Birmingham age-herald., 1895-01-13
BABES AND BABYH0OD.
infinite Possibilities Wrapped Up in the Little, Helpless Creatures.
The Celebration of the Birth of tho Christ Child But Recently Prompts sam
 F. Jones to Write on 1 ThIs Theme.
lcoPyRIoHr. 1895 l

What strange immortal little thing baby is We talk of the possibilities oi grains of wheat, the possibilities of discovery in science or art, the possi. bilities of thoroughbred colts, the pos abilities of human discoveries of all kinds, but nothing so small as baby compares with it in its infinite possibil. ities
 Methusalah at nine hundred and sixty. nine years of age, could look back to infancy and babyhood. Julius CGsar, Peter the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte: these men whom the whole world feared were once little children, little tiny helpless babes. as incapab ble of self-protcction as they were incapable of harming others.
 Clay, Webster and Calhoun, with all the mighty intellect and force of char ncter which were theirs, were once lit- tie helpless babes.
 Moore. Harvey, Fulton; Howe and Edison were once carried in the arms of mother as helpless as wax dolls, and yet see what they have done, the miracles they have wrought and achievements they have made.
 Look upon the helpless babe in the arms of it's mother, and then look upon the giants in intellect, the giants in discovery, the giants in achievements a few years later. Who can realize they are one and the same. The high est wisdom in this world is the wisdom which can clearly see the infinite pos abilities of babyhood.
 Most everywhere we will find one or more of these little fellows. There are perhaps now in the United States no less than two million of little, tiny, bitsy infant babes. We hear them cry and bawl. we see them spanked and slapped. we sec them fed and clothed, we see them put to bed and taken up again, and how few of us as we handle the precious Jumps can realize what it may be or what it may not be.
 The little colt and the little calf that gambol by tho side of their mother, the little whelp that lies by its mother bear, the little chicken that follows the cluck of its mother, they all have life and all have possibilities along the range of their circumscribed life, but the colt and the calf which may be the companion of the babe to-day left far behind in the race of tomorrow. These babies of ours soon crawl out from among the colts and the calves and chickens and step up into a realm where only humans and immor- tai beings can live.
 The babe begins with a cry, then with a laugh, next with thought, then with an idea, then execution, then
 Eievement, then character, then destiny.
 The greatest babe in all history was the little infant Child over whom the star rested and the angels visited and the wise men went to see. The little Babe born in the manager of Bethle- hem has revolutionized history and changed the character of a world. All the infinite possibilities of a Divine Saviour inherited in the natural babe and all the achievements in the glori- ous redemption of man nestled in the manager by the side of Mary the mother.
 Grown people can be brought closer together, perhaps, as they stand around a babe than by any other means known to man.
 A friend of mine related to me his ex- perience in crossing the Atlantic ocean someuyears ago. He boarded Cunar- der as the pier in New York, the vessel weighed anchor and moved out for Liverpool There were seven hundred cabin passengers on board, and each seemed to be an utter stranger to the other and likely to be strangers when AL. elk <~fU land. But on the second day of the voyage, beautiful bright-eyed baby was seen in the arms of its nurse in the cabin parlor. As one and another of the passengers would pass the baby, they would snap their fingers at it and say some kind word to it and then they began to speak to each other of the baby. The next day the baby was again in the parlor and they talked to and listened to the prSttling child and turned to each other and said: ''Is it not a sweet baby" what a beautiful child" ''how lovely it is" The next day the babe was not in place again and it was whispered from mouth to ear that the baby was sick, and how we talked to each other of the babes illness and how sad it was. The next day we met in groups to tell each other the babe was worse. The next day, with sadness md mourning, veal told each other it was dead. The next day we saw the little one panopled in its watery grave clothes and buried with solemn cere- mony in the waters of the Atlantic, and when the sad rites were over, we wiped tears from our eyes, and talked to each other, and were as companion able with each other from that time until we struck the shores of England as if we had all been born of the same household and were brothers and sis ters indeed. That little babe with its bright face, with it's sickness and death, introduced seven hundred strangers from every country one to the other md then made them all akin.
 So the babyhood of homelife brings each member of the family closer to- gether; the little one is caught up and moved from lap to lap and hands to hands. and each is brought nearer to tho other because of the helplessness of the little one.
 How wise is Providence! The little