Another mother tells of a little daughter who has been “a doubting Thomas from her babyhood.” To her the personality of God was very real, but she refused to accept anything at first through the medium of another—even of her mother. A good many of her quaint sayings have been preserved—and her mother still remembers how disconcerting these often were in the course of a Bible lesson. She would suddenly break in with “Why was God so cruel? I hate Him. Can’t you explain? I don’t think much of Him if He doesn’t let fathers and mothers know everything!” At the same time she was seldom willing to accept much on anyone’s judgment but her own. A little brother shared her lessons, and often sighed with impatience at her interruptions. “Oh, R——,” he would say, “I do wish you could get some trust!” When learning the Catechism this little girl refused to say, “Yes, verily, so I will.” “No,” she said, “I shan’t say that. I haven’t made up my mind whether I want to be good or not, and I certainly shan’t say that.” So for about six months that question was never put to her, and at last one day she remarked, “I could say that now if you like!”
Relative Importance of Authorities.
In both these instances there can be little doubt that no one came in any way between the child and the Creator, but, on the other hand, a good many parents consider that there is for some years a difficulty in the minds of children as to the intervention of human beings between them and God, arising either from their habit of connecting their prayers and religious experiences mainly with their mother or nurse, or from a curious inability to realise the supremacy of the Almighty. An example of this latter difficulty may be given in the words of a little child in Yorkshire who was overheard to say to a companion, “Don’t do that or perhaps God will see you, and He’ll tell the Vicar.”
Children’s Prayers.
Much has been written by others about children’s prayers, but it is impossible to ignore what is to them the most real and important part of their religion. A lady living in Cheltenham says: “I think that children get a belief in prayer very early. My youngest girl the other day looked tired, so I said that she had better not come to the evening service. ‘Oh, but I must,’ she said, ‘I want to pray for Miss Beale.’” This was at the beginning of that well-known lady’s fatal illness.
Implicit Faith in Prayer.
Another example of belief in prayer on the part of a child was brought to the notice of the present writer by a sister of the boy of whom the story is told. When a very little chap his brothers and sisters were all invited to a children’s party at a neighbouring house, but he had not been included. Much to his grief it was decided that he had better be put to bed when the others started for the party. When saying his prayers he earnestly asked that even yet he might go to the party. He had hardly been tucked up in bed before a messenger came to say that the omission of his name had been an accident and that it was hoped he might still come. He was hurriedly dressed, and in a few minutes had joined the others in their festivity. The impression made upon the boy’s mind was never erased. From that day forward he never failed to pray about every smallest event. If he went to a shop to buy a knife he would pray to be guided in his choice. If he went out to dinner he would silently pray as he took off his coat in the hall that the evening might be enjoyable. Nothing ever again shook him in his belief in the power of prayer.
Children’s Quaint Petitions.
Some of the original petitions in children’s prayers are often exceedingly quaint, but they go to prove their belief in their words being heard, and it would be cruel to laugh at them or snub the expression of their desires. Some friends of the writer when they were little used to be very fond of interpolating their special wishes into their prayers. One of them when a tiny girl kneeling at her mother’s side after praying for her father and mother and brothers and sisters, said, “And please God make mother less strict.”
Another child in the same family had been shown a coloured picture of Noah’s sacrifice and the rainbow, which impressed her so much that she added to her evening prayers, “And oh! God, please show me a rainbow very soon!”