Marion had been
cautioned
against the habit
of throwing stones, but one day so far forgot
herself as to do it again.
of throwing stones, but one day so far forgot
herself as to do it again.
Childrens - Children's Sayings
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
they embody an important truth which
most of us are exceedingly slow to
recognise--that much of the fractiousness
and naughtiness of the little ones springs
from some unfavourable physical condi-
tion, and should be treated from a physical
point of view. A brisk run in the fresh
air, a merry greeting, a tune on the piano
a few minutes' frolic, will often restore the
physical equilibrium, and the child will
cease to feel ugly and to seem naughty.
And the Saying which follows, audacious as
it may sound in its frank wording, conveys
a warning which no wise father or mother
will venture to neglect:
"If you don't forgive me now, mother, when
Tm sorry" exclaimed a little boy who was in
disgrace for a fault, "I'll soon not be sorry, and
then I won't care about the forgiving! "
It is not my province, however, to convert
these childish utterances into homiletic
texts. I will set them down without further
comment, and let the reader derive from them
what amusement or instruction he may.
"If there was just one Sunday in the year,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
how well I should keep it! " sighed eight-year-
old motherless Godfrey, as he applied himself
to the learning of the hymns and paraphrases
which his grannie thought necessary for the
"keeping " of Sunday.
Davie, on hearing a hand-organ out of
doors: "Don't talk to me now. The music
makes me think of heaven and of my dear
mamma," but on the first Sunday on which he
was taken to chapel Davie said, "I wish I
was a butterfly, and then nobody would ask
me to go to chapel. "
Jim had managed to learn his first hymn.
A friend was visiting the family, and the
mother, pleased with Jim's progress, asked
him to repeat a verse, whereupon he said
gravely:
"I'm a little pilgrim
And a stranger here;
Though this world is pleasant
Sunday is always near! "
Molly was always a little church-goer, being
promoted from children's service in the after-
noon through evening service (in the summer)
to the long morning services, and great was
her pride therein. After two or three Sundays,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
however, the length of the service palled on
her, and one day, coming from church, she said
wearily to her mother, "Oh, mummy, I do
hate the Litany; it makes me so hungry! "
Time passed, and Molly could read a little,
though the long words were still to be avoided
or looked at askance, but one Sunday mother
noticed a thoughtful, puzzled look on her face,
and wondered. The solution soon came.
"Mother," said Molly, "why is that prayer
called 'a general confusion? ' Is it because
everybody kneels down and kicks the seats? "
One Christmas Day, when Molly and her
brother were having their usual happy time,
the little woman remarked, "Christmas day is
Jesus's birthday, but it seems as if we get all
the presents! "
Walter, aged four, accompanied his mother
to the church of which his father was the
minister, and for the first time in this little
boy's life he was allowed to remain and see the
celebration of the Lord's Supper.
On his return home he eagerly inquired of
his mother what it all meant, and she gave him
a simple but satisfactory explanation of the
whole service.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
It happened the next day his father was
very ill in bed, and both mother and child were
naturally anxious about him. Taking her
little one on her lap, the mother said, "Walter,
what should we do if dear papa were to
die? "
The little fellow looked very pensively in
her face, and evidently remembering her
explanation of the service which had so
interested and impressed his mind the day
before, he said with great emphasis, "We
must take a little bread and a little wine in
remembrance of him. "
An embryo divine, of six years, remarked,
"Father, you said in your sermon that our
disappointments are God's appointments, but /
think that our appointments are sometimes
God's disappointments. "
A little boy of my acquaintance, about three
years old, when saying his grace after dinner
was in the habit of enumerating everything of
which he had partaken: one day his pudding
was brought in covered with a new cover.
When he said grace he said, "Thank God for
meat, potatoes, pudding, and my nice bright
cover. "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
Lily, learning the Lord's Prayer for the
first time, paused at the petition for daily
bread. "Oh, gramma, a little bacon too! '?
she interpolated.
A little sister one night added to her prayers,
"Bless uncle, auntie, Willie, but not Bennie
--teasy boy. "
Little Ian's father was visiting London,
and had promised to bring a toy train for
his little son. The day that the father was
to travel Ian prayed, "God bless papa, and
bring him home safely, and--and--and his
luggage! "
Margaret was in the meadow one Sunday
afternoon, when a dark cloud came over the
sky. She stopped suddenly and said, "Pray,
God, don't let it rain on my new pelisse," and
trotted on again.
Children's prayers frequently show a won-
derful faith, though it is difficult to keep grave
over the strange requests they make.
After hearing the story of the Prophet
Elijah, a little girl knelt down and said, " Pray,
God, send the Prophet Elijah to tell auntie to
knit me blue stockings instead of grey. I
don't like grey. "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
To her delight, the blue stockings were given
to her.
It was the close of a happy day, bed-time
had come, and the little boy, whose fourth
birthday it was, had said his prayers and was
kissed good-night, when suddenly, with one of
those flash-light looks peculiar to children, he
inquired, "Do you think God would mind if I
thanked Him for my nice day? "
Being told that the kind Father would cer-
tainly be pleased, the little white-robed figure
knelt again, and bending his head, reverently
and gratefully added, " I am much obliged to
you, God, for my nice birthday. "
"I hope you pray for your baby sister," said
mother to a little girl.
