JESUS AND THE CHILDREN – Charles Spurgeon
JESUS AND THE CHILDREN
“And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased and said to them, Suffer the little children to come to Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter in it. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them.” Mark 10:13-16.
Introduction: The Sin of Hindering Others from Christ
It must be a very great sin, indeed, to hinder anybody from coming to Christ. He is the only way of salvation from the wrath of God. He is salvation from the terrible judgment that is due to sin—who would dare to keep the perishing from that way? To alter the signposts on the way to the City of Refuge, or to dig a trench across the road would have been an inhuman act, deserving the sternest condemnation. He who holds back a soul from Jesus is the servant of Satan and is doing the most diabolical of all the devil’s work! We are all agreed about this. I wonder, my dear Friends, whether any of us are quite innocent in this respect? May we not have hindered others from repentance and faith? It is a sad suspicion, but I am afraid that many of us have done so. Certainly, you who have never believed in Jesus, yourselves, have, sadly, done much to prevent others from believing.
The force of example, whether for good or bad, is very powerful, and especially is it so with parents upon their children, superiors upon their underlings, and teachers upon their pupils. Perhaps, Father, if you had been an earnest Christian, your son would not have been ungodly. Possibly, dear Mother, if you had been decided for the Savior, the girls would have been Christians, too. We have to speak and judge after the manner of men, but, assuredly, example is a great fashioner of character. We can, none of us, tell, if we go down to Hell, how many we shall draw with us, for we are bound to thousands by invisible bands. Here’s the respect which makes a wide calamity out of the ruin of a single soul. Over the tomb of each sinner may be read this epitaph, “This man perished not alone in his iniquity.” “None of us lives to himself and no man dies to himself.” If we could fling our souls away as solitary stones out of the sling, this were woe enough, but since we are all threaded beads upon the string of common life, where one goes, many go with him. The plague of sin will not confine itself to one man’s house—it sallies forth from every door and window—and slays its victims all around so that “one sinner destroys much good.”
May I put this question to those of you who have never repented of your sins, nor sought the Savior’s face? Have you calculated what baneful influences are streaming from your lives upon the souls of your children, your wives, your brothers, your friends? Jesus says, “He that is not with Me, is against Me, and He that gathers not with Me, scatters abroad.” How many have you scattered abroad like wandering sheep? How many have you induced to remain careless and godless since they see you doing the same? These are solemn reflections for those who mean no harm and yet are doing it.
The Sin of Discouraging Others
Do not some persons go further than their example and hinder others from coming to Christ by discouraging speeches? They dishearten those who are hoping for better things. Working men are to be found who never see any tenderness towards holy things in a fellow employee, but what they hasten, at once, to wound his heart. If they suspect a comrade of endeavoring to escape from drunkenness, they ridicule him—and if he goes further and exhibits faith towards God—they make him the football of their contempt! It must entail a fearful responsibility upon a man for him to make himself the opposer of all good in his companions. Why are so many eager to undertake this responsibility? It is a sorrowful thing that certain men will let others alone and even be friendly with them, should they drink, swear and commit lewdness—and yet, as soon as they have serious thoughts of religion, they attack them bitterly!
Half a fault in a Christian is made the theme of the most ungenerous comment—but actual crimes will be excused in an irreligious person! Why should men wish to prevent their fellow beings from being saved? Friend, if you choose to ruin your own soul, why should you try to ruin others? Why play the dog in the manger? If you will not have religion for yourself, why not let others have it? It can be no gain to you either in this world or in the world to come, to stand with a club at the gates of life to drive back all who would enter!
Again, certain would-be wise people hinder souls from coming to Christ by cunningly insinuating doubts about the revelation of the Divine Word. They have heard from an infidel lecturer, or from some “modern thought” preacher, a dangerous piece of error and they no sooner find a young mind inclined to serious things than they, at once, repeat this pretty lie! By their captious questions, they stagger young minds. By their evil teaching they dry up the springs of repentance and paralyze the strength of faith. Fierce as Pharaoh, they would throw all new-born faith into the river of doubt. Cruel as the Prince of Darkness, they would quench every newly-kindled candle of hope. They are more diligent to destroy the faith than others are to spread it! What an accumulation of guilt must be resting upon the mind of the man who breathes out doubt as other men breathe air!
The Consequences of Hindering Faith
See how he blasts the souls on whom he breathes! Calculate his crimes. Put down the soul-murders of which he is guilty. Item—a young man decoyed from the Bible class, familiarized with blasphemous notions and then led into outward sin and speedy death. Write that down in blood! Note the next item—a young girl, once hopeful and considerate, impressed by the supposed scientific knowledge of an unbeliever, is led from the faith of her mother and, by-and-by, snared by the world so as to live and die impenitent. Write that also in blood to be demanded at the doubter’s door in the Last Great Day! Woe unto those who act the part of jackals to the lion of Hell! May God give repentance to those who have been the bodyguard of the Prince of Darkness, doing his murderous work with both their hands by denying the Truth of God and sowing the seeds of unbelief!
If I speak to any such, I do it with sorrowful indignation and I beg them to turn from their evil way. In many ways, evil-minded persons may lead others to that evil decision which, in the ungodly, almost occupies the same place as conversion in the case of the regenerate. Minds in their early days are plastic. The first seven years of our being often shape all the rest. At any rate, give to godly teaching the first 12 years of any child and it will be difficult to erase the writing. Some seem to take a wretched delight in stamping upon the soft clay their own vile impression and in confirming upon youth the dangerous tendencies already present! These people work conversions unto evil by which young minds become settled in vice and established in wickedness! God save us from hindering a single soul from coming to Christ and Heaven!
