1900
Ian Maclaren Says There Is No Difference
"The pew is a testimony to the family and ought to be maintained with its doors removed, and it does not matter whether a man pays $50 a year for his pew or 50 cents," writes Ian Maclaren of "The Pew and the Man in It" in the Ladies' Home Journal.
"The church authorities should see that the householder has his pew, with room enough in it for himself, his wife and the children which God has given them.
"There is no reason in the world why the rich man should not pay a handsome sum for his church home. And some of us have never been able to understand why an artisan should not give something for his church home also.
"Surely every man wishes to do what is right in the direction of his church. Every self-respecting man likes to pay for his home whether it be large or small, and it touches a man's honor to live in a workhouse, where he pays no rent and depends on the public. There is no necessity that this home feeling and this just independence should be denied in the house of God, but it rather seems a good thing that the man who works and gives to provide a house where he and the children can live together in comfort and self-respect six days of the week should do his part to sustain the house where they worship God on the seventh day.
"He is a poor creature who will allow a rich man to pay his rent for him on week-days, and I have never been able to see where there is any difference between being a beggar on Sunday and a beggar on Monday."
Showing posts with label beggars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beggars. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Children Seen in New Light with Coming of Christ
1908
Jesus the Light of Childhood. He, the only begotten Son of his Father, who had been in heaven since before the world was made; he who had shared in the making of this world, for we are told that "without him was not anything made," even he left his high estate, and so humbled himself that he came down to earth to live among men, being born of a woman.
Mary was that mother mild
And Jesus Christ that little child.
The Divine became a child, that a child might become almost divine. His birth in Bethlehem wrought a great change in the estimate of the child. Hitherto the elder or the Pharisee had been the ideal, but Jesus set a child in the midst, saying, "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." And from that hour the whole fabric of childhood was changed.
Roman parents, perhaps the most cultured parents in the world, were guilty of the grossest cruelty to their new-born children, even abandoning them by carrying them to the Velabrum, a district in Rome, near Mount Aventine, where they were left to die or to be gathered up by ill-disposed people, who maimed them by curving their backs or shortening their limbs, in order to use them as beggars. "That workshop of human misfortunes, those shambles of infants," that was what the Velabrum was.
When the influence of Christ was felt, and Christianity began to hold sway, this crime against innocents was abated. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, put forth a proclamation to turn parents from using a murderous hand on their new-born children, and to dispose their hearts to the best sentiments. And the "abandoned" children were gathered from the Velabrum to be brought up honestly; foundling hospitals were established later, houses of mercy for children were founded by Justinian, and gradually all sorts of charities for the welfare of children have been developed, such as aid societies, creches, kindergartens, hospitals for children, schools for defective children, reformatory institutions, etc. It is the far-reaching influence of the fact that Christ was born in Bethlehem. — Christian Herald.
Jesus the Light of Childhood. He, the only begotten Son of his Father, who had been in heaven since before the world was made; he who had shared in the making of this world, for we are told that "without him was not anything made," even he left his high estate, and so humbled himself that he came down to earth to live among men, being born of a woman.
Mary was that mother mild
And Jesus Christ that little child.
The Divine became a child, that a child might become almost divine. His birth in Bethlehem wrought a great change in the estimate of the child. Hitherto the elder or the Pharisee had been the ideal, but Jesus set a child in the midst, saying, "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." And from that hour the whole fabric of childhood was changed.
Roman parents, perhaps the most cultured parents in the world, were guilty of the grossest cruelty to their new-born children, even abandoning them by carrying them to the Velabrum, a district in Rome, near Mount Aventine, where they were left to die or to be gathered up by ill-disposed people, who maimed them by curving their backs or shortening their limbs, in order to use them as beggars. "That workshop of human misfortunes, those shambles of infants," that was what the Velabrum was.
When the influence of Christ was felt, and Christianity began to hold sway, this crime against innocents was abated. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, put forth a proclamation to turn parents from using a murderous hand on their new-born children, and to dispose their hearts to the best sentiments. And the "abandoned" children were gathered from the Velabrum to be brought up honestly; foundling hospitals were established later, houses of mercy for children were founded by Justinian, and gradually all sorts of charities for the welfare of children have been developed, such as aid societies, creches, kindergartens, hospitals for children, schools for defective children, reformatory institutions, etc. It is the far-reaching influence of the fact that Christ was born in Bethlehem. — Christian Herald.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
