Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-08-16
BY HIS Spirit ONLY
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
Not BY Power, Nor BY Might, But
BY My Spirit, Sayeth the Lord
Christian Duty.

Bfooklyn, N Y.-Sunday evening,
In Puritan Congregational Church,
the pastor, the Rev. Livingston l..
Taylor, preached sermon in antici-
patfon of Anniversary Day, on "Chil-
dren's Rights" The text was from
Mark 1914: Suffer the little chill
dren to come unto Me, and forbid
them not; for of such is the kingdom
of God" Among other things, Mr..
Taylor said:
Here is the Magma Charta, the
great charter of children's rights.
The Kingdom Is their kingdom. The
Christ is their Christ. He recognizes
their right to be; their right to be
children; their right I'd a blessed
lie as. children. The kingdom can
not come except as children have
their rights. Could we save the chill
dren of but one generation, the king
dom would be here. God does not
work in just that way; but the king
dom will never come unless we keep
our hearts with the children and our
faces toward the unborn. The world
must become better by being born
again. That is the way the kingdom
has been coming. The human race
makes progress by being better born
each time. The right to be well
born should be secured to every
child and from birth on all Its rights
as child should be safe-guarded.
Christ's blessing rests upon every
plea for children's rights. upon every
law enacted for their protection from
lnhuman parents, guardians and en-
ployers; upon every provision for
their welfare when orphaned, or de-
serted, or sick, or feeble minded, or
crippled, or in any way dependent
defective or delinquent. But the
children who are thus afflicted, the
children who are beaten and sent
out to beg and steal. the children
who are compelled to work long
hours and under unwholesome con-
ditions, the children whose parents
are dead or unable to provide 1or
them, are not the only children who
need to have their rights examined.
In what we call the best homes GER
tain rights Of the children are IN
danger OF being overlooked, are IN
need of being declared, champ1oneo
and secured.
First and foremost, would put
the right of children to be children.
They have as good right to pe
children as we have to be grown up
folks; better right, propaDiy'
Childhood is as much part OF the
framework Of this universe as eartn
or sky or sea. The right to child
hood is inalienable. Your child has
! a right not only to live but to i've as
! q child. We are not to infer that
Paul was ashamed of his childhood
because he said: when I became a
man / put away childish things.
We are not to think the less OF
i childhood because we were meant 70
out,row it. Such real men as Pau
was are generally discovered to have
had a real childhood. He certainly
had had a childhood sufficiently
| marked to be well remembered
Some men and women are not sc
| fortunate. They seem to have Tor
gotten that they ever were or Eere
meant to be children. But Pau
said: "When 1 was a child. / spoke
as a child. understood as child
7 thought (or reasoned) as a child
| And there seems to have been no
hody to interfere with him. Child
hood and youth are vanity" sait
the preacher. But perhaps he wa
simnly lamenting their brevity
"Make the most of childhood ant
| youth for they are soon gone. Bu
/ ST we are to understand him as pro
! nouncing vain and proftless tn
! GOLDEN days Of all our life, he is sadl
J out of tune with all the rest OF tn
Bible. Vanity! Emptiness! In
fitness of life's worth and meanln
| is nowhere writ so large as in tn
soul Of youth. Is it Just a lie WI,
large? Oh, no, for God wrote
! thus:
| The men who retain childhood
sense of the reality and eagerness
/ life are the men who never gro