The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1867-10-25
Child Faith,


immense localities, such exquisite
) subtleties, as float and dance in theil
tiny brains, and fall out in their quaint
questions and queer rejoinders. There
lis something almost sublime in theil
artless prattle. Here is a soul fresh
from the great Maker; here are germs
of thoughts that may grapple with the
world, overturn, continents, and shake
systems, some day-here, just as God
put them into the soul, and fresh from
him. 80
When the cable that was to Join two
continents had broken in mid-ocean, an
, operator sat day and night at the land
end, and watched its fluctuations; and,
as the fretting waves would sway the
Submerged coil, words in an unknown
tongue and weird sentences were borne
to bis ear by the electric tide. And we
have thought, perhaps, just as those
strange sounds were the language Of
, the depths where man had never pen
etrated, but where God reigns, and
reigns IN order, as he does above; so
1.-THE beatings of, the little heart, the
wonderful fancies and whimsical anal
logies of the little brain, might be the
spirit of the Father moving upon the
face of the waters, just as he did when
chaos became the beautiful world. We
may learn new creeds from these little
ones. We may see in theirs the first
mans reason, before experience and
sorrow brought worldly knowledge.
And was it not worldly knowledge that
drove him from peace and eternal
Paradisel - .. - ..--.-..
Do not let us sneer at the wisdom of
child. The attempts of mothers to
imbue their offspring with a knowledge
of things divine develop amusing con-
ceptions, sometimes, in. the brains of
their little pupils. What volumes of
unwritten philosophy may we not draw
from the first fruits Of childish faith,
striving to reconcile itself with childish
knowledgell The idea of God does not
appear to be new to them; they express
no surprise, but tacitly accept what
stronger spirits fail to grasp; they sup
ply him with all the attributes of which
the teacher tells them, and add in
Vulnerable others, which. they see in
father, aud mother and aunt and
sister, And, what seems strangest of
all, they do not seem to wonder at the
infinite distance between them and hun
I-(physicaI distance we mean). 1t
would be very difficult so to describe to
them character, thousand miles
away, as to make them at once familiar
with his personality and always ready
to be on intimate terms with him; yet
the child knows God-we cannot tut
feel it-better than We bigger men and
women, who know that around the
faintest star larger worlds than ours
are rolling, who study the labors of
the polyps and the teeming myriads of
microscopic. life. g., ssrseas 7cftra
And God, ever unseen, ever silent, is
the friend and father Of the babe. We
may know him as Judge, a king; to |
the child he has only the softest and
sweetest of names. ', efl- q. COZ -ro
1t is interesting to collect the droll
little speeches, the pretty little paradox
es, that flow from the. baby brain,
where knowledge has not yet usurped
the room of native wisdom, nor ex-
perienee of speculation, and where
curiosity reigus supreme. A little boy,
playing upon the carpet at his mothers |
feet broke the tail off his wooden |
horse; and, unable to restore it to its |
primitive position, inserted the stump in
the pGny's mouth. Struck with this
ludicrous reversal of anatomical rule,
he called the atter'ion Of his companion
TO the anomaly before him. saMamma,n
said he, 'does God see everything ~
''Yes, dear" "Well; then, l guess he'll
laugh when he sees my peny!"s God
was his friend. God was good to him.
Papa was both of these. Papa would
have laughed at the malformation be-
fore him; why not his Best Friend
Another was playing with one of those
pretty air-ball balloons which float from
the end of a string, The string broke, T
and the bubble went floating Oft ..Ney-
er mind, Buddy said his sister; ''when
you 60 to heaven, you'll get it" Shall
we frown at these simplicities, and
check this childish faithi' God forbid
Let us rather rekindle here our own
cold and withered. He must be indeed
corrupt who in this prattle can see
aught but a trust whose purity may /
ripen yet TO be sublime. Luther-we
are told in that delightful book, The
Gotta Fansily-when his
little children's pet dog went the way 1
Of all the world, did not seruple to
describe-in the heaven he taught them
they must strive to merit-their depart
ed playfellow happy, and waiting for
hem. He knew too well the value of
Iaith to tanper with child's. l374 u; n
A mother had been telling her little
,irl Of the blessing of heaven. "But d
will brother he there too Y asked the 4
,hild. f'Yes; you, and |, and brother;
md papa.nH 20 no, mamma, papa can't :
70; papa can't leave the store !" Poor
hid, thou little knowest how bitter a :
ruth thou hast uttered Immersed in !
he rumble and elatter of commerce. .
'uying and selling and getting gain h
saviug religion to wife, and children at
ome-God grant we may have time n
t last to go to heaven, afg-sr .v..7sJ Ii
We think of God as a great abb
we honor him with our lips 4
'e appeal to him when we testify tol a
ruth; our ministers preach him from Z
he pulpit. We know that he is the o
punt of all justice, and we feel that u
efore him some day we must appear. :, .
tut we are only whited sepulchers l
fter all; and, like the Scribes and II
'harisees, we'arei omitting the weight a
II matters Of the law, It. VIII be a n
Apply millennium when this sight o
Talking shall be over-thrown forever, G.
nd a7little child shall lead us. - 90, l4' II II
Again: "God," says the child, 'seesI q
lie always, and he sends his angels to l
uard me- The holy poetry that te
lder and colder hearts cannot learn, P
le child knows and loves; and it was u
a article in the creed of our: little. Y
lend, who, when told that because he d
IS tLz-.--l r. h.sH al