08 - Meditation 8
MEDITATION VIII.
JESUS BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN.
“ And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he has much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.”
THERE is ’not in the sacred writings a passage at once more affecting and more instructive than that with which the book of Samuel opens. A pious woman, the wife of Elkanah, is plunged in the deepest affliction, because God has withholden from her the privilege of having children to consecrate to his service, which among the Hebrews was regarded as a grievous reproach as well as a painful privation. The tender cares of an affectionate husband suffice not to mitigate her trial; we share her grief when she pours out her suffering soul before the Lord, notwithstanding the reprimand of a priest who is unable to understand her; we hear her earnest prayer, her vow to consecrate to the Lord the first-fruit of her womb; we see her answered by him who hears the prayers of his children; we sympathize in her joy as we had shared in her grief; and soon we see her, faithful to her vow, consecrating her first-born son to the Lord. Does God condescend to accept the sacrifice after having heard the prayer? Yes, my brethren, and far beyond the pikers and the thoughts of the pious mother. The young Samuel grows up under the shadow of the altar at Shiloh, and under the care of the same priest who had censured the silent request of the mother. The Lord has his eye upon the child of prayer; he reveals himself to him, confides to him his designs of mercy towards his people; and soon we see him placing the crown upon the head of the kings of his nation, effecting a glorious reformation among the people of Israel, who had forgotten and outraged the God of their fathers; bringing back Jacob unto the Lord, and reviving in the nation the fear and love of God, after having destroyed, by the power of the Most High, the minister of idolatry. I
And, my brethren, when we see in the historical narration which our text presents, pious- j mothers, new Hannahs, bringing their children again to the Saviour, that he may put his blessing upon their heads, think ye not, that like the mother of Samuel, they also shall be heard?
Yes, my brethren, times and circumstances, names and persons may change, but God is always the same to bless; and had the Gospel not told us how Jesus received these young children which their parents placed in his arms, we might have inferred it from the example of the young Samuel; we might have said that the blessing which rested upon his whole earthly career would be conferred by the merciful hand of the Saviour upon the head of these little children.
Come, then, my Brethren, come with holy attention, and laying aside earthly thoughts and inoccupations, come and contemplate with us for a moment the most affecting scene that this earth ever witnessed, Jesus blessing children.
Let us first cast a glance at the touching scene which our text places before our eyes; then let us endeavor to impress our hearts with the sacred and delightful duties which it brings home to all parents. The first thing which strikes us in these parents thus bringing their children to the Saviour, I is their faith, that is, their confidence in him. They recognised in Jesus, the Messiah, the mighty Saviour promised to Israel, Him who consoles and saves. Doubtless they had seen him perform some of those works of charity and tender condescension of which his whole life was full; perhaps even they had felt in their souls all the love which he displayed towards poor sinners whom he came to save. Perhaps some of these mothers had wept at his feet like Mary; like Mary she had felt her heart eased of the overwhelming burden of her misery, while she heard the word of Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost: “ Daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace!” Perhaps another of these women had come to Jesus, like the wife of Elkanah, with a heart oppressed with some secret grief, which none of her fellow-creatures could comprehend; she had opened to him her sorrowing heart; she had received from him the balm of those ineffable consolations which are not of this earth, for Jesus has brought them from heaven. In a word, these parents know the Saviour, and the power of his grace, and they think that perhaps He who received them as sinners, and made them partakers of his grace, will be pleased to receive their children also, and to insure to them the same blessings. This pious mother cannot separate the happiness of her child from her own happiness; the life of her child is her life, and she believes that the condescension of her Saviour is so immense, that it can stoop even to the feeble creature that is confided to her, and for whom she feels so lively a solicitude. Why, thinks she, why should he refuse to my child the blessing which he has granted to myself? Why should I put bounds to his love? Has not Moses included our children in the blessings of the promise? Has not the Psalmist, in celebrating the works of the Lord, sung, “He will not hide them from our children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done!” Yes, let us go and place in the bosom of the Saviour those beings who are so dear to us!
