Evening star., 1912-07-13

20 give me Samuels mind,
A sweet unmurmuring faith
Obedient and resigned
To Thee in life and death.
| That 1 may read with childlike eyes
Truths that are hidden from the wise.
So sang James Burns; and so might
we we'll pray. for Jesus did not say to
children that they should seek to show
great familiarity with the facts of
faith. but He did say to men, and
through them to us, Except ye be con-
verted and become as little children, We
shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven"
Two stories are given us as the basis
Of our theme. The one from the Old
Testament is that eternal bedtime tale
known to the childhood of the Christian
world as Little Samuel" Old hearts
grow young, stale faith grows fresh and
new, prayer comes more readily to lips
unused to prayer as we reread that old
familiar tale
| flushed was the evening hymn,
The temple courts were dark;
The lamp was burning dim
Before the sacred ark
When suddenly voice divine
Rang through the silence of the shrine.
Back in her home among the hills Of
Ephraim. Hannah had taught her dar-
ling first-born son the fear of God THAI
knows no fear And when the Voice
that stills to awful silence the tumult of
the great angelic choir called him by
name and Eli said. 1T is the voice OF
Cod the tender lad of twelve short
years of age lay down to wait the com
ing of that Voice without the thought of
fear For fear is born of cowardice, and
1 ir, hr-,, 80
God. who had kept silence for SO long,
| could now transmit through these unsul-
| lied ears the saving truth for sinful
Israel.
The other story which we read today
deals with the only incident given us in
the gospel narrative OF the fair boyhood
of the Son of God.
Beside the Nile. where first He learned
to tread with faltering steps the high
ways of this world, and where His infant
name of deity: at Nazareth, beside the
craftsman's bench. always and every
where Mary and Joseph taught this Child
committed to their care. Hence when He
came to be Of the same age as Samuel
Of old, when God first spake to him. we
find the boy Christ in His fathers
house" showing the wisdom far beyond
His years, as seemed to them, because
so few are taught as He and Samuel con-
cerning God and faith.
the years in placing upon canvas por-
| trayals Of that scene, but who could paint
the deep distress or sweet solicitude that
Mary felt in that distressing hour In
which she lost Him from her side.
Three thoughts arrest our minds as we
approach this topic and these texts.
THE Child and God.
The child belongs to God. In 1t He gives
the world it's only glimpse OF innocence
and truth. 1t trusts and thinks of Him
/ in hat CHI ha hal
To them He is a kindly verify. Father
who delights TO hear and help. They
bring their childish wants and woes, ex-
pecting to be heard and helped Happy
the child whose training has been such
that in the turmoil of the after years
the hearts first refuge is in prayer to
God.
II-God and the Child.
| 1t was a wondrous thing that when God
thought to send His son. our Savior.
down to these low grounds Of earth to
seek and save the erring sons of men He
| sent Him as child, and in the after
years He gathered them to bless and hold
them close unto himself, pointing a les
son here. a moral there. Using the chill
dren as the embodiment of what His
larger children ought to be. God trusts
the child. the children all trust Him: pity
| it is that time and sin so often breaks
that rare companiOnship.
lila Modern Problem and an Ancient
| Truth.
| Never In all the history OF the world
has childhood and its nurture had be-
slowed on it the thought and care that
!, it receives in this our day. Psychologists
have taken up this study as a special
branch; pedagogics gives it largest
place: parents themselves are taught that
they may teach the budding child in turn,
but the child is more than an unfolding
mind the child holds greater possibilities
than those that lie along the beaten paths
of this worlds lore. The child is born
for holiness and heaven. First to know
God, and then to know the way how best
to serve Him and our fellowman, this is
| the lesson we must teach the child. God
| pity US If in our seeking after this and that
new scheme or method to enlarge the
mind we lose the soul for which the