received the testimony of God from Heaven that he was the Son of God, and that men should hear him. But perhaps the words have some mysterious meaning, some meaning different from the obvious meaning of the text. Observe the concrete example wrought by Jesus in confirmation of his wonderful doctrine. He takes a little child tenderly in his arms, and when he has caressed him lovingly he places him by his side and says to his chosen twelve: "Verily, I say unto you, except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven." The words of Jesus, therefore, are true in their literal sense. Why, therefore, do not men receive them? Some men have received them. Those wiser men, who have striven for a deeper realization of Jesus' teachings, have received them. Moved by these words the prince has gone forth from his father's house, and has become a beggar and a slave. The princess has refused the hand of the heir to thrones to accept the lowly station of the bride of Christ. The Gospel of Christ has left its impress on the pages of history, and has done all that Christ ever declared that it would do. It has drawn out of this world the choicest spirits of the race, and has guided them by the sure way to Heaven, even while the great world goes on its reckless course to death.

In proposing a child as the exemplar of Christian life, Christ did not mean that Christianity made men weak. The true follower of Christ has the strength of a man, with the simplicity, the trustfulness, the docility, the humility of a child. The devil dupes men to believe that rebellion against God's authority, independence of thought, intellectual pride, and self-will are evidences of a noble soul. This is the world's code of honor. And Jesus tells us that true greatness of soul consists in taming the tigerish instincts of our old nature, to become as children. Men strive to become like kings; they strive to have power and honor; they strive to draw from their fellow mortals recognition, honor; a few strive to become as little children, and these are the wisest of mankind. Christ intends a moral application of the illustration. The child is naturally docile and confiding. The child relies upon the

parent absolutely. The child does not ask to know the motives that actuate the parent in the expression of his will; the will of the parent is the child's law. The child is not proud; it easily forgives injuries; it trusts, obeys, loves. It reposes in the parent's love securely, happily. Its heart has not yet been hardened by the cold selfish struggle of the world. The Christian is the child of God, and he cannot be too much of a child with God. The exaltedness of our Heavenly Father's attributes above our mind's grasp is infinitely greater than the difference in power between the merest child and the wisest parent. We should be perfectly safe, if we would only be little children with God. When we become little children with God, we throw down the greatest barrier that separates man from God, the barrier of pride, especially intellectual pride. It is easier to reclaim a man from the degradation of sin than to wrest him away from the despotism of pride. If there is one thing in all this world that God abominates it is a proud sinner. The proud man is blind; self stands in his way, and shuts out the vision of God. He becomes God's adversary; God resists him; the man is allied to Satan, who fell by pride.

Hence, we are to strive to have the breadth and strength and courage of a man with the faith and docility and humility of a child.

Let no man say that he knows not how to become as a little child. We have all been little children. In our minds there yet remain memories of our childhood days. By a little reflection we can remember back to that time, when we trusted everybody, and knew naught of the great world's wrong and strife. And we must get back to that state of perfect trust and simplicity in our relations to God. The three distinguishing characteristics of a child are faith, simplicity and love, and these also must characterize our lives.

The character of the Christian religion has been called by St. Paul, the foolishness of the cross. This, of course, is a figure of speech. The Christian religion is the highest wisdom; but to the proud vain minds of worldly men it seems foolishness. It seems foolishness to such men to accept the mysteries of religion. They proclaim that the human mind

