No More Learning

Presently he came out with a look of heaven
on his face.
"Please try again ; I'm sure it will go now. "
Still hopeless, she did so, and it went I
Under the table he had asked God to make it
go-
Another time, during a thunderstorm, he
said, "Mamma, I wish God would not talk so
loud. "
A little girl who had prayed for several sick
friends, hearing of their recovery, said, "God
has done all mine;" meaning her prayers were
answered.
"God made all the p'itty ickle flowers, but
God must 'scooze me if I don't pick zem all,
'coz I haven't time. "
At five years, in church, when singing the
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Venite," she whispered, "Mother, will God
'scooze me? I don't know a bit of it! "
"Thank you, God, for letting me pick some
buttercups and daisies to-day, and you have
put a lot in my garden for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen. "
And "Thank God for the grass and the fir-
trees, and the cows and the sheep, and the
sunshine and the shadows of the fir-trees! "
was the older prayer of R. L. Stevenson.
Marion had been cautioned against the habit
of throwing stones, but one day so far forgot
herself as to do it again. Her tender conscience
soon reproved her, and coming home she retired
to a quiet corner, and with a deep-drawn sigh
exclaimed, "Oh, muvver! I do wish I could
remember to be good always. "
A dear old lady aged eighty-four was lying
seriously ill, and one of our little boys loved
to sit beside her bed. On one occasion, wish-
ing him to leave her, she said to him, "Tell me
a nice text to think of until you return again. "
He thought for a moment, and then said,
"Remember now thy Creator in the days of
thy youth, fyc"
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
The old lady could not forbear smiling at the
inaptness of the text to her years and state,
and said, "Dear Willie, think of one more
suitable to my old age. "
He paused to think, and then said, "There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked! "
Frequently with the touchingly simple faith
of a little child is quaintly blended a most
judiciously practical turn of mind. A small
brother was patiently repeating after his mother
the well-known hymn, "Scatter seeds of
kindness"; and, after an evident attempt to
grasp the full significance of the injunction,
inquired, "Is them good to eat, mamma? "
he being at that age when tangible and real-
istic comforts meet at times with greater
appreciation than those of a more spiritual
character.
A mother, when teaching her little daughter
the twenty-third Psalm, was asked, "What
are the paths of righteousness? " "Well,
dear, you know the little tracks up and down
the hills where the sheep tread--those are
called paths. " One day, when out walking
with her nurse, Muriel wandered away by her-
self up a hill. On being asked where she was
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
going, she replied, " I'm walking in the paths of
righteousness. "
Once while coming downstairs Hugh asked
to be carried, but was told he was too heavy.
"Auntie Kathleen," he coaxed, "you be the
Good Shepherd and I will be the little lamb,
and you shall carry me downstairs. " He
conquered.
A small son of mine was going away to
school for the first time, and for some days
before he was seen trying to write something
on a piece of paper. On the last day he gave
his mother a little slip on which was written:
Jesus, Friend of little children,
Be a Friend to mother, will you?
He had substituted "mother" for "me," and
added "will you " to the first two lines of a
hymn he knew, his idea being that when he
was gone there would be no one to take care
of her.
He asked one day whether the bells rang to
invite one to church or to tell that it was time
to go, adding, " I am sure our cathedral bells
invite, don't they? "
A little friend of mine had been told by her
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
mother that she must not kill the flies, because
God had made them all.
One day she was eating a piece of bread
and jam, and was much annoyed by a big fly
that was buzzing around her, attracted by the
jam.
At last she could stand it no longer, and
exclaimed, "Way home, fly, and get a piece
and jam from God. "
Another small mortal, seeing his grand-
mother kill a wasp on the window-pane, asked
where the flies went to when they were dead.
She told him they went to heaven. A few
days later she found him trying to kill a fly on
his own account. In reply to her question and
look of rebuke he answered gravely, "Oh,
g'anma, fy 'anted [wanted] heaven! "
A lady promised her nephew of eight a
bicycle on his birthday. On consideration she
thought a tricycle would be safer for so young
a child.