Thus she speaks, and thus she acts. And that which proves that such are indeed the feelings of these parents, is, that when they present their children to the Saviour, they ask of him neither temporal advantage, nor earthly goods, nor a career marked by honor, or glory, or influence, or grandeur, or any of the things which this world desires. They do not even ask of Jesus to instruct them, for according to St. Luke, they were “ infants.” What, then, do they want? Their whole desire is expressed in these words of the text: “ They brought young children unto him, that he should touch them,” that is, that he might lay on them his mighty and protecting hands, which never open but to pour down blessings, and according to Matthew, that he might “pray for them.”
How noble, how commendable, how sacred is this desire of Christian parents for their children! Ah! it is in this we like to see the love of a mother, the affection of a father: not when they lavish on their children a blind and idolatrous tenderness, which is fatal to themselves, and which produces the bitterest fruits; not even when they impose upon themselves the most costly sacrifices, and submit to the severest trials, solely with a view to secure for them upon earth a brilliant future; not when they make their children serve to feed their own vanity or pride; but when they consecrate to Jesus, from the first days of their life, those children which God has given them, when they bring them to him in their prayers, when their first desire, their dearest wish, is to place them for ever in the secure sanctuary of his grace and love, and thus, in time, to withdraw them from the corrupting influence of a world which lieth in wickedness.
Yes, this is paternal love, according to God; this is natural love sanctified!
Such were the dispositions of these pious parents, such were their wishes for their children.
Let us see how the Saviour answered them. But what do I hear? A voice is lifted up; it hlames the conduct of these mothers; it condemns their holy desire! a rash hand interposes between it and the Saviour! It is the disciples that have thus spoken and acted, “And they rebuked them.”
Poor disciples! If we did not know for what end Jesus had chosen them, we might be led to suppose that they were at his side, merely to act as a foil to the luminous picture of his life.
Scarcely ever did they understand his meaning; almost always did they oppose his designs. Oh, let this sight prove to us, with a painful conviction, the blindness and weakness of the human heart! Alas! Jesus having come upon this sinful earth, wished to have around him, a few friends while he went about doing good; and instead of finding in the men of his choice, hearts to understand his heart, and minds in communion with which he might obtain something to sweeten the bitterness which a sinful world continually distilled into his cup; alas! he finds them, after such a course of long and patient instruction, only ignorant and earthly souls, without intelligence, without compassion, and without love! But, my brethren, let us be thankful to them for having thus described themselves in the New Testament, with an unexampled candor and sincerity; the}’ show themselves to us as they were, with all their weaknesses, that we might know that it is not human nature, but the omnipotent grace of God that makes such men as St. John, St. Peter, or St. Paul.
“ The disciples rebuked them; but u-hen Jesus saw it he was much displeased” O, my beloved brethren, if this displeasure accuses the heart of man. and condemns the disciples, how does it proclaim to us the tender compassion of the Saviour! how consoling it is to us, miserable sinners! O, humble and fearful souls, “weary and heavy laden souls!” you who groan under the weight of your sins, and who scarcely dare to look to Jesus, and to embrace him as your Saviour, see him sore displeased because men would forbid to weak and helpless creatures, e\en to little children, access to his grace and to his love! Were you the feeblest of his creatures, the chief of sinners, he would still be displeased if you doubted his grace, he would be displeased if you supposed that he was no longer sufficiently powerful and merciful to save your souls, if the natural unbelief of your hearts, the feeling of your corruptions, hindered you from clinging to his cross, and, as little children, receiving his free salvation. O, give no cause for this displeasure; if you believe in your sins, believe also in his pardon; if you believe in your condemnation, believe also in his grace!
“He was displeased at it!” What, then, does he feel in heaven, where he reigns, whenever some worldling, some unbeliever, some despiser of the cross of Jesus, keeps back from him the weak and unstable soul, and draws- away from the fountain of living waters the sincere and upright heart, that is thirsting after pardon and peace? O, if one of these little ones that desire to believe perish, that displeasure of the Saviour will burn in the day of judgment against every one that shall have contributed to his ruin. “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me,” saith the Saviour, “it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” Better for such a man that he had never been born!