"Oh yes " (with emphasis); " I always pray
for my baby sister, and the doctor, and Gippie. "
Gippy was the nursery dog and faithful play-
fellow.
"But don't you pray for the others in the
house too? "
"Oh no; they can pray for themselves. "
Father was going away on business, so he
called his eldest little boy and said, "Johnnie
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
while I'm away I want you to take great care
of mother. I leave her in your charge. "
That night, when Johnnie knelt at his
mother's knee saying his evening prayer, he
said as usual, "Please, Lord, bless grand-
mamma and take care of her; bless father and
take care of him; but you needn't trouble
about mother, because rm going to take care
of her. "
Little Maisie had a tiny brother who was
ailing a little from teething. In her prayers she
never omitted to ask God to make Georgie
better.
By-and-by a baby sister came, and nurse
remarked, "You'll have another to pray for
now, Maisie. "
"Oh no," replied the little girl; "I must
finish with one first! "
She had surely got hold of the Pauline prin-
ciple, "This one thing I do! "
Three little children were left together at
home while their mother went on a visit, their
grandmother coming to stay with them part of
the time.
The elder little girl, who was about seven,
was very motherly in her manner towards her
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
sister and little brother, but when she said her
prayers at her grandmother's knee on the first
evening she only prayed for her sister.
On rising from her knees her grandmother
expressed surprise that she made no mention
of the little brother, and asked her the reason.
"Why did you not ask God to take care of
your little brother also? "
The child raised her finger in an emphatic
manner and said," Oh no, grannie! He is only
a little one, and I can take care of him my-
self! "
What could have been more confidential
than Innes's prayer for his father in Ceylon.
"Please, God, send daddie safe back--and then
we'll keep him. "
The same child said, "When I say my
prayers I always see everything. When I say
'Deliver us from evil,' I see God going out
with a spear to fight Satan; and when I say
'Forgive us our trespasses,' I see Him with a
big rubber cleaning a blackboard. "
"Don't close the window, mother dear,"
said Gwendoline softly one night when just
about to say her prayers.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Why not, darling? " asked her mother,
with a smile.
"I'm so afraid God might not hear me say
my prayers if you do," replied the little one
wistfully.
It was the evening hour again, and Lucy
knelt to lisp her evening prayer. Her little
heart was bursting with self-satisfaction--she
had been so exemplary all through the day.
"O Lord! " she said, "make me very good,
even better than I am. "
"Auntie, I love you," said little Eric; "I
always say you in my prayers. "
"Thank you, dear: what do you say for
me? "
"I say, 'Please make auntie good and let
her go to heaven. '"
"God bless grandmamma, and help her to
speak the truth," was the prayer of a six-year-
old when he wanted a special blessing for his
saintly grandma.
Paul was out for a walk with a bigger boy,
who, when he began to flag, mounted him on
his back, to Paul's great content. "Dear
Jack," he murmured, clasping soft arms round
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
his neck, "I hope the Lord will give you
strength to carry me home again. "
A little fellow of six, who always preferred
saying his prayers by himself, was remon-
strated with one day by his mother, who
thought he had hurried over them.
"Lloyd, I am afraid you did not pray for
daddy and me to-night. "
"Of course I didn't, mummie; if I had there
would have been nothing for you to say at
bedtime: you would have said, 'Lloyd has
prayed for me,' and it would have made you
lazy. "
"No, darling; I should have found plenty to
say. I might have told God that Lloyd was
not a very good boy to-day. "
"Do you mean to say you would have com-
plained to Jesus Christ about me? Now I do
call that mean. "
A dear little child was saying her prayers
aloud beside her mother's knee, and added a
prayer on her own account: "Oh, please, dear
God, make me pure, absolutely pure as Epps's
cocoa. "
A young friend was on one occasion shut
into a closet as a punishment, when he was
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
overheard uttering the unique prayer, "O
Lord! now's your chance to make me good. "
My little boy, when he was between three
and four years old, had a toy which was wound
up to make it go. It was hopelessly injured,
his governess told him, as over and over again
she tried to make it go. He disappeared under
the table. It was evening and dark there.
Presently he came out with a look of heaven
on his face.
"Please try again ; I'm sure it will go now. "
Still hopeless, she did so, and it went I
Under the table he had asked God to make it
go-
Another time, during a thunderstorm, he
said, "Mamma, I wish God would not talk so
loud. "
A little girl who had prayed for several sick
friends, hearing of their recovery, said, "God
has done all mine;" meaning her prayers were
answered.
"God made all the p'itty ickle flowers, but
God must 'scooze me if I don't pick zem all,
'coz I haven't time. "
At five years, in church, when singing the
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Venite," she whispered, "Mother, will God
'scooze me? I don't know a bit of it! "
"Thank you, God, for letting me pick some
buttercups and daisies to-day, and you have
put a lot in my garden for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen. "
And "Thank God for the grass and the fir-
trees, and the cows and the sheep, and the
sunshine and the shadows of the fir-trees! "
was the older prayer of R. L. Stevenson.