When the day came it was put in a room
v' <<re the boy would pass through, his aunt
concealed in a corner. Instead of delight, he
was heard to exclaim, "O God, I thought
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
you knew the difference between a bicycle and
a tricycle! "
A mother leant over her baby's crib.
"What shall I ask Jesus to-night, my
darling? " she said.
The sleepy blue eyes opened. "Say, take
me to our bootiful home. "
The mother's eyes filled with tears; she
could not spare her darling yet. She said no
more about it, but a few days later she went
into the nursery and found Hilda sitting up in
bed, with a look of indignation on her face.
"And He's never come for me yet I" she said.
Children are often more logical than grown-
ups. The little son of bible-loving parents
had a great dislike and fear of being alone in
the dark. They tried to reason him out of it
both on common-sense and religious grounds.
The child listened with puckering brow.
When they had finished he asked, "Do you
wish me to do evil, then? "
"Why do you ask that ? " questioned his father.
"It says in the bible people 'loved dark-
ness because their deeds were evil,'" argued
the puzzled boy.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
Jim's mother sent him downstairs in the
dark, saying, " Don't be afraid, dear ; God is on
the stairs. "
"Yes," he replied, " God is on the stairs,
and Alice is in the kitchen. "
His faith in Alice was evidently the
stronger.
Mother had just gone upstairs in the dusk.
Presently she heard the little pattering feet of
her two-year-old boy at the foot of the stairs,
and then a wailing cry, " It's dark! "
At once his sister of four years ran to him
with the exclamation, "Take my hand, Ally,
and it won't be dark! "
Hand in hand the little ones mounted the
stairs, to be clasped at the top in the arms of
the parents who had just learned a needed
heavenly lesson from their children.
Scottie had prayed for some months that
God would bring his father safely home from
Africa. One night his aunt noticed that he
omitted the usual petition.
"You haven't prayed for father, dear," she
reminded him.
"It's no good," replied Scottie in a weary
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
voice, getting up from his knees ; " father never
comes home. I'm tired of praying for him. "
"God doesn't make me a good boy! Pappa
makes me a good boy! " a baby of two stopped
to reason in the middle of his prayers one
night. "He whips me! I won't pray to God
any more! "
As might well be anticipated, three mysterious
beings engross much of a child's speculative
musing--the Creator, the Saviour, and the
Evil Spirit. With regard to the former
our conventional reverence is frequently
shocked by the surmises and questions of
the small inquirers, but in these matters a
child's thought is invariably free from
irreverence, and its quest of truth ought
not to be roughly checked as idle curiosity,
but should be met with the seriousness we
should give to an older inquirer. With
regard to the Spirit of Evil, it seems to me
an unhappy mistake that we should begin
to darken a child's bright world at the very
dawn with the thought and name of Satan.
That knowledge will intrude itself only too
soon ; but in our zeal or our thoughtlessness
we often contrive to make our children
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
deplorable little prigs and jesuitical
apologists.
Emmie had overheard the remark, during a
thunderstorm, that the thunder was God's
voice; and on seeing a grown-up person looking
frightened as the storm increased, she said,
"If God lets us speak to Him, we must let Him
speak to us too. "
A rather pretty idea concerning the stars was
the following from a little boy of my acquaint-
ance. He thought the stars might be the places
where God put His fingers through: This
reminds one of the words of David: "The
firmament sheweth His handiwork. "
The thoughts of children are a continual
source of surprise and enjoyment to those who
watch their development, and the independence
of each soul is shown by the quaint and unex-
pected ways in which they are expressed. For
instance, the little boy who made the following
remarks must have attained, by his own line of
reasoning, a very vivid realisation of the
marvellous patience of the Almighty God.
Standing by a window watching the flies on
the pane, he said:
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Didn't you say God made everything,
mother? "
"Yes, my boy, everything. "
"Then He made the flies? "
"Yes, even flies. "
After a momentary silence he remarked:
"Fiddling work, making flies! "
Doris (aged four) : "What a horrid cake! "
Jim (aged 14) : "Oh, Doris! don't say that!
