rist, and we cannot doubt that he is so by virtue of his
innocence, his obedient spirit, his guilelessness, or simplicity of
character, his trustfulness, and by all the untarnished and unspoilt
possibilities of goodness in him.

It is in the blessed endowment of such gifts as these that the little
child looks in the face of Christ, and is embraced in the arms of His
love.

And these are, or they once were, your gifts. As you love the better
life, and hope for good days, hold them fast and cherish them, or if any
of them be unhappily lost, let it be your endeavour to recover it.

As we contemplate such a scene as this in our Lord's life with the little
child in the midst, and listen to the Saviour's words, all the commands
and injunctions to keep innocency, to keep the spirit of obedience, to
keep a guileless and trusting and loving heart, gain a new force. They
seem to speak to us with new voices; for if the true life, the life that
has in it the hope of union with Christ, must be a life endowed with
these gifts, whether in youth or age, what a blessed thing it will be for
you if you have never lost or squandered them. We cannot too soon learn
this lesson; for if under the influence of any wrong motives, or
following any wrong ideals, or misled by any bad example, you go astray
and rob your young life of these divine gifts, no man knows how, or when,
or where you will recover them, and become again as a little child.

And if we turn our thoughts from our own separate personal life, and look
for a moment at our duty as members of a society, how this picture of
Christ embracing the little child, and blessing those who receive or help
one such, should stir us to new and keener interest in social duty! Does
it not carry in it, this example and teaching of the Lord, does it not
carry in it the condemnation of a great many of our traditional notions
about our duty to the young? We see the Lord's tenderness and love and
care for the little child; we see how He values the childlike qualities;
and how He enjoins the nursing and the cherishing of these. If, then, we
have really learnt the lesson which He thus presses upon us, we shall
feel something like reverence for every young life, as it begins its
perilous and uncertain course on the sea of man's experiences; and with
this feeling we shall be eager to help and protect such lives whenever we
have the chance of doing it, and we shall be very careful to do them no
wro