Knowing this characteristic of the Redeemer, certain parents brought their young children to Him, as the Evangelist informs us, “that He should touch them;” either believing that there was a healthful virtue, connected with the touch of Him who healed the sick and gave life to the dead, that would be of benefit to them; or, it may be, with more elevated conceptions of Christ’s person, and more spiritual desires respecting the welfare of their offspring, believing that the blessing (which was symbolized by the touch and laying on of hands) of so exalted a Being would be of greater worth than mere health of body.  The disciples, thinking that mere children were not worthy of the regards of their Master, rebuked the anxious and affectionate parents.  “But,”—­continues the narrative,—­“when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God;” and then immediately explained what He meant by this last assertion, which is so often misunderstood and misapplied, by adding, in the words of the text, “Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child" that is with a child-like spirit, “he shall not enter therein.”  For our Lord does not here lay down a doctrinal position, and affirm the moral innocence of childhood.  He does not mark off and discriminate the children as sinless, from their parents as sinful, as if the two classes did not belong to the same race of beings, and were not involved in the same apostasy and condemnation.  He merely sets childhood and manhood over-against each other as two distinct stages of human life, each possessing peculiar traits and tempers, and affirms that it is the meek spirit of childhood, and not the proud spirit of manhood, that welcomes and appropriates the Christian salvation.  He is only contrasting the general attitude of a child, with the general attitude of a man.  He merely affirms that the trustful and believing temper of childhood, as compared with the self-reliant and skeptical temper of manhood, is the temper by which both the child and the man are to receive the blessings of the gospel which both of them equally need.

The kingdom of God is represented in the New Testament, sometimes as subjective, and sometimes as objective; sometimes as within the soul of man, and sometimes as up in the skies.  Our text combines both representations; for, it speaks of a man’s “receiving” the kingdom of God, and of a man’s “entering” the kingdom of God; of the coming of heaven into a soul, and of the going of a soul into heaven.  In other passages, one or the other representation appears alone.  “The kingdom of God,”—­says our Lord to the Pharisees,—­“cometh not with observation.  Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there:  for behold the kingdom of God is within you.”  The apostle Paul, upon arriving at Rome, invited the resident Jews to discuss