Marion had been cautioned against the habit
of throwing stones, but one day so far forgot
herself as to do it again. Her tender conscience
soon reproved her, and coming home she retired
to a quiet corner, and with a deep-drawn sigh
exclaimed, "Oh, muvver! I do wish I could
remember to be good always. "
A dear old lady aged eighty-four was lying
seriously ill, and one of our little boys loved
to sit beside her bed. On one occasion, wish-
ing him to leave her, she said to him, "Tell me
a nice text to think of until you return again. "
He thought for a moment, and then said,
"Remember now thy Creator in the days of
thy youth, fyc"
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
The old lady could not forbear smiling at the
inaptness of the text to her years and state,
and said, "Dear Willie, think of one more
suitable to my old age. "
He paused to think, and then said, "There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked! "
Frequently with the touchingly simple faith
of a little child is quaintly blended a most
judiciously practical turn of mind. A small
brother was patiently repeating after his mother
the well-known hymn, "Scatter seeds of
kindness"; and, after an evident attempt to
grasp the full significance of the injunction,
inquired, "Is them good to eat, mamma? "
he being at that age when tangible and real-
istic comforts meet at times with greater
appreciation than those of a more spiritual
character.
A mother, when teaching her little daughter
the twenty-third Psalm, was asked, "What
are the paths of righteousness? " "Well,
dear, you know the little tracks up and down
the hills where the sheep tread--those are
called paths. " One day, when out walking
with her nurse, Muriel wandered away by her-
self up a hill. On being asked where she was
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
going, she replied, " I'm walking in the paths of
righteousness. "
Once while coming downstairs Hugh asked
to be carried, but was told he was too heavy.
"Auntie Kathleen," he coaxed, "you be the
Good Shepherd and I will be the little lamb,
and you shall carry me downstairs. " He
conquered.
A small son of mine was going away to
school for the first time, and for some days
before he was seen trying to write something
on a piece of paper. On the last day he gave
his mother a little slip on which was written:
Jesus, Friend of little children,
Be a Friend to mother, will you?
He had substituted "mother" for "me," and
added "will you " to the first two lines of a
hymn he knew, his idea being that when he
was gone there would be no one to take care
of her.
He asked one day whether the bells rang to
invite one to church or to tell that it was time
to go, adding, " I am sure our cathedral bells
invite, don't they? "
A little friend of mine had been told by her
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
mother that she must not kill the flies, because
God had made them all.
One day she was eating a piece of bread
and jam, and was much annoyed by a big fly
that was buzzing around her, attracted by the
jam.
At last she could stand it no longer, and
exclaimed, "Way home, fly, and get a piece
and jam from God. "
Another small mortal, seeing his grand-
mother kill a wasp on the window-pane, asked
where the flies went to when they were dead.
She told him they went to heaven. A few
days later she found him trying to kill a fly on
his own account. In reply to her question and
look of rebuke he answered gravely, "Oh,
g'anma, fy 'anted [wanted] heaven! "
A lady promised her nephew of eight a
bicycle on his birthday. On consideration she
thought a tricycle would be safer for so young
a child.
When the day came it was put in a room
v' <<re the boy would pass through, his aunt
concealed in a corner. Instead of delight, he
was heard to exclaim, "O God, I thought
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
you knew the difference between a bicycle and
a tricycle! "
A mother leant over her baby's crib.
"What shall I ask Jesus to-night, my
darling? " she said.
The sleepy blue eyes opened. "Say, take
me to our bootiful home. "
The mother's eyes filled with tears; she
could not spare her darling yet. She said no
more about it, but a few days later she went
into the nursery and found Hilda sitting up in
bed, with a look of indignation on her face.
"And He's never come for me yet I" she said.
Children are often more logical than grown-
ups. The little son of bible-loving parents
had a great dislike and fear of being alone in
the dark. They tried to reason him out of it
both on common-sense and religious grounds.
The child listened with puckering brow.
When they had finished he asked, "Do you
wish me to do evil, then? "
"Why do you ask that ? " questioned his father.
"It says in the bible people 'loved dark-
ness because their deeds were evil,'" argued
the puzzled boy.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
Jim's mother sent him downstairs in the
dark, saying, " Don't be afraid, dear ; God is on
the stairs. "
"Yes," he replied, " God is on the stairs,
and Alice is in the kitchen. "
His faith in Alice was evidently the
stronger.
Mother had just gone upstairs in the dusk.
Presently she heard the little pattering feet of
her two-year-old boy at the foot of the stairs,
and then a wailing cry, " It's dark! "
At once his sister of four years ran to him
with the exclamation, "Take my hand, Ally,
and it won't be dark! "
Hand in hand the little ones mounted the
stairs, to be clasped at the top in the arms of
the parents who had just learned a needed
heavenly lesson from their children.
