James T. Cleland - "Spiritual Aspects of the Commonwealth of Children" (October 8, 1961)

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-	Let us pray.	0:08
	Let the words of my mouth	0:11
	and the meditations of our hearts	0:14
	be acceptable in thy sight.	0:16
	Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.	0:20
	With this University service of worship,	0:34
	the symposium on the Commonwealth of children	0:38
	at our University comes to an official end.	0:41
	The subject which has been presented	0:48
	and analyzed and discussed	0:51
	is now placed with the willing approval	0:57
	of the program committee.	1:01
	(speaking foreign language)	1:05
	Under the eye of God,	1:11
	that is right and good.	1:16
	Behind the symposium stands a man, a big man,	1:22
	a Hosti man, a great man,	1:29
	one whom the University community	1:35
	abetted by the Duke Endowment delights to honor.	1:38
	The climax came yesterday	1:45
	when he received the degree of Doctor of Laws,	1:47
	Honoris Causa at the unanimous request	1:52
	of his colleagues gathered in general faculty meeting.	1:56
	That high moment was surpass	2:03
	when President Harp announced to tumultuous applause	2:08
	that the building which houses the medical school	2:14
	is now to be named after the first dean.	2:19
	From one angle, it is a naming of the part for the whole,	2:26
	because the entire Duke Medical Center	2:32
	is Wilburt C. Davidson becomes steel and stone	2:35
	and happy afterthought, air conditioning.	2:43
	What was inscribed on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren	2:51
	in St. Paul's Cathedral,	2:55
	"Si monumentum requiris circumspice",	2:58
	is indelibly, though in visibly etched on the walls	3:05
	of our Medical Center if you would seek his memorial.	3:10
	Look around,	3:17
	it is our joy and his that he knows this,	3:20
	Wiley is still alive.	3:25
	Now, the pulpit is hardly the place for me to eulogize	3:28
	our beloved Dean Emeritus for many reasons.	3:33
	He, himself, recognized that in an interview	3:39
	with the editor of the Duke Chronicle,	3:42
	but he stated,	3:46
	"I am somewhat fearful of what Jim Cleland	3:47
	will say about me in the chapel services	3:50
	the following Sunday."	3:53
	Yet someday, not too soon we hope,	3:58
	he is to his embarrassment,	4:02
	going to hear our Lord say,	4:04
	"Come, you blessed of my Father.	4:07
	Inherit the kingdom prepared for you	4:11
	from the foundation of the Weddell."	4:14
	Do you know why Dr. Davidson will hear these words?	4:17
	Because when people, especially children were sick,	4:23
	he visited them.	4:30
	And in as much as he did it unto one	4:33
	of the least of these, Jesus brethren,	4:35
	he did it unto the Lord.	4:40
	And when Dave hears that heavenly open sesame, (chuckles)	4:44
	I can hear him chuckling to himself.	4:49
	Well, I never thought of that,	4:52
	but if it's okay by him, it's okay by me.	4:54
	And another pediatrician will begin to take care of cherubs	5:00
	whose wee wings are molting and who's awkward halos	5:06
	won't stay on straight.	5:11
	Despite his redundancy and his lack of formal piety,	5:14
	Dr. Davidson has the makings of a saint, junior varsity.	5:20
	(crowd's laughing)	5:24
	And there will be more laughter in the courts of heaven.	5:32
	The subject of the symposium was one close	5:37
	to Dr. Davidson's own heart,	5:40
	and therefore to his life and work.	5:41
	The common well-being of the waddled's children	5:45
	fought off as a unit.	5:49
	Sessions led by experts from various countries	5:53
	and from our own University,	5:56
	explored the special areas of education and culture,	5:59
	population and economic, health and social structure.	6:03
	Uniting the various disciplines was a common concern.	6:10
	How can children anywhere, everywhere,	6:15
	have an opportunity to become responsible adults?	6:21
	Brethren, you must excuse me on this word,	6:27
	adult or adult, I'll fall between the two pronunciations,	6:29
	one being British and the other American,	6:33
	but you know what I mean.	6:36
