Sermon 581. Children Brought to Christ, and Not to the Font

(No. 581)

Delivered on Sunday Morning, July 24th, 1864, by the

Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. Butwhen Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid themnot: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a littlechild, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessedthem"-Mark 10:13-16.

MY attention has been specially directed to this passage by the fact that it has been quoted against me by most of the authorsof those sermons and letters which are, by a stretch of imagination, called "replies" to my sermon upon "Baptismal Regeneration."Replies they certainly are not, except to one another. I marvel that a Church so learned as the Anglican, cannot produce somethinga little more worthy of the point in hand. The various authors maypossibly have read my discourse, but by reason of mental absorption in other meditations, or perhaps through the naturaldisturbance of mind caused by guilty consciences, they have talked with confusion of words, and have only been successfulin refuting themselves, and answering one another. They must have been aiming at something far removed from my sermon, orelse I must give them credit for being the worst shots that ever practiced with polemical artillery. They do not so much astouch thetarget in its extreme corners, much less in its centre. The whole question is, Do you believe that baptism regenerates?If so-prove that your belief is Scriptural! Do you believe that baptism does not regenerate? Then justify your swearing thatit does? Who will reply to this? He shall merit and bear the palm.

The Scripture before us is by several of the champions on the other side exhibited to the people as a rebuke to me. Theirreasoning is rather ingenious than forcible: forsooth, because the disciples incurred the displeasure of Jesus Christ by keepingback the little children from coming to Him, therefore Jesus Christ is greatly displeased with me, and with all others like me, for keeping children from the font, and the performance there enacted; and speciallydispleased with me for exposing the Anglican doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration! Observe the reasoning-because Jesus wasmuch displeased with disciples for hindering parents from seeking a blessing upon their children, therefore he is much displeasedwith us who do not believe in godfathers and godmothers, or the signing of the cross on the infant brow. I must say at theoutset that this is rather a leap of argument, and would not ordinarily be thought conclusive, but this we may readilyoverlook, since we have long ceased to hope for reasonable arguments from those who support a cause based upon absurdity.My brethren, I concluded that there must be something forcible in such a text as this, or my opponents would not be so eagerto secure it; I have therefore carefully looked at it, and as I have viewed it, it has opened up to me with a sacred splendourof grace. In this incident the very heart of Christ is published to poor sinners, and we may clearly perceive the freenessand the fulness of the mighty grace of the Redeemer of men, who is willing to receive the youngest child as well as theoldest man; and is greatly displeased with any who would keep back seeking souls from coming to him, or loving hearts frombringing others to receive his blessing.

I. In handling this text in what I believe to be its true light, I shall commence, first of all, by observing that THIS TEXTHAS NOT THE SHADOW OF THE SHADE OF THE GHOST OF A CONNECTION WITH BAPTISM. There is no line of connection so substantial asa spider's web between this incident and baptism, or at least my imagination is not vivid enough to conceive one. This I willprove to you, if you will follow me for a moment.

It is very clear, Dear Friends, that these young children were not brought to Jesus Christ by their friends to be baptized. "They brought young children to him, that he should touch them," says Mark. Matthew describes the children as being brought"that he would put his hands on them and pray," but there is not a hint about their being baptized; no godfathers or godmothershad been provided, and no sign of the cross was requested. Surely the parents themselves knewtolerably well what it was they desired, and they would not have expressed themselves so dubiously as to ask him to touchthem, when they meant that he should baptize them. The parents evidently had no thought of regeneration by baptism, and broughtthe children for quite another end.

In the next place, if they brought the children to Jesus Christ to be baptized, they brought them to the wrong person; for the Evangelist, John, in the fourth chapter, and the second verse, expressly assures us that Jesus Christ baptized not,but his disciples: this settles the question once for all, and proves beyond all dispute that there is no connection betweenthis incident and baptism.

