jority of us will not be able to stop here. We shall hear a voice within, which will suggest some such moral as this. "While the labour of man, in obedience to that sentence which condemned him to eat bread in the sweat of his brow, has so far prevailed, as to mitigate (with the permission, and by the blessing of God) that curse which clothed the earth with thorns and briars-while the valleys stand thick with corn, and the flocks find pastures upon a thousand hills-what is the moral condition of that being to whom all creation has been made subservient?what symptoms are there in the heart of man-in my own heart-of that improvement which the earth exhibits so plentifully? Would that these symptoms were as striking-that the improvement were as undeniable, and as extensive!" Some such reflections as these must often, doubtless, have passed through the minds of all of us;—and these also, I should refer to that spontaneous love of what is fair and pure, which has never been thoroughly eradicated from our hearts.

But I detain you too long in speculating upon the existence of this feeling. It would be better perhaps to assume that point at once, and proceed to ask, Can it, or can it not be turned to Christian account?-Most undoubtedly it can, my brethren, as can every thing in this life, which is amiable and good.-We feel an interest in childhood, because it is pure, artless, innocent.-Is it not possible, then, that we should cultivate these qualities which we love, and so be what we admire ?-Is it absolutely necessary that the feeling with which we contemplate these virtues, should be one of unavailing regret, as if we had lost what could never be recovered, and were constrained to admire, what it is no longer possible to make our own? Can we no longer wash our hands in innocency, and so approach God's altar? Can we never again be "Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile ?"-or hope to inherit the rewards that are promised to the pure in heart? -If such were the case, my brethren, these words would never have been written

in the Gospel." And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." It would never have been written, "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein '."

These passages, in fact, are very striking instances of Christ's characteristic mode of teaching-a mode which was above all things remarkable for its naturalness, its truth, its practicability. The subjects on which he had to speak were of the deepest interest and importance, the loftiest grandeur and sublimity. And how did he handle them? With splendid imagery-with glowing diction-with elaborate argument?-He tells of an universal Providence-than which no topic moreimposing can occupy the tongue or thoughts of man-and how does he illustrate it? "Consider the lilies of the field, how

1 Luke x. 15.

they grow they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"-He has to exhort his apostles to be diligent in the work of converting and saving the world-he does it by bidding them "lift up their eyes, and look on the fields, white already for the harvest," and enjoins them to pray that the Lord of the spiritual harvest would send into it labourers sufficient to gather it in. And now, when called upon to determine a question which had arisen among his own followers, as to who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven"Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

And this, I repeat, would never have been written, had it been impossible for us to realize the conversion which is enjoined.

We ought to become like little children

then; we wish to become so (for we must wish to become that which our best and purest feelings prompt us to love and to admire), and we can become so, if we choose.Then what forbids it ?-Why, in the first place, pride forbids it; that evil spirit of self-seeking and self-exaltation, against which the words of Jesus were more immediately directed. Shall I, who "understand all mysteries, and all knowledge," by whom the secrets of the great deep are read, and to whom all earth speaks a language intelligible and familiar?shall I, who have given to the study so many days of toil, and nights of watching, that I have come at length "to know what is in man;" all his follies and weaknesses, the points on which he may be assailed, and the method by which he may be cajoled and managed?—shall I renounce all the advantages which my superior knowledge and craftiness give