	How can children anywhere, everywhere, have the opportunity	6:37
	to become responsible adult?	6:41
	It was an exciting experience to live on this campus	6:44
	through these past four days.	6:48
	Now we taught them to ask ourselves as adults worshiping	6:51
	in the University chapel,	6:56
	what about the spiritual aspect	6:59
	of the Commonwealth of children?	7:02
	What can we do to ensure a better day for all youngsters,	7:06
	everywhere, anywhere?	7:12
	It is impossible as it is unwise to outline in one sermon,	7:15
	the complete spiritual pediatrician,	7:22
	but perhaps we can write a forward to it	7:27
	on the kind of motivation which the Christian faith	7:31
	should inspire and its adherence	7:36
	whenever they think of any youngster born	7:39
	or about to be born into the world,	7:41
	which we adults have made.	7:44
	Now it's as natural as it is right for us	7:48
	to turn to Jesus for guidance.	7:51
	The two passages read by the Dean of the Medical School	7:54
	as our lesson suggest the kind of driving force	7:57
	which we should bring to the solutions discussed	8:03
	from Wednesday until Saturday.	8:07
	We're grateful to the authorities in their various areas	8:11
	for their philosophical and educational and scientific	8:15
	and medical contributions.	8:19
	We need their wisdom,	8:21
	but what will make us in the Judeo-Christian tradition,	8:25
	anxious to see their recommendation?	8:32
	Either accepted in toto or amended, put into force.	8:37
	Let's see what our Lord said about adults	8:43
	and their relation to children.	8:46
	The Mark passage tells us that people,	8:49
	probably parents, bringing young children to Jesus	8:51
	so that he may touched them.	8:55
	Not just me, we might want the child to shake hands	8:59
	with a man like Albert Schweitzer or,	9:02
	well, I can't think of anybody else.	9:07
	Albert Schweitzer.	9:09
	(crowd's laughing)	9:10
	The disciples tried to turn back	9:13
	those who brought the youngsters.	9:16
	Now, don't be too hard on the disciples.	9:17
	They may have been trying to protect their master.	9:20
	But anyway, Jesus declined to cooperate with the 12.	9:24
	He said, "If children of such is the kingdom of heaven."	9:30
	Adding the puzzling and undeveloped statement,	9:34
	"Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive	9:38
	the kingdom of God as a little child,	9:43
	he shall not enter therein."	9:46
	Then he took the children up in his arms and blessed them.	9:49
	The messianic passage is almost a doublet of the account	9:54
	in Mark with one or two agenda.	9:58
	It opens with a question from the disciples,	10:00
	"Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"	10:04
	The normal answers might have been Abraham,	10:09
	the father of the Jews.	10:13
	Moses, the giver of the law.	10:15
	David, the ancestor of the Messiah.	10:19
	Perhaps each disciple hope that he's own name	10:24
	might be suggested.	10:27
	To have them certainly on another occasion,	10:29
	ask that preeminence might be given to them.	10:32
	This made the others mad,	10:37
	probably because they hadn't thought of the idea first.	10:39
	Jesus, as usual, answered unexpectedly.	10:43
	He called a little child to him	10:48
	and suggested that unless a man became as a little child,	10:51
	he wouldn't get into heaven.	10:55
	He said further that the quality which enabled a man	10:58
	to humble himself as a child would make him the greatest	11:03
	in the kingdom.	11:09
	Now Jesus, didn't finish with that.	11:12
	He might made a most unusual comment in addition,	11:16
	"Whoso shall offend one of those little ones,	11:22
	it were better for him that a millstone were hanged	11:29
	about his neck and that he worked round in the depth	11:34
	of the sea."	11:39
	That is rough talk.	11:42
	It stings like a slap in the face.	11:45
	We all know about the tenderness about Lord,	11:49
	gentle Jesus, meek and mild,	11:52
	but we are shocked at his severity.	11:56
	And yet the interesting thing is that Jesus,	12:00
	who quietly accepted rebukes aimed at him was scandalized.	12:03
	When they were shown to children, outlawed is a stern man	12:12
