Secrets Of Mental Supremacy
	The Lost Arts Of Childhood <  Previous Contents Next  >

Except ye be converted and become little children ye shall not enter into kingdom of heaven.—Matthew 3.

For of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19,14.

THE more deeply the man of science studies the sayings attributed to Jesus, the Seer of Judea, the more profoundly is he impressed not only by the brilliant intellect and wonderful oratory of Jesus, but by his marvelous insight into subjects which were in his time unknown even to the most lucid thinkers of ancient times. In the history of the race two thousand years is not a very long time, and previous to the beginning of the Christian era there had been accomplished along lines of philosophical, physical, and cosmological research much more than, with all our boasted erudition, has been done since. In fact, some of our most striking discoveries are merely corroborations of knowledge of the Brahmins, the Chinese, the Phoenicians, and other of the ancient peoples who lived thousands of years before the alleged appearance of Jesus of Nazareth.

How much of this ancient knowledge Jesus possessed it is impossible to say--probably most if not all. One thing is certain: Some things he knew and said, which, so far as we know, were entirely original and iconoclastic. And one of these things, entirely new then (and almost entirely new now, for that matter) was to the effect that in child study we should find the key to the kingdom of heaven.

Now as I have explained elsewhere in these Sermons of a Scientist, the Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God) is not a place where good people go when they die. The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of mind, of Spirit--that state in which spirit, therefore mind, therefore body, are all three in harmony with the Great Oversoul, and with His laws.

For us who are adults, who for three, four, or five decades have been guilty of the thousand, thousand crimes, physical, mental, spiritual, incidental to commonplace living for us it is necessary to be reborn to be radically changed in spirit, therefore in mind and body, before we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the physical realm of peace, rest, and power. So Jesus said to the disciples: "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." By which He meant exactly what He did when He said to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."

Of the many millions that have, with close attention and deep reverence, read the words I have quoted, few, if any, have seen the clear, profound, practical wisdom of the statement of Jesus that only the man, the woman, who became as a little child, could enter into the realm of peace and power.

And now let us analyze a little. What is there about the child which we should emulate? What characteristics has the child, unpossessed by the adult which when developed in the adult will give entrance into the kingdom of God?

Mind you, it is not stated that children are in the Kingdom of Heaven. Nor can they be. They lack the actual knowledge, the experience, the poise. But it is in the experience, the hard and bitter experience which develops poise and power, that man loses the

simplicity, trustfulness, and tenderness of childhood. It is when, in addition to his adult powers, he achieves the lost arts and powers of childhood, that he enters the Kingdom of Heaven.

What Are the Lost Arts of Childhood?

Let us consider first some of the physical characteristics of normal childhood. The healthy child is remarkable for his erect body, his up-turned face, his clear and far-reaching voice, the ease and grace of his movements, his wonderful endurance. That these are among the normal powers of the average healthy child may be determined by a few minutes of close observation upon any playground. A moment's thought will show how rare are such powers among adults.

The healthy child is erect. Therefore the chest is high and expanded, the body is carried like an erect column and the breathing is slow and deep. This gives the only conditions under which the normal tone of voice in song or speech can be reproduced. The erect carriage means that the joints and muscles of the body are in their normal and mechanical relation to each other.

So we have in the normal child movements which are at once rapid, graceful, and economical--so economical of vital force that the child's endurance has passed into a proverb. Children will keep on romping for hours at a time without fatigue. But an adult who joins in their play will usually be tired out in ten or fifteen minutes. Why is this? Because the child moves properly and the adult does not move properly. Because bodily movement is one of the lost arts of childhood.