The Topeka state journal., 1906-06-30

The quick hot indignation of Chris
tian manhood should overtake all
these offenders against the childhood
of the race. God will reckon with
them as surely as he win reckon with
Satan; but, pending that inevitable
time, man should do a little reckoning
on his own account The offences
against innocence which are tolerated
or only mildly protested against today
are a rebuke to our civilization.
society's Big Sin.
The terrific words of this Teacher.
concerning the offending members Of
ones body, were spoken in connection
with his discourse on childhood. They
are an amplif1ed echo of his sermon
on the Mount. Their primary mean
ing has to do with little children. If
ones hand or foot or eye is an enemy
of childhood, il aught in his life hurts
or Offends these little ones no meas
ure is too radical to remove the Of
fense. It is more than the privilege, it
is the bounden duty of every one who
would yield obedience to Gods law,
to live such a life and to be such
person that the tender spirit of child
hood will thrive in his atmosphere.
Is it not a sufficient indictment of
Society" that it has eliminated the
child from its calculations When
rare child is found in the home Of
fashion, its care is given to hirelings,
ana II IS looked upon as an 1LlpSOt-
ment. In the worlds mad whirl of
pleasure and amassing of wealth, there
is no room for the tender, beguiling
ways of little children. OF course
that is a mistaken pursuit of pleasure
which is apart from fellowship with
the little ones The happiest person is
he whose heart IS entWined With the
tendrils of these fresh, fragrant lives.
Home keepiag hearts are happiesJ.
In all Newport there is no palace Of
pleasure to equal The humble hOnae
where little children have first place.
The stirring words of President
Roosevelt upon the subject Of child
hood are. after all. but a mOdernisaticn
OF this exhcrtaIion of Jesus. See that
ye desDise not one of these little ones;
for I say unto you, that in heaven their
angels do always behold the face OF
my Father which is in heaven And
surely these little lives, 50 helpless, so
oft in danger, must have attendant
angels ministering unto tn an And
what more natural than shat ;hcse
guardians of the children whom God
loves should have high estate in
heaven?
The shepherd Story.
Jesus cares for little children as a
shepherd cares for his lambs. The
figure CT the shepherd who carries the
lambs in his bosom is very dear to hu-
manity as typifying the Good Shep-
herd. In Patterson DUBOIS book,
"Beckonings from Little Hands" he
tells Of finding in the desk Of his little
child, after the child had died. a bit of
paper on which had been crudely
printed, God is love. He loves
lambs" There is profound knowledge
of the heart of God which some scien-
fists have not been able to attain unto.
The ministry of the children whom
God wants in his own presence iInme-
diately, is the sorrow of many lives;
but it cannot be denied that, as an east
ern shepherd sometimes carries a
bleating lamb over a difficult stream
in order to induce the flock to follow,
so whole families and communities
have been led to become followers of
God. because of a little child that has
been carried across the dark river.
In the eyes CT the infinite Jehovah
the life and love of a little child is
precious. Jesus came as babe
teaching this new truth. The world
as a whole is Learning it. Many men
and women have yet to discover that
their highest career and their highest
success, as we'll as their greatest hap
piness in all life, is in being father or
mother to the little ones-that may be
enjoyed and trained to the glory Of
God and to the profit of the world.
When we sit at the feet of a child. we
sit at the feet of Jesus. When we sit
at the feet of Jesus, ne places US at
the feet of child