Scottie had prayed for some months that
God would bring his father safely home from
Africa. One night his aunt noticed that he
omitted the usual petition.
"You haven't prayed for father, dear," she
reminded him.
"It's no good," replied Scottie in a weary
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
voice, getting up from his knees ; " father never
comes home. I'm tired of praying for him. "
"God doesn't make me a good boy! Pappa
makes me a good boy! " a baby of two stopped
to reason in the middle of his prayers one
night. "He whips me! I won't pray to God
any more! "
As might well be anticipated, three mysterious
beings engross much of a child's speculative
musing--the Creator, the Saviour, and the
Evil Spirit. With regard to the former
our conventional reverence is frequently
shocked by the surmises and questions of
the small inquirers, but in these matters a
child's thought is invariably free from
irreverence, and its quest of truth ought
not to be roughly checked as idle curiosity,
but should be met with the seriousness we
should give to an older inquirer. With
regard to the Spirit of Evil, it seems to me
an unhappy mistake that we should begin
to darken a child's bright world at the very
dawn with the thought and name of Satan.
That knowledge will intrude itself only too
soon ; but in our zeal or our thoughtlessness
we often contrive to make our children
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
deplorable little prigs and jesuitical
apologists.
Emmie had overheard the remark, during a
thunderstorm, that the thunder was God's
voice; and on seeing a grown-up person looking
frightened as the storm increased, she said,
"If God lets us speak to Him, we must let Him
speak to us too. "
A rather pretty idea concerning the stars was
the following from a little boy of my acquaint-
ance. He thought the stars might be the places
where God put His fingers through: This
reminds one of the words of David: "The
firmament sheweth His handiwork. "
The thoughts of children are a continual
source of surprise and enjoyment to those who
watch their development, and the independence
of each soul is shown by the quaint and unex-
pected ways in which they are expressed. For
instance, the little boy who made the following
remarks must have attained, by his own line of
reasoning, a very vivid realisation of the
marvellous patience of the Almighty God.
Standing by a window watching the flies on
the pane, he said:
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Didn't you say God made everything,
mother? "
"Yes, my boy, everything. "
"Then He made the flies? "
"Yes, even flies. "
After a momentary silence he remarked:
"Fiddling work, making flies! "
Doris (aged four) : "What a horrid cake! "
Jim (aged 14) : "Oh, Doris! don't say that!
God gave us the cake. "
Doris: "Yes, but God didn't make it! "
Telling Frances that God gives us everything,
Isa said, "Oh yes! and He gives us baked
apples, only we bake them. "
A cousin of ours was taking charge of her
nephews and nieces. Says preaching baby to
practical baby, "Do you know, Helen, God
could make you die this very minute if He
pleased? "
Practical baby, not at all scared from her
bread and butter: "I don't think He could; I'm
having my tea. "
My little brother, on being told that God
made the world and everything in it, said, "If
God made everything, what does Mrs. God do? "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
A little girl whose finger was cut was told by
her sister "Not to cry, for as fast as the bleed
runs out, God puts bleed in. "
A little niece who loved to hear of the Great
Healer one day startled her aunt by saying,
"Aunty, if we ask Jesus to make grandma
better, won't He come down and heal her? "
But, without waiting for a reply, she added
solemnly, "Only He would break His legs
coming down. "
On another occasion, when she saw a picture
of Cupid suspended in mid-air with the familiar
missive in his hand, her comment was, "Oh,
look at the wee boy! he is taking up a letter to
Jesus. "
When listening to the story of the Crucifixion
she was much touched with the words of our
Lord, "I thirst"; and on hearing of the sponge
filled with vinegar being given to Jesus, she put
her hand up to the narrator's face as if to make
her pause in the recital and said, "If good men
had been there they would have given Jesus a
drink out of a tumbler. "
Little Phil, aged five, was grieved and
horrified by the story of the Crucifixion. "Oh,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
mother," he cried, "if father had been there,
he would have sworded off their heads! "
The same passionate revolt filled the heart
of the heroic Crillon as in his old age he
sat in church listening to the story of the
world's tragedy. Unable at last to con-
trol himself, he sprang to his feet and cried
aloud, "Oil etais-tu, Crillon? " "Oh,
Crillon, where wast thou? "
So, too, spoke a fierce Iroquois Indian,
Charlevoix tells us in his " Histoire de la
Nouvelle France," when he heard the
narrative of the Saviour's sufferings:
"Oh! if I had been there! "
But centuries earlier still, according to the
old Irish records, King Conor Mac Nessa
uttered almost the same words. The
king had been wounded by a ball from a
sling. It had lodged in his head, and
the physicians had allowed it to remain,
warning him, however, that all violent
exercise, anger, or excitement would be
dangerous to his life. For years he
enjoyed good health until the very day of
the Crucifixion, when, in consequence of
the shaking of the earth and the darkening
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
of the sun, he inquired of his Druid the
cause of this strange perturbation of
nature. The Druid informed him that
Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God,
was at that moment being crucified by the
Jews. "What crime has he committed? "
cried Conor. "None," said the Druid.
