the world to teach-"Except ye are converted, and become as little children, ye can in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven."

It was a hard task for this great minstrel and teacher to come to such a conclusion; to relinquish perhaps some favourite project, some temple-building idea, some warfare against God's enemies, some hasty realization of God's promises and prophecies. But he "behaved and quieted" himself; he schooled himself with strong effort. He found it arduous work to hush his feverish ambition, to repress his selfrighteous glorification, to wean himself from the enterprise on which he had set his heart, to come "like a weaned child," weak and helpless, to his Father-God, and say, "Not my will, but Thine be done."

Here is the positive side of the picture. It is not idleness and indifference, it is not self-government and docility of which he was speaking. It was the Spirit of Christ that was in him that thus spake. In the great truth of these beautiful words we are led into the family of Bethany, and to the love of Jesus; and we hear Him saying to His disciples, in words which made many a mother's heart to burst with joy, and loosed the bonds of many a burdened spirit, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The spirit of the child is not the mere absence of haughtiness, and pride, and ambition; it is not a mere negation of distended and dissatisfied

hopes, and overbearing and intolerant judgments; it is the actual presence of simplicity and teachableness, of modesty and humility. It is not the forest dell, the deep valley of thought hidden from all vain and flattering eyes and words, but it is the lily which blossoms there. It is not "the devil's darling sin," "the pride that apes humility," but it is the truly humble mind, the patient spirit full of quiet hope. It is not the sullen relinquishment of the difficult undertaking that was to cover the man with honour, but the earnest discharge of the common daily task, the unseen, unnoticed act of loving obedience and self-sacrifice. It is the "putting away of all malice, all hypocrisies, all evil speaking," in order to "receive with meekness the engrafted word," "the pure milk of the word, that they might grow thereby." Surely when this quiet waiting upon God comes over us, when we make His will our rule, His word our guide, the "hope that maketh not ashamed" is ours, because "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given

unto us."

Other hopes will shame us. We may hope to be rich, to be honoured, to be distinguished, to be flattered by the world, to be surrounded with luxuries, to follow the bent of our own will; but whether such hopes are realized or not, they will make us ashamed. If we fail to secure them, we have wasted our life by hoping for them; and if we succeed in our quest, we find they do not give what we had hoped from

them, and they come for the most part when we cannot enjoy them.

This hope in the Lord, the hope of eternal life, the hope of God's favour, can never disappoint us; for it holds its own fruition in it, it begins its heaven below, it satisfies while it quickens our desire. He that drinketh of the waters of earthly pleasure shall thirst again, but whoso drinketh of the water that Christ will give him, shall never thirst; and it "shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

SERMON VI.

DELIGHT IN THE LORD.

PSALM XXXVII. 4.

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

NOTHING more calamitous for the world can be conceived than that God should give to all men the desires of their hearts; that human wishes should thus become the measure of Divine mercies; that Divine goodness should be arrested by human desires; that the deep designs and far-reaching intentions of the Most High should be interfered with or overthrown by the rebellion, the prayers, or the desires of men.

The wisest man is too ignorant to suggest, the strongest man too feeble to aid, the holiest man too selfish, impure, and carnal to understand the counsels of the Almighty. "He is of one mind; who shall turn Him? He giveth not account of any of His matters." Our explanations of God's laws, the considerations upon which we ground our wishes, are so trivial, that the moment when even the wisest and the best of

men should take the government of the world under their control, would be one fraught with infinite disaster to the welfare and harmony of the universe.

Our destiny is so closely blended with that of others, our happiness or anxiety, our success or failure, our work and prospects are so intimately connected with those of others, that our wishes could not -in all probability-be realized without changing the whole moral, spiritual, and physical condition of the world. God's great laws could not be modified to our desires without deranging the harmony of the universe. Thus, for example, the ignorance of a traveller might desire the quenching of a volcano, or the arrest of some torrent of lava; but the fulfilment of such a desire might cause a terrible earthquake in some crowded city, and substitute the misery of thousands for the inconvenience and alarm of one individual. The stormy wind hushed here, might breed and then dispense the dire breath of pestilence on every side; the hurricane silenced on some waters might lock all the springs of commerce on another scene; and even the war and bloodshed which the strivings of philanthropic desire would righteously avert, may in God's grace bring untold blessings on successive generations. But mere ignorance of the mysterious and inscrutable reasons which guide the Divine government would be the least of the evils at work, for human desires are so deplorably selfish in their operation, that the moment of their gratification would be that which should give the signal