If, when Jesus was here on earth, he had shown a great interest in
kings, and princes, in rich, and wise, and great men, it would not
have been surprising; because he was a king and a prince, himself; he
was richer than the richest, and wiser than the wisest, and greater
than the greatest. But he did not do this. He took no particular
notice of them; but he showed the greatest possible interest in
children. When mothers brought their little ones to him, the
disciples wanted to keep them away. They thought, no doubt, that he
was too busy to take any notice of them. But they were mistaken. He
was very busy indeed. He had many lessons to teach. He had sermons to
preach; and sick people to heal; and blind eyes to open; and deaf
ears to unstop; and lame men to make whole; and dead men to raise to
life again. He had all his Father's will to make known to men; and
all his Father's commandments to keep. He had to suffer, and to die
for the sins of the world; that he might "open the kingdom of heaven
to all believers." He was the busiest man that ever lived. Nobody
ever had so much to do as he had. And yet, he was not too busy to
attend to the little children. He had time to give to them. So he
rebuked his disciples for trying to keep the children away from him.
He told the mothers to bring them near. They did so. And then, one by
one, "he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them and
blessed them." And when he had done this, as though that were not
enough, he spoke those precious, glorious, golden words:--"_Suffer
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such
is the kingdom of heaven_," "verily I say unto you, whosoever shall
not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter
therein."
These things are told us by three of the evangelists. St. Matthew
mentions them in chapter xix: 13-15. St. Mark x: 13-16, and St. Luke
xviii: 15-17.
On another occasion, when he was in the temple, the children sang
hosannas to him as the son of David. The chief priests and scribes
were greatly displeased, when they heard it, and "said unto him,
hearest thou what these say? and Jesus said unto them, yea: have ye
never read, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast
perfected praise?" Matt, xxi: 15, 16. Here he quoted from the Old
Testament (Ps. viii: 2) to prove to them from their own scriptures,
that God loves little children, and delights to have them engage in
his service, and sing his praises.
And there was one other occasion on which Jesus spoke about the
children, and showed his interest in them. This was after his
resurrection. We read about it in St. John xxi: 15-18. He met his
disciples, one day, on the shore of the sea of Galilee. Peter, who
had shamefully denied his Master on the night in which he was
betrayed was present with them. Jesus said to him, as if to remind
him of his great sin, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" "Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," said the penitent disciple.
"Feed my lambs," was his Master's reply. Here again, how beautifully
Jesus showed his great love for the little ones of his flock!
From these different passages, we see clearly how dear little
children are to the heart of our blessed Saviour! He is the only
great Teacher who ever showed such an interest in children. And the
religion of Jesus is the only religion which teaches its followers to
love and care for the little ones. The worshipers of the idol Moloch,
mentioned in the Bible, used to offer their children as
burnt-sacrifices to their cruel god. Mahometans look upon their women
and children as inferior beings. The Hindoos neglect their infants,
and leave them exposed on the banks of the Ganges, or throw them into
the river to be devoured by the hungry crocodiles. In the city of
Pekin many infants are thrown out into the streets every night.
Sometimes they are killed by the fall. Sometimes they are only half
killed, and linger, moaning in their agony, till the morning. Then
the police go around, and pick them up, and throw them all together
into a hole and bury them.
In Africa, the children are sometimes buried alive; and sometimes
left out in the fields or forests for the wild beasts to devour them.
In the South Sea Islands three-fourths of all the children born used
to be killed. Sometimes they would strangle their babies. Sometimes
they would leave them, where oxen and cattle would tread on them, and
trample them to death; while, at other times, they would break all
their joints, beginning with their fingers and toes, and then go on
to their wrists, and elbows, and shoulders. How dreadful it is to
think of such practices! And when we turn from these scenes of
heart-rending cruelty and think of the gracious Saviour,--the "gentle
Jesus, meek and mild," stretching forth his arms in loving
tenderness, and uttering the sweet words,--"Suffer the little
children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the
kingdom of God,"--what a wonderful contrast it makes!
And when we think of all that Jesus did and said to show his interest
in children, we may well ask ourselves such questions as these,--Why
was it so? What did he do it for? And when we come to look carefully
into this part of the life of Christ, we can see four great things in
it; and these are the reasons why Jesus did and said so much about
children.
_In the first place we see_--GREAT LOVE--_in the interest Christ
manifested towards the young_.
It was the same love which brought him down from heaven, and made him
willing to become a little child himself; the same love which made
him willing to live in poverty--and suffer the dreadful death upon
the cross that led him to show such interest in the little ones. But
if he had not told us himself how he feels on this subject, we could
not have been sure of it. Children might well have said, when they
heard about the love of Christ, "Yes, we have no doubt that Jesus
does love grown up people, men and women in general. We believe this
because the Bible tells us so; but how do we know that he loves us
children?" If he had not told us so himself, we could not have been
sure of it. But we know it now. And when we hear, or read of the love
of Christ, we may be sure that it takes the children in.
