XMAS AND CHILDHOOD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 545, 24 December 1928, Page 16

XMAS AND CHILDHOOD

TEACHING OF JESUS SWEET STRAIN OF AGES Following on the dedication service for infants on Sunday morning, the Rev. A. S. Wilson, at the Grange Road Baptist Church, referred to the wonderful way the advent of Jesus Christ had improved childhood’s chances. The advent of the world’s Redeemer was the beginning of an age that was to teach the world the value and dignity of human life. He became a babe, and the very cradle was sanctified by His presence. The light of the Star of Bethlehem reveals the guardian angel of every infant’s life. The most beautiful feature of the early ministry of Christ —His hands outstretched to beckon little children. The sweetest strains wafted down the ages were echoes of the loving wards, “Suffer little children to come unto Me.” “Inspired by His teaching how differently people regarded the claims of childhood. Children are no more chattels, sold into slavery or bartered for a few pence. The heathen who is touched by Christ’s compassion no longer dash their little ones against a stone, nor do the enlightened mothers of India cast their little ones into the Ganges. “It is Christianity that fights what is known as the ‘child’s ditch,’ where children, like unto Sparta of old, are left to die. A traveller in China saw a notice, ‘Children are not to be drowned here.’ “How different to the reverence for child life in Christian lands! The new conception of childhood has created a new civilisation and a new world. Every child in every home is a potential representative of the Christ of Bethlehem. The babe of Mary is the hope of each infant, unsonscious of destiny, in its mother’s lap. Thank God those infant hands that once stroked Mary’s face were outstretched on the cross for every child. Let us thank God also that wherever the Christ Child is honoured or adored Christmas is a children’s festival. “One great lesson of the season was the cultivation of the child-heart. Reace and goodwill’ can alone come as we fulfill the Divine conditions, and ‘become as little children.’ The normal child is free and open, sympathetic and forgiving.”

It was possible for all to have the child-heart sweetened, cleansed and blest at this time. So would they be able to join in the music of the period with understanding hearts, and find that Christmas in the home and in the church was a time for carols