and death over it. The homeless dog that roams the streets
to-day is more effectively shielded from cruelty than was the
friendless child before Jesus came to live and to die for the
weak and poor.

The law had said:

"The parent is ruler of the child, and may dispose of it as he
sees fit."

But Jesus said--and these are the most beautiful and affecting
words in all the moral law of the world:

"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I
say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the
face of my Father which is in heaven."--Matthew xviii., 10.

No threats so terrifying as those aimed at men who should harm
little children:

"It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about
his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the
sea."--Matthew xviii., 6.

It is impossible now to conceive the horrid indifference to
childhood's rights which preceded the birth of Christianity.

Infanticide was not the exception, but a settled custom. So much
so, that in Rome the "exposure" of children in desert places was
almost a virtue, since it gave the child some slight chance of