In the tenth chapter of Mark there is recorded the tender...

The Christian Science Monitor

In the tenth chapter of Mark there is recorded the tender story of Jesus blessing the little children, during which he uttered the luminous words, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Here the Master has again used one of those many metaphors which have been interpreted in many ways from many angles of vision. The meaning of this particular one, however, has never been regarded as unduly obscure, for the average person feels that he understands what Jesus meant by it. It is quite clear to every one that a little child typifies innocence, purity, trust—all of them spiritual qualities. But to the student of Christian Science there is a still deeper significance in this figure of speech, and one which is discerned only through a comprehension of metaphysics.

Precisely what is the outstanding characteristic of a little child as distinguished from an adult? Obviously it is the absence in the former of what we know as human experience. A child has, as it were, no background of experience against which he attempts to test the truth of every statement made to him. He accepts or rejects an idea purely at its face value; for as we all know, a little child is the most disconcertingly logical of all thinking creatures. The adult is prone either to laugh at or to find irksome the persistent "whys" of a child, and yet he is usually forced to admit the pertinence of the question. This is especially true with reference to childish queries about God, and many an adult has fled incontinently before some diminutive inquisitor. Nevertheless the child's questions demand answers, and right answers, for in reality they are the questions to which the adult as well as the child needs to have answers, but which the adult has gradually given up hope of solving and so attempts to conceal this hopelessness under a mask of assumed superiority and amused condescension.

Now since Jesus declared that unless one became as a little child it was impossible to enter the kingdom of God, it is certainly of first importance to understand what he really meant and how that much to be desired result may be accomplished. How can a man of threescore years, let us say, become as a little child? It is all very well to admonish that it be done, and every adult would certainly do it if he believed that he could; but just how can it be achieved? As has already been said, it is the absence of any background of human experience which is the real difference between a child and a grown-up. Is it not therefore self-evident that what Jesus was really commanding was that the truth of his statements be tested by some standard other than sense testimony, which is what we call human experience?

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