	with humbugs and hypocrites.	12:17
	He once referred to these Pharisees as serpents.	12:21
	As a generation of Vipers, headed straight for hell.	12:25
	And he hated cruelty.	12:31
	Especially cruelty to children.	12:35
	My brethren, don't come too quickly to the conclusion	12:40
	that being a bachelor, Jesus didn't know children.	12:45
	He had four brothers and at least two sisters.	12:51
	He knew conferring brats who made life miserable	12:57
	for everyone where unto shall I liken the men	13:02
	of this generation.	13:06
	To what are they like?	13:08
	They're like unto children sitting in the marketplace	13:11
	and calling to one another and saying,	13:14
	"We have piped onto you and you have not danced.	13:16
	We have mourned onto you and you have not wept."	13:23
	Jesus, probably was well acquainted with a first century,	13:29
	"Dennis the Manace",	13:33
	or a Jewish sweetie pie in Nazareth	13:36
	or one of these precocious budding PhDs,	13:41
	the Hebrew ancestors of the peanuts gang.	13:46
	(crowds laughing)	13:50
	Well, then was the quality of a fact in children,	13:56
	which he considered as utterly basic, utterly basic.	13:59
	It was their need of the adults.	14:04
	Their dependence on the adult.	14:10
	Their inability to exist without the adult.	14:14
	It was the same kind of need as the adult had for God.	14:20
	If only an adult would realize it, Jesus himself grasped it.	14:26
	And he grasped something else.	14:31
	God thought of as a father satisfies that need.	14:33
	He gives to man's dependence, something to depend on.	14:41
	He goes out to man in goodwill and man studied	14:50
	and made scene.	14:55
	And Jesus then expected the adult to behave in like manner	14:56
	to the child and to anyone else whose need	15:01
	is not unlike a child.	15:07
	Sympathy, the feeling for others.	15:11
	Better than that.	15:16
	Empathy, the own must complete identification of oneself	15:17
	with another that is Christian love in man to man relations.	15:23
	Be he a victim of gangsters on the road	15:31
	between Jerusalem and Jericho,	15:34
	or a blind man pleading for help	15:38
	or a child who wants to be taken up in someone's arms	15:44
	and given the strong security,	15:50
	which is in itself a blessing.	15:54
	The person who does that is a friend	15:59
	and the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.	16:04
	Now I know one reaction from you in the few,	16:13
	quietly on vocal because one is not supposed	16:19
	to turn morning worship into group discussion.	16:22
	I hear you saying to me under your breath,	16:27
	"Brother, have you any idea of what kids are like today?	16:29
	They are gremlins and hellions and good knight."	16:36
	I know, I'll show you I know.	16:43
	Here's a quotation from a British paper	16:49
	about American children written around 1934.	16:51
	I remember how puzzled I was when I first went to America	16:57
	to account for the fact that I met so many slappable brats	17:02
	and so many charming adults.	17:07
	The American child, as I saw it 17 years ago,	17:10
	was easily the world's worst behaved infant.	17:14
	I'm not a cruel man,	17:18
	but I never met an American child in those days	17:20
	without one thing to knock his block off.	17:23
	Trustworthy travelers stayed at the supply	17:29
	of obnoxious American infants has not yet given out	17:31
	and that there are still children in that country	17:36
	who would make a Herod out of St. Francis of Assisi.	17:40
	(crowd's laughing)	17:44
	Now let me please, a statement	17:47
	about British children alongside,	17:50
	this comes from the Durham Morning Herald.	17:53
	(crowd's laughing)	17:57
	Well, I know it's not the New York Times,	18:00
	but what can we do?	18:02
	I mean, it's still is July 14th, 1961.	18:03
	Eight days ago, a brand new Centurion tank,	18:08
	Britain's master of the battlefield rumbled into Cambridge	18:13
	to stop in a recruiting drive.	18:17
	Today, it leave battered and its crew was begging the bras	18:21
	to sound retreat.	18:26
	The cause of it all? Platoons of English school boys	18:28