But you will say, "Perhaps they brought the children to be baptized by the disciples?" Brethren, the disciples were not in the habit of baptizing infants, and this is clear from the case in hand. If they hadbeen in the habit of baptizing infants, would they have rebuked the parents for bringing them? If it had been a customarything for parents to bring children with such an object, would the disciples who had been in the constant habit of performingthe ceremony,have rebuked them for attending to it? Would any Church clergyman rebuke parents for bringing their children to be baptized?If he did so, he would act absurdly contrary to his own views and practice; and we cannot therefore imagine that if infantbaptism had been the accepted practice, the disciples could have acted so absurdly as to rebuke the parents for bringing theirlittle ones. It is obvious that such could not have been the practice of the disciples who were rebuked.

Moreover, and here is an argument which seems to me to have great force in it, when Jesus Christ rebuked his disciples, then was the time if ever in his life, to have openly spoken concerning infant baptism,godfathers and godmothers, and the whole affair. If he wished to rebuke his disciples most effectually, how could he have done it better than by saying, "Wherefore keep yethese children back? I have ordained that they shall be baptized; I have expresslycommanded that they shall be regenerated and made members of my body in baptism; how dare you then, in opposition to mywill, keep them back?" But no, dear friends, our Saviour never said a word about "the laver of regeneration," or, "the quickeningdew," when he rebuked them-not a single sentence. Had he done so, the season would have been most appropriate if it had beenhis intention to teach the practice; in the whole of his life, there is no period in which a discourse upon infantregeneration in baptism could have been more appropriate than on this occasion, and yet not a single sentence about itcomes from the Saviour's lips.

To close all, Jesus Christ did not baptize the children. Our Evangelist does not inform us that he exclaimed, "Where are the godfathers and godmothers?" Is it not recorded that hecalled for a font, or a Prayer Book? No; but "He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them," anddismissed them without a drop of the purifying element. Now, if this event had any connection with baptism whatever, it wasthe most appropriate occasion for infantbaptism to have been practiced. Why, it would have ended for ever the controversy. There may be some men in the worldwho would have raised the question of engrafting infants into the body of Christ's Church by baptism after all this, but Iam certain no honest man would have done so who reverently accepted Christ as his spiritual leader. I, my brethren, wouldsooner be dumb than speak a single word against an ordinance which Christ himself instituted and practiced; and if on thisoccasion hehad but sprinkled one of these infants, given him a Christian name, signed him with a cross, accepted the vows of hisgodparents, and thanked God for his regeneration, then the question would have been settled for ever, and some of us wouldhave been saved a world of abuse, besides escaping no end of mistakes, for which we are condemned, in the judgment of manygood people, for whom we have some affection, though for their judgment we have no respect.

So you see the parents did not ask baptismal regeneration; Christ did not personally baptize; the disciples were not in thehabit of baptizing infants, or else they would not have rebuked the parents; Christ did not speak about baptism on the occasion,and he did not baptize the little ones.

I will put a case to you which may exhibit the weakness of my opponents' position. Suppose a denomination should rise up whichshould teach that babes should be allowed to partake at the Lord's Table. Such teaching could plead precedents of great antiquity,for you are aware that at one period, infant communion was allowed, and logically too; for if an infant has a right to baptism,it has a right to come to the Lord's Table. For years children were brought to the Lord'sTable, but rather inconvenient accidents occurred, and therefore the thing was dropped as being unseemly. But if someoneshould revive the error, and try to prove that infants are to come to the Lord's Supper, he might prove it from this passagequite as clearly as our friends can prove infant baptism from it. Moreover do not forget that even if infant baptism couldbe proved from this text, the ceremony prescribed in the Prayer Book is quite as far from being established. Whether the baptismof infants may or may not be proved from other Scriptures I cannot now stay to enquire, but even if it can be, what arewe to say for godfathers or godmothers, or the assertion that in baptism children are made "members of Christ, children ofGod, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven?" Truly I might as well prove vaccination from the text before me, as the performancewhich the Prayer Book calls "infant baptism." I do not hesitate to say that I could prove any earthly thing, if I might buthave such reasoning granted to me as that which proved infant baptism from this passage. There is no possible connectionbetween the two. The teaching of the passage is very plain and very clear, and baptism has been imported into it, and notfound in it. As a quaint writer has well said, "These doctrines are raised from the text as our collectors raise a tax uponindigent, nonsolvent people, by coming armed with the law and a constable to distrain for that which is not to be had. Certainlynever was text so strained and distrained to pay what it never owed; never man so racked to confess what he never thought;never was a pumice stone so squeezed for water which it never held." Still hundreds will catch at this straw, and cry, "Didnot Jesus say, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me?'" To these we give this one word, see that ye read the Word asit is written, and you will find no water in it but Jesus only. Are the water and Christ the same thing? Is bringing a childto afont bringing the child to Christ? Nay, here is a wide difference, as wide as between Rome and Jerusalem, as wide as betweenAnti-christ and Christ, between false doctrine and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

