I Think When I Read that Sweet Story of Old

DESCRIPTION: "I think when I read that sweet story of old, When Jesus was here among men, How He called little children as lambs to His fold, I should like to have been with them then." The singer thinks of Jesus calling children, and will try to join him in heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Jemima Luke (1813-1906) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus children
FOUND IN: US(NE)
Roud #27718
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Sweet Story" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #691, recorded 10/01/2023)
NOTES [121 words]: Matthew 19:14 in the King James Version reads, "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." To this compare Mark 10:14 ("Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God"); Luke 18:16 (identical, in the Greek, to Mark's version). Hence this song.
I doubt Jemima Luke would have known this, but the Greek noun for "children" used here is παιδιον (as opposed to, say, τεκνον, a more common word for children). It is more likely to refer to a very young child, or to a servant-child, than are the alternatives, so by implication Jesus is welcoming even the youngest, poorest, most lower-class children. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio691

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