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2 THE CHILD IN THE MIDST- -Matthew 18'1-14 Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., of Christ Church, London y----------- - - - - y ; I : ILL i 11 i ilftt 3 F lO@fßWrwl ■KSsIBBi CHRIST CHURCH, LONDON. THE ANAL YSIS I. The Question Concerning Greatness —V. 1. IL Jesus’ Answer—Vs. 2-6. 1. The Child in the Midst —V. 2. 2. The Fourfold Lesson. (a) Concerning entrance to the King dom of heaven —V. 3. (b) Concerning true greatness —V. 4. (c) Concerning His attitude to chil dren—V. 5. (d) Concerning responsibility for children—V. 6. 111. The Application—Vs. 7-14. 1. Besetting sins—Vs. 7-10. 2. The lost sheep—ll-14. HEN we come to study this section, I am sure we feel that we are deal ing with a very tender and pathet ic section of our Lord’s life. The section follows immediately after the healing of the demoniac boy. Following this healing, Jesus and His disciples go over into Caper naum, and so soon as they have en- W tered they are confronted with the question of paying tribute. So Jesus sends Peter off to the sea, telling him to east his hook into the s a and open the mouth of the first fish that comes up, and in it he will find sufficient money to pay this tribute for He must be above crit icism. Peter goes in obedience to His Lord’s instruction; casts his hook into the sea; catches his fish; looks into its mouth; secures the trib ute money, and pays it to the tax gatherer. After this, the disciples ask the question that we are to consider tonight: “Who, then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Now, before we, in any sense, cast any re flection or criticism upon these disciples for raising that question, we should stop and think for a moment. We must remember that they were, for the most part, unlettered men, men of a very nar row horizon, who had never ventured very far out into the world until they got with our Lord, men who had lived along the lake shore, and engaged for the most part in fishing for a livelihood. They were scarcely prepared, speaking from a human standpoint, for the great responsibility that was theirs as members of the band of our Lord’s disciples, His standard bearers of the new order of religion. And so it was perfectly natural for these men, under these circumstances, to give themselves to consideration of the question of position in the Kingdom about which they had heard their Lord speak so much; and about which never theless they were still so very ignorant. So we are not to blame them for giving them selves concern about the matter of position. Besides, we must remember our own weak ness in that direction. We find it in the Church of Christ today. The self-seeking spir- The Golden Age for January S, 1913. Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for. it; the spirit that ever manifests itself in a desire for the best place. I have actually known men —good men —in the Church, who get their feelings hurt, and show signs to that effect, because when an election for officers of the Church is held, they are overlooked, not giv en position among their brethren. And I have known men, good men, to actually leave the Church because they were overlooked. They felt that they had been of sufficient importance in the Church to be recognized; they did not stop to think that usually, Churches are very keen to get men for such work who are them selves square and above board, prepared. So, when we come to criticise the disciples, it will be well for us, if we will just stop and think about our own weaknesses in this re spect. And then again, I would have you view the way our Lord answered these disciples. lam very glad He did not rebuke them. He knew full w r ell that they had not been trained. He knew that their view was exceedingly limited, and that their information about these matters had been very meagre; and, therefore, His an swer is without rebuke. He deals with them as little children. He comes to them on the basis of a child, and answers their questions. The answer is in the nature of an object lesson. He often follows this method; and here, it is a child He uses. He takes a child, and places it in the midst of the disciples, and from the little one draws four very essential lessons. In the first place, he draws a lesson concern ing entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. “Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heav en.” Now, they never asked Him concerning entrance into the Kingdom. They wanted to know about the position they occupied in the Kingdom, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” That is what they wanted to know. But Jesus goes further than that, and tells them the secret of entrance into the King dom. Then, in the next place, He draws a lesson concerning true greatness, which was an an swer to their question. “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heav en.” Also there is the lesson concerning His atti tude to children. “Whosoever receiveth one such little child in My name, receiveth Me.” Finally the lesson concerning responsibility for children. “Whosoever shall cause one of these little ones who believe on Me to stumble, it were better for him that a great millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Now, in order for us to understand the scope and force of this teaching, it is necessary for us 1o gather up the links here and properly con nect them. The incident belongs with the heal ing of the demoniac boy. It is the direct after math of the Transfiguration. The Transfigura tion began, with the prayer meeting that Jesus held with Peter, James and John. It manifest ed itself on the mountain in shining light. It expressed itself in the valley. First, in the form of service to* needy humanity, as in the case of the demoniac boy; and second, in the form of teaching, as we see here in this section. So, when we come to consider the Transgura tion, we must, by no means, stop our considera tion with what took place on the mountain. That which took place there was but the prepa ration for the things that took place immediate ly after Jesus and His disciples came back to the valley and what we see Him doing in the healing of the demoniac boy, and in teaching the disciples these great and weighty lessons, is just as much a revelation of the glory of Jesus Christ as that light that shone round about Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. I do not believe there is anything that so re veals the glory of Jesus as His attitude to little children. When you think that just a while ago Jesus was there on the mountain, glorified, in the presence of Moses and Elias, who were there to bear testimony to His glory; and the three dis ciples ; when you remember that this same Jesus is down here now, speaking so tenderly and so fatherly, and so simply to His disciples through a little child that He has taken and placed in their midst, it will occur to you that there is nothing in all the life of Jesus that reveals more of His true greatness and glory, than that which you see Him doing in connection with this child. You get here, in the first place, a view of the greatness of Jesus as a man. No man can be truly great, who does not properly value childhood because no man can be truly great and not properly consider that which is for the best of society and of the nation; and there is nothing best for society or the nation that does not depend primarily upon the child. Dear old Jack Mills, one of the greatest men I ever knew; great in heart; great in body; great in religion; great in faith. He was the first man in North Carolina to provide for the training of orphan children. He established the first orphan home in that section of the country. I have heard him make many addresses, and I have seen him weep over children. I remem ber hearing him speak before a great conven tion, and plead for the care and training of or phan children. In the address he said: “I have looked round a good deal over this world, and I have never found anything to make men out of but boys. And I have never found any thing yet to make a woman out of, but a girl. I have looked around the world a great deal, to find material to build a state out of, and I must confess to you the only thing I have found to build the state out of is men. And the only thing to build men out of is boys; therefore, the state rests primarily upon boys. And I have tried to find material to build a home out of, and I must confess to you that the only thing that I have found yet is a woman. And the only thing to build a woman out of is a girl ; therefore the home rests upon the girl.” That is true. The man who does not take in the child in his consideration of the state and the nation and the Church and society and the home, can not be a great man. Jesus here evi dences to us by His dealings, with this child, His greatness as a man. Then, again, He evidences His greatness as a teacher. All teachers strive, or should strive, for simplicity. Let us now see how the child serves as an il lustration of what Jesus is teaching concerning true greatness. In the first place, you will see that the child answers in its ignorance. There is nothing that appeals to us more than the ignorance of the child. It is ignorant of everything except its own ignorance. And if you don’t think it knows its own ignorance, you just follow it for about five years, and answer all the questions that it puts up to you, and you will see that it does know its ignorance, and is trying to supply this as fast as possible, and if you are not wiser than anybody I have run up against you will be stumped a million times in an effort to supply that need. So it is to be with the man who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, He must recognize his ignorance. The fact is, true wisdom is for the discovery of ignor ance, and the wiser we grow, the more we see that we do not know. In every department of (Continued on Page 14.)