God gave us the cake. "
Doris: "Yes, but God didn't make it! "
Telling Frances that God gives us everything,
Isa said, "Oh yes! and He gives us baked
apples, only we bake them. "
A cousin of ours was taking charge of her
nephews and nieces. Says preaching baby to
practical baby, "Do you know, Helen, God
could make you die this very minute if He
pleased? "
Practical baby, not at all scared from her
bread and butter: "I don't think He could; I'm
having my tea. "
My little brother, on being told that God
made the world and everything in it, said, "If
God made everything, what does Mrs. God do? "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
A little girl whose finger was cut was told by
her sister "Not to cry, for as fast as the bleed
runs out, God puts bleed in. "
A little niece who loved to hear of the Great
Healer one day startled her aunt by saying,
"Aunty, if we ask Jesus to make grandma
better, won't He come down and heal her? "
But, without waiting for a reply, she added
solemnly, "Only He would break His legs
coming down. "
On another occasion, when she saw a picture
of Cupid suspended in mid-air with the familiar
missive in his hand, her comment was, "Oh,
look at the wee boy! he is taking up a letter to
Jesus. "
When listening to the story of the Crucifixion
she was much touched with the words of our
Lord, "I thirst"; and on hearing of the sponge
filled with vinegar being given to Jesus, she put
her hand up to the narrator's face as if to make
her pause in the recital and said, "If good men
had been there they would have given Jesus a
drink out of a tumbler. "
Little Phil, aged five, was grieved and
horrified by the story of the Crucifixion. "Oh,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
mother," he cried, "if father had been there,
he would have sworded off their heads!
"
The same passionate revolt filled the heart
of the heroic Crillon as in his old age he
sat in church listening to the story of the
world's tragedy. Unable at last to con-
trol himself, he sprang to his feet and cried
aloud, "Oil etais-tu, Crillon? " "Oh,
Crillon, where wast thou? "
So, too, spoke a fierce Iroquois Indian,
Charlevoix tells us in his " Histoire de la
Nouvelle France," when he heard the
narrative of the Saviour's sufferings:
"Oh! if I had been there! "
But centuries earlier still, according to the
old Irish records, King Conor Mac Nessa
uttered almost the same words. The
king had been wounded by a ball from a
sling. It had lodged in his head, and
the physicians had allowed it to remain,
warning him, however, that all violent
exercise, anger, or excitement would be
dangerous to his life. For years he
enjoyed good health until the very day of
the Crucifixion, when, in consequence of
the shaking of the earth and the darkening
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
of the sun, he inquired of his Druid the
cause of this strange perturbation of
nature. The Druid informed him that
Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God,
was at that moment being crucified by the
Jews. "What crime has he committed? "
cried Conor. "None," said the Druid.
"Then they are slaying him innocently? "
"They are," replied the Druid. Then in
a sudden outburst of fury the king drew
his sword and rushed out to the wood
opposite his palace door, where he began
to hew down the young trees, exclaiming
in his rage, "Oh! if I were present it is
thus I would cut down the enemies of the
innocent man! " In his rage the ball was
dislodged, the blood burst from the
wound, and King Conor fell dead. "He
has been counted in Ireland ever since as
the first man who died for the sake of
Christ. "*
In a Sunday-school class a teacher was
trying to make clear the lesson on the com-
forting presence of the Living One. It was a
* O'Curry: Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient
Irish History.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
thoughtful little lad who explained, "We can't
see Jesus, because He is in our hearts. "
One day my little daughter was playing
with a magnet puzzle which seemed to interest
her greatly, and lying on my invalid couch I
watched the sweet face and earnest eyes
absorbed in a somewhat difficult task. The
same evening, in coming to wish me good-
night and have the "cuddle-talk" which chil-
dren love so much, my Theodora whispered,
"Mother, I did enjoy doing the puzzle this
afternoon: I thought the magnet was just like
our Lord Jesus Christ, for He is as true as
steel, you know, and He draws all true hearts
to Himself. "
A little boy of seven years repeated to me
one day the text, "The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. " Then, after think-
ing for a little, he said, "I see how it is: the
blood of Jesus Christ is God's indiarubber;
when it is rubbed over the page of the book
where our sins are written, it takes them all
away. "
The other day I was talking to my child
about her father, who had been suddenly taken
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
from us, and telling her how much good he
had done in the world, how beautiful his
character was, and how everybody loved him.