II. Now, for our second and much more pleasing task, WHY THEN WAS JESUS CHRIST DISPLEASED?

Read the passage and at once the answer comes to you. He was displeased with his disciples for two reasons: first, because they discouraged those who would bring others to him; and secondly, because they discouraged those who themselves were anxious to come to him. They did not discourage those who were coming to a font, they discouraged those who were coming to Jesus. There is a mightydistinction ever to be held between the font and Christ, between thesprinkling of the priest and living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, his disciples discouraged those who would bring others to him. This is a great sin, and wherever it is committed Jesus Christ is greatly displeased, for a true desire to see others savedis wrought in the believer by God the Holy Spirit, who thus renders the called ones the means of bringing wandering sheepinto the fold. In this case they discouraged those who would bring children to him to be blessed. How can we bring children to Jesus Christ to beblessed? We cannot do it in a corporeal sense, for Jesus is not here, "he is risen;" but we can bring our children ina true, real, and spiritual sense. We take them up in the arms of our prayer. I hope many of us, so soon as our children saw the light, if not before, presented them to God with this anxious prayer,that they might sooner die than live to disgrace their father's God. We only desired children that we might in them live overagain another life of service to God; and when welooked into their young faces, we never asked wealth for them, nor fame, nor anything else, but that they might be dearunto God, and that their names might be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We did then bring our children to Christ as faras we could do it, by presenting them before God, by earnest prayer on their behalf. And have we ceased to bring them to Christ?Nay, I hope we seldom bow the knee without praying for our children. Our daily cry is, "O, that they might live before thee!"God knows that nothing would give us more joy than to see evidence of their conversion; our souls would almost leap outof our bodies with joy, if we should but know that they were the children of the living God. Nor has this privilege been deniedto us, for there are some here who can rejoice in a converted household. Truly we can say with the apostle Paul, "I have nogreater joy than this, that my children walk in the truth." We continue, therefore, to bring them to Christ by daily, constant,earnest prayer on their behalf. So soon as they become of years capable of understanding the things of God, we endeavourto bring them to Christ by teaching them the truth. Hence our Sabbath-schools, hence the use of the Bible and family prayer, and catechizing at home. Any person who shall forbidus to pray for our children, will incur Christ's high displeasure; and any who shall say, "Do not teach your children; theywill be converted in God's own time if it be his purpose, thereforeleave them to run wild in the streets," will certainly both "sin against the child" and the Lord Jesus. We might as wellsay, "If that piece of ground is to grow a harvest, it will do so if it be God's good pleasure; therefore leave it, and letthe weeds spring up and cover it; do not endeavour for a moment to kill the weeds, or to sow the good seed." Why, such reasoningas this would be not only cruel to our children, but grievously displeasing to Christ. Parents! I do hope you are allendeavouring to bring your children to Christ by teaching them the things of God. Let them not be strangers to the planof salvation. Never let it be said that a child of yours reached years in which his conscience could act, and he could judgebetween good and evil, without knowing the doctrine of the atonement, without understanding the great substitutionary workof Christ. Set before your child life and death, hell and heaven, judgment and mercy, his own sin, and Christ's most preciousblood; and as you set these before him, labour with him, persuade him, as the apostle did his congregation, with tearsand weeping, to turn unto the Lord; and your prayers and supplications shall be heard so that the Spirit of God shall bringthem to Jesus. How much more like the Scripture will such labours be than if you were to sing the following very pretty versewhich disfigures Roundell Palmer's "Book of Praise!"-