“Suffer the little children to come unto me,”, adds the Saviour, “ and forbid them not.” How precious are these words, my brethren, and what consolation do the}* contain for our hearts! Instead of seeking to draw out of them a dogmatic system, or a subject of speculation for our understanding-, let us rather allow them to sink into the depths of our hearts, with all the delightful encouragement and consolation which they contain. Let us beware of pressing them into the lists of controversy on “ the doctrine of baptism;” they do not belong to it: let us rather shut them up in our hearts, as a balm which will often heal its bleeding wounds. Let us simply draw from them this affecting truth, that Jesus wishes our children, even our little children, to come to him; far from rejecting them, he gives them a rich part in his blessing, in his grace, in his love, and, consequently, in his eternal inheritance. O, what a cheering light do these words throw into the mysterious darkness that would otherwise envelop the tomb and the eternal destiny of those little, children whom Jesus calls to himself! Jesus receiving poor little children, displeased when his disciples would put them away, causing his eternal blessing to rest upon their tender heads, praying for them, does not this abundantly confirm the promise of eternal life which is made “unto us and to our children?” Yea, further, in taking 1 into his arms those children which were presented to him, in pressing them to his heart, thrilling with compassion, does he not also pledge himself, in like manner, to receive them into eternal mansions, when their mothers no longer, but death places them in his arms? To doubt it, would it not be again to provoke the displeasure of the Saviour, and to incur his reproach?
O, incarnate love! though thou art holy and just, thou offerest grace even to those sinners who have grown old in forgetfulness of God, in hardness of heart, and in crime; thou givest pardon even to those who have offended thee by a long life of sin; and, that we might know that there is no class of Adam’s fallen race that has not a part in thy love, thou callest little children to thee and pressest them to thy breast! Though thou art King of kings, and Lord of lords, who hast created all things, by whom and for whom all things subsist, yet thou humblest thyself to the meanest of thy creatures, thou condescendest to stoop down to the lowest degree of the infirmities and weakness of the human race, and from that depth thou criest, Here, even here, my love ends not! “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not!”
How I love, my brethren, how I love to contemplate the picture which our text places before our eyes! How I love to see little children in the arms of the Saviour! I imagine I see here the accomplishment of that word of the prophet “ He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” It seems as if he wished to ward off from those helpless creatures who are still ignorant of life, all the miseries and sufferings which await them in it; it seems as if he wished to make his protecting arms a refuge for them against the storms of which they have as yet no anticipation! And, indeed, what sanctuary more secure, what port more tranquil, can they have than the arms of Jesus 1 Ah! if he bless their entrance into life, will not everything in its progress be a blessing to them? If he permit them to repose in his bosom, who will deprive them of his peace and of his rest?
Tradition relates that the celebrated Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who received, in so glorious a manner, the crown of martyrdom, was among the number of the children whom Jesus blessed.
I like this tradition. But what is better than a tradition, is the assurance, that the blessing” of Jesus cannot have been ineffectual with regard to any of them, and that the prayers which he addressed on their behalf to God his Father (“ who heareth him always”), ascended not in vain to the throne of grace. My brethren, shall we confine ourselves to a mere barren admiration of the pious solicitude of these parents presenting- their children to Jesus, and of the charity with which he receives them? God forbid! The picture which we have just been contemplating must lay our souls under an immense responsibility, and call forth in our lives the most sacred duties. Fathers and mothers who hear me, and all you, whosoever ye be, who have it in your power to exercise any influence over others, think not that the conduct of Christian parents who love the Saviour has been thus described in the sacred pages with any other object than that we should imitate it.
Think not that this merciful goodness, which the Saviour of the world displays on this occasion, is recorded for us with any other view but to speak at once to our consciences and our hearts; to our consciences, by teaching us what talents are confided to us, through the knowledge of such a Saviour, and what a responsibility results to us there from; to our hearts, by showing us in so touching a fact, all that we may expect from the Lord, not only for ourselves, but for our children, and for those that are dear to us. Ah! woe to us, if this incident teach us nothing of our duties as fathers, mothers, and Christian relatives!
