Their name is one of the first things
which children know, and hence it makes a deep impression upon them. And as
our Christian names are given to us at the time of our baptism, one would
think that there is always a correspondence between the name and some fact
or interest connected with the occasion. We should then receive a Christian
name, a name which does not bind us by the laws of association to what is
evil either in the past or the present, but which indicates a relation to
some precious boon involved in the dedication of the child to God.
Is this always so? By no means. It once was. It was so in the Hebrew home
and in the families of the apostolic age. But in this day of parental rage
after new-fangled things and names, taken from works of fiction and novels
of doubtful character, we find that parents care but very little about the
baptismal name being the herald of a religious fact. "What is in a name?"
was a question propounded by a poet. His answer was "nothing!"
"That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
The principle here evolved is false. There is much in a name; and at the
creation names were not mechanically given to things; but there was a
vital correspondence between the name and the thing named. Much depends
upon the name. It exerts a potent influence for good, or for evil upon the
bearer and upon all around him.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132