During a famine in Germany, a family became so poor that they were in
danger of starving. The father proposed that one of the children
should be sold, and food provided for those that remained. At last
the mother consented; but then the question arose which one of the
four should be selected. The eldest, their first-born, could not be
spared; the second looked like the mother, the third was like his
father, and they could not give either of them up; and then the
youngest--why, he was their pet, their darling, how could they give
_him_ up? So they concluded that they would all perish together,
rather than part with one of their little ones. When those children
knew of this, they might very well feel sure that their parents loved
them. But Jesus did more than this for us, he was willing to die upon
the cross, and he did so die, that "not one of his little ones should
perish."
"Being Loved Back Again." Little Alice Lee sat in her rocking chair.
She was clasping a beautiful wax doll to her bosom, and singing sweet
lullabies to it. But every little while she looked wistfully at her
mother. She was busy writing, and had told Alice to keep as quiet as
possible till she got through.
It seemed a long time to Alice; but after awhile her mother laid down
her pen, and pushed aside her papers, and said:--"Now I am through
for to-day, Alice, and you can make as much noise as you please."
In a moment Alice laid down her doll, and running to her mother,
threw her arms round her neck, and nestled sweetly in her loving
bosom.
"I'm so glad," said Alice, "I wanted to love you so much, mamma."
"Did you, darling?" and the mother clasped the little one tenderly in
her arms. "I am very glad that my little girl loves me;" replied her
mother, "but I thought you were not very lonely while I was writing;
you and dollie seemed to be having a good time together."
"Yes, we had, mamma; but I always get tired of loving dollie after
awhile."
"Do you, dear? Tell me why?"
"O, because she never loves me back again."
"And is _that_ why you love me?"
"That is _one why_, mamma; but not the first one, or the best one."
"And what is the first, and best?"
"Why, mamma, can't you guess?" and the little girl's blue eyes grew
very bright, as they gazed earnestly into her mother's face. "It's
because you loved me when I was too little to love you back; _that's_
why I love you so."
And what a reason this is why we should love Jesus! He loved us when
we were too little to love him back. The Bible says--"We love him
because _he first_ loved us." He loved us before we knew him, or had
ever heard of him. He loved us before we were born. Before the world
was made Jesus thought of you and me, and loved us. This is what he
means when he says:--"I _have loved thee with an everlasting love."_
Jer. xxxi: 3. This means a love that never had a beginning, and that
will never have an end. This is very wonderful. And when we think of
it, we may well sing out our thankfulness in the words of the hymn:
"I am glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of his love in the Book he has given;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see;
This is the sweetest, that Jesus loves me.
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves--_even me_"
And when we think of all the kind words and actions of Jesus, by
which he showed his interest in little children, the first thing that
we see in them is--great love.
_Now, let us take another look at this part of our Saviour's life,
and the second thing that we see in it is_--GREAT WISDOM.
It is wise to take care of the children and try to bring them to
Jesus when young, _because then they are easily controlled_.
Suppose we plant an acorn in a corner of our garden. After awhile a
green shoot springs out from it. We go to look at it when it is about
a foot high. We find it getting crooked; but with the gentlest touch
of thumb and finger, we can straighten it out. We wish it to lean in
a particular direction. We give it a slight touch, and it leans just
that way. Afterwards we conclude to have it lean in the opposite
direction. Another slight touch, and it takes that direction. It is
true, as the poet says, "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's
inclined." But, suppose we let it grow for twenty or thirty years,
and then come back to it. It is now a great oak tree. There is an
ugly twist in its trunk. We try to straighten it out; but in vain. No
power on earth can do that now. You can cut it down; or saw it up; or
break it into splinters; but you cannot straighten it.
Suppose, that you and I should go to one of the highest summits of
the Rocky Mountains. In a certain place there, we should find two
little fountains springing up near each other. With the end of a
finger we might trace the course in which either of those little
springs should flow. We could lead one down the eastern side of the
mountains, and the other down the western side. It would be very easy
to control them then. But suppose now we travel down the side of the
mountain till we reach the plain, at its base. Now see, yonder is a
great river, rolling on its mighty flood of waters. That is what the
little spring has grown to. It is too late to control it now. The
time for controlling it was up yonder near the spring.
It is easy to control the spring; it is very hard to control the
river. Jesus wished to control the spring when he directed us to
bring the children to him. And in this he showed his wisdom.
It is wise to take an interest in children, and bring them early to
Jesus--_because they have great influence in the world_.
Who can tell the influence that children are exerting in the world?
We have an illustration of this in the words that were once spoken by
Themistocles, the celebrated Grecian governor and general. He had a
little boy, of whom his mother was very fond and over whom the child
had very great influence. His father pointed to him, one day, and
said to a friend, "Look at that child; he has more power than all
Greece. For the city of Athens rules Greece; I rule Athens; that
child's mother rules me, and he rules his mother."
I feel sure our Saviour must have felt very much as some one has
done, who writes in this way about