Child of God

“ It is God's own child, as all children are. The blood of Adam and Eve, through how many soever channels diverging, runs in its veins; and the spirit of the Eternal, which blows everywhere, has animated it. It opens its eyes upon us, stretches out its hands to us as all children do. ”

“ This little boy had for some time been endeavoring to do his duty as a Christian. His conduct showed that he loved the Savior. And when sickness came, and death was near, he was happy. But, oh, how sad must that child feel, who is dying in unrepented sin! We all must certainly soon die, and there is nothing to make us happy in death but piety.
But when the Christian child goes to heaven, how happy must he be! He rises above the clouds, and the blue sky, and the twinkling stars, till he enters the home of God and the angels. There he becomes an angel himself. ”

“ So the child of God, stripped of other supports, spreads its grief before him who possesses all power, and is able to deliver out of all distresses: And as the child continues its cries and pleadings with its parent, as long as its sorrows continue; so the child of God, while it remains in affliction, perseveres in supplications and prayers to its Father in heaven. ”

“ You single the child out from all its schoolfellows, from all the millions of human beings who have ever lived, or ever will live; and you make the child, by answering to his name, confess that he is a person, an immortal soul, who must stand alone before the judgment seat of God; a person who has a duty and a calling upon God’s earth, which he must fulfil or pay the forfeit. And then you ask the child who gave him his name, and make him declare that his name was given him in baptism, wherein he was made a member of Christ and a child of God. ”

“ How great must be the might of the Word of God which can convert to salvation strong men through the faltering lips of a child And yet, after all, is not this the combination which alone is powerful in spreading the gospel—a simple, child-like heart, through which the Word may speak forth? "A little child shall lead them," because it can be artless enough to give simple utterance to the Word of God. Oh, for more in all lands who will give unaffected voice to the Word of God! That message has power in it if it can get sincere expression. ”

“ As hero and adventurer, passing over into divinity, the child has explored earth, sea, and sky, descending into nethermost hell to rescue the bones of his father, and setting ajar the gates of Paradise, that the radiant glory may be seen of his mother on earth. Finally, as Christ sums up all that is divine in men, so does the Christ-Child sum up all that is God- like in the child. The Man-Jesus stands at the head of mankind, the Child-Jesus is the first of the children of men. ”

“ The Holy Spirit will bear witness with his spirit that he is a child of God. "God is not slack concerning his promises." When he says: "Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people," do you think he has no way of letting them know they are his people? Will not a father and mother own the child they love? How much more our heavenly Father will own and bless his child! ”

“ My dear child, our hearts are naturally turned away from God. Sin is the cause of this sad state: it separates our hearts from our Father and Creator. We do not wish to own that he preserves and takes care of us—supplies our wants, and gives us all things we enjoy.
[Pg 7] Child. Oh, papa! how few love God, and trust in him as they ought!
Father. The true children of God alone really love him, desire to please him, and sincerely trust in his goodness. Yes, my child, till we are true Christians, till we are renewed and changed by the Spirit of God, we are like this little insect. ”

“ To you a child is come this morn, A child of chosen maiden born, A little babe so sweet and mild Your joy and bliss shall be that child. ‘Tis the Lord Christ, our very God. He will you ease of all your load; He’ll be himself your Saviour sure And from all sinning make you pure. He brings you all the news so glad Which God the Father ready had— That you shall in his heavenly house Live now and evermore with us. Take heed then to the token sure— The crib, the swaddling clothes so poor: The infant you shall find laid there Who all the world doth hold and bear. ”

“ And all the while on the uncovered head of the child the glance of the sunlight has rested, as if in token of the acceptance of the offering the mother has made, in token that the blessing and mercy of God would be upon that child for whom a holy vow was registered in heaven, which he must one day redeem, or else pay the fearful penalty. ”

“ For this there is needed an influence from without, the efficient touch of the Holy Spirit, the impartation of His life. The capacity to be a child of God is man’s, but the development of this lies with God. ”

“ God will take His place as God in the presence of His child, so that absolutely and actually the chief thing in the child's heart shall be: "God is here, God makes Himself known." Beloved, is not this what you long for—that God shall take a place that He has never had; and that God shall come to you in a nearness that you have never felt yet; and, above all, that God shall come to you in an abiding and unbroken fellowship? God is able to take His place before you all the day. ”

“ With the aged and the dying he goes down for ever into the grave; and yet with you, children, Christ lies for ever on his mother’s bosom, and looks up for ever into his mother’s face, full of young life, and happiness, and innocence, the everlasting Christ-child in whom you must believe, whom you must love, to whom you must offer up your childish prayers.
The day will come when you can no longer think as a child, or pray as a child, but put away childish things. ”

“ Since He had been a little child, He had never wanted her, but the link, however mysterious, had been there; the link between the human mother and the divine Son. As an infant, although God, He had stretched out His arms to her, and hers had been ever ready ”

“ The bearing of this truth upon our teaching is that we must seek for the unfolding of the child's spiritual nature and for the turning of his thought and affections toward God from the first. We must not point to some distant day ahead when the child will "accept Jesus" or become "a child of God." We must ourselves think of the child, and lead the child to think of himself, as a member of God's family. ”

“ A child’s first impressions of this life, what are they but pleasure? His mother’s breast, warmth, light, food, play, flowers, and all pleasant things,—by these God educates the child, even of the heathen and the savage:—and why? If haply he may feel after God and find Him, and find that He is a God of love and mercy, a giver of good things, who knows men’s necessities before they ask,—a good and loving God, and not a being such as I will not, I dare not speak of. ”

“ Into your hands, O God, we place your child N. Support him in his successes and in his failures, in his joys and in his sorrows. As he grows in age, may he grow in grace, and in the knowledge of his Savior Jesus Christ. ”

