In a legend which St. Jerome has recorded, and which, says the same
writer, in his Essays on the Apostolic Age, is not the less impressive
because so familiar to us, we see the aged Apostle (John) borne in the
arms of his disciples into the Ephesian assembly, and there repeating
over and over again the same saying, "Little children, love one
another;" till, when asked why he said this and nothing else, he replied
in those well-known words, fit indeed to be the farewell speech of the
beloved disciple, "Because this is our Lord's command, and if you
fulfill this, nothing else is needed."
"An acceptance of the sentiment of love throughout Christendom for a
season," says Emerson, "would bring the felon and the outcast to our
side in tears, with the devotion of his faculties to our service. Love
would put a new face on this weary old world, in which we dwell as
pagans and enemies too long, and it would warm the heart to see how fast
the vain diplomacy of statesmen, the impotence of armies and navies and
lines of defense, would be superseded by this unarmed child." We do not
believe, or we forget, that "the Holy Ghost came down, not in the shape
of a vulture, but in the form of a dove."
Rogers' stories of children, of which he told many, were very pretty.
The prettiest was of a little girl who was a great favorite of every one
who knew her. "Why does everybody love you so much?" She answered, "I
think it is because I love everybody so much."
"A strong argument," thought Poe, "for the religion of Christ is
this--that offenses against charity are about the only ones which men on
their death-beds can be made--not to understand--but to feel--as crime."
"Tell me, gentle traveler, who hast wandered through the world, and seen
the sweetest roses blow, and brightest gliding rivers, of all thine eyes
have seen, which is the fairest land?" "Child, shall I tell thee where
nature is most blest and fair? It is where those we love abide. Though
that space be small, ample is it above kingdoms; though it be a desert,
through it runs the river of paradise, and there are the enchanted
bowers."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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