She looked up quickly and said, "Daddy got
all that from Jesus Christ, you know. "
"Can Jesus do everything? " inquired a
six-year-old laddie. "Yes, dear," said his
aunt. "Can He really: can He undo knots? "
It was Christmas-time, and the children
were wild with delight over all the manifold
joys which that season brings.
But the chief interest centred round the wee
maiden lying in mother's arms, the baby of
four weeks old. "Here, baby! " said Joyce,
as she generously tried to press a piece of
biscuit into baby's mouth. Baby opened her
mouth, not, alas! in gratitude, but to protest
in a vigorous cry.
"Oh, darling, baby can't take that," exclaimed
mother. At that moment up comes the sturdy,
toddling brother, and presses a chocolate, very
moist and half-melted, against poor baby's lips;
and mother has hard work to keep these
untimely attentions in check, and to make the
resentful givers understand that baby really
cannot eat what they can, as she has no teeth.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
This sad fact subdues them for a moment.
Then, after a pause, in which she tries to
grasp the full significance of baby's deficiency,
Joyce says half-reproachfully:
"Jesus might have sent us one wiv teef. "
There was no thought of irreverence in the
words. It was only an inexplicable mystery
to the small mind. It seemed such a pity that
the Lord had sent baby unfinished, so to speak.
Will some of our perplexities be as easily
solved in heaven, I wonder, as Joyce's diffi-
culty will be before long?
A little girl of three, having been accused
by nurse to her mother of having deliberately
pulled a button off her coat, stoutly announced,
"It was not I that did it, it was Satan;" on
this occasion giving the author of all evil
rather more than his due.
"Pray, God, make Satan a good boy, 'cos he
do make Nancy so naughty," was a little one's
penitent prayer after she had been cross.
Isobel had some lovely fungi in her hands
that she was carrying home. Suddenly, with
one sweep of her little hand, Leslie broke off
their frail loveliness.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"You wicked little girl," said father, moved
by Isobel's distress, " what made you do that? "
"Oh, father! " wept Leslie, "it was the devil. "
A lady, when teaching a class of poor chil-
dren, put the question, "If boys and girls do
not love and follow Jesus, and follow Satan
instead, what will he do for them? "
"Burn them ! " shouted a little urchin.
A little boy and girl whose mother was ill
and inaccessible were overheard by their aunt
holding the following pathetic consultation on
the subject of their nurse's unkindness to them:
"What shall we do? " said the girl hope-
lessly.
"I'm going to , ask father to send nurse
away," replied her brother sturdily.
"What shall you do if he won't? "
"Then I'll ask God to help us. "
"But perhaps God won't send her away. "
? "Well, then," said the little chap in desperate
earnest, "I'll see what the Devil can do for
us. "
After proper investigation nurse was dis-
missed.
A little fellow about five years old wished
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
he could be God just for five minutes. On
being asked what he would do, he said, " I
would kill the Devil. "
Jack was lying on the rug one Sunday, medi-
tating; his aunt had been reading to him. He
looked up and said, "Auntie, who mends hell-
fire? "
Edith was a little mite about three years
old who had some strange theological fancies.
