Conversion

1 Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ — Matthew xviii. 3.

1 77S little children, How frequently the Lord took a little child for His text I How often He rebuked the hustling, selfish behaviour of feverish, ambitious men by putting into their midst a little child! ‘Except ye become as little children, What is there about little children which must also be found in those of a ripe age who would be citizens of the Kingdom of God? What are the great characteristics of the child-nature in which all healthy maturity must share?

1. I think the first great feature of childhood is pure affection. In childhood, affection is spring-water. It just bubbles up most naturally, and is pure and delicious. In manhood, affection is too often tap-water. It has flowed through pipes of expediency, prudence,

and calculation, and it has lost its sparkle and limpidity. ‘Master, who shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? ‘There you have affection which is losing its purity, affection with a selfish aim, affection yoked to personal ambition. Now that is the perilous tendency when our lives emerge out of childhood. Affection is prone to pass into long-sighted calculation. ‘We have left all and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore? ‘Love sets a price upon itself, and demands payment. That is not the way of little children. Little children loved Jesus for the pure luxury of loving Him. Their love was its own reward. They loved the lovable, and were happy. But are not older people prone to think that devotion to Jesus ought to be returned in the shape of temporal prosperity? Do we not half expect material payment for spiritual service? The Lord wants us to have the pure, uncalculating love of little children. He wants us to live so much with Him that to love Him shall be our highest bliss.

1 My God, I love Thee, not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor because they who love Thee not,
Are lost eternally;

* * * *

But as Thyself hast loved me,
O ever- loving Lord..’

2. The second great characteristic of the child-nature is its fine sensitiveness. A child’s spirit is like a photographer’s sensitive plate, exceedingly impressionable, responding to the daintiest touch of the softest light. The joys and sorrows of the world find in children a most ready and sympathetic response. Now this fine sensitiveness is apt to be lost as childhood is left behind. Our impressionableness is prone to lose its delicacy. The grief and happiness of the world do not move us with the same facility as of old. Our character is inclined to harden in one of two directions — towards a gloomy pessimism or towards a glaring worldliness. The childdisposition may be symbolized by the month of April. April weather easily breaks into sunshine, and quite as easily melts into rain. Before the shower is over the sun is shining again. Childhood easily breaks into smiles. It quite as easily melts into tears, and before the tears are dry the smiles are there again. But, away from childhood, we are prone to lose the April characteristics. We pass either into the dull, heavy, pessimistic gloom of November, and it is difficult to move us into smiles, or into the hard, worldly glare of June, when it is difficult to melt us into tears. These are the two great tendencies of all life

which is not vigilantly watched; to a gloomy pessimism which loses its sympathy with joy, or to a hard, prosperous worldliness which loses its sympathy with grief; and both dispositions are opposed to the child-nature, one of whose great characteristics is a ready responsiveness, a fine sensitiveness for the whole emotional round of common life. ‘Become as little children/

3. A third great characteristic of childhood is its open-mindedness. Childhood is an age of eager questionings, and not of dogmatic conclusions. It is a season of keen receptiveness, of intense love of the sweet light. Now that open-mindedness is apt to be lost with the growth of our years. Revelation is regarded as closed; the volume as ended; all light as given; so that our knowledge can now be arranged in final forms. That was certainly the condition of the people among whom Christ’s earthly ministry was passed. Their minds were closed, shut up tight against the reception of any new revelation from God. And so the Lord spoke of them as having their eyes closed, and their ears stopped, and their hearts hardened. They had lost their open-mindedness. Their windows were no longer open towards the dawn, for the reception of the truth of God. There were

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two forces actively at work closing their minds, and they are quite as active to-day, the forces of pride and prejudice. When these abound in a life, every door and window is closed, and the ‘Light of the World ’ will seek admission in vain. If we are healthy, and have the nature of little children, we shall have a hungry open-mindedness for the truth. 1 As new-born babes, long for the milk of the Word/