"Then they are slaying him innocently?
? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
they embody an important truth which
most of us are exceedingly slow to
recognise--that much of the fractiousness
and naughtiness of the little ones springs
from some unfavourable physical condi-
tion, and should be treated from a physical
point of view. A brisk run in the fresh
air, a merry greeting, a tune on the piano
a few minutes' frolic, will often restore the
physical equilibrium, and the child will
cease to feel ugly and to seem naughty.
And the Saying which follows, audacious as
it may sound in its frank wording, conveys
a warning which no wise father or mother
will venture to neglect:
"If you don't forgive me now, mother, when
Tm sorry" exclaimed a little boy who was in
disgrace for a fault, "I'll soon not be sorry, and
then I won't care about the forgiving! "
It is not my province, however, to convert
these childish utterances into homiletic
texts. I will set them down without further
comment, and let the reader derive from them
what amusement or instruction he may.
"If there was just one Sunday in the year,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
how well I should keep it! " sighed eight-year-
old motherless Godfrey, as he applied himself
to the learning of the hymns and paraphrases
which his grannie thought necessary for the
"keeping " of Sunday.
Davie, on hearing a hand-organ out of
doors: "Don't talk to me now. The music
makes me think of heaven and of my dear
mamma," but on the first Sunday on which he
was taken to chapel Davie said, "I wish I
was a butterfly, and then nobody would ask
me to go to chapel. "
Jim had managed to learn his first hymn.
A friend was visiting the family, and the
mother, pleased with Jim's progress, asked
him to repeat a verse, whereupon he said
gravely:
"I'm a little pilgrim
And a stranger here;
Though this world is pleasant
Sunday is always near! "
Molly was always a little church-goer, being
promoted from children's service in the after-
noon through evening service (in the summer)
to the long morning services, and great was
her pride therein. After two or three Sundays,
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
however, the length of the service palled on
her, and one day, coming from church, she said
wearily to her mother, "Oh, mummy, I do
hate the Litany; it makes me so hungry! "
Time passed, and Molly could read a little,
though the long words were still to be avoided
or looked at askance, but one Sunday mother
noticed a thoughtful, puzzled look on her face,
and wondered. The solution soon came.
"Mother," said Molly, "why is that prayer
called 'a general confusion? ' Is it because
everybody kneels down and kicks the seats? "
One Christmas Day, when Molly and her
brother were having their usual happy time,
the little woman remarked, "Christmas day is
Jesus's birthday, but it seems as if we get all
the presents! "
Walter, aged four, accompanied his mother
to the church of which his father was the
minister, and for the first time in this little
boy's life he was allowed to remain and see the
celebration of the Lord's Supper.
On his return home he eagerly inquired of
his mother what it all meant, and she gave him
a simple but satisfactory explanation of the
whole service.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
It happened the next day his father was
very ill in bed, and both mother and child were
naturally anxious about him. Taking her
little one on her lap, the mother said, "Walter,
what should we do if dear papa were to
die? "
The little fellow looked very pensively in
her face, and evidently remembering her
explanation of the service which had so
interested and impressed his mind the day
before, he said with great emphasis, "We
must take a little bread and a little wine in
remembrance of him. "
An embryo divine, of six years, remarked,
"Father, you said in your sermon that our
disappointments are God's appointments, but /
think that our appointments are sometimes
God's disappointments. "
A little boy of my acquaintance, about three
years old, when saying his grace after dinner
was in the habit of enumerating everything of
which he had partaken: one day his pudding
was brought in covered with a new cover.
When he said grace he said, "Thank God for
meat, potatoes, pudding, and my nice bright
cover. "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
Lily, learning the Lord's Prayer for the
first time, paused at the petition for daily
bread. "Oh, gramma, a little bacon too! '?
she interpolated.
A little sister one night added to her prayers,
"Bless uncle, auntie, Willie, but not Bennie
--teasy boy. "
Little Ian's father was visiting London,
and had promised to bring a toy train for
his little son. The day that the father was
to travel Ian prayed, "God bless papa, and
bring him home safely, and--and--and his
luggage! "
Margaret was in the meadow one Sunday
afternoon, when a dark cloud came over the
sky. She stopped suddenly and said, "Pray,
God, don't let it rain on my new pelisse," and
trotted on again.
Children's prayers frequently show a won-
derful faith, though it is difficult to keep grave
over the strange requests they make.
After hearing the story of the Prophet
Elijah, a little girl knelt down and said, " Pray,
God, send the Prophet Elijah to tell auntie to
knit me blue stockings instead of grey. I
don't like grey. "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
To her delight, the blue stockings were given
to her.
It was the close of a happy day, bed-time
had come, and the little boy, whose fourth
birthday it was, had said his prayers and was
kissed good-night, when suddenly, with one of
those flash-light looks peculiar to children, he
inquired, "Do you think God would mind if I
thanked Him for my nice day? "
Being told that the kind Father would cer-
tainly be pleased, the little white-robed figure
knelt again, and bending his head, reverently
and gratefully added, " I am much obliged to
you, God, for my nice birthday. "
"I hope you pray for your baby sister," said
mother to a little girl.
