load will forever stay weak. The hand and
arm unused to toil will lack strength and skill. God does not want a
kingdom made up of imbeciles. He wants a people strong in faith, who
can make a good fight, "the good fight of faith; lay hold of eternal
life;" and if needs be "take the kingdom of heaven by violence," the
violence that resists the devil and makes him leave tracks which point
away from where his people stand. The track always tells which way the
fox has gone.

This strength of faith, Brethren, is included in David's prayer for
his people, and he puts it in this shape: "That our sons may be as
plants [olive trees; see Psalm 128:4] grown up in their youth." We all
know that plants, including trees, make their best growth and yield
their best results in the open air, where they are exposed to the sun,
wind, rain, storm and drouth. And it is there they can receive the
tillage they need.

You see how readily this beautiful figure applies to the rearing and
education of children. "That our sons may be _grown up in their
youth_." Their manhood as to faith, virtue, obedience, wisdom,
intelligence and piety is largely developed while they are yet young.
How many mistakes are made by parents right here! They say of their
sons: "Ah, they are young. After awhile they will be through with
sowing their wild oats, and then I expect better things of them." The
better things may come, but David prayed otherwise. He wanted the
better things to grow up with their growth, and strengthen with their
strength, so as to be perfect men even while yet in their youth, as
lambs may be perfect in form and quality before they are fully
developed into sheep.

But more. He prays that "our daughters may be as corner stones,
polished after the similitude of a palace." Many of us, no doubt, have
seen palaces built of polished stones. David almost breaks me down
under the weight of his strong and significant figures. He wants the
sons of Judah and Jerusalem to be fruit-bearing trees with strong
roots struck deep into the ground. But the sphere in which the
daughters are to move, the part they are to act, the place they are to
hold in the social and religious life of the church and the world, is
different from that of the sons, and so he uses a very different
figure. They are to be corner stones, polished and set into a palace.
Corner stones, from the ground to the roof, are those upon which the
strength and beauty of a building greatly depe