	with as much destructive talent as an anti-tank missile.	18:33
	The army thought it would be a fine idea to park the tank	18:39
	and invite the kids to take a look.	18:42
	But in eight days,	18:44
	the midget marauders dismantled the radio,	18:46
	removed a $2,240 gun sight,	18:50
	damaged the periscope,	18:54
	ruined the gun barrel mechanism	18:57
	and stole five 12 foot aerials.	18:59
	(crowd's laughing)	19:02
	Army officials said it will take $8,400 repairs	19:04
	to return the tank to battle trim.	19:08
	One boy, only five years old,	19:12
	even managed to start the tank,	19:15
	(crowd's laughing)	19:18
	and drive it six feet.	19:21
	(crowd's laughing)	19:23
	I was on terret at the time said shaken	19:26
	caught little Albert French, who has worked	19:29
	with tanks 14 years.	19:33
	The little blighter managed to operate the master switch,	19:35
	the ignition switch, the handbrake, the gear lever,	19:39
	the clutch and the starter.	19:42
	It's a miracle no one was killed.	19:46
	No one, but a former assistant of mine looking	19:51
	at his own brood once remarked,	19:54
	"The only way you can interpret the strange saying of Jesus	19:58
	about becoming as a little child	20:02
	and so inheriting the kingdom	20:04
	is in the light of another verse.	20:07
	The kingdom of Heaven Suffereth Violence."	20:10
	Yet these frightening quotations do not deny the need	20:19
	of a child.	20:26
	The need, adults are people who supply his needs.	20:28
	A mother is a milk producer and a cleaner upper to a baby.	20:34
	Without food and a measure of cleanliness,	20:40
	the child parishes.	20:43
	Even as an animal, he responds to care with chuckles	20:45
	of satisfaction.	20:49
	The needs grow and vary,	20:52
	emotional and intellectual	20:55
	and spiritual necessities enter the picture.	20:58
	The parents are always necessary, though often inadequate.	21:02
	A child is literally and figuratively a dependent.	21:08
	Jesus knew that an adult is to.	21:15
	Paul, picked up the idea and made it the reason	21:21
	for his stress on faith.	21:25
	You know what faith was for Paul?	21:30
	The wise human acceptance of a God	21:33
	who cares like a good parent.	21:40
	That was brought home to me quite surprisingly	21:44
	by an epitaph in a New Hampshire farm.	21:47
	The epitaph was written by a Rhode scholar	21:53
	who was a contemporary of Dr. Davidson at Oxford.	21:57
	He wrote it for his dogs who are buried in that grave.	22:04
	Remember here with joy and thankfulness,	22:12
	devoted friends who sleep beneath this sod,	22:16
	our dogs, who gave us love and faithfulness	22:21
	and perfect trust such as man owes to God.	22:29
	And then the names of the dogs, Jack, Diana, Bruce, Monk,	22:37
	Nick, Spot, Ronnie,	22:42
	perfect trust such as man owes to God.	22:46
	Perfect trust such as the one who has understood	22:52
	what Jesus was getting at, gifts to God.	22:56
	Perfect trust, such as the Christian elicits from others,	23:01
	from little children because he treats them	23:09
	as God has treated him.	23:14
	He knows with gratitude that God holds him in the hollow	23:17
	of his hand and he acts in gratitude to any in need.	23:21
	This is the motivation,	23:29
	which impales the Christian to further	23:32
	a Commonwealth of children.	23:35
	The final judgment on our society will be made by children.	23:41
	The need today is stupendous.	23:49
	Some folk care more for animals than they do for children.	23:53
	The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	23:58
	was founded in Great Britain in 1824,	24:02
	58 years before children received	24:09
	what time calls rudimentary protection.	24:14
	58 years.	24:19
	Today, in Britain, the maximum fine for mistreating	24:22
	an animal is $140.	24:25
	It costs about half of that,	24:30
	$70 to mistreat a child.	24:32
	But other folk see the need in the vicious discussion	24:39
	of survival by fallout shelters.	24:46
	People have unhesitating said that they would shoot	24:50
	any neighbor who tried to break in,	24:54
	but the discussion is still made it.	25:00