"Oh yes " (with emphasis); " I always pray
for my baby sister, and the doctor, and Gippie. "
Gippy was the nursery dog and faithful play-
fellow.
"But don't you pray for the others in the
house too? "
"Oh no; they can pray for themselves. "
Father was going away on business, so he
called his eldest little boy and said, "Johnnie
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
while I'm away I want you to take great care
of mother. I leave her in your charge. "
That night, when Johnnie knelt at his
mother's knee saying his evening prayer, he
said as usual, "Please, Lord, bless grand-
mamma and take care of her; bless father and
take care of him; but you needn't trouble
about mother, because rm going to take care
of her. "
Little Maisie had a tiny brother who was
ailing a little from teething. In her prayers she
never omitted to ask God to make Georgie
better.
By-and-by a baby sister came, and nurse
remarked, "You'll have another to pray for
now, Maisie. "
"Oh no," replied the little girl; "I must
finish with one first! "
She had surely got hold of the Pauline prin-
ciple, "This one thing I do! "
Three little children were left together at
home while their mother went on a visit, their
grandmother coming to stay with them part of
the time.
The elder little girl, who was about seven,
was very motherly in her manner towards her
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
sister and little brother, but when she said her
prayers at her grandmother's knee on the first
evening she only prayed for her sister.
On rising from her knees her grandmother
expressed surprise that she made no mention
of the little brother, and asked her the reason.
"Why did you not ask God to take care of
your little brother also? "
The child raised her finger in an emphatic
manner and said," Oh no, grannie! He is only
a little one, and I can take care of him my-
self! "
What could have been more confidential
than Innes's prayer for his father in Ceylon.
"Please, God, send daddie safe back--and then
we'll keep him. "
The same child said, "When I say my
prayers I always see everything. When I say
'Deliver us from evil,' I see God going out
with a spear to fight Satan; and when I say
'Forgive us our trespasses,' I see Him with a
big rubber cleaning a blackboard. "
"Don't close the window, mother dear,"
said Gwendoline softly one night when just
about to say her prayers.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Why not, darling? " asked her mother,
with a smile.
"I'm so afraid God might not hear me say
my prayers if you do," replied the little one
wistfully.
It was the evening hour again, and Lucy
knelt to lisp her evening prayer. Her little
heart was bursting with self-satisfaction--she
had been so exemplary all through the day.
"O Lord! " she said, "make me very good,
even better than I am. "
"Auntie, I love you," said little Eric; "I
always say you in my prayers. "
"Thank you, dear: what do you say for
me? "
"I say, 'Please make auntie good and let
her go to heaven. '"
"God bless grandmamma, and help her to
speak the truth," was the prayer of a six-year-
old when he wanted a special blessing for his
saintly grandma.
Paul was out for a walk with a bigger boy,
who, when he began to flag, mounted him on
his back, to Paul's great content. "Dear
Jack," he murmured, clasping soft arms round
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
his neck, "I hope the Lord will give you
strength to carry me home again. "
A little fellow of six, who always preferred
saying his prayers by himself, was remon-
strated with one day by his mother, who
thought he had hurried over them.
"Lloyd, I am afraid you did not pray for
daddy and me to-night. "
"Of course I didn't, mummie; if I had there
would have been nothing for you to say at
bedtime: you would have said, 'Lloyd has
prayed for me,' and it would have made you
lazy. "
"No, darling; I should have found plenty to
say. I might have told God that Lloyd was
not a very good boy to-day. "
"Do you mean to say you would have com-
plained to Jesus Christ about me? Now I do
call that mean. "
A dear little child was saying her prayers
aloud beside her mother's knee, and added a
prayer on her own account: "Oh, please, dear
God, make me pure, absolutely pure as Epps's
cocoa. "
A young friend was on one occasion shut
into a closet as a punishment, when he was
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
overheard uttering the unique prayer, "O
Lord! now's your chance to make me good. "
My little boy, when he was between three
and four years old, had a toy which was wound
up to make it go. It was hopelessly injured,
his governess told him, as over and over again
she tried to make it go. He disappeared under
the table. It was evening and dark there.
Presently he came out with a look of heaven
on his face.
"Please try again ; I'm sure it will go now. "
Still hopeless, she did so, and it went I
Under the table he had asked God to make it
go-
Another time, during a thunderstorm, he
said, "Mamma, I wish God would not talk so
loud. "
A little girl who had prayed for several sick
friends, hearing of their recovery, said, "God
has done all mine;" meaning her prayers were
answered.
"God made all the p'itty ickle flowers, but
God must 'scooze me if I don't pick zem all,
'coz I haven't time. "
At five years, in church, when singing the
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Venite," she whispered, "Mother, will God
'scooze me? I don't know a bit of it! "
"Thank you, God, for letting me pick some
buttercups and daisies to-day, and you have
put a lot in my garden for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen. "
And "Thank God for the grass and the fir-
trees, and the cows and the sheep, and the
sunshine and the shadows of the fir-trees! "
was the older prayer of R. L. Stevenson.
