child's breast, else the most precious appeals of the gospel will be lost upon him. The message of the gospel is love: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." How can this be understood, how can this be welcomed to his heart by any one who does not know what pure, noble, lofty, selfsacrificing love truly is? The child who has been brought up without love, sometimes fondled and sometimes kicked; who has seen no true love round him, but only passion; how can he understand the offer of the gospel? The child accustomed to weak indulgence, and thinking that is love, how can he understand the love of God which will by no means clear the guilty? Parents must exhibit love themselves, if they would have their children understand it. It is in the home that the child can best gain the ideas which are involved in religion.

Once more, the invisible and infinite God, when stooping to speak to the sons of men, could not reveal Himself in His absolute splendours. He had to call Himself by earthly titles, that we might understand the relationship He bears to us. And He, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, declared to us that God is our Father, that this is the name by which He would for ever be known-"Our Father in heaven." He bade us go to Him with this salutation; He bade us seek for supplies as from a father's hand; He bade us rely joyfully and utterly upon our Father's love. Now, if a child only knows of a father as a tyrant, who curses and strikes, or as a cold-hearted, selfish being, who cares simply for his business and then for his pleasure, what idea is he likely to form of God, the Father in heaven? O fathers, fathers, does it not seem as if the power of the gospel depended on you? does it not seem as if God had commissioned you to represent Him to your little ones? He has appointed that they should get their first idea of Him from what you are. Would you have these children love God? See to it, then, that they love you, and that your love is noble as the love of Him who died for you.

When a statesman goes forth to some distant land to represent his sovereign before its half-civilized rulers, he puts on certain dignity and state, that they may judge how great the king, his master, is. In himself the ambassador may be the most unassuming and careless of men, but in his official position he feels he has to sustain the character of the king he represents. He is careful, therefore, in all his conduct and behaviour. How careful ought those to be to whom the King of kings has committed the responsibility of being His representatives, of whom He condescends to say to the children, "I am to you in heaven what these are to you on earth"!

There was an American preacher who used to begin his prayer thus:-"O Thou, who art our Father and Mother both."

It

seemed to me very grotesque when I read it; but there is a beautiful truth in the thought. The mother is God's representative to the child long before the father has much influence upon the quickly moulding heart. From her it gets its notion of what that superior Power, on which all depend, should be; and what is constant bounty and endless love. And she is truly, and by Divine appointment, God's representative. "Mothers are kind because Thou art," George Herbert truly says. She alone can teach the child all the terms in which God's offers to mankind are couched; and if she does not teach them, they will be learnt more slowly from any one else. She can teach her child of that great Being on whose care she hangs, even as her infant does on hers. She can teach it what love is; the love that labours and toils, and thinks nothing mean or hard so that the loved ones may be saved. She can teach it what right is-that for which true love works; and what evil is-that which true love, at any cost to itself or to the loved ones will avoid. There is nothing on earth that can so fully represent the work of Christ as a true mother's work can represent it.

Such is the parents' responsibility for the flock that is given them that beautiful flock which makes bright their homes, and makes life with all its labours worthy. It is time now that we read the text as a direct question addressed to those unto whose care God has entrusted these newest offspring of His creating breath. "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?" You observe the inquiry was made in the past tense. Jeremiah addressed it to the king, after the nation had been scattered and carried captive. I rejoice that it is not my business so to address it to any. But a time will come when it may be exactly thus addressed to parents from the judgment throne. Then, as they assemble on those amaranthine pastures by the sheen of the river of water of life, under the delightsome shade of the trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, shall judgment be passed on all the under-shepherds to whom the various flocks of God have been entrusted. And to one after another shall the question of the text be repeated. See them streaming past the throne of the Judge, those shining flocks of spirits, pure, and white-whole families; parents whose office is done now if they have brought to Christ those whom God's providence committed to them; and children who, it may be, have risen up in place of their fathers, and discharged the same glorious office in their turn. Ah, but think of those who pass childless into the gates of heaven! Bereaved, not by death, but by sin; and not only by the sin of others, but it may be by their own. Some to whom God entrusted here below the precious heritage of children, pass by, and they hear the voice from the throne, "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock ?" Saved themselves, and their children lost, what answer shall they give?

Were they better than their children?

Were their children less

God's flock than they? They have no answer to give.

I know that in some cases there will be excuses, reasons, that will be sufficient,-and terrible will they be. Sometimes the sin of the child is so wilful as to transfer altogether the responsibility. But in many cases, in most, in by far the majority of cases, the excuses or reasons for the loss of the flock will be found in the wrong-doings or in the mistakes of the parents to whom it was committed. Want of distinct purpose, want of intense devotion, want of intelligence and prudence, want of steadfast resolution-such will be the causes which make parents childless in heaven.

First of all, my friends, if you would prepare yourselves to answer joyfully the question of the text, you must register it as a distinct purpose. This matter must be lifted out of that extensive haze of good intentions, hopes, and desires that every one of us has in his mind. The wish for the salvation of your children must not be left in the vague, formless condition of a mere desire; it must be made a clear and distinct purpose-a purpose to which the life shall be directed, for the attainment of which all energies shall be employed. A great many good people are bad parents, for this very reason, they do not purpose the salvation of their children. They wish it, and long for it; they pray about it sometimes, perhaps they dream about it; but they do not make it the intention of all their heart and soul. It must be a distinct purpose. You must take the flock one by one. Not by wholesale can souls be moulded; not even by the family at a time. A distinct purpose, registered in the sight of God and upon your own conscience, is necessary for every individual boy and girl.

Secondly, intense devotion is necessary. It may do for others to be half-and-half Christians; but it will not do for parents. Lukewarm piety may take a man to heaven (barely land him on the threshold, as it were), but it will not enable any one to say at the throne, "Behold I and the children which God has given me." To have converting power over the hearts and lives of your children, you must have that same power which the apostles had, by which they won their thousands of souls for Christ. Ay, indeed, you must have the power which Jesus Christ had, by which He saved souls, by which He converted men's lives to God, by which He died for sinners. You must love them-love them as spiritual beings; love them in view of their eternal life; love them because they are God's children, which is something much higher and nobler than loving them because they are yours. You must love them so that you will not let them go, but will hold them fast for God. Do not say that I spoke too freely when I said you must have the power Christ had. It is offered to you. His own in-dwelling may be your privilege, if you want it for others' good, not for your own indulgence. Determine to leave

no blessing which is stored up at God's mercy seat untried, until you have, by means of the last of them, if need be, accomplished the salvation of the flock that is given you. Depend upon it, God will honour such faith. He delights to be put to the proof. Now, then, see whether His goodness be not large enough to save your family. From a Sermon by the Rev. Alden Davies.

n

GREATER HOLINESS.

ET us take a case of high attainment, the details of which are recorded with most minute particularity, and in all soberness of style. The case is that of the wife of Jonathan Edwards, related by himself his published work on the great revival at Northampton. She was apparently converