The babe is a messenger. He is a new messenger straight from God to the home where he comes. If we would but remember, and look, and listen, we would see so much, and hear so much blessed teaching. The babe begins his teaching mission before he comes. Being born is one of the few things with which we have nothing to do. We have no choice in being born, nor in the matter of the sex, the place, nor the class of society into which we shall be born.
And yet if the babe could express a preference, would not we, who gave him birth, be greatly influenced by his choice? If father and mother would habitually soften their spirit, so as to hear the inaudible voices in the air that do speak to us, and try to catch their babe's wish long before he is here, what would they hear?
Well, he would ask earnestly that no element of chance enter into his coming; and yet more earnestly, that nothing but the purest, highest motives and desires lie back of his being given life. He would ask that, for his own sake, he be brought into his great inheritance of life in the way that his divine Father planned and plans.
Then he would surely remind us of how helpless he will be at the first, and for many months and years. He would ask that the whole plan of the home life be thoughtfully arranged, that after he has come he may enter into his full inheritance of physical vigour; for so only could he fulfil his mission as babe and growing child.
He would ask that the moral air in the home, which he must breathe, be wholesomely pure and sweet, and strong, because he will absorb that air whatever it may be, and be made by it. And then he would surely ask that his training be thought of, and provided for, that so he may enter into his full heritage of mental power. So he will be able to do well his share of the world's work, and be keener in his enjoyment and appreciation of the world's beauty and sweets. This is a bit of what the babe will teach long before he comes, if we will train the ears of our hearts, in the soft solitude of the spirit-world, to listen.