Marion had been cautioned against the habit
of throwing stones, but one day so far forgot
herself as to do it again. Her tender conscience
soon reproved her, and coming home she retired
to a quiet corner, and with a deep-drawn sigh
exclaimed, "Oh, muvver! I do wish I could
remember to be good always. "
A dear old lady aged eighty-four was lying
seriously ill, and one of our little boys loved
to sit beside her bed. On one occasion, wish-
ing him to leave her, she said to him, "Tell me
a nice text to think of until you return again. "
He thought for a moment, and then said,
"Remember now thy Creator in the days of
thy youth, fyc"
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
The old lady could not forbear smiling at the
inaptness of the text to her years and state,
and said, "Dear Willie, think of one more
suitable to my old age. "
He paused to think, and then said, "There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked! "
Frequently with the touchingly simple faith
of a little child is quaintly blended a most
judiciously practical turn of mind. A small
brother was patiently repeating after his mother
the well-known hymn, "Scatter seeds of
kindness"; and, after an evident attempt to
grasp the full significance of the injunction,
inquired, "Is them good to eat, mamma? "
he being at that age when tangible and real-
istic comforts meet at times with greater
appreciation than those of a more spiritual
character.
A mother, when teaching her little daughter
the twenty-third Psalm, was asked, "What
are the paths of righteousness? " "Well,
dear, you know the little tracks up and down
the hills where the sheep tread--those are
called paths. " One day, when out walking
with her nurse, Muriel wandered away by her-
self up a hill. On being asked where she was
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
going, she replied, " I'm walking in the paths of
righteousness. "
Once while coming downstairs Hugh asked
to be carried, but was told he was too heavy.
"Auntie Kathleen," he coaxed, "you be the
Good Shepherd and I will be the little lamb,
and you shall carry me downstairs. " He
conquered.
A small son of mine was going away to
school for the first time, and for some days
before he was seen trying to write something
on a piece of paper. On the last day he gave
his mother a little slip on which was written:
Jesus, Friend of little children,
Be a Friend to mother, will you?
He had substituted "mother" for "me," and
added "will you " to the first two lines of a
hymn he knew, his idea being that when he
was gone there would be no one to take care
of her.
He asked one day whether the bells rang to
invite one to church or to tell that it was time
to go, adding, " I am sure our cathedral bells
invite, don't they? "
A little friend of mine had been told by her
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
mother that she must not kill the flies, because
God had made them all.
One day she was eating a piece of bread
and jam, and was much annoyed by a big fly
that was buzzing around her, attracted by the
jam.
At last she could stand it no longer, and
exclaimed, "Way home, fly, and get a piece
and jam from God. "
Another small mortal, seeing his grand-
mother kill a wasp on the window-pane, asked
where the flies went to when they were dead.
She told him they went to heaven. A few
days later she found him trying to kill a fly on
his own account. In reply to her question and
look of rebuke he answered gravely, "Oh,
g'anma, fy 'anted [wanted] heaven! "
A lady promised her nephew of eight a
bicycle on his birthday. On consideration she
thought a tricycle would be safer for so young
a child.
When the day came it was put in a room
v' <<re the boy would pass through, his aunt
concealed in a corner. Instead of delight, he
was heard to exclaim, "O God, I thought
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
you knew the difference between a bicycle and
a tricycle! "
A mother leant over her baby's crib.
"What shall I ask Jesus to-night, my
darling? " she said.
The sleepy blue eyes opened. "Say, take
me to our bootiful home. "
The mother's eyes filled with tears; she
could not spare her darling yet. She said no
more about it, but a few days later she went
into the nursery and found Hilda sitting up in
bed, with a look of indignation on her face.
"And He's never come for me yet I" she said.
Children are often more logical than grown-
ups. The little son of bible-loving parents
had a great dislike and fear of being alone in
the dark. They tried to reason him out of it
both on common-sense and religious grounds.
The child listened with puckering brow.
When they had finished he asked, "Do you
wish me to do evil, then? "
"Why do you ask that ? " questioned his father.
"It says in the bible people 'loved dark-
ness because their deeds were evil,'" argued
the puzzled boy.
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
Jim's mother sent him downstairs in the
dark, saying, " Don't be afraid, dear ; God is on
the stairs. "
"Yes," he replied, " God is on the stairs,
and Alice is in the kitchen. "
His faith in Alice was evidently the
stronger.
Mother had just gone upstairs in the dusk.
Presently she heard the little pattering feet of
her two-year-old boy at the foot of the stairs,
and then a wailing cry, " It's dark! "
At once his sister of four years ran to him
with the exclamation, "Take my hand, Ally,
and it won't be dark! "
Hand in hand the little ones mounted the
stairs, to be clasped at the top in the arms of
the parents who had just learned a needed
heavenly lesson from their children.
Scottie had prayed for some months that
God would bring his father safely home from
Africa. One night his aunt noticed that he
omitted the usual petition.
