Hungarian Church Press, 1949 (1. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)

1949-06-12 / 8. szám

No 8.

—7—

Hév. Dr. Imre SOMOGYI, President of the Baptist Union:

CHRIST AHD THE SOCIETY OP CHILDREN WITHOUT CLASSES

The author is one of the finest Christ ian leaders of Hungarian evangelical life. During the past week he had to undergo a perilious operation, and while on the way. of recovery his sickbed is surrounded by the love of the whole Hungarian Christianity.

•'And He said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

.These words were spoken by the Lord when the disciples, tempted by the spirit of rivality were disputing which of them is greater in the kingdom of God. Then the Lord Jesus placed a little child before them as an example, "Except ye become*... sounds the word of the Master. And it sounds not merely towards the first disciples, but also towards ourselves.

Let us be like children - for instance in - optimism.

I remember once I was strolling along the dusky road, weary and despondant. Before me a mother was leading a little child holding her hand. The little girl kept on chattering all the time, "Oh how many stars there are in the sky!" she said pointing with her little finger towards the sky. The mother looked up, just as I did, and then said reprovingly: "Do not talk nonsense. The sky is full of clouds." "But I - can see the stars", the little girl insisted. Even now such a long time afterwards how I should like to embrace that sweet little optimist, for it was she who was right, even if she did not see the stars, which were surely sparkling behind the clouds.

Do we understand then why Christ said to be like children in faith?

Christ also asked us to be like children in love. We can only blush when thinking that ever since we grew out of childhood we also became cold, formal and loveless. Look at the little baby clasping her arms round the mother's neck. Indeed it is only the child who feels and lives the only truth upholding the word: Everything lives in God, works in God and can only feel safe in Him.

But Christ gave still another maxim of life about community, about social life, which only the great revolutionary philosophers at the end of the Xlk century put into modern terms. Yes, it was. Jesus Who first pointed to the fact that we must become like little children in our