“And he came to Capernaum: and, being in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them; and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.
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“Better pleasing to God, it needs little daring to say, is the audacity of Job, who, rushing into his presence, and flinging the door of his presence-chamber to the wall, like a troubled, perhaps angry, but yet faithful child, calls aloud in the ear of him whose perfect Fatherhood he has yet to learn, ‘Am I a sea or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?’
Let us dare, then, to climb the height of divine truth to which this utterance of our Lord would lead us. Does it not lead us up hither; that the devotion of God to his creatures is perfect? That he does not think about himself but about them? That he wants nothing for himself, but finds his blessedness in the outgoing of blessedness.
Ah! It is a terrible—shall it be a lonely glory this? We will draw near with our human response, our abandonment of self in the faith of Jesus. He gives himself to us—shall not we give ourselves to him? Shall we not give ourselves to each other whom he loves?
For when is the child the ideal child in our eyes and to our hearts? Is it not when, with gentle hand, he takes his father by the beard, and turns that father’s face up to his brothers and sisters to kiss? When even the lovely selfishness of love-seeking has vanished, and the heart is absorbed in loving?”
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