"You haven't prayed for father, dear," she
reminded him.
"It's no good," replied Scottie in a weary
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
voice, getting up from his knees ; " father never
comes home. I'm tired of praying for him. "
"God doesn't make me a good boy! Pappa
makes me a good boy! " a baby of two stopped
to reason in the middle of his prayers one
night. "He whips me! I won't pray to God
any more! "
As might well be anticipated, three mysterious
beings engross much of a child's speculative
musing--the Creator, the Saviour, and the
Evil Spirit. With regard to the former
our conventional reverence is frequently
shocked by the surmises and questions of
the small inquirers, but in these matters a
child's thought is invariably free from
irreverence, and its quest of truth ought
not to be roughly checked as idle curiosity,
but should be met with the seriousness we
should give to an older inquirer. With
regard to the Spirit of Evil, it seems to me
an unhappy mistake that we should begin
to darken a child's bright world at the very
dawn with the thought and name of Satan.
That knowledge will intrude itself only too
soon ; but in our zeal or our thoughtlessness
we often contrive to make our children
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
deplorable little prigs and jesuitical
apologists.
Emmie had overheard the remark, during a
thunderstorm, that the thunder was God's
voice; and on seeing a grown-up person looking
frightened as the storm increased, she said,
"If God lets us speak to Him, we must let Him
speak to us too. "
A rather pretty idea concerning the stars was
the following from a little boy of my acquaint-
ance. He thought the stars might be the places
where God put His fingers through: This
reminds one of the words of David: "The
firmament sheweth His handiwork. "
The thoughts of children are a continual
source of surprise and enjoyment to those who
watch their development, and the independence
of each soul is shown by the quaint and unex-
pected ways in which they are expressed. For
instance, the little boy who made the following
remarks must have attained, by his own line of
reasoning, a very vivid realisation of the
marvellous patience of the Almighty God.
Standing by a window watching the flies on
the pane, he said:
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
"Didn't you say God made everything,
mother? "
"Yes, my boy, everything. "
"Then He made the flies? "
"Yes, even flies. "
After a momentary silence he remarked:
"Fiddling work, making flies! "
Doris (aged four) : "What a horrid cake! "
Jim (aged 14) : "Oh, Doris! don't say that!
God gave us the cake. "
Doris: "Yes, but God didn't make it! "
Telling Frances that God gives us everything,
Isa said, "Oh yes! and He gives us baked
apples, only we bake them. "
A cousin of ours was taking charge of her
nephews and nieces. Says preaching baby to
practical baby, "Do you know, Helen, God
could make you die this very minute if He
pleased? "
Practical baby, not at all scared from her
bread and butter: "I don't think He could; I'm
having my tea. "
My little brother, on being told that God
made the world and everything in it, said, "If
God made everything, what does Mrs. God do? "
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
A little girl whose finger was cut was told by
her sister "Not to cry, for as fast as the bleed
runs out, God puts bleed in. "
A little niece who loved to hear of the Great
Healer one day startled her aunt by saying,
"Aunty, if we ask Jesus to make grandma
better, won't He come down and heal her? "
But, without waiting for a reply, she added
solemnly, "Only He would break His legs
coming down. "
On another occasion, when she saw a picture
of Cupid suspended in mid-air with the familiar
missive in his hand, her comment was, "Oh,
look at the wee boy! he is taking up a letter to
Jesus. "
When listening to the story of the Crucifixion
she was much touched with the words of our
Lord, "I thirst"; and on hearing of the sponge
filled with vinegar being given to Jesus, she put
her hand up to the narrator's face as if to make
her pause in the recital and said, "If good men
had been there they would have given Jesus a
drink out of a tumbler. "
Little Phil, aged five, was grieved and
horrified by the story of the Crucifixion. "Oh,
122
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
mother," he cried, "if father had been there,
he would have sworded off their heads! "
The same passionate revolt filled the heart
of the heroic Crillon as in his old age he
sat in church listening to the story of the
world's tragedy. Unable at last to con-
trol himself, he sprang to his feet and cried
aloud, "Oil etais-tu, Crillon? " "Oh,
Crillon, where wast thou? "
So, too, spoke a fierce Iroquois Indian,
Charlevoix tells us in his " Histoire de la
Nouvelle France," when he heard the
narrative of the Saviour's sufferings:
"Oh! if I had been there! "
But centuries earlier still, according to the
old Irish records, King Conor Mac Nessa
uttered almost the same words. The
king had been wounded by a ball from a
sling. It had lodged in his head, and
the physicians had allowed it to remain,
warning him, however, that all violent
exercise, anger, or excitement would be
dangerous to his life. For years he
enjoyed good health until the very day of
the Crucifixion, when, in consequence of
the shaking of the earth and the darkening
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? CHILDREN'S SAYINGS
of the sun, he inquired of his Druid the
cause of this strange perturbation of
nature. The Druid informed him that
Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God,
was at that moment being crucified by the
Jews. "What crime has he committed? "
cried Conor. "None," said the Druid.
"Then they are slaying him innocently?
