THE KING’S BUSINESS
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and girls?” was suggested to me when I went to visit the studio of the fatuous working man, George Tinworth. He was not a sculptor of marble, as perhaps you know, but a moulder of clay, which was afterwards burned and became terra-cotta. Almost all his scenes were taken from the Bible, and many of them are very interest ing even to children. When he had shown me several little things in his’ studio, he turned towards, what looked like a lofty mound in the centre of the room. It turned, out to be a figure of a man seated, which he kept covered with damp cloths when he was not working on it. He did this so that the clay might remain soft. When all the cloths were removed it was quite plain that the figure was meant to represent Jesus. The face was very noble and gracious, very kind and firm. But what struck me most was not the statue itself,' but the’ repre sentations of three little children grouped around it. They were in different attitudes. One was leaning on the knee of Jesus, looking up into His face, listening. Another had been running in the fields and had plucked a flower, which he was holding up for Jesus to smell. Best of all, the third was nestling against the feet of Jesus, and was sound asleep. Now do you understand what our Lord wants little children to do? He wants you to listen to Him, and to do things for Him, and, most of all, to trust Him. I. The Lord Jesus wants you to lead the listening life. He has a great many mes sages to;,send tb you, and He sends them by different people and in different ways. Sometimes you will find them in the por tion of the Bible you read, sometimes in your mother’s and teacher’s words, some times in the thoughts and feelings He puts into your heart. You remember one Sun day evening, after you were in bed, your mother came and sat by your side and talked to you in her quiet voice about the Father’s love, and about your work, and how our Saviour was wounded to death for us. I do ,not know whether you were
III. A Look into the Future. 1. Reveals a determined, concentrated struggle. A reaching forth, a pressing or bearing down and reaching for just “one thing.” Just as the Greek athlete was born for one thing, lived for one thing, counted everything but loss for that one thing, namely, victory in the gamfes, so Paul concentrates everything on the attainment of | the prize of the high calling. 2. Reveals an assurance of winning. Our prize is bound up with our calling. Whom God justifies, He also glorifies. In the Greek races but one received the prize; in the ' Christian race all may receive the crown . of glory that fadeth not away. 3. Reveals the time of the bestowal of rewards. Jesus and, the Three Children. You must have heard a great many ser mons about the Lord Jesus—hundreds, I suppose—and you must have said a great many prayers in His name—certainly thous ands if you are more than eight years old, and yet if I were ,to ask you to write and tell me exactly what the Lord Jesus wants you to be and do, I am not sure that you could answer my question. When I was about twelve years old, I remember well how I used to wish that someone would make quite plain to me what our Saviour asked from boys that they might belong to Him. Somehow it was a long time before I could find out, and when I did find out it seemed so simple that I could scarcely understand why I had been so slow and dull. One way of answering this question, “What does the Lord Jesus ask from boys Paul looks forward to the time when he shall be called up before the great Judge to receive the palm or the crown for the victory won (cf. 2 Timothy 4:8). A Suggestive Children’s Sermon
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