"
--MATTHEW xxi. 1-16.

Children's voices mingling in the sounds of holy praise! A little child
can share in the consecrated life. Young hearts can offer love pure as a
limpid spring. Their sympathy is as responsive as the most sensitive harp,
and yields to the touch of the tenderest joy and grief. No wonder the Lord
"called little children unto Him"! They were unto Him as gracious streams,
and as flowers of the field.

Let the loving Saviour have our children. Let there be no waiting for
maturer years. Maturity may bring the impaired faculty and the embittered
emotion. Let Him have things in their beginnings, the seeds and the
saplings. Let Him have life before it is formed, before it is "set" in
foolish moulds. Let us consecrate the cradle, and the good Lord will grow
and nourish His saints.

JUNE The Twenty-second

_CHILDLIKENESS_

MARK ix. 33-41.

It is the child-spirit that finds life's golden gates, and that finds them
all ajar. The proudly aggressive spirit, contending for place and power,
may force many a door, but they are not doors which open into enduring
wealth and peace. Real inheritances become ours only through humility.

The proud are, therefore, self-deceived. They think they have succeeded
when they have signally failed. They have the shadow, but they have missed
the substance. They may have the applause of the world, but the angels
sigh over their defeat. They pride themselves on having "got on"; the
angels weep because they have "gone down."

When we grow away from childlikeness we are "in a decline." "God resisteth
the proud; He giveth grace to the humble." The lowly make great
discoveries; to them the earth is full of God's glory.

JUNE The Twenty-third

_THE GREATEST BENEFACTORS_

MATTHEW x. 29-42.

It is a very wonderful thing that the finest services are within the power
of the poorest people. The deepest ministries find their symbols in "cups
of cold water," which it is in the power of everybody to give. The great
benefactors are the great lovers, and their coin is not that of material
money, but the wealth of the heart. A bit of affection is worth infinitely
more than the gift of a necklace of pearls. To kindle hope in a fainting
soul is far more precious than to adorn the weary pilgrim with dazzling
gems. "He brought me heaps of presents, but I was hungering for love!"
Such was the pathetic cry of one who was "clothed in purple and fine
linen, and fared sumpt