Mark 10:13-16 And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.… Now let us see how this theory works. I cannot show its evil effects better than by taking an illustration from the first book I ever read — "AEsop's Fables." It is long since I saw the book, but its pages are vividly impressed on my memory, especially the pictures, and here is one of them, a fisherman is sitting on the bank of a stream. He has thrown in his bait, and brought out a very little fish. He has the fish in his hand, and is just about to put it into his basket, when the fish begins to talk. He is sitting up in the man's hand, and addressing himself to the fisherman, speaks on this wise: "You see I am a very little fish. It is not worth your while to put me into the basket. Throw me back into the stream, and I shall become a bigger fish, and much better worth catching." But the fisherman says: "No; if I throw you into the stream, it is most likely that I shall never see you again. I will keep you whilst I have got you." And so he puts the fish into the basket. The wrong theory is the theory of the fish, the right one that of the fisherman. Now I ask you to consider this. In the present day we have vast multitudes of children under Christian teaching and influence. A careful estimate gives the present number of scholars in the Sunday schools of England and Wales as over 4,000,000; and there are very many children well taught in Christian homes who are not in the Sunday schools. There is also provision made in our elementary day schools for over 4,000,000 scholars. Now these children are, so to speak, yet in the basket of the Church, and we should use our utmost efforts to prevent them from ever getting out of it. According to the great Teacher the little ones belong to the kingdom of God in their earliest days. Why should they ever leave it? But, alas! instead of acting in accordance with the true theory, we too often act as if the wrong theory were true. We are not so anxious as we ought to be to bring our children at the earliest possible moment into the enjoyment of peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not so careful as we ought to be to provide that before a child leaves school and his parents' home he shall be fortified against the temptations of life by established faith in Christ. Parallel Verses KJV: And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. |
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