Emphasis Preaching Journal

There’s a famous story of Frederick the Great of Prussia, a man of great scientific curiosity. Frederick once conducted an unusual scientific experiment into the development of human language. There was a theory of the time that the babbling of infants was, in some mysterious sense, related to the ancient language of Eden, but that children lost this oldest of all mother-tongues as they grew and learned the language of their parents. Frederick devised an experiment to test this theory. He had his scientists take some newborn, orphaned babies, and isolate them from all physical contact with human beings. The babies would be kept in separate rooms, with no contact with each other. Not a word of language was to be spoken in their presence. Specially trained nurses would see to the babies’ physical needs — feeding them and making sure they stayed warm — but they were forbidden to pick them up and embrace them. Once the children grew old enough to speak, they would be brought into the presence of the other children in the experiment, to see if they could converse with one another. The experiment was an utter failure. Not one of those poor children lived beyond infancy — let alone to the age when language begins to develop in earnest. The one thing King Frederick learned from his cruel and ill-considered experiment was that the physical touch of another human being is essential to life. If babies are not picked up, and hugged, and caressed, they have but a slim chance of surviving to maturity. The woman who reached out to touch Jesus was looking for a different kind of touch, a spiritual touch. The touch of Jesus is just as essential to our spiritual life.