"Though thy conception was in sin,

A sacred bathing thou hast had;

And though thy birth unclean has been,

A blameless babe thou now art made.

Sweet baby, then forbear to weep;

Be still, my dear, sweet baby, sleep."

I cannot tell you how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. It was the custom on Sunday evenings, while we wereyet little children, for her to stay at home with us, and then we sat round the table and read verse by verse, and she explainedthe Scripture to us. After that was done, then came the time of pleading; there was a little piece of "Alleyn's Alarm," orof Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted," and this was read with pointed observations made to each of usas we sat round the table; and the question was asked how long it would be before we would think about our state, howlong before we would seek the Lord. Then came a mother's prayer, and some of the words of a mother's prayer we shall neverforget, even when our hair is grey. I remember on one occasion her praying thus: "Now, Lord, if my children go on in theirsins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the day of judgmentif theylay not hold of Christ." That thought of a mother's bearing swift witness against me, pierced my conscience and stirredmy heart. This pleading with them for God and with God for them is the true way to bring children to Christ. Sunday-schoolteachers! you have a high and noble work, press forward in it. In our schools you do not try to bring children to the baptistryfor regeneration, you point them away from ceremonies; if I know the teachers of this school aright, I know you are tryingtobring your classes to Christ. Let Christ be the sum and substance of your teaching in the school. Young men and youngwomen, in your classes lift up Christ, lift him up on high; and if anybody shall say to you, "Why do you thus talk to thechildren?" you can say, "Because my soul yearns towards them, and I pant for their conversion;" and if any should afterwardsobject, you can remember that Jesus is greatly displeased with them, and not with you, for you only obey the injunction, "Feedmy lambs."

The case in our text is that of children, but objectors rise up who disapprove of endeavours to bring any sort of people toChrist by faith and prayer. There are some who spend their nights in the streets seeking after the poor harlot, and I haveheard many harsh observations made about their work; some will say it is ridiculous to expect that any of those who have spenttheir days in debauchery should be converted. We are told that the most of those who are taken into therefuges go back and become as depraved as ever; I believe that to be a very sad and solemn truth; but I believe, if Ior anyone else shall urge that or anything else as a reason why my brethren should not seek the harlot, that Jesus would begreatly displeased; for any man who stands between a soul-seeker and the divine object of getting a blessing for the sinner'ssoul, excites the wrath of Christ. Some have hopes of our convicts and criminals; but every now and then there is an outcryagainstthose who even believe it possible for a transport or a ticket-of-leave man to be converted. But Jesus is greatly displeasedwith any who shall say about the work, "It is too hard; it is impossible." My brethren in Christ, labour for souls of allsorts: for your children and for those who are past the threescore years and ten. Seek out the drunkard; go after the thief;despise not the poor down-trodden slave; let every race, let every colour, let every age, let every profession, let everynation, be the object of your soul's prayers. You live in this world, I hope, to bring souls to Jesus; you are Christ'smagnets with which through his Holy Spirit he will attract hearts of steel; you are his heralds, you are to invite wanderersto come to the banquet; you are his messengers, you are to compel them to come in that his house may be filled; and if thedevil tells you you will not succeed, and if the world tells you that you are too feeble and have not talent enough, nevermind,Jesus would be greatly displeased with you if you should take any heed to them; and meanwhile he is greatly displeasedwith your adversaries for endeavouring to stop you. Beloved, this is why Jesus Christ was greatly displeased.