The Sin of Hindering Children from Coming to Christ
I cannot help trembling, sometimes, lest a cold and chilly sermon of mine should wither young buds of promise; lest in the Prayer Meeting a wandering, rambling prayer from a heartless professor should dampen the rising earnestness of a tearful seeker. I tremble for you, my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, lest levity of conversation, worldliness of conduct, inconsistency of behavior, or callousness of demeanor should, in any one of you, at any time, turn the lame out of the way, or give cause of stumbling to one of the Lord’s little ones. Lord, save me from being a partaker in other men’s sins and especially in being, in any measure, the cause of another man’s destruction! Oh to be clear of the blood of all men! God forbid that we should be accomplices in the murder of souls, either before the fact, or in the fact, or after the fact—for in each of these ways we may be guilty! God help us, Brothers, to avoid this great sin of hindering others in their coming to Christ!
Yet this is not the subject of my discourse this morning. I shall only deal with a single form of it. I am going to speak upon the great sin of hindering the young from coming to Christ. First, let us describe it. Secondly, let us watch its action. Thirdly, let us see how Jesus Christ condemns it. And then, lastly, let us take a hint from the doctrine which our Lord incidentally lays down. It may be that the Lord will bless this to our souls.
I. Let Us Describe This Sin of Hindering Young Children from Coming to Christ
First, I may say of it that it is very common. It must be common, or else it would not have been found among the 12 Apostles. The immediate disciples of our Lord were a highly honorable band of men despite their mistakes and shortcomings. They must have been greatly sweetened by living near to One so perfect and so full of love. I gather, therefore, that if these men, who were the cream of the cream, rebuked the mothers who brought their young children to Christ, it must be a pretty common offense in the Church of God. I fear that the chilling frost of this mistake is felt almost everywhere. I am not going to make any ungenerous statement, but I think if a little personal investigation were made, many of us might find ourselves guilty upon this point and might be led to cry, with Pharaoh’s butler, “I do remember my faults this day.”
The Importance of Ministering to Children
Have we laid ourselves out for the conversion of children as much as we have done for the conversion of grown-up folks? What? Do you think me sarcastic? Do you not lay yourselves out for anybody’s conversion? What must I say to you? It is dreadful that the spirit of Cain should enter a Believer’s heart and make him say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is a shocking thing that we should, ourselves, eat the fat and drink the sweet—and leave the famishing multitudes to perish! But tell me, now, if you did care for the salvation of souls, would you not think it rather too commonplace a matter to begin with boys and girls?
The Role of Jesus with Children
Yes—and your feeling is shared by many. The fault is common. I believe, however, that this feeling, in the case of the Apostles, was caused by zeal for Jesus. These good men thought that the bringing of children to the Savior would cause an interruption—He was engaged in much better work—He had been confounding the Pharisees, instructing the masses, and healing the sick. Could it be right to pester Him with children? The little ones would not understand His teaching and they did not need His miracles—why should they be brought in to disturb His great doings? Therefore, the disciples as good as said, “Take your children back, good women. Teach them the Law of God, yourselves, and instruct them in the Psalms and the Prophets and pray with them. Every child cannot have Christ’s hands laid on it. If we suffer one set of children to come, we shall have all the neighborhood swarming about us and the Savior’s work will be grievously interrupted. Do you not see this? Why do you act so thoughtlessly?”
II. Let Us Watch the Action of Hindering Children
The results of this sad feeling about children coming to the Savior are seen, first, in the fact that often there is nothing in the service for the children. The sermon is over their heads and the preacher does not think that this is any fault. In fact, he rather rejoices that it is so! Some time ago a person who needed, I suppose, to make me feel my own insignificance, wrote to say that he had met with a number of Negroes who had read my sermons with evident pleasure. And he wrote that he believed they were very suitable for what he was pleased to call, “Niggers.” Yes, my preaching was just the sort of stuff for “Niggers” he said. The gentleman did not dream what sincere pleasure he caused me, for if I am understood by poor people, by servant girls, by children, I am sure I can be understood by others! I am ambitious to preach to anyone, if, by these you mean the lowest, the rag-tag and bob-tail. I think nothing greater than to win the hearts of the lowly!
So with regard to children. People occasionally say of such a one, “He is only fit to teach children. He is no preacher.” Sirs, I tell you that in God’s sight he is no preacher who does not care for the children! There should be at least a part of every sermon and service that will suit the little ones! It is an error which permits us to forget this. Parents sin in the same way when they omit religion from the education of their children.
III. Jesus’ Condemnation of Hindering Children
First, He condemned it as contrary to His own spirit. “They brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased.” He was not often displeased. Certainly He was not often, “much displeased,” and when He was much displeased, we may be sure that the cause was serious. He was displeased at these children being pushed away from Him, for it was so contrary to His mind about them.
Conclusion: The Importance of Receiving the Kingdom of God as a Little Child
Jesus went on to say, “Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter in it.” Christ’s teaching was not that there is something in us to fit us for the Kingdom of God, but that we are to be nothing, and that the less we are, the better, for the less we have of self, the more room there is for His Divine Grace! Come to Jesus as a child does, in all simplicity, not ashamed to talk as your heart feels. Come as a sinner, knowing that you are such! Say, “Jesus calls me, and I come; Jesus died for me and I trust Him.” That is the true way to come to Jesus.