The Child in the Midst: A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian LandsPlatt, Mary Schauffler
Religion
The Child in the Midst: A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian Lands
Platt, Mary Schauffler
Church work with children; Missions
“I went into a Brahmin home where several widows were gathered. One
old woman with eyes that were dimmed from much weeping said, peering
into my face, ‘Yes, it is the same, I was sure of it. You came here
some ten or twelve years ago, and told us how when your beloved were
taken from you, you did not mourn and wail as we did. When my daughter
died, I tried to recall what you had said about another life and hope
beyond the grave, but I could not remember. Tell it all again now.’ So
I told her again of our glorious hope and of the resurrection. How
earnestly they all listened! Poor, poor things!”[85]
[Sidenote: Only the Bible gives the child a place.]
“The Child for Christ” must be the watchword of our “organized
motherhood for the children of the world.” The Bible is the only
sacred book that gives the child a place of importance. Christ was the
only founder of a religion who raised childhood into a type of those
who were fit to enter His Kingdom. As E. G. Romanes says, “Tenderness
toward child life, appreciation of the simplicity and the helplessness
of children, affection of parents for their children, and children for
their parents;--all these are features of the Bible which the most
superficial reader cannot fail to observe.”[86]
[Sidenote: The motive for teaching the children of Christ.]
In his “Challenge to Christian Missions,” R. E. Welsh utters these
significant words,--
“Why is it a matter of urgent duty and concern on a parent’s part to
teach his child the story of Christ and train him in Christian truth
and life?... What is the parent’s motive?... Simply the sharp sense of
the value of Christ to every human being, young or old--the perception
of the child’s need and peril if he does not get the saving power of
Christ upon him; the sense of the native worth and value of being a
Christian in soul and character; the desire to lift him out of ‘the
natural man’ to ‘the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.’
If that motive be not strong enough to inspire us with zeal for taking
the blessing of Christ to the heathen, then Christ has still much work
to do upon us to make us Christian in mind and spiritual sympathy.”
[Sidenote: The means to be used.]
If it is our duty and privilege to win the children of the world to
Christ, how is it to be done? What special means are our missionaries
using to bring about this result? All missionary work for children, in
the homes, in day school and boarding school, in church and
Sunday-School, in hospital and orphanage, must have the great two-fold
aim ever in view,--to win the child to Christ, to train the child for
Christ. It remains for us to study briefly several agencies not yet
touched upon, that have been greatly blessed in their effect upon
children of many lands.
[Sidenote: Sunday-School statistics.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account