A second ground of displeasure must be noticed. These children, it strikes me, and I think there is good reason for the belief,themselves desired to come to Christ to obtain a blessing. They are called "little children," which term does not necessarily involve their being infants of six months or a year; indeed,it is clear, as I will show in a moment, that they were not such little children as to be unconscious babes. They were "infants,"according to our versionof Luke, but then you know the English word "infant" includes a considerable range of age, for every person in his minorityis legally considered to be an infant, though he may be able to talk to any amount. We do not, however, desire to translatethe text with so great a license. There is no necessity in the language used that these should have been anything but whatthey are said to be-"little children." It is evident they could walk, because in Luke it is said, "Jesus called them;"the gender of the Greek pronoun used there refers it to the children, not to the persons, nor to the disciples. Jesuscalled them, he called the children, which he would hardly have done if they could not comprehend his call: and he said, "Sufferthe little children to come," which implies that they could come, and doubtless they did come, with cheerful faces, expectingto get the blessing. These perhaps may have been some of those very children, who, a short time after, pulled down branchesfrom the trees and strewed them in the way, and cried, "Hosanna," when the Saviour said, "Out of the mouths of babes andsucklings hast thou ordained strength." Now Christ was greatly displeased with his disciples for pushing back these boys andgirls. They did, as some old folks do now-a-days, who cry out-"Stand back, you boys and girls! we do not want you here; wedo not want children to fill up the place; we only want grown-up people." They pushed them back; they thought that Christwouldhave too much to do, if he attended to the juveniles. Here comes out this principle, that we must expect Christ's displeasure,if we attempt to keep anybody back from coming to Christ, even though it be the youngest child. You ask how persons can cometo Christ now? They cannot come corporeally, but they can come by simple prayer and humble faith. Faith is the way to Jesus,baptism is not. When Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden," he did not mean, "bebaptized," did he? No; and so when he said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me," he did not mean, "Baptize them,"did he? Coming to Jesus Christ is quite a different thing from coming to a font. Coming to Christ means laying hold upon Christwith the hand of faith; looking to him for my life, my pardon, my salvation, my everything. If there be a poor little childhere who is saying in her little heart, or his little heart, "I would like to come to Christ, O that I might be pardonedwhile I am yet a little one"-come, little lamb; come, and welcome. Did I hear your cry? Was it this?

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

Look upon a little child;

Pity my simplicity,

Suffer me to come to thee."

Dear little one, Jesus will not despise your lispings, nor will his servant keep you back. Jesus calls you, come and receivehis blessing. If any of you say a word to keep the young heart back, Jesus will be displeased with you. Now I am afraid somedo that; those, for instance, who think that the gospel is not for little children. Many of my brethren, I am sorry to say,preach in such a way that there is no hope of children ever getting any good by their preaching. Icannot glory in learning or eloquence, but in this one thing I may rejoice, that there is always a number of happy childrenhere, who are quite as attentive as any of my audience. I do love to think that the gospel is suitable to little children.There are boys and girls in many of our Sabbath-school classes down below stairs who are as truly converted to God as anyof us. Nay, and if you were to speak with them about the things of God, though you should get to the knotty points of electionandpredestination, you would find those boys and girls well taught in the things of the kingdom: they know free will fromfree grace, and you cannot puzzle them when you come to talk about the work of Jesus and the work of the Spirit, for theycan discern between things which differ. But a minister who preaches as though he never wanted to bring children to Christ,and shoots right over the little one's heads, I do think Jesus is displeased with him.

