may beat with selfish grasping thoughts, and burn with worldly ambition, or flutter with vanity; how all his flesh and spirit, now so innocent, and having so much of heaven, may be corrupted, marred, spoilt, set in motion against God!" Who can look upon an infant's face without saying to himself "O that I could keep this child always in its childish state, always with its childish feelings, its childish innocency, simplicity, purity, and trustfulness!"

Very anxiously must we look forward into the future of every child, seeing into how evil an atmosphere it may soon be launched, how many sorrows await it in future years, and though regenerate and made in Baptism God's child, a branch of the Vine, a member of the Body of Christ which is the Church, how many temptations to desert the Cross will crowd upon it as it grows up. Look at the power of the world, at the number of those now full-grown who have been over-powered, who have failed to use their gifts; look at the sins, the open sins which are done in the very light of the sun, and then say whether there is not much to make us weep as the childish limbs gain strength and size to wander forth into the tempting ways of this evil world. Nay, when we look on the mass of thoughtless, godless

men who have thrown aside the Cross and plunged into every excess of sin, and think that once these riotous men, these wild revellers, these drunkards, these fornicators, these men of pride or of covetousness, these slaves of the world, once lay in their mothers' laps pure, gentle, chaste, and full of love, we cannot but see how great a mercy it would have been had they lived no longer than the infants at Bethlehem, had they been taken from the earth before the bloom of their innocency was brushed off, before those evil passions, raging as a fire within their souls, had separated them from Christ. We cannot but see how much blessedness there is in early death.

And yet while this anxiety for the future course of the young cannot but often cloud a parent's heart, while we must plainly discern, as such anxiety rises in our minds, the love of Christ in calling away any little ones of the flock by any mode of death from this perilous world even to Himself, yet we are cheered on the other hand by the various manifestations of Christ's love towards children, and by all those earnest charges which He has given both to parents and to the pastors of His flock that they should be trained up, nurtured, nourished in all holy ways, watched over, instructed in the things concerning the king

dom of God, and thus prepared through the momentous season of their youth for the temptations of after-life, strengthened before they go forth into the world by godly discipline, and their souls subdued to the doctrine of the Cross.

When we find our Saviour so earnestly claiming the young as His own, as belonging to His kingdom, as having the mark of heaven, we feel that He who in such tones commends them to our care will by His Holy Spirit bless all care bestowed upon them for His sake and in His name, will bless all efforts to preserve them among the children of God, will bless all toils spent upon their souls, all labours of love, all loving prayers offered in their behalf. Call to mind, I pray you, His most touching words to His Apostle Peter before His Ascension into heaven, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these ?" And when the Apostle warmly answered, "Thou knowest that I love Thee," He said first of all "Feed My lambs;" as if He tested our love towards Him by the degree and measure of love bestowed upon the young, as if in claiming love for Himself He would ask that love for Him to be devoted to the little ones whom He loved.

With this single passage of Holy Scripture be

fore our minds, we see at once how earnestly He provided for the spiritual training of the young, how high, how prominent a place He gives it among the duties which are laid upon His Church. "If ye suffer," such is the spirit of His words, "if ye suffer My lambs to pine for want of spiritual food, to fall away into sin, to lack holy guidance, to be carried away for want of holy love by the temptations of the world, to be untaught, uncared for, untrained, then how can ye speak of your love to Me? Love these young ones, prepare them for the world, lead them to Me, feed them with My truth, do this, and then I have proof of your love towards Myself. I leave them to your especial care; I give them into your hands; every prayer offered for them, every hour of labour spent upon them, every sacrifice made to provide for the training of their souls, I will requite as if it were an exercise of love towards Myself, as if ye had been labouring for Me, toiling for Me, spending and being spent for Me." "Feed My lambs" is that most solemn appeal which our Lord makes first of all, and in an especial sense, to the pastors of His flock, to His priests and ministers, but also in its degree to parents, masters, guardians, friends, to any who are providentially set over them.

Every thing then is done by Christ to shew that children should grow up in holy ways, and that if their life is spared they should not fall under the power of the devil or the world. And all these teachings of Christ concerning the treatment which He desires to be bestowed upon the young, must afford great comfort to those who have the charge over them, and who are sometimes naturally depressed when they consider their prospects, and when they gaze on all the sins going on in the world. There is much to give us hope, much to urge us to bestow prayer and toil, and holy care, and then in faith to leave to God the issue.

But should it be God's will to take from our homes any of those young ones to whom our hearts so fondly cling, who seem to be the very life of our homes, who soothe us and lighten our hearts and make many cares sit lightly upon us, and smooth down by their smiles and endearments and loving ways vexed or ruffled spirits, we can confess the love which is at work in such bitter trials; we can confess the blessedness of early deaths. However at first the blow may strike us down, and the silence of the little prattling voice that cheered us even in the dreariest days may overwhelm us, yet in time we shall be led to look even with thankfulness on their death.