and worthy of the Giver.
But when such gifts are set before you but for the asking, is it too
much that ye should rise out of the mire and come?

"`He brought them out, that He might bring them in.' He left them not
in the desert, to find their own way to the Holy Land. Marry, should
they ever have come there? I trow not. Nay, no more than a babe of a
month old, if ye set him down at Bothal's Gate, could find his way to
the Moot Hall. But He dealt not with them thus. He left them not to
find their own way. He brought them, He led them, He showed them where
to plant their feet, first one step, then another, as mothers do to a
child when he learneth first to walk. `As a nurse cherisheth her
children,' the Apostle saith he dealt with his converts: and the Lord
useth yet tenderer image, for `as a mother comforteth her babe,' saith
He, `will I comfort you.' Yea, He bids the Prophet Esaias to learn
them, `line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a
little'--look you, how careful is God of His nurse-children. `Feed My
Lambs,' saith He: and lambs may not nibble so hard as sheep. They take
not so full a mouthful; they love the short grass, that is sweet and
easily cropped. We be all lambs afore we be sheep. Sheep lack much
shepherding, but lambs yet more. Both be silly things, apt to stray
away, and the wolf catcheth them with little trouble. Now, if a dog be
lost, he shall soon find his way back; but a lamb and a babe, if they be
lost, they are utterly lost; they can never find the way. Look you, the
Lord likeneth His people to lambs and babes, these silly things that be
continually lost, and have no wit to find the way. So, brethren, _He_
finds the way. He goeth after that which is lost, until He find it.
First He finds the poor silly lamb, and then He leadeth it in the way
wherein it shall go. He `brings us in' to the fair green pastures and
by the still waters--brings us in to the safe haven where the little
boats lie at rest--brings us in to the King's banquet-hall where the
feast is spread, and the King Himself holdeth forth hands of welcome.--
He stretched not forth the cold sceptre; He giveth His own hand--that
hand that was pierced for our sins. What say I? Nay, `He shall gird
Himself, and shall come forth and serve them'--so great honour shall
they attain which serve God, as to have Him serve them.

"Now, brethren, is this not a fair lot that God appointeth for His
people? A