Part 11 (1/2)
”Why, I should tell hi with other people's things, and that he had done so that he could never make up, for there was no more of that hair”
”Well,” said I, ”and I suppose you would say that, very likely crying, and if he seeing that he had given you such pain, should begin to cry, and should cry all the rest of the day, and cry hiin to cry again, and should cry all day for weeks--ould you do?”
”Why, I should tell him I was sorry to lose et about it, for he did not knohat a , and I should take hi to et it”
”Why should you do all this?”
”Because I love him,” she said
”Do you believe you love him better than God loves you?”
With a look of surprise, she said, ”Does God love us the same e love?”
”There is but one kind of love,” I said, ”and I really think He would like to have you forget that _lie_ you told so long ago, without thinking horong it was, because you were thinking of so he wanted to see as under the glass of the locket”
She looked at me wistfully
”Did you ever read about Jesus Christ in the New Testament?” said I
”Yes, and I hate to”
”Why?”
”Because you know everybody says we , and I cannot be like Hi of all kinds--beside that _lie_, and you kno cross I aed if you think that you in with; but Jesus Christ came into the world to say a word that is the most important word in the New Testament, and if He had not said it, He would have done usus entirely”
”What was that word?” she asked, with the er interest
”_Pardon_,” said I, ”for all past wrong-doing that you are sorry for”
”Oh, Miss Peabody, I never thought of the ,” said I, ”and that is the reason of all your trouble Now think of it always; and thank God that He sent Jesus to say it That _lie_ of yours God has pardoned long ago, just as you would have pardoned little Edward We all do wrong things e are children, and learn by doing thein all your life over again When you o, and askother mistakes, and when you feel cross, which coed,--for that et it as soon as possible and go and do so pleasant, and think that God loves you, and only lets you do wrong to show you that you need to be getting wisdoer continually, and the older you grow, the better you will understand”
I never knew a moral crisis in any child's life so marked as this was
She had a very hard path in life to walk and suffered ain lost the hope by which we live, and at length, full of years, joined ”the Choir Invisible,” fro standpoint she doubtless sees the end fro Providence coent What I insist upon is, that a child should never be left to doubt, but should always be helped to feel _sure_ that God is loving hiry with hi, and therefore it is that He will not let his that the wrong always gets checked; that God is especially good precisely because He ”ressor hard” Never let the Infinite Power appear to the naughty child's i, inspiring, helping!
It is recorded as characteristic of the highest manifestation of God and Educator of man, who appeared to His most spiritual disciple as the ”Eternal Wordflax or bruise the broken reed,” but distilled upon huentle dews of blessing,--taking little children in His arms to bless them
You ible to the method of love? What shall we do then? I think it will be sufficient to ask any _Christian_, What did Jesus do when the Jews proved insensible and incorrigible to his long-suffering, brotherly love,it the occasion of their own capital crime? Did he abandon the method of love when they nailed him to the cross, or even doubt it?
Let us dwell on this a little Was it not the special trial of Jesus Christ's huh which he was constrained by his apparent failure of acco theht to cry out, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken et the waters of life he offered, they had ion_ to e his _? Did he not, _even then_, hold fast to the principle of brotherliness by co his spirit (which was his work) into the hands of the Father, with the words: ”Forgive the that he felt that this ignorance was infinitely onies? And, in this great _humane_ act of forbearance, and _divine_ act of faith did he not reveal in its fulness the loving character of God, whom he had always called _Father_, and hom he proved himself _one_ by this very token, which converted the Jewish thief and the Roman centurion on the spot; and which, step by step, is slowly but surely (by inspiring his disciples with the sas) _converting the world_? Theto do, is often the ood
As Jesus resigned his own finite will, as the son of David, which was fixed on bringing the Jewish nation to fulfil its national _ all the families of the earth,” which he understood to be the ration from Babylonian civilization into the wilderness; and as he accepted the will of his Father, which seee to do this patriotic duty was not granted to hi, _the as lifted_, and he found hi the Saviour, not of the _nation_ of the Jews ht hand of God For he proved hi_, not for the sake of men's _reciprocation_ and appreciation of himself, but for the sake of _the salvation_ of humanity Therefore Christ's method is the one for every man and woman on all planes of activity, however humble I have heard more than one mother say, that when they had tried every ive up soable free as bent, and all tender and violent measures had failed, the _irrepressible_ tears of their despairing love had most unexpectedly melted the hardness of self-will at _once_, and _effected the cure_ LOVE, _when it is understood_, is _irresistible_ Our sacred oracles teach us that the origin of evil is in a doubt of God's love In Eden it was a suspicion that He had so in a world of free gifts
The conquest of evil, on the other hand, they represent, was in Jesus Christ's trusting _God's love_, in a lost world, auish of a disappointrandest aim that ever one born of wo to do the lesser good just at hand, he developed the power to _save all men from their sins; notclass of kindergartners I would say, _your_ special work is rather to _prevent_, than to conquer sin, in the objects of your care; therefore you should, in your own i_, first leading children to realize that all He hasthe religious nurture