Albert Barnes Commentary Mark 10:16

"And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them." — Mark 10:16 (ASV)

Took them up in his arms. These were small children.

Blessed them. Prayed for them, sought a blessing on them, or gave them the assurance of his favour as the Messiah.

How happy it would be if all parents in this way felt it to be their privilege to present their children to Christ! The question with a parent should be, not whether he ought to present them by prayer, but whether he may do it. And so, too, the question respecting infant baptism is not so much whether a parent OUGHT to devote his children to God in this ordinance, as whether he MAY do it.

It is an inestimable privilege to do it, not a matter of mere stern and iron-handed duty; and a parent with right feelings will come to God with his children in every way, and seek his blessing on them in the beginning of their journey of life. Our children are given to us only for a short time.

They are in a world of danger, sin, and woe. They are exposed to temptation on every side. If God is not their Friend, they have no friend that can aid them in the day of adversity, or keep them from the snares of the destroyer. If He is their Friend, they have nothing to fear.

The proper expression, then, of parental feeling, is to come and offer them early to God. A parent should ask only the privilege of doing it. He should seek God's favour as the best inheritance of his children; and if a parent may devote his offspring to God—if he may daily seek his blessing on them by prayer—it is all that he should ask. With proper feelings, he will rush to the throne of grace, and daily seek the protection and guidance of God for his children amid the temptations and snares of an ungodly world, and implore Him to be their guide when the parent is laid in the silent grave.

So, children who have been devoted to God, who have been the daily objects of a father's prayers and a mother's tears, and who have been presented to Jesus again and again in infancy and childhood, are under the most sacred obligations to live to God. They should never forget that a parent sought the favour of God as the chief blessing; and having been offered to Jesus by prayer and baptism in their first days on earth, they should make it their great aim to be prepared to meet him when he will come in the clouds of heaven.