AT MOTHER'S KNEE | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 9, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 10.

AT MOTHER'S KNEE.

Two mothers were talking together about the difficulty of making their little children understand the beautiful words of the dear and sacred book of God.

"Sometimes they find it hard and sometimes so easy that I am surprised at their quickness," said one. "I remember a few evenings since I was reading to my little boy after he was in bed at night, and one verse was, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'"

"Isn't that a lovely reason for keeping the heart white and clean, Freddy, because the pure in heart shall see God?"

"I don't know, mamma," answered the eight-year-old child.

"Wouldn't you like to see your Heavenly Father?" I asked, and he answered, as he snuggled his hand in mine:—

"No, mamma, I always think I'd be afraid. Wouldn't I have to die before I saw him, mamma? I don't want to die."

"I wonder if that can be because you are naughty and so afraid to meet him?" I asked gently.

"Oh, no, mamma, it's—it's because I don't want to go away from you and papa, and everybody!"

"But you do not need to go away in order to see God, my boy," I said, as soothingly as

I could, for I saw the secret of his troubled mind. "It means the pure in heart can see him, now and here and every day."

"How, mamma?" said Freddie, holding my hand tightly under the coverlet. "I couldn't see him with my very eyes, could I?"

"No, darling, but with your heart. Do you remember when mamma went away on that long visit and left you with the governess? Before she went she had everything made nice for you, and while she was gone everything was done for you just as she had planned. Every time you came to the table the food was just what I had told them to provide for you. The shade was placed on the lamp when you read or studied in the evening, to spare your bright young eyes. The warm suit was laid ready for the stormy day, and the thin suit for the warm one. In all these things whose hand did you see? Whose love and whose tender care?"

"Why, mamma's," said the impulsive boy, springing up and getting his arms tightly about my neck.

"But you couldn't see me with your 'very eyes,' could you? And if in all those days of my absence a stranger boy had been here in the house, one who had never known me, he, too, might have had food and books and play hours and care for his health, and yet not have seen your mother in it all, because he did not know or love me or try to please me. But you saw me in it all, because you had been taken care of by me, always."

"Just so, my darling, if you remember that God has always been taking care of you and loving you; that he gave to me all the lovely things for you, just as I gave you the governess; and if you remember that in all I do for you I try to make it as he would like it for his little lad he loves, then you cannot help seeing God in every act of kindness and every means by which you are clothed and fed or made happy or safe. He does it all. It is the love that he puts in our hearts for you that makes your life comfortable."

"Suppose you begin to say of everything, God is in it, God gave it, God let it come to me, and soon your heart will love him, and want to tell him so, just as you wanted to get your arms around my neck when I was away and show me how much you loved me. And you wrote at home in a dear little printed letter. And I wrote back and said, 'Show you love me by obeying all I have told you.' That obedience will make you my noble, true son."

"So God says, 'If you love me, keep my commandments;' that will make you pure in heart, and then, in everything that happens to you, and in all the world that he has made beautiful for you, yes, in every leaf and flower and cloud, you 'shall see God.'"

And that little twilight talk sank down into the heart of my child, and I knew he saw and loved God, as I know many another child would see and love him if mothers only knew how to open to them his wonderful and gracious word.—Home Magazine.