The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-01
Sermon.
THE MISSION OF CHILDHOOD.
MARION d. SHUTTER.

dom of God. Verify say unto you, whose
ever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as
little child, he shall not enter therein"
Mark 10. l4-l5.
preached before the congregation of the
Church of the Redeemer, Grand Opera House,
Minneapolis, Mimi, June "a, 1881
1t is related that when Henry II of
France was crowned, at the principal
gate of the city of Rheims was erected
a Grecian temple, surmounted by
sun whose rays took the form of the
feur-de-lis, the emblematic flower of
France. In the center of the sun could
be seen an apple which, when the king
came to the gate, opened, disclosing a
heart; which, in turn opened, and re-
vealed beautiful girl of nine or ten
years, who recited complimentary
poem and descended to offer his majesty
the keys of the city. She then returned
to her former position, and heart,
apple, and sun closed over her, while
the golden rays went on shining as be-
fore. 1 do not know just what the
artist meant by his device, but if he
had intended to express certain great
facts of human life, he could not have
done so better than when he enshrined
the child in heart and surrounded the
heart that held the child with sunshine.
The device represents what men and
women have felt from the beginning
love for children, and gladness in that
love.
The humanity of Jesus himself
comes out in the passage 1 have taken
for text and in those other passages
that speak of his relations to the little
ones. These touches are full Of beauty
and pathos. They give us glimpses
into his heart by which he is made
dearer than ever to US. There was no
impas sable gulf fixed between his ma
ture and ours. He was not God, but
man; the divinest man that ever lived,
indeed, but still man. He came into
this world as all children come. His
father and mother were the human
Joseph and Mary, simple Judean peas
ants; and though Jesus was filled with
the spirit of God and exalted by it, he
was never separated from the race he
was destined to bless and save. The
drapery that loving hands have hung
about the story of his birth, adorns the
cradle of every newborn child. In that
cradle a new Messiah lies. The star
shines over him. The heavens blaze
with angels and ring with song. Every
tribute is laid at the feet of the new
born king: gifts, incense, and devotion.
The story of Christ's coming is pic
ture of the joy and glory that attend
the advent Of every babe. Emerson
says Infancy is the perpetual Mes
siah, which comes into the arms of
fallen men, and pleads with them to
return to paradise"
When Jesus says, in the text, eek
cept ye receive the kingdom of God as
a little child, ye shall not enter there
in,' and in another place, Except ye
be converted and become as little
children, ye shall in no case enter the
kingdom of heaven, ut is not his in
tention to teach that one must have
blind, ulquestioning faith, that he
must cease to reason and reduce his
intellect to the measure Of an infants
brain. It is not the helplessness and
ignorance of childhood that he wishes
to recommend. 1t is the spirit Of
childhood, innocence, meekness,
cheerfulness, affection, teachableness.
1t is not childishness but child-like-
ness. 1t is not the intellectual, but the
moral standard of childhood, to which
the disciple of Jesus must come. The
kingdom of heaven is revealed in the
heart of child!
/. This brings us at once to the
first point in our discourse: Childhood
furnishes an ideal of character. When
Jesus would teach his disciples, he
took little child and set him before
them, saying, "Here is your example.
Except ye become like him, ye never
can enter the kingdom"
Over this period of life theology once
hung a deep gloom. Certain people
looked into the cradle and sighed to
think that the babe was wholly corrupt
and defiled, that its nature was already
sinful; because David when an old man,
in a fit of remorse for an appalling
transgression, had exclaimed that he
was shapen in iniquity. But if David
had never grown worse than he was in
the days of his bright and happy child
hood, he would never have uttered that
passionate SANDER. Innocence is not
to be interpreted in the baleful light of
remorse. They looked into the nursery
and on the playground, and every noisy
outburst of spirits was thought to be a
manifestation of indwelling sin. They
trembled when they thought of the
future, and when they came to write a
confession of faith they dared not affirm
that any but elect infants, dying in in
fancy, would be saved, and that express
sion stands unchanged to. day. All
this, too, in face of that declaration of
Jesus: sit is not the will of your
Father which is in heaven, that any of
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