Then there are others who doubt whether children ever will be converted. They do not look upon it as a thing likely to happen,and whenever they hear of a believing child, they hold up their hands at the prodigy, and say, "What a wonder of grace!" Itought to be, and in those Churches where the gospel is simply preached, it is as common a thing for children to be convertedas for grown-up people to be brought to Christ. Others begin to doubt the truth of juvenileconversions. They say, "They are very young, can they understand the gospel? Is it not merely an infantile emotion, amere profession?" My brethren, you have no more right to suspect the sincerity of the young, than to mistrust the grey-headed;you ought to receive them with the same open-breasted confidence with which you receive others when they profess to have foundthe Saviour. Do, I pray you, whenever you see the faintest desire in your children, go down on your knees, as your servantdoes, when the fire is almost out, and blow the spark with your own breath-seek by prayer to fan that spark to a flame.Do not despise any godly remark the child may make. Do not puff the child up on account of the goodness of the remark, lestyou make him vain and so injure him, but do encourage him; let his first little prayers be noticed by you; though you maynot like to teach him a form of prayer-I shall not care if you do not-yet teach him what prayer is; tell him to express hisdesires in his own words, and when he does so, join ye in it and plead with God on his behalf, that your little one mayspeedily find true peace in a Saviour's blood. You must not, unless you would displease my Master, keep back the smallestchild that longs to come to Christ.

Here let us observe that the principle is of general application; you must not hinder any awakened soul from seeking the Saviour.O my brethren and sisters, I hope we have such a love for souls, such an instinct within us to desire to see the travail ofChrist's soul, that instead of putting stumbling-blocks in the way, we would do the best we could to gather out the stones.On Sabbath days I have laboured to clear up the doubts and fears which afflict coming sinners; Ihave entreated God the Holy Spirit to enable me so to speak, that those things which hindered you from coming to the Saviourmight be removed; but how sad must be the case of those who delight themselves in putting stumbling-blocks in men's way. Thedoctrine of election for instance, a great and glorious truth, full of comfort to God's people; how often is that made tofrighten sinners from Jesus! There is a way of preaching that with a drawn sword, and say, "You must not come unless you knowyou are one of God's elect." That is not the way to preach the doctrine. The true way of preaching it is, "God has a chosenpeople, and I hope you are one of them; come, lay hold on Jesus, put your trust in him." Then there be others who preach upframes and feelings as a preparation for Christ. They do in effect say, "Unless you have felt so much depression of spirit,or experienced a certain quantity of brokenness of heart, you must not come to Christ," instead of declaring, that whosoeverwill is permitted to come, and that the true way of coming to Christ is not with a qualification of frames and feelingand mental depressions, but just as you are. Oh! it is my soul's delight to preach a gospel which has an open door to it,to preach a mercy-seat which has no veil before it; the veil is rent in twain, and now the biggest sinner out of hell whodesires to come, is welcome. You who are eighty years of age, and have hated Christ all the time, if now the Spirit of Godmakes youwilling to come, Christ seems to say, "Suffer the grey- headed to come unto me, and forbid them not:" while to you littlechildren, he stretches out his arms in the same manner, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." O my beloved, see toit that your heart longs to come to Christ, and not to ceremonies! I stand here this day to cry, "Come ye to the cross, notto the font." When I forget to lift up the Lord Jesus, and to cast down the forms of man's devising, "let my right hand forgethercunning," and "let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth"-

None but Jesus, none but Jesus,

Can do helpless sinners good;"

The font is a mockery and an imposition if it be put before Christ. If you have baptism after you have come to Christ, welland good, but to point you to it either as being Christ, or as being inevitably connected with Christ, or as being the placeto find Christ, is nothing better than to go back to the beggarly elements of the old Romish harlot, instead of standing inthe "liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," and bidding the sinner to come as a sinner to ChristJesus, and to Christ Jesus alone.

III. In the third and last place, let us also gather from our text, that WHEN WE DISCOURAGE ANY, WE ALWAYS GO UPON WRONG GROUNDS.Here was the case of children. I suppose that the grounds upon which the apostles kept back the children would be one of these-eitherthat the children could not receive a blessing, or else that they could not receive it worthily.

