t receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall
in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his arms, and
blessed them, laying his hands upon them.--Mark 10:13-16.

The child is humanity reduced to its simplest terms. Affectionate joy in
children is perhaps the purest expression of social feeling. Jesus was
indignant when the disciples thought children were not of sufficient
importance to occupy his attention. Compared with the selfish ambition of
grown-ups he felt something heavenly in children, a breath of the Kingdom
of God. They are nearer the Kingdom than those whom the world has smudged.
To inflict any spiritual injury on one of these little ones seemed to him
an inexpressible guilt. See Matthew 18:1-6.

_Can the moral standing of a community be fairly judged by the statistics
of child labor and infant mortality?_

_What prompts some young men to tyrannize over their younger brothers?_

_How does this passage and the principle of the sacredness of life bear on
the problem of eugenics?_

Second Day: The Humanity of a Leper

And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed him. And behold, there came to him a leper, and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me
clean. And he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I
will; be thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy was
cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go,
show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses
commanded, for a testimony unto them.--Matt. 8:1-4.

Whenever Jesus healed he rendered a social service to his fellows. The
spontaneous tenderness which he put into his contact with the sick was an
expression of his sense of the sacredness of life. A leper with fingerless
hands and decaying joints was repulsive to the aesthetic feelings and a
menace to selfish fear of infection. The community quarantined the lepers
in waste places by stoning them when they crossed bounds. (Remember Ben
Hur's mother and sister.) Jesus not only healed this man, but his sense of
humanity so went out to him that "he stretched forth his hand and touched
him." Even the most wretched specimen of humanity still had value to him.

_What is the social and moral importance of those professions which cure
or prevent sickness?_

_How would a strong religious sense of the sacredness of life affect
members of these professions?_