	When someone's asks,	25:04
	"What would you do if a child knocked at the door and said,	25:07
	'Let me in.'"	25:14
	That sends a chill up and down the spine.	25:19
	Maybe a little child will leaders.	25:23
	Maybe the thought of little children will make us ask,	25:26
	"What is life all about?"	25:29
	"Am I my brother's keeper?" No.	25:32
	Then, "Am I my brother's brother or sister?	25:38
	And the father and the mother of any child?"	25:45
	Lord Shops asked that question and fought all his life	25:52
	for child labor laws.	25:55
	Robert Riggs asked that question	25:58
	and began the Sunday School Movement.	26:00
	Someone in the Duke Chapel asked that question	26:03
	and now half of your offerings	26:06
	go to the Edgemont Community Center.	26:08
	Someone in the woman's auxiliary in the hospital asked	26:13
	that question and movies on the ceiling were provided	26:15
	in the children's ward for cardiac catheterization	26:21
	and also TVs for little people who dwell	26:26
	in the pediatric ward.	26:30
	Someone in the medical school asked that question	26:33
	and this symposium was born.	26:38
	Motives differ, but the need remains.	26:44
	But for the Christian, in fact,	26:50
	for all within the Jewish-Christian tradition,	26:53
	the motive is gratitude, responding to need in goodwill.	26:57
	Be the child years ago, prime the pump for this symposium?	27:07
	You know the story of James Buchanan Duke being stopped	27:15
	to (indistinct) a town by a small, thin, scrawny,	27:20
	freckle faced boy who pushed his way into the presence	27:27
	of the great man.	27:31
	And the little fellow bluffed it out one question,	27:32
	"Mr., can you cure fits?"	27:37
	Like the disciples, those around Mr. Duke	27:42
	would have sent the boy away,	27:46
	mocked by their laughter, but not Duke.	27:49
	He let the boy to his private railroad car	27:55
	and talked with him.	27:59
	The boy's father was subject to nervous seizures,	28:01
	which interfered with his job as the breadwinner.	28:04
	Could Mr. Duke cure fits?	28:08
	He assured the boy of medical attention for his father	28:13
	and made good the assurance.	28:19
	And according to one biographer,	28:22
	that episode led directly to the Duke Hospital	28:25
	within the framework of the Durham University.	28:31
	In that University, Mr. Duke wanted both a chapel	28:36
	and the medical school.	28:41
	Both a divinity school and the medical school.	28:44
	It's there for fitting brethren	28:49
	that a child should visibly symbolize the partnership	28:52
	of medicine and religion	28:58
	in this University service of wishes,	29:02
	which brings the symposium to a close.	29:06
	Amen.	29:12
	Let us pray.	29:14
	Oh God, who son came teaching and preaching	29:21
	and healing, grant by blessing on what has been done	29:25
	in our days of speaking and listening and discussing	29:29
	and worshiping that it may be for the good	29:34
	of children anywhere, everywhere,	29:38
	through him who loved them, even the same Jesus Christ,	29:45
	our Lord and may the blessing of the Lord	29:50
	come upon you abundantly.	29:53
	May it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth	29:56
	of his promises through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.	30:01

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "Spiritual Aspects of the Commonwealth of Children" (October 8, 1961)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4pk0c320

Date:

October 8, 1961

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 RR-0158
ref5522_y54
uachapelsermaud
duke:628338
dcrau002174
ark:/87924/r4pk0c320
36dfd6a8-46c6-4c1d-91df-0fa75c8659f3

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "Spiritual Aspects of the Commonwealth of Children" (October 8, 1961)

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1. James T. Cleland - "Spiritual Aspects of the Commonwealth of Children" (October 8, 1961)

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James T. Cleland - "Spiritual Aspects of the Commonwealth of Children" (October 8, 1961)

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