“ If a child is the offspring of physical sense, and not of Soul, it must have a material, not a spiritual origin. With what truth, then, could the Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” On the contrary, if a child comes from God, it cannot be mortal and material ”

“ The holy Infant is laid in our arms this month, that we may contemplate Him and learn holy lessons. What are these lessons? The goodness of God towards us—the mercy and kindness of the Child Jesus for us; for His infancy is infinitely meritorious before God, and all grace comes to us on account of Christ, Who has been an Infant among us. We should be like children in our confidence in God, Who has created us and will not make us stand greater trials than we are able to bear. We should not care over much for the things of this world; we should not depend so much on our own efforts ”

“ Christ prayed as a child. The spirit of a child was found in Him. At the grave of Lazarus “Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father.” Again we hear Him begin His prayer after this fashion: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father.” So also on other occasions we find Him in praying addressing God as His Father, assuming the attitude of the child asking something of the Father. What confidence, simplicity and artlessness! What readiness, freeness and fullness of approach are all involved in the spirit of a child! ”

“ It is a wonderful glory to be a child of God. It means that we have Godlike powers. The children of human parents are like them in their capacities. Children of God must have capacities that are Godlike. ”

“ This is, perhaps, the real secret of the world's progress––that every babe comes into the world with an evangel, which witnesses of necessity to his parents' hearts. That we, too, are children, the children of God, that He would have us be as children, is the message that the newborn child never fails to bear, however little we heed, or however soon we forget. ”

“ The little child is an offering which gathers about itself more of rich joy and [Pg 132] gratitude, recollection, present bliss, and anticipation, than any gift of God; it is itself an ordinance, a little rite, a sign and seal of covenants and love to which earth has no parallel. The light of nature almost teaches us the propriety of infant dedication, in the use of the prevailing religious rite. The only wise God manifested his goodness and wisdom, in establishing his covenant with the children of those who love him, as really as in creating a companion for Adam. ”

“ Because children are a heritage from the Lord is the real secret of the joy experienced in the parents' hearts when a child is born. An angel from God's presence anoints the spirit of man with the “oil of joy” when he obeys Heaven's ordained laws of procreation. ”

“ The child's conception of God should not be personal or too familiar at first, but He should appear distant and vague, inspiring awe and reverence far more than love; in a word, as the God of nature rather than as devoted to serviceable ministrations to the child's individual wants. ”

“ That the world which God had made might give its Maker fitting worship, He has come to us.
Not only does the race of man give becoming worship in that prayer, but that Holy Child who prays is God.
Man's eye can only see the form of a kneeling child. ”

“ It says, because this child is not merely the child of his father and mother, but the child of God, the universal Father, therefore other people besides his parents have an interest in him: all who are children of God as well as he have an interest in him ”

“ He declares that the child is regenerate, and has a new life, a life from above, a seed of eternal personal life which he himself has not by nature. And that seed of eternal life is none other but the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the Lord and Giver of Life, who does verily and indeed regenerate the child in holy baptism, and dwells with his soul, his person, his very self, that He may educate the child’s character, and raise his affections, and subdue his will, and raise him up daily from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. ”

“ Paul makes it clear enough that it takes more than an Abrahamic pedigree to be a child of God. To be a child of God requires faith in Christ. ”

“ Nevertheless, if I be a child of God, I must be like him, like him even in the matter of this creative energy. ”

“ The mother's face and voice are the first conscious objects as the infant soul unfolds, and she soon comes to stand in the very place of God to her child. All the religion of which the child is capable during this by no means brief stage of its development consists of those sentiments—gratitude, trust, dependence, love, etc., now felt only for her—which are later directed toward God. ”

“ Every servant of God, when he learns, is called a child: afterwards, when he teaches another, he is a mother, as the apostle Paul said of the fallen men, "Ye are my children, whom I now a second time conceive, until Christ is renewed in you." ”

“ But this means that it is impossible to save the Christian God for children, after the child begins to think about this God, in whom he is taught blind confidence. Nor can the child be prepared in this way for the new conception of God with its religious, its uniting and elevating power, I mean for the conception of a God whose revealed book is the starry heavens, and whose prophetic sight is in the unfathomable sea, and in the deeps of man's heart, the God who is in life and is life. ”

“ Since, then, even men who are not good will be kind to their children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to them who ask Him! The Lord loves to hear the prayer of a little [61] child. You may pray when you like; at your mothers knee, or in the day if you feel you want God's help. He will hear [62] you if you say in your mind, "Make me a good child, for Christ's sake."
One day a lawyer stood up from among the crowd who listened to Our Lord and asked Jesus a question. He did it to try the Lord and see if He would say something that the priests might think wrong. ”

“ “I cannot understand dallying with religion and the commands of God. The very instant I heard my Father's cry calling unto me, my heart bounded in recognition. I ran, I stretched forth my arms, I cried aloud, ‘Here, here I am, my Father.’ Oh, happy child, what should I do? ‘Love me,’ answered my God. ‘I do, I do,’ I cried passionately. ‘Come unto me,’ called my Father. ‘I will,’my heart panted. Did I stop to ask a single question? Not one. It never occurred to me to ask whether I was good enough, or to hesitate over my unfitness, or to find out what I thought of his church, or ... ”

“ I shall plead no further apology for introducing to the notice of my readers a few particulars relative to a young female cottager, whose memory is particularly endeared to me from the circumstance of her being, so far as I can trace or discover, my first-born spiritual child in the ministry of the gospel. She was certainly the first, of whose conversion to God, under my own pastoral instruction, I can speak with precision and assurance.
Every parent of a family knows that there is a very interesting emotion of heart connected with the birth of his first-born child. ”