Alas! is there not reason to fear that the most faithful among us have to lament over culpable negligence in -this respect, and a culpable dereliction of the most sacred duties? Who in the world, who among Christians, thinks primarily and chiefly of the soul, the immortal soul of his child?
Who, imitating the conduct of the parents in our text, seriously and decidedly leads his children to the Saviour 1 My brethren, the subject is a serious one; it involves the salvation of souls, the destiny of churches, I was going to say the destiny of the world. Permit me, then, to dwell on it for a moment. And first, to take up the matter at the outset. Is it not true that with the greatest number, when God vouchsafing to a family his powerful protection and deliverance, enriches it with a new member, a new object of affection, is it not true that most frequently, amid the joy and agitation which succeed the previous hours of anguish and terrible suspense, their thoughts, and their whole attention are directed to what concerns the earthly life of the being which God has confided to them? Is it not true, that cares of a character altogether earthly absorb their time, their strength, their whole soul? And who, then, in the first moments, feels impressed with a serious and fearful responsibility? Who thinks of uttering such language as the following? Here is a soul, an immortal soul, confided to me by God, and of which I have to give an account to him. In this cradle, where that helpless little creature reposes, there is an eternity, for to every one the soul is eternity. And upon me, upon me after God, depends this eternity of happiness or misery! Fathers and mothers, Christian parents, does this solemn thought never fill your minds with a deep and salutary awe?
Alas! how few there are that can conscientiously bear this testimony to themselves! And if it be so with regard to your children at their entrance into life, if for the most part you are present at their birth with dispositions and cares entirely earthly, with joys and solicitudes altogether carnal, what will be your feelings for them as they advance in the course upon which they have entered? When you see them grow up before your eyes, and while you follow with such pleasure their physical and intellectual development, is it their soul, their immortal soul, that is the object of your attention, of your care, of your dearest wishes, of your most anxious solicitude, of your hopes and fears 1 O, what a serious question, my brethren! How sad and deplorable is the education of the world! Think of parents, who certainly consider themselves good parents, in the highest sense of the word, who are far from being deficient in tenderness for their children, and who jet seek to develop in them exclusively those faculties of the mind which shall enable them to shine in the world, to the detriment of the dispositions of the heart, which would facilitate their moral and religious development, who exclusively encourage them in the acquisition of knowledge, and cultivate the talents calculated to ensure a brilliant success in society, and in their worldly calling, but leave them deplorably ignorant of the one thing needful, of the knowledge of salvation, on which depends their eternal destiny; who speak to them of everything except God and the Saviour; who awaken their solicitude much more as to the means of pleasing the world, and of securing for themselves in it an honorable career, than of pleasing God and saving their souls; who open to them every terrestrial resource, but never lead them to Jesus; and who, in a word, though they desire for them a certain shade of piety, because, even in the eyes of the world, it is a shame to be openly ungodly, yet would be afraid, yes, afraid, to see them giving up their hearts seriously and unreservedly to the Saviour! And if you think of the future life of your children, ye who recognize your features in this portrait, if you think with solicitude of the time when you shall be taken away from them, does not this consideration awaken in you a new ardor to secure for them beforehand an advantageous existence here below, treasures and riches which the moth and the rust corrupt, to the exclusion of those riches which never perish, and of that “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away?”
But, mistake us not, my brethren, we do not here blame the varied and extensive information which you are called upon to give your children, nor the care which you ought to take to secure to them an independent and honorable future; this, on the contrary, is a sacred duty of parents. But if you give your children nothing else, I pity them! and they are to be pitied! Your wishes are accomplished; and behold, your child launched into a world of which he is ignorant, assailed with formidable temptations from within and from without; and to resist their rudest assaults, he has nothing 1 but a worldly education, which is itself in league with the temptation, and worldly goods with which he could not purchase one particle of moral strength, one virtue, nor one religious feeling, though he possessed the riches of the universe What will become of him?