"Mother," she asked one day in deep, solemn
tones, "has the Devil got a Saviour? "
The answer is not recorded. Whatever it
may have been, it is pleasant to remember
that touching old legend which tells how
the Neckan sat playing his golden harp
on a boulder in the river at evening, and
the children of the minister coming by
mocked at him, saying, "Why do you
play on your harp, Neckan? Do you not
know that you can never be saved? " and
the poor Neckan ceased playing and sing-
ing, and began to weep bitterly. But the
children went home and told their father,
who reproved them and sent them back
with a message of comfort. "Do not cry,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
poor Neckan," said the children; "father
says that your Redeemer liveth too. " And
the Neckan sat on the rock and joyfully
played on his harp till long after sunset.
Equally beautiful--it could scarcely be more
beautiful--is the legend referred to by the
Count de Maistre: "A saint, whose very
name I have forgotten, had a vision, in
which he saw Satan standing before the
throne of God, and listening, he heard the
evil spirit say,' Why hast Thou condemned
me who have offended Thee but once,
whilst Thou savest thousands of men who
have offended Thee many times? ' God
answered him, 'Hast thou once asked
pardon of me ? '. . . . What matter
whether the saint had or had not heard
the sublime words I have quoted? The
great point is to know that pardon is re-
fused only to him who does not ask it. "
Infinitely preferable and wiser has been the
training which underlies the following
incident:
Willie, aged four, came to his mamma one
day with the complaint that sister Nellie (who
was busy making cake down in the kitchen)
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
would not give him something to eat which he
had asked for.
Mamma generally considered it wise to up-
hold her daughter's authority with the little
ones, as she had often to leave them in her
care, but to-day she remembered that her little
son had eaten very little at the last meal; so
she told him to ask Sissy very nicely and say
that mamma had said he might ask again.
Then off he ran, but as he trotted down
the kitchen stairs he called out, "Now me's
brought some contradingtion for you. " Need-
less to say, he soon returned with a very down-
cast face, saying Sissy still would not give him
what he wanted.
Then mamma told him she had heard what
he said to Nellie, and was not surprised that
she had refused him, ending by asking why he
had spoken like that when he had been told to
ask very nicely.
He stood looking down for a few moments,
then raising his lovely blue eyes to her face
with a most penitent look, replied, "Me really
didn't mean to, mamma, but the little man in-
side me just made me do it. "
In the following group of Sayings the effect
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
of bible-class lessons and bible reading is
very conspicuous. In most instances it is
evident that the young people have carried
away the lesson and retained it, though
their application of what they have learnt
is more amusing than edifying. That, if we
regard it rightly, is so much to their credit.
Economy was the prescribed subject of a
little girl's essay. She was much puzzled for
an example, and mother suggested the well-
known incident of the Queen and her bonnet-
strings.
Suddenly the small scholar looked up
radiantly and said, "I know a better, mother--
the Creation. It was made out of nothing, and
was very good. "
A mother asked her little dauglrter who was
the first man. She replied, "Adam. " Then,
turning to the little boy of three, "And who
was the first woman? " "Madam ! " came the
prompt reply. *
* A very similar story appears in "Lighter Moments,
from the Notebook of Bishop Walsham How " (Isbister);
but if this reply was given once, it has probably been given
hundreds of times. It is more obvious than little Tom
Hood's guess that the name of Noah's wife was Joan
of Arc.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
A little boy of four years old was sitting on
his sister's lap while she was reading to two
elder children Drummond's charming little
book about a cricket match, which he takes as
typical of our life on earth.
A week after this event, the fall of Adam and
Eve was read at family prayers. The little
boy looked up into his mother's face and said,
"Adam and Eve were both bowled out first
ball, weren't they, mamma? " Few people
would imagine that a child so young could so
thoroughly grasp the author's true meaning.
Teaching the story of the fall in a mission
school, a lady asked her class where Adam
and Eve hid after they disobeyed God.
One wee lassie smiled and said, "Please,
up an entry! "
Needless to add, that was her idea of a hiding
place.
R. had been listening to the story of the
serpent in the Garden of Eden, and was told
that the reptile was Satan. The little fellow
then said, "I saw wee Satan peeking [meaning
creeping] about among my feet. "
My little maiden of four was to have a tea-
133
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-24 15:06 GMT / http://hdl. handle.