Did they imagine that these little children could not receive the blessing? Perhaps so, for they thought them too young. Now,brethren, that was a wrong ground to go upon, for these children could receive the blessing and they did receive it, for Jesustook them in his arms and blessed them. If I keep back a child from coming to Christ on the ground that he is too young, Ido it in the face of facts; because there have been children brought to Christ at an extremely earlyperiod. You who are acquainted with Janeway's "Tokens for Children," have noticed very many beautiful instances of earlyconversion. Our dear friend, Mrs. Rogers, in that book of hers, "The Folded Lamb," gave a very sweet picture of a little sonof hers, soon folded in the Saviour's bosom above, who, as early as two or three years of age, rejoiced and knew the Saviour.I do not doubt at all, I cannot doubt it, because one has seen such cases, that children of two or three years of age mayhaveprecocity of knowledge, and of grace; a forwardness which in almost every case has betokened early death, but which hasbeen perfectly marvellous to those who have talked with them. The fact is that we do not all at the same age arrive at thatdegree of mental stature which is necessary for understanding the things of God. Children have been reported as reading Latin,Greek, and other languages, at five or six years of age. I do not know that such early scholarship is any great blessing,it isbetter not to reach that point so soon; but some children are all that their minds ever will be at three or four, andthen they go home to heaven; and so long as the mind has been brought up to such a condition that it is capable of understanding,it is also capable of faith, if the Holy Spirit shall implant it. To suppose that he ever did give faith to an unconsciousbabe is ridiculous; that there can be any faith in a child that knows nothing whatever I must always take ground to doubt,for"How shall they believe without a preacher?" And yet they are brought up to make a profession in their long-clothes, whenthey have never heard a sermon in their lives. But those dear children to whom I have before referred, have understood thepreacher, have understood the truth, have rejoiced in the truth, and their first young lispings have been as full of graceas those glorious expressions of aged saints in their triumphant departures. Children are capable, then, of receiving thegrace ofGod. Do mark by the way, that all those champions who have come out against me so valiantly, have made a mistake; theyhave said that we deny that little infants may be regenerated; we do not deny that God can regenerate them if he pleases;we do not know anything about what may or may not happen to unconscious babes; but we did say that little children were notregenerated by their godparents telling lies at a font-we did say that, and we say it again, that little children are notregenerated, nor made members of Christ, nor children of God, nor inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, by solemn mockery,in which godfathers and godmothers promise to do for them what they cannot do for themselves, much less for their children.That is the point; and if they will please to meet it, we will answer them again, but till such time as that, we shall probablylet them talk on till God gives them grace to know better.

The other ground upon which the apostles put back the children would be, that although the children might receive the blessing,they might not be able to receive it worthily. The Lord Jesus in effect assures them that so far from the way in which a little child enters into the kingdom of heavenbeing exceptional, it is the rule; and the very way in which a child enters the kingdom, is the way in which everybody mustenter it. How does a child enter the kingdom ofheaven? Why, its faith is very simple; it does not understand mysteries and controversies, but it believes what it istold upon the authority of God's Word, and it comes to God's Word without previous prejudice. It has its natural sinfulness,but grace overcomes it, and the child receives the Word as it finds it. You will notice in boyish and girlish conversions,a peculiar simplicity of belief: they believe just what Christ says, exactly what he says. If they pray, they believe Christwillhear them: if they talk about Jesus, it is as of a person near at hand. They do not, as we do, get into the making ofthese things into mysteries and shadows, but little children have a realizing power. Then they have great rejoicing. The mostcheerful Christians we have are young believers; and the most cheerful old Christians are those who were converted when theywere young. Why, see the joy of a child that finds a Saviour! "Mother," he says, "I have sought Jesus Christ, and I have trustedhim, and I am saved." He does not say, "I hope," and "I trust," but "I am;" and then he is ready to leap for joy becausehe is saved. Of the many boys and girls whom we have received into Church-fellowship, I can say of them all, they have allgladdened my heart, and I have never received any with greater confidence than I have these: this I have noticed about them,they have greater joy and rejoicing than any others; and I take it, it is because they do not ask so many questions as othersdo,but take Jesus Christ's word as they find it, and believe in it. Well now, just the very way in which a child receivesChrist, is the way in which you must receive Christ if you would be saved. You who know so much that you know too much; you who have big brains; you who are always thinking, and have tendency to criticism, and perhaps to scepticism, youmust come and receive the gospel as a little child. You will never get a hold of my Lord and Master while you are wearingthat quizzingcap; no, you must take it off, and by the power of the Holy Spirit you must come trusting Jesus, simply trusting him,for this is the right way to receive the kingdom.