He will inevitably fall, and with sin will come remorse and agony of mind. He knows no remedy, no peace; you have not opened to him the source of them; you have not taught him to know the Saviour of sinners; you have not brought him to Him, as those holy women of Judea of whom our text speaks; on the contrary, you have kept him away from him, both by your lessons, and what was still more influential, your example. Happy for him, then, if “ deep crieth not unto deep at the noise of the waterspouts!” Poor youth, happy for thee if iniquity doth not plunge thee from one degree of irreparable ruin into another! Happy if some terrible fall fill not thy whole life with bitterness!
Happy if the day of trial and affliction which shall find thee without consolation, sink thee not into an abyss of despondency and despair!
Happy for you, poor parents, if “ your grey hairs descend not with sorrow to the grave;” and, if pierced to the heart with a ruin which you have prepared with your own hands, you realize not in your family those awful words of a celebrated philosopher: “ The parents wonder to find the waters bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the source!”
Oh! how different, beloved brethren, is the lot of the child, who, like Samuel, Timothy, and the children in our text, knows his God from the earliest dawn of his life, whom pious parents have placed in the arms of his Saviour before the evil day arrives, and who is in the haven before the storm arises! He also, doubtless, has to pass through life; he also is about to know, alas! too soon, a corrupt and corrupting world; he also will have to encounter in life temptations which advance against him in battle array; he also will see gathering around his head gloomy clouds which shut up within them fearful strokes of trial and affliction; he also will experience sufferings and tears; but shall not the arms of the Lord be spread around him! Is not that celestial Friend whom he knows, whom he loves, whom he invokes is he not present to hold him up with his mighty hand on the verge of the precipice, to rescue him from evil, to lead him into the smooth paths of peace and true virtue? And if he falls, is not Jesus present to raise him up immediately 7 If he goes astray, is not Jesus the good Shepherd there to seek in the wilderness and on the mountains his wandering sheep, which he t: layeth upon his shoulders with joy,” and bringeth back into his fold? Yes, he is there, for a pious mother who has brought her child to Jesus from its cradle that he might bless it, still anxiously prays for the same child in the day of danger, and like another Monica whose fervent prayer saves another Augustine, she also joyfully experiences the truth of the words addressed to that woman by the venerable Ambrose: “ The child of so many tears and so many prayers can never perish!” Nor will the day of sorrow, affliction, or of tears, find this Happy child of prayer more devoid of succor and of strength, than the day of temptation. Since he knows his divine Saviour, belongs to him, and loves him, the source of real consolation is abundantly open to him. The God upon whom he calls, and who hath blessed him from his infancy, will be with him in his trials to comfort him, to cheer him, and to load him with favors, as he was with him to save him from danger.
Besides, he will know nothing of all the bitter disenchantments of the world, because he never courted its favors. Ah! how many griefs and vexations will he avoid! how many tears will he be spared! what a rich heritage of consolation and joy is secured to him! But as yet I have spoken only of the present life and of this earth. Ah! what shall we say when-we throw into the balance of our considerations..-.. eternity! Here, my brethren, I confess I shrink back from one part of my task; I confess I have not courage to follow the steps of that being whom we have seen already so miserable in this life, because he was without the knowledge of God; to follow him with you down to the grave, appearing before the just Judge, charged with a whole life of sin and of transgressions, without a Saviour, without pardon, without hope!
I confess that I have not the strength to picture to myself the unhappy and guilty authors of its days to whom that soul was entrusted, appearing with it before the bar of the Eternal; hearing its condemnation, reproaching themselves with its ruin No, no, I will not go on; I will not cast a glance into an eternity which opens so frightfully; I turn away my eyes from it!
Oh! if he had never been born! or if, at least, unhappy mother, he had never sucked death from thy breast! Yes, better would it have been for him a thousand times if he had been cut down before the age of sin if he had been taken away when you admired, with the greatest tenderness, the graces of his earliest infancy! But what do I say? even then would that mother, have been an unhappy mother; she had never presented her child to the Saviour; she had never consecrated him to the Lord; she had then made an idol of him; and when the Lord, withdrawing from her that deposit which she had unfaithfully appropriated to herself, would have said to her, in the way of death, ’: Suffer this little child to come unto me,” she would have been without consolation, perhaps without submission, overwhelmed with a grief rendered culpable by a spirit of murmuring!
