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SERMON VIII.

THE NOTICE TAKEN OF CHILDREN BY JESUS.

AND HE TOOK THEM UP IN HIS ARMS, PUT HIS HANDS UPON THEM, AND BLESSED THEM.

I HAVE already related to children what is told us in the Sacred History, concerning the infancy and childhood of Jesus Christ. When he was about thirty years of age, he began his public ministrythat is, he began to teach men their duty, and inform them of God and heaven, and of all that is most important for men to know; and he began, also, to do wonderful works, such as curing the sick, and causing blind people to see, and raising the dead to life, in order that men might believe that he was really sent from God. He taught more wisely than any one had ever taught before, because God

gave

him more wisdom than he had ever given to any one before. God also gave him power to perform the wonderful works which he did; for no man could have performed such wonderful works, unless God had been with him to help him.

It might easily enough be supposed, that having such great works to do, and having so much wisdom and power from God, he would have no time to attend to little children, or even to think of them, though he was once a little child himself. But you know that he did think of them, and did attend to them. You have the happiness to know, not only that Jesus was once a little child, but that when he became a wise and mighty teacher, he never forgot little children, but loved them, and spoke very kindly of them, and treated them very tenderly. You know that Jesus took little children into his arms, and blessed them. This is told you by the evangelist Mark, in the words of my text, which you may find in the tenth chapter of his Gospel, sixteenth verse. You may also read an account of the same event in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

But as I am going to relate to you all that Jesus said of children, so far as it is recorded in the Bible, I shall remind you of an event which took place a little while before that which is mentioned in the

text. Attend to me, and I will tell you how and when it was.

Our Lord was travelling through the province of Galilee, in the northern part of the Holy Land, and was going on towards Jerusalem, to be present at the Feast of the Passover; and he knew that his enemies would take him when he arrived there, and put him to death on the cross. His disciples were travelling with him. They knew that their Master was going to a city where he had many violent enemies, and they had heard him say more than once, and very solemnly, that he should be delivered up into the hands of those enemies, who would kill him. This made them quite sorrowful; but they could hardly believe that one so good, so wise, and so powerful as their Master was, would really be slain; for they had made up their minds that he would soon appear as a great king and a conquering warrior, and they could not imagine how he could permit himself to be taken and slain. They supposed there was something in this which they could not understand, but which would be made plain by and by. So they threw off their sorrow as well as they could, and talked of the splendid kingdom which they still believed their Master would soon establish in Jerusalem. Presently they began to

dispute among themselves, which should be the greatest in that kingdom-who should have the highest offices, and make the most show, and be treated with the most respect. This was wrong-quite wrong-especially when we consider what an example of peacefulness and humility they had before their eyes in their Master himself. They were good men; but, like many other men, they had ambition and pride, and it took them a great while to get rid of those faults. And they were too apt to think about honors and riches when they thought about the kingdom of Christ, or, as it was also called, the kingdom of heaven; and it was a long time before they fully understood, that the kingdom of their Master, or the kingdom of heaven, was a spiritual kingdom.

Jesus heard his disciples disputing as they were walking along, and he knew what they were disputing about, and he was grieved that they should show such unamiable and worldly dispositions; but he said nothing to them at that time, till they came to Capernaum. This was a city situated near the shore of the Lake, or Sea, of Galilee. When they had arrived there, and had gone into a house, Jesus asked them, "What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?" The disciples saw that

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