The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-05-06

/ SOtldI ALI MY iiithhob - NhH
your way of dealing with the vision?
Many of the first visions of possible
| triumphant missionary for Christ have
| been suppressed by a selfish parent in
| Just such language as 1 have quoted. Be
ware! Be careful how you deal with the
first vision of child.
Gone Forever.
But there is still another fact relative
to the visions of childhood to which
would draw your attention. They may
come to a boy or a girl at time when
the parent thinks the child is too young
] to have any appreciation or any Thought
! of his own. They may come and go SO
quickly that, like the humming birds
drinking out of the honey-cups of gar
den, you can hardly tell whether they are
truly here before they are gone. They
may come and go and after awhile seem
I to disappear forever. but because OF the
fulhllment of these first visions may
be postponed for months-aye, for years
do not be surprised or skeptical. Those
first visions of youth, IL they have been
welcomed Alright by the parent and the
child, will all be realized. They will all
be fulfilled If they were true visions from
God.
Let me illustrate my thought by the
life of Jesus Christ. I love to think of the
journey which this Divine Child took to
the capital of his great ancestor, King
David Jesus up to this time was nothing
but boy. TITS true, he was perfect
boy, with all the healthful desires of child
hood He was not boy with the char
acter of girl, but a boy, healthful.
beautiful, noble boy. He could romp and
play like other boys. In the games played
between his companions and himself |
have always thought there was no laugh
merrier than his and no rolliclSing joy
] OIL ~ ortNY I m M
of Christ as frail baby sickly boy
Every part of him TO me was that of a
well rounded, perfectly formed child. He
was boy who was the life of his home
boy who was loved by everyone.
Now it was custom of all the Isra-
elites ordained by the Mosaic law to at
tend the feast of the passover once a
year. This feast took place in the spring
time. 1t was a combination, if.I might
use the smile, of our Thanksgiving day
and Fourth of July. 1t was time when
the Hebrews assembled in Jerusalem to
thank God for their liberation from
Egyptian slavery. In the spring of each
year from the little village of Nazareth
among the Zebulon hills in the far north,
the men and women would start on their
sacred pilgrimage, The children were
left behind as a rule, on account of the
length. the fatigue and the danger of the
journey. Methinks I can see Christ and
the other boys of Nazareth climb the hills
to watch their fathers disappear in the
distance. But one year Christ does not
mingle with the boys. He has come to the
sacred age of twelve. This is the year
that all the Hebrew boys are allowed to
join the caravan. Thus as he walks along
with his parents I see his cheeks flushed
with excitement This is most natural
Christ the boy for the first time is going
to see a great city. Christ the boy is
| going to the capital of his country. Were
you not excited when your father. farm
! err, took you to the city for the Hrst time
| In the Temple.
| But as Christ the boy, wanders around
that great capital, with it's walls and pal
aces and temple and It's thousands of in
| habitants and visitors, there rises before
| him the dim vision of who he is and
what God wants him to do The vision
is there dim in outline, but it is there. He
naturally drifts to the temple and talks
with the learned rabbits, who sat there
to teach and answer questions The
thought that he was the Messiah whom
the Jews were expecting was probably in
his mind. He wanted to learn what was
the idea that the doctors had of that
being. and his inquiries showed so much
intelligence that they marveled at him.
He had had a vision, but neither they nor
| his parents when they came. understood
| 1t. What became of that vision? For
ten, fifteen-aye. for nearly twenty-years
the world hears nothing more about this
strange boy. Like many other youthful
prodigies, he seems to disappear forever.
He not only goes back to Nazareth, but
instead of being a messenger of God he
seems to become nothing but carpenter.
| But nearly score of years afterward we
see this Christ in Cana, by Lake Galilee.
Then in rapid succession come the Jordan
ic baptism and the miracles. Then come
Gethsemane and calvary, then the Easter
resurrection and the ascension. All, did
Christs vision Of boyhood come true?
So. my friends, want to tell you that the
fufillment of your child's visions. If they
are of God and you welcome them Alright
will come true. though they may be
many years hidden away in a Nazareth
oblivion. Beware how you sheer at those
visions of the twelfth year.
But as ! plead with you to he careful
in your dealings with the God given
visions of your children I cannot close
without Just one word of pleading for
yourself You are no longer child. Your
| hair is gray. Your face is wrnkled In
stead of having the clear blue eyes of
youth. your nose. is bridged with glasses.
A score. two score. perhaps three score
years separate you from the scenes of
| your school days. Tell me, do you not be-
lieve it is fun time for you to see the
| fulfillment of those visions of your own
childhood? When ypu were a schoolboy
you saw God given vision of a day in
which You were to surrender your whole
heart and life unto his service. Was it
a dream? Do you not believe the time has
come for that vision to be fulfilled at the
altar of mercy now?
| This is not useless or an unimportant
moment for you. This moment may de-
eide the eternal destiny of some one Your
vision of childhood. about giving your
| heart to Jesus Christ. came to some of
YOU nearly fifty years ago. Shall not that
vision be fulfilled in this the twilight of
your life? Shall it not by the grace of
God. be fulfilled now? Or IL not now,
when shall it be fulfilled? DO you not
believe that that vision of childhood which
| still fingers in your mind was a vision
sent from God, which, by Gods will, is
| still calling you to him?
Copyright, 1906, by Louis Klopsch)