Thus, my brethren, on whatsoever side we turn our regard, there is no peace nor happiness for us, from the moment we have become the depositories of an immortal soul, save in consecrating it to the Saviour, in placing it in his arms in asking him to bless it; otherwise this deposit is too heavy for our weakness it is a load which oppresses us! Ah! let us then hear the voice of the Saviour; let us suffer our little children to come unto him, and our grown up children and ourselves, and all that we have, and all that we are!
Then, and not till then, will the sweetest and most powerful of the human affections be, as it ousrht to be, brought back to its real destination, subjected to God and sanctified to his glory.
Then let his will be done, whether as it concerns our children or ourselves! Then if he leaves them to us, they shall be consecrated to him, and knowing and loving their God and Saviour, they shall glorify him on earth, and they shall be his to all eternity. Oh! what glory, what pure delight, Christian parents! in the thought of having given to the Saviour a faithful disciple upon earth, and an heir of his eternal glory and of his eternal felicity! But if, on the contrary, a hope so dear is, as to this earth, cut down in its blossom, if your infant pass from the cradle to the tomb, then, even then, the sovereign will of God shall find your head bowed down and your heart submissive. You had already consecrated that child to Jesus; you had committed it into his arms... if he keeps it, if he restores it not to you again, his compassionate voice will speak in the bottom of your heart, and will say to you, “ Suffer, suffer little children to come unto me!” And then you would no longer wish to keep it back; you will weep, but your tears will have no bitterness! my brethren, if all parents were Christian, if the Lord were known and adored in every family, one generation alone would be sufficient to make our churches, to make an entire people, yea, the whole world, change its appearance.
Fully convinced am I, my brethren, that among the means which it will please God to employ to bring about on earth those happy and glorious truths promised to the Church in his Word, there is none more powerful, or whose effect shall be more infallible than the influence of truly Christian parents upon their children.
What a responsibility, then, is ours! What a talent we have to account for! What a trust is committed to our charge! Now, let us say it. and let this thought sink deep into our minds, if we would have our children Christians we must be so ourselves; we must preach to them by our example much more than by our words. It would be useless for us to endeavor to lead them to Jesus, if we belonged not to him ourselves.
Children are essentially creatures of imitation; during their whole life they follow your example whether good or bad. And hence what will it serve them to hear in their religious instruction, and even from your own mouth, the whole Gospel of Christ, if they see not the Gospel of Christ living in your houses? What use to speak to them of prayer, if there be in your houses no altar consecrated to the Lord around which your families how the knee? What use to teach them to read the Word of God, if that word be neglected under your own roof? What use to speak to them of the Christian life, of a life of faith, of prayer, of love to God. if they see in those whom they ought to imitate only examples of an altogether worldly life? None whatever! It would be to demolish with one hand what you built with the other.
It would be to decree the ruin of those whom you ought to have saved even at the price of your own life. Ah! if you will not be Christians for the love of your own souls and for the love of your God, you ought at least to be Christians for the love of your children.
I shall not conclude, my brethren, without earnestly recommending to the interest and to the prayers of this Church, and especially of the parents in it, the young persons who shall commence to-morrow their course of religious instruction.. My brethren, help us, help us to lead them to Christ Jesus. You know that this alone is their happiness. Help us by your prayers, by your words, by your example. If you grant us this request, if you enter into the spirit of the text which we are meditating upon, we shall cherish the most cheering hopes with regard to those dear children and to yourselves.
If, from the special nature of it, this discourse is not capable of a particular application to all the members of this assembly, we yet find in our text one word which we shall only repeat in conclusion, a word which, well understood and applied, would be sufficient to convert and save a soul; a word which I would leave impressed at the same time upon the hearts of parents, upon the hearts of children, and upon the hearts of all. That word is this: Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”