Children of clergy -- Fiction; Clergy -- England -- Fiction
"That's better," said the Missioner. "And now I will tell you my
parable. Once upon a time there was a little boy or a little girl, it
doesn't matter which, whose father put him in charge of a baby. He was
told not to let anybody take it away from him and he was told to look
after it and wheel it about in the perambulator, which was a very old
one, and not only very old but very small for the baby, who was growing
bigger and bigger every day. Well, a lot of kind people clubbed together
and bought a new perambulator, bigger than the other and more
comfortable. They told him to take this perambulator home to his father
and show him what a beautiful present they had made. Well, the boy
wheeled it home and his father was very pleased with it. But when the
boy took the baby out again, the nursemaid told him that the baby had
too many clothes on and said that he must either take some of the
clothes off or else she must take away the new perambulator. Well, the
little boy had promised his father, who had gone far away on a journey,
that nobody should touch the baby, and so he said he would not take off
any of the clothes. And when the nurse took away the perambulator the
little boy wrote to his father to ask what he should do and his father
wrote to him that he would put one of his brothers in charge who would
know how to do what the nurse wanted." The Missioner paused to see the
effect of his story. "Now, children, let us see if you can understand my
parable. Who is the little boy?"
A concordance of opinion cried "God."
"No. Now think. The father surely was God. And now once more, who was
the little boy?"
Several children said "Jesus Christ," and one little boy who evidently
thought that any connexion between babies and religion must have
something to do with the Holy Innocents confidently called out "Herod."
"No, no, no," said the Missioner. "Surely the little boy is myself. And
what is the baby?"
Without hesitation the boys and girls all together shouted "Jesus
Christ."
"No, no. The baby is our Holy Catholic Faith. For which we are ready if
necessary to--?"
There was no answer.
"To do what?"
"To be baptized," one boy hazarded.
"To die," said the Missioner reproachfully.
"To die," the class complacently echoed.
"And now what is the perambulator?"
This was a puzzle, but at last somebody tried:
"The Body and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ."
"No, no. The perambulator is our Mission here in Lima Street. The old
perambulator is the Church where we are sitting at Mass and the new
perambulator is--"
"The new church," two children answered simultaneously.
"Quite right. And now, who is the nursemaid? The nursemaid is the Bishop
of London. You remember that last Sunday we talked about bishops. What
is a bishop?"
"A high-priest."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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