H. Baptisme (II)
Baptismal Childhood
The poet prays to remain a child before God, rooted in the faith given at baptism and guarded from the flesh's growth toward self-reliance.
Since, Lord, the only way to you is a narrow road and a narrow gate, you took hold of me in my infancy and put faith in me ahead of time.1 O let me always count you the great God, and myself a child: let me be soft and yielding to your will, small in my own eyes, mild toward others, and kept from evil.2 Even though my flesh is stealthily gaining ground, still let her sister—my soul—ask for nothing but to preserve her wealth. Growth of the flesh is nothing but a blister; childhood is health.✦3
Read the original English
SInce, Lord, to thee A narrow way and little gate Is all the passage, on my infancie Thou didst lay hold, and antedate My faith in me.
O let me still Write thee great God, and me a childe: Let me be soft and supple to thy will, Small to my self, to others milde, Behither ill.
Although by stealth My flesh get on, yet let her sister My soul bid nothing, but preserve her wealth: The growth of flesh is but a blister; Childhood is health.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.18.3;Mark.10.15 — And he said, "Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like the children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Mark.10.15 — Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child will never enter it.
Notes
- 1 ↩Herbert's 'antedate / My faith in me' means God planted faith in the speaker before conscious belief—baptismal grace seizing the infant in advance of personal faith.
- 2 ↩Herbert's rare 'behither' means 'on this side of' / 'short of.' Rendered as 'kept short of evil' (remaining this side of harm, not crossing into it).
- 3 ↩Childhood continues the prior stanza’s plea to remain a child before God: spiritual childlikeness, not mere chronological age, is the true health against fleshly ‘growth.’
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