This is exactly what you want, and for which you are responsible. You are not to change your character. No one ever changes his character. Many go on wasting their whole life in a vain endeavor to change their character. The characterizing feature with which you were born, will remain your characterizing feature till you die, and probably after death,-for ever and ever. But you want what will gather up your own proper character, and give it an aim; you want a wonderful alchemy introduced into your soul which will not turn out the old, but make the old all new. And that new motive of the love of God will turn nature into grace. The old impulses, beginning to take heavenly channels, will grow heavenly; the passions will not be less, but the passions, being sanctified, will be the elements that go to make the earnestness of your divine life. It will be the same man for ever and ever; but the man will be more lost in the Christian; and all will be Christ.

There is another beautiful trait of childhood,-I speak, of course, comparatively — purity. You are not pure enough. As it was with Naaman's flesh, so it is with a man's mind when he turns,—it grows pure. There are the motions of sin still in him, but he does not love sin. His tastes become more Christ-like; and at least he loves

the pure.

The imagination of a little child is wonderful. He is always making mental pictures; and a child's pictures are the realities of a child's life.

And the child, little apt at doubting, stops to ask few questions; and believes with a most ready assent, specially what it least understands.

And such as is the credulity of childhood, is the faith of

one who has once turned from philosophy to truth, from his own reasonings to the word of God.

The image of

The world he

his faith becomes the substance of his life. lives in is the world unseen; and he loves too well the speaker ever to stop and ask the reasons of his speech.

And once more, we have all been passing into a too fixed habit of life. The channel in which our thoughts have got to run, is a channel towards self-indulgence; it is a channel towards things very material. But that tide which has set in so strongly to present things, must turn, and it must flow with the same joyousness, the same affections, the same earnestness which made the world so attractive; it must flow in an opposite direction, it must flow to spiritual pleasure, it must flow to usefulness, it must flow. to service for Christ and His Church, it must flow to holier fellowship. And it is that changing of the current of nature, when that current begins to run heavenward at Pentecost, which is the "entering into the kingdom of heaven."

And now every one of you must judge for himself whether he has yet made the turn. But if he doubt, I pray him not to linger on doubting, but at once, to-day, make the turn. I know you will say, "I cannot." I know that you cannot do it without the Holy Ghost. But then I know and am quite sure that it is Pentecost, and that the Holy Ghost is now striving with the man to that very end,― to make him let Him do it. And I would, earnestly, that the turn of this New Year should not go any further till we have all turned ourselves wholly to the Lord, and begun life again as a very, very little child. It is so pleasant; it makes life so real, by giving such a sense of the Fatherhood of God, when once one consents to be very,

very small. And till then, remember, brethren, whatever you are, though you may be a Christian, yet "till you are converted, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

Our Annual Sermon for our Sunday and Infant Schools to-day, has naturally led me into this line of thought. I could always wish that the children of our church should occupy a large place in our minds; and that, not for their sakes only, but because there is so much spiritual teaching in a little child, that the image of a child is the best sermon; and I can give no better preaching to you to-day than to leave upon your mind the impression of a little child. I am very grateful to you for the generous interest which you have always taken in our schools; and I feel that the children of the church, especially the children of the poor, are with us what they ought to be, the first interest of a congregation.

I set then, before you, these children of our Sunday and Infant Schools, about 400 in number, and I pray you three things. First, take heed that you do not despise them. But rather, secondly, learn of them, and copy them. And thirdly, receive them into your hearts, into your prayers, into your good offices, into your charities,-remembering those wonderful words of Jesus,-"Whosoever shall receive," -receive into his heart, receive into his prayers, receive into his good offices, receive into his charities,-"Whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me."

XI.

Love, the Result of Forgiveness.

"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."-LUKE vii. 47.

THE

`HERE is a slight shade of difficulty flung across this part of the most simple and beautiful incident that ever occurred in the history of the world. And the difficulty arises from a possible apprehension of the word. And this apprehension it is the more important to guard against now, because it is very necessary for us to begin the approaching season of Lent with very clear ideas about the forgiveness of sins.

A person imperfectly taught in the gospel might, at first sight, understand Christ as speaking thus to his host Simon:- "This woman's sins have been forgiven to her on account of her much love; therefore, because she loved much, she has been much forgiven; if she had loved little, she would have been forgiven little."

Such an interpretation would be entirely false! It would not only be beside the mark of the present argument, but it would also contradict every word which Christ or His apostles ever said upon the same subject. For it would make love the cause of forgiveness, and not its consequence, and forgiveness to come second to a spiritual affection, when a spiritual affection is always second to it.

The root of this mistaken view of the verse lies in the wrong punctuation or emphasis of the sentence. It ought not to be, "Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much;" — but, Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much." She loved much is rather the reason why He says it, than of the fact that she was forgiven.

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Look at this a little more closely. Two things Christ asserted to Simon:-She is forgiven, and she is greatly forgiven. "If you ask," Christ seems to say, "how I know that she is forgiven, the evidence is before you,—she loved. If you ask how I know that she has been greatly forgiven, the proof is again before your eyes,-'She loved much but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.'

Understand this, then, clearly. The reason why we are forgiven is not because we love; but the reason why we love is because we have been forgiven. The test of the forgiveness is love. And the more the forgiveness,-or, which is the same thing,-the more the sense of the forgiveness, the larger will be the love.

I do not say that the sinner's love, and the sinner's forgiveness do not go on in a chain, in which each is the cause, and each is the effect of the other. We are a little forgiven,—we love a little;-then we are more forgiven, -then we love more,-on and on to the final forgiveness, and the perfect love. But I am speaking of the first forgiveness and the first love. I am speaking of the great law which rules the whole series,-"we love because we are forgiven," and not, "we are forgiven because we love."