THE "childish things" which Paul tells us he put away when he became a man, certainly did not include the childlike attitude of mind which Jesus declared necessary to the attainment of the kingdom of heaven. We use the words childish and childlike with almost opposite meanings. The childlike mind is the mental attitude which is open to instruction, which is "wax to receive and steel to retain" whatever teaching is given it. In childishness there is no thought beyond self, and self-gratification is its only law. Through lack of knowledge of anything beyond its own wants and impulses, it attaches supreme importance to their present gratification, and these wants met, there comes a sense of complete satisfaction and happiness which is expressed by the cessation of all conscious mental action, the yielding to sleep — oblivion. It seeks to appropriate to itself all that comes into its consciousness. There is no knowledge either of the future or of the rights and needs of others.
There is scarcely an expression of anything beyond the animal instinct of physical comfort and self-preservation. A very little child seizes everything within his reach and tries to put it into his mouth. His one idea is to satisfy his desire for food, the only appetite he knows as yet. A little later comes the idea that all things are not to be eaten, but the grasping tendency is still present and there is strenuous resistance to any attempt to separate him from that which he has appropriated. When other children come into his understanding there is further evidence of the selfish thought of appropriation to himself and for his own pleasure. "I want" is among the first expressions he learns. He wants the best toys and all of them, quarrels for their possession and manifests anger and grief when refused or thwarted. He also lives in and for the present moment, regardless of to-morrow or the effects of the acts of to-day. He quickly forgets, and has not learned to associate cause and effect with any accuracy.
When does the child become a man? Paul might have stated the converse of the line quoted above, and said that he became a man when he put away childish things. Surely until one has ceased to manifest childishness he cannot claim to have become a man. No matter how many years are counted, the one who holds to childish beliefs and practices has still to emerge from childhood into manhood. Does it matter whether the toy over which there are quarrels, tears, and hatred is a train of tin cars on the nursery floor or of steel ones across the continent; a penny bank or a million-pound one; a bon-bon or a nation's food supply; a Noah's ark or the cattle on a thousand hills; a ribbon or an emporium; the leadership in a game or the power behind a throne; a fire-cracker or a navy? Whatever the aim, if wisdom is not used in its accomplishment, manhood has not been attained. There is no thought of proscription of food for mortal mouths nor of toys for the little and the big. Material things are still needed, and the best are none too good if so be they are come by unselfishly and used with understanding. Childishness lies in the immature and false sense of values, not in the size or names of the things valued.
