraham out from his father’s house:
- Jehovah
Q. What did Jehovah say to Abraham?
A. He told him to go into a land that he would show him, to walk through the land in the length and breadth of it.
Q. When Jehovah met with Abraham, what did he say to him?
A. He said that he would give that land to him and his children for ever and ever.
Q. Who are Abraham’s children?
A. They that believed what Abraham believed.
Q. What did Abraham believe?
A. He believed what Jehovah said.
Q. What did Jehovah say?
A. He said that he should have that land; and in him and his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Q. What did Jehovah do for Abraham because he believed him?
A. He counted his faith unto him for righteousness.
Q. Did Abraham ever have the land?
A. No, not so much as to set his foot on.
Q. Who has the land now?
A. The wicked.
Q. Where is Abraham now?
A. Down in the ground where his Fathers are.
Q. When will Abraham have the land?
A. When the Lord comes.
Q. What will the Lord do for Abraham when he comes?
A. He will take him out of the ground, and give him life again.
Q. What will the Lord do to the wicked who have the land?
A. He will drive them out of the land, and destroy them.
Q. Who is the Lord?
A. Jehovah’s Son.
Q. what has Jehovah promised his Son when he comes again?
A. David’s throne.
Q. Where was David’s Throne?
A. In Jerusalem.
Q. Is it in Jerusalem now?
A. No, it is overturned and thrown down.
Q. Will it ever be built again?
A. Yes, when the Lord comes he will build again the Tabernacle of David that has fallen down, and set up the ruins thereof.
Q. When will all of the nations of the earth be blessed in Abraham and his seed?
A. When the Lord sits upon David’s Throne in Jerusalem reigning over the children of Israel and the nations at large; then all the nations will be blessed in Abraham and his Seed.
Q. What will be the blessing to the nations?
A. A good government
Q. How will they get this good government?
A. When the Lord is King over all the earth he will judge or rule this world in righteousness and peace. Then the Law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Then all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of the Lord and his Christ. Then will be the time that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God, that he is Lord of all.
Q. What will be the blessings to Abraham’s children?
A. They will eternal life given them; they will be made Kings and Priests unto God: and they will reign with Christ a thousand years upon the earth. They will be made inheritors of God and joint inheritors with Jesus Christ of an everlasting inheritance.
Q. What will be the condition of man then?
A. Man will be at peace with man; he will learn war no more; he can sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and be afraid of no-one.
Q. What will become of those war implements man has to kill man with?
A. They will be made into ploughshares to plough the land with; and pruning hooks to trim the fruit trees with.
Q. When all the families of the earth are blessed in Abraham and his Seed, will that affect the animal creation?
A. Yes.
Q. How?
A. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.
Q. Are all these blessings to come upon the families of the earth through Abraham and his seed?
A. Yes.
Q. Who is the Seed?
A. The Christ.
Q. Who is the Christ?
A. The One that was anointed of the Father.
Q. What was he anointed for?
A. To fill three offices.
Q. What three offices?
A. Prophet, Priest, and King.
Q. How was he anointed?
A. The Holy Spirit came down from the Father in the form of a dove and rested upon him.
Q. Was there anything said then?
A. Yes; there was a voice heard from the Father, saying, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”
Q. When was he anointed?
A. At his baptism
Q. Where was he baptised?
A. In the river Jordan.
Q. Who baptised him?
A. John the baptiser.
Q. Abraham was called out from his father’s house; from what country?
A. From the land that was called Ur.
Q. From among what people?
A. The Chaldees.
Q. Was Abraham’s name always Abraham?
A. No, it was Abram.
Q. What was Abraham’s wife’s name?
A. Sarah.
Q. Did Sarah ever have a son?
A. Yes, one.
Q. What was his name?
A. Isaac.
Q. Did Isaac ever have any sons?
A. Yes, two.
Q. What were their names?
A. Esau and Jacob.
Q. Did Jacob ever have any sons?
A. Yes; twelve.
Q. What were they called?
A. Patriarchs; and from these twelve Patriarchs sprung the twelve tribes of Israel, which constituted a nation, which Jehovah called his First-born Son.
Q. Was that nation ever in bondage?
A. Yes.
Q. Where?
A. In Egypt.
Q. Under what king?
A. King Pharaoh.
Q. How long were they in bondage?
A. Four hundred years.
Q. Were they delivered after that?
A. Yes.
Q. How?
A. Jehovah sent a man down to Egypt to deliver them.
Q. What was his name?
A. Moses.
Q. What was Moses to be to them?
A. Their Lawgiver, Governor or Ruler.
Q. Where was Moses to take them to when he delivered them?
A. To the land of Canaan.
Q. What land was that?
A. The land that Jehovah promised to Abraham.
Q. Where was that land?
A. All that land lying between the river of Egypt and the great river Euphrates.
Taken from the Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, 1855