Mark 9:33-37 And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way? What is the true child like? I. HE IS UNCONSCIOUS OF HIMSELF; self-dissection or analysis is unknown to him. II. HE LIVES IN THE PRESENT. 1. He never worries or is anxious about the future; sufficient to the day, for him, is the evil thereof. 2. So also, though always aspiring, he is never discontented in the ungrateful or peevish sense; sufficient likewise for the day is the good thereof; he would not have it otherwise. III. HIS PLEASURES ARE SIMPLE, pure, natural, fresh from the hand of God. The least of His gifts, even a cup of cold water, has value in his eyes, so that he wastes not wilfully. IV. HE LOOKS FORWARD WITH BOUNDLESS HOPE TO A GREATER, MORE COMPLETE LIFE (i.e., to be "grown up"). V. HE KNOWS NOT HOW TO SNEER OR BE CYNICAL: but instinctively shrinks from a sneer as from a blow or a sting. VI. HIS AVERSIONS AND DREADS ARE TRUE AND SYMBOLICAL (until, like his tastes and likings, made artificial by example and training). E.g. — (1) Darkness and all that is black; (2) bitterness, sourness, all that is acrid or sickening; (3) all that wounds and kills. VII. HIS OBEDIENCE IS NOT RELUCTANT, BUT FAITHFUL. VIII. HIS HEART RESPONDS TO THE TOUCH OF TRUTH, if honestly and faithfully appealed to. (Vita.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? |
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