The Newtown bee., 1895-11-22
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oil Main street, Bridgeport, Ct.
grow, to believe things just as unques-
tioningly as we did In our childhood?
It Is fashionable now to doubt, to hold
no belief to-day which we can be certain
OF maintaining as surely tomorrow.
We stand on slipping sands, we carry
few anchors aboard our religious craft.
1T doesn't make much difference what
you believe" we say that so often that
we almost come to believe it true. stGo
back to the faith of the child,'' saws
Christ. Does it make any difference
whether the child has faith in its father,
its mother, its home, it's Sunday school,
its friends, its Saviour? Well then,
does it make any difference whether
grown..up child has any faith in the in.
SEPARATION Of the Bible, in the sacrifice
made on Calvary, in the Church as
Christ's dearest possession here, in men
and women, however debased, as those
who may be saved through Christ's re-
deeming love? All the difference in the
world
Before close I'm going to take one
or two things from jesus childhood
which are instructive for the childhood of
to-day. In the first place, Jesus was a
child. He was natural child,
NOT ALL AT ONCE A MAN.
He romped, He played, He made curls
of the shavings in his reputed fathers
carpenter shop, He liked sport and fun.
How do | know that, since it is mot re.
ported in the Gospels? l know it be-
cause know that Jesus came to this
earth to live real, human life, and not
SO enigmatical life that you could not
class 1t in either world. We read that
"the child grew"-grew just as boys
grow to-day, expanding quickly in limb
and chest through the vigorous working
of the muscles and the inhalation of pure
air. Christ, as boy, was obedient to
His parents Gas it is right that boy
should be y as man, His mere word
was enough to make the money changers
quail before Him, for snever man spake
like this man." As boy, He thought
as boy, He understood as a boy, He
spake as boy; it was enough to put
away childish things when He should
have become man. The boy Saul sits
at the feet of Gamaliel-he is in school
then; the man Paul is the apostle who
is not whit behind any other in the
apostolic band.
1 wish we believed that boys were
boys and girls were girls when we ask
them to come into the church. We set
them down before the church committee
and we ask them what is their thought
OF God. These boys and girls think
(and sometimes they rightly think) that
we expect them to have the same con-
ception of God that we who are much
older do-and oh, how pitifully small
and incomplete is the conception Of God
that we have! The child Jesus grew,
and so will our boys and girls grow into
larger and broader views Of these things
some day.
The second thing about Jesus child
hood I would mention is this: there is
only one mention in the Gospels OF the
occurrences in His life between boy
hood and manhood, and that is, that at
twelve years Of age He was found in
church (for the great Temple at Jerusa-
lem was the church OF that time). He
was found in church worshipping God
and celebrating the Passover, which
Passover answers to the Lords Supper
OF today. That Is my answer to the
question how early child should join
the church, or whether child should
join the church at all. Tom Paine says
he was
MADE AN INFIDEL
during the first five years Of his life.
Voltaire got his skepticism by reading
q skeptical poem when he was six years
old. Bad men and bad women produce
children Of the same moral likeness. II
the Church of God does not rescue these
children. they will produce other children
as bad as their own parents have been,
and the corrupting stream will go on
down through the channels of time.
The little baby is chirping somewhere
this day lin his trundle bed who will ibe
President Of these United States not
many years hence. The boys Of to-day
are the governors and Statesmen and
princely merchants of tomorrow. If
You take that well-seasoned prop from
under your church roof now, you must
replace it with stout, young timber, or
soon, like the building which the blind
Cd Samson, bowling, brought with him
to the ground, the whole structure will
tumble In ruin. 1.-THE hand that rocks
The cradle moves the worid.''
FIrTY-Two DIvIDx1Ds.
AZ general thing investors are
pleased to receive only two dividends |
pear, and Il they are paid With regular I
ty are fully satisfied. When one, how
sver, can receive ffty-two dividends in
pear upon an Investment Of only three
dollars, the matter deserves very ser
Gus attention.
The Independent Of New York Tor
years has held the first POSI-
ion among the great reIigiousss literary
md family weeklies Of the land It pre-
ents features tor the coming yen far In
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