And

should be free. They will not accept the doctrine that we owe obedience to the doctrinal definitions of a Church. Such obedience is repudiated as a slavery of the intellect. These men reflect not that the very fact that man is limited in attribute imposes a limitation on his liberty of thought. In order to have unlimited liberty of thought a being must be omniscient. It is not liberty to be allowed to believe what is false. Before the child has the full use of reason we curtail its liberty more; and we give it a larger liberty as it progresses towards a fuller knowledge; necessity compels this; the child would injure itself in its ignorance were we to remove the guiding, loving restraint. And foolish man rebels because God has established a guide to prevent man's lawless thoughts from doing man harm. Shall we say that we need no such guidance? The tiniest blade of grass that grows in the soil proclaims a mystery that none of us can comprehend. yet man chafes because God has established an infallible law of belief and conduct. It goes against our natural instinct to "cast down reasonings and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. "--II. Cor. X. 5. Those who have made themselves little children for the Kingdom of Christ do this easily. They trust not in human reasonings against the mysteries of God; they are willing to wait for the fuller manifestation of what we now see dimly; they are conscious of the limitations of their own minds, and the infinity of the things of God. This true humility begets the noblest courage. The greatest heroes of human history are the saints of God. St. John the Baptist declared that he was not worthy to loose the latchet of Christ's shoe; and that same John feared not to rebuke to his face the terrible Herod Antipas concerning his incestuous union. The lion-hearted Paul, one of the noblest examples of Christian humility that has ever lived, feared nothing in his great work for Christ. The fortitude of the martyrs compelled even the pagan world to declare that never had such courage been witnessed. It is only the man who has rightly established the relations between God and himself who can be really brave and great

of heart. All petty motives are excluded from his heart, and he rests secure in the bosom of the infinite Creator.

We need daily to strive to become as little children. The rebellious law of the members is ever active. The ways of God must be mysterious. For religion's sake we must accept many things which we can not understand. We should fasten our souls firmly to God, and make our conception of God and of his infinite perfections the supreme motive to lead us through all the perplexities of human life. God loves that we become as little children because God loves truth. Considered in our relations to the Infinite God, and his high order of truth, we are infinitely below the grade of the little child's mind compared to the mind of the wisest of men. There is a natural necessity that a maturer mind should guide and protect the child during its immaturity; likewise a greater necessity demands that the Infinite Mind shall exercise over all men a paternal care during the whole period of our earthly pilgrimage. For this cause God is called our Father. When a man becomes as a little child for the kingdom of Heaven, he walks with God, and can not go astray. Such a man has the help of infinite knowledge and infinite power, and he needs fear nothing. In every human heart there remain memories of childhood. We can remember how we came with perfect trust to our parents with all our sorrows and all our questions. When we could not understand anything, it sufficed for us that our father or mother said so. The bitterest sorrow of our life then was the consciousness of our parents' displeasure. There was no peace until the kiss of forgiveness sealed again to us our parents' love. If we would follow Christ, let us transfer to our spiritual life what our present life was in childhood.

The Lord next declares how dear the little ones are to him. By the term "little ones," Jesus here primarily means those who have become as little children for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Children, in the literal sense, are not excluded, but the chief application is to adults who aim to become as little children. So dear are such to Jesus that he absolutely identifies them with himself, and declares that any benefit done to them is reputed as done to himself, and

any evil done to them is vindicated with terrible vengeance.

To receive one of these little ones in the name of Christ is to do any act of mercy or benevolence to one of them for the sake of Christ. To do an act of charity to any man is good, but to do such act unto one of the little ones of Christ for Christ's sake, is as though the deed were done to Christ in person. The full force of these words does not strike us at once; the words need to be meditated upon. Christ's followers are largely recruited among the poor, humble people; folk that the world despises and sets at naught. They count for so little in the world's estimate of things, that even Christians might be drawn by the world's course to set a low value on the lives of these little ones. The world can not understand the worth of these humble ones, because it can not understand the ethics of Christ. Of course, poverty and a lowly station in life do not by that fact alone give a patent for Heaven. A man may be poor, and yet be the wickedest of mankind. Christ is here speaking of his own little ones; of persons whose only philosophy is to believe in God, and to love him; and he makes the persons of these sacred. It is a message of consolation to the poor and humble; it is a message of counsel to the high and learned. It shows that the world's standards of judging human lives are all wrong. It proclaims that belief in God, and love of God are better than all riches, power, and knowledge. For the differences of natural endowment and of station in life, which divide men here below, are as nothing as God sees us. But faith and virtue really differentiate men in God's sight, and raise men up high above the common level, even to the estate of angels. These, if found in the soul of the one whom the world reputes as the meanest of mankind, raise that man immeasurably above the kings of the earth.

No greater recommendation could be given to any man than Christ has given to his little ones, and he would have all that are his to become little ones. He declares to the whole world that any service done them, even the giving of a cup of cold water, will be rewarded by himself. If a man would recommend his friend, he could not say more than that he would consider anything done to his friend as