But here, let me say, the principle which holds good in little children holds good in all other cases as well. Take for instancethe case of very great sinners, men who have been gross offenders against the laws of their country. Some would say they cannotbe saved; they can be for some of them have been. Others would say they never receive the truth as it is in Jesus in the rightmanner; ay, but they do. How do great sinners receive Christ? There are some here who havebeen reclaimed from drunkenness, and I know not what. My brethren, how did you receive Christ? Why in this way. You said,"All unholy, all unclean, I am nothing else but sin; but if I am saved, it will be grace, grace, grace." Why, when you andI stood up, black, and foul, and filthy, and yet dared to believe in Christ, we said, "If we are saved, we shall be prodigiesof divine mercy, and we will sing of his love for ever." Well but, my dear friends, you must all receive Jesus Christ in thatvery way. That which would raise an objection to the salvation of the big sinner is thrown back upon you, for Christ mightwell say, "Except ye receive these things as the chief of sinners, ye cannot enter the kingdom." I will prove my point bythe instance of the apostle Paul. He has been held by some to be an exception to the rule, but Paul did not think so, forhe says that God in him showed forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them that believe, and made him as it were a typeof allconversions; so that instead of being an exception his was to be the rule. You see what I am driving at. The case of thechildren looks exceptional, but it is not; it has, on the contrary, all the features about it which must be found in everytrue conversion. It is of such that the kingdom of heaven is composed, and if we are not such we cannot enter it. Let thisinduce all of us who love the Lord, to pray for the conversion both of children and of all sorts of men. Let our compassionexpand,let us shut out none from the plea of our heart; in prayer and in faith let us bring all who come under our range, hopingand believing that some of them will be found in the election of grace, that some of them will be washed in the Saviour'sblood, and that some of them will shine as stars in the firmament of God for ever. Let us, on no consideration, believe thatthe salvation of any man or child is beyond the range of possibility, for the Lord saveth whom he wills. Let no difficultieswhichseem to surround the case hinder our efforts; let us, on the contrary, push with greater eagerness forward, believingthat where there seems to be some special difficulty, there will be manifested, as in the children's case, some special privilege.O labour for souls, my dear friends! I beseech you live to win souls. This is the best rampart against error, a rampart builtof living stones-converted men and women. This is the way to push back the advances of Popery, by imploring the Lord towork conversions. I do not think that mere controversial preaching will do much, though it must be used; it is grace-workwe want; it is bringing you to Christ, it is getting you to lay hold of him-it is this which shall put the devil to a nonplusand expand the kingdom of Christ. O that my God would bring some of you to Jesus! If he is displeased with those who wouldkeep you back, then see how willing he is to receive you. Is there in your soul any desire towards him? Come and welcome,sinner, come. Do you feel now that you must have Christ or die? Come and have him, he is to be had for the asking. Hasthe Lord taught you your need of Jesus? Ye thirsty ones, come and drink; ye hungry ones, come and eat. Yea, this is the proclamationof the gospel to-day, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirstcome. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." I do trust there may be encouragement in this to some ofyou. I pray my Master make you feel it. If he be angry with those who keep you back, then he must be willing to receiveyou, glad to receive you; and if you come to him he will in no wise cast you out. May the Lord add his blessing on these wordsfor Jesus' sake. Amen.