- description
- # "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"
## Overview
This is a chapter titled *"SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"*, extracted from a larger text document. It spans lines 979 to 1035 of the source file and corresponds to pages 154 through 159 of the original publication. The chapter is part of the collection [More Classics](arke:01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS), which includes works from the Western literary and religious canon. The text was processed and structured by an automated system on January 26, 2026.
## Context
The chapter is situated within a broader educational or devotional work likely aimed at young readers, given its narrative tone and biblical subject matter. It draws thematic parallels between historical pilgrimages—such as the 1892 celebrations of Columbus’s voyage—and the ancient religious pilgrimages of the Hebrew people to Jerusalem. These comparisons serve to ground spiritual concepts in relatable human experiences of travel and communal gathering.
## Contents
The chapter reflects on the Passover pilgrimages to Jerusalem, describing the journey of millions of people across Palestine to worship at the Temple. It contrasts ancient travel methods with 19th-century rail travel, emphasizing the communal and spiritual significance of pilgrimage. The narrative then shifts to oral storytelling among travelers, who discuss the emerging ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Through dialogue, the text recounts miracles attributed to Jesus—turning water into wine, healing the blind, feeding the hungry, and raising the dead, specifically mentioning the resurrection of a girl named Tabitha. The passage captures the growing but cautious hope among the people that Jesus might be the long-awaited Messiah, though many remain hesitant to accept him openly. The chapter includes two embedded images, one of which repeats the title, reinforcing its devotional focus.
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- "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"
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- text
- 674 # "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"
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678 N this beautiful autumn of 1892 American children have observed a great many people going on a pilgrimage. Not that anybody spoke of it as a pilgrimage when father came in, all eager and bright and bustling, to tell mother that she and the children must be ready very soon, spick and span, to go off with him to New York or Chicago, to see the great parades, the banners flying, the drums beating, and all the world celebrating the thing Columbus did in 1492.
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680 But it was a pilgrimage, even if it was not called so, and whole villages and towns went on it, having a very merry, happy time. In other lands and in other periods pilgrimages of one sort or another have been common; and back in the his-
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683 tory of the Hebrew race we find that several times a year they had great feasts which gathered the nation up, and swept it on, in a progressive march to Jerusalem, their capital city. The greatest feast was that of the Passover, which came once a year, when whole families from all over Palestine left their homes and went to worship in the Holy City, where the Temple stood, and the sacrifices were offered, and choirs of white-robed priests chanted the praises of Jehovah.
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685 Now, in modern times, when we go on a journey we step into a railway car at the station, take a comfortable seat, and go rushing like the wind to our journey’s end nineteenth-century fashion.
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687 In the old days it was quite different. Then the strong men and boys walked all day long. The women and children rode on donkeys or on camels, or perhaps in a cart drawn by bullocks. At night the companies of neighbors pitched their tents on a hill-side, cooked the evening meal, and then went peacefully to sleep,
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690 with fires blazing here and there on the outside rim of the encampment to frighten away wild beasts. It was an out-door picnic, lasting nearly a month altogether.
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692 At the yearly festival of the Passover it has been estimated by historians that in our Saviour's time the whole land for weeks was a succession of moving caravans, as many as two millions of people, from old men to tiny babies, going up to celebrate the great feast of the nation. Going *up*, for Jerusalem was enthroned among lofty hills, and her Temple could be seen a long way off, shining far over the landscape, and looking in the eyes of the coming host like a great glittering mountain of snow, all pure white and gleaming gold.
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694 As they had no telegraphs or newspapers at the beginning of the Christian era, tidings went from one to another by word of mouth, and people talked together of what was happening in the country. And once it came to pass that there were wonderful things to talk about around the
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697 camp-fire at night and as they journeyed by day.
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699 “You know Nazareth, off there in Galilee?” one friend would ask of a number, and the rest would answer:
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701 “Why, yes! Nazareth is a wild, rough place. Nothing good ever came from Nazareth. A lurking-place for robbers, Nazareth!”
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703 “Ah!” but somebody else would say, “a Prophet has arisen in Nazareth! He goes about the land with a little group of disciples, men who love Him, and He does nothing but good. They say it is perfectly wonderful what He can do! Why, He went to a wedding once, and the wine gave out, and the people felt dreadfully embarrassed; but He was there a guest, Jesus his name is, and He told the master of the house to fill some tall jars with water, and he did so, and this strange Prophet turned the water into sweet red wine. Such a thing to do!”
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705 “Besides this,” a woman’s voice would interrupt, “He makes blind people see—
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707 "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"
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708 .
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711 just opens their eyes, and all the blindness goes. He heals sick people, and feeds hungry people, and He has even called the dead to life. A little maid, Tabitha, whom my cousin Hannah told me about, was dead, and He raised her up, bright and well, just by a touch and a word!”
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713 “Amazing!” A silence would fall on the company, till some one would venture another remark.
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715 “And what do the rulers say, and what does the High Priest think? Can this perhaps be the One we have long looked for, the Messiah?”
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717 But the bold speaker would be speedily frowned down. The people were not yet ready to receive their Messiah, the Deliverer, whom for ages they had been waiting to greet. Few and far between were those who dreamed that this gentle, kind, and loving Jesus might indeed be that Son of Man and the Son of God for whom they waited.
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- title
- "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"