XV.

LITTLE CHILDREN IN HEAVEN.

NFANTS die to live.

INFAN

As stars, which glitter for

a brief moment, through the darkness of the night, but when we look again are invisible; not because they have fallen from heaven, but because they have melted away into the light of a cloudless morning; so dying infants are taken to be planted in the diadem of the Sun of righteousness. In conversation with an eminent living divine,* the pleasing thought was suggested by him, that those who are taken to heaven in infancy, may always remain children; not such weak, suffering and dependent creatures, as they were on earth, but bright cherubs, perfect children;-perfect in beauty and in purity. The Scriptures speak expressly of "the small and great, "+ both appearing together in eternity, before God. It was to "the small" as well as to "the great," that a voice came out of the throne, saying,

*Rev. Dr. Spring. † Rev. xix. 5; xx. 12.

“PRAISE OUR GOD;" and they responded when the voice of a great multitude was heard, "as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." The hope is not altogether without warrant, therefore, that Christians who have lost. infant children, shall never be without them-that their death was, indeed, a "kindly harshness, which blessed them into an eternal image of youth and beauty." What earthly home is not made happier by the presence of little children, with all their infirmities, the cares they impose, and the anxieties they awaken? Without them, a home may be filled with much that is graceful and refined; like a garden, it may have many fine walks and arbours, but it is a garden without flowers. What, then, will our "Father's House" in heaven be, filled with those who are infants, without weakness and without wants, and clothed upon with all the beauty and loveliness of angels; and who, like murmuring ripples, which serve to swell the voice of many waters, when they break upon the shore, shall bear their humble part in heaven's immortal song. As, of that great multitude, which no man can number, who already have gone from earth to heaven, they form the vast majority, it is obvious that we fail to do justice to the subject, if we ignore so important an element in the redeemed society.

The rule which an Apostle lays down* as that by which God will be governed in judging the heathen world, at the last day, leaves us no room to doubt as to the salvation of all-the children of heathen as well as of Christians-who die in infancy. The standard of judgment is the light or knowledge which men have severally enjoyed. The heathen will not be judged by the revealed law, or the Holy Scriptures, because they have never had this revelation. They will be judged according to the light which they possess, which is commonly called the light of nature. Having sinned against this light, they must give account thereof, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. If the heathen will not be judged according to the revealed will of God, because they have been ignorant of it; it is certain that infants who die before they have any knowledge of it will not be judged by it. And they are just as ignorant of the light of nature, as they are of revelation, and cannot be judged by it; and, therefore, we conclude that there is no law that will condemn them on the day of Judgment. Their intellectual faculties have not yet been developed; hence it is impossible for them to know God, or the invisible things of HIM, from the things which are clearly seen, namely, His works. It is impossible to teach them to understand God's Holy Word. In other

*Rom. ii. 12, 16.

words, God has made no revelation of any kind to infants, whose intellectual faculties remain in embryo. Even were we to concede that the Scriptures are silent, as some have maintained, on the question of the salvation of infants, we might here, perhaps, discover the reason; the Bible was not written for them is not addressed to them. If they are not referred to "in its overtures of mercy," it is equally true that they come not under "its proclamation of duty," nor its threatenings of future punishment. And the salvation of the infants of pagans, of infidels, and of the most wicked men, is, in the light of this rule of judgment, just as certain as the salvation of the children of the most devout and faithful Christians. "There is no respect of persons with God."* He is perfectly impartial, and treats all on precisely the same principles. All are alike ignorant of the written law, and as yet have not had a law written on their hearts; consequently there is no standard of judgment by which any of them can be condemned. When the books are opened, the only one with which "the small," who stand before God, will have any concern, is the Book of Life. There will be nothing in the book of Nature, or the Book of God's written. Law, or the books of Memory and Conscience, in which they will have any concern.

The future punishments, which are denounced

Rom. ii. 11.

against the wicked, in the word of God, are represented as always for the actual transgressions of persons, who are capable of choosing or refusing good and evil; and therefore cannot be intended for those who die before they are able to distinguish between good and evil. "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof, in the day of judgment." "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that which he hath done, whether it be good or evil." So far as suffering in the future world consists in remorse, infants who have never rejected mercy, grieved the Spirit, or rebelled against God, are of course incapable of experiencing it. "I cannot find," to use the language of Dr. Watts, "in the whole book of God, one syllable of the punishment of infants, either in their souls or bodies after this life; all that the Scriptures reveal of punishment, in a world to come, whether it be in a separate state, or at the resurrection, falls upon those only who have been guilty of actual, personal transgressions, and are proper objects of a judgment." *

Again: "if without personal participation in the sin of Adam, all men are subject to death, may we not hope that without personal acceptance of the righteousness of Christ, all who die in infancy are

* Ruin and Recovery, xxi.