And how full of new meaning every familiar chapter of the Gospel becomes
to you, if you are once roused to this kind of feeling; if you are
feeling all the time, here is the spirit which should be dominating my
own life and determining it, here are the thoughts, ideas, and views of
conduct which should be mine also. How does my common life fit with all
this? And it is with something like this feeling in your minds that I
would ask you to consider the text I have just read to you. "Jesus took
a child and set him in the midst of them. He took him up in His arms and
said, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth
Me." And while we are considering it, let us notice also that in St.
Matthew's narrative there are two other very emphatic expressions.
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven"; and "Whoso shall offend one of these
little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
. . . Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say
unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My
Father which is in heaven."

Here, then, is the child taken up by Jesus and set in the midst; we know
nothing more of him but this one thing, that he represents to us our
Lord's Divine love of little children, and His high estimate of
childhood, as the mysterious embodiment of that character and those
qualities which bring us close to the Divine life.

But this is quite enough to make us listen to the lessons of thought and
warning and hope, which Jesus expounds to us as He stands with the child
in His arms. His words may very well set every one of us thinking about
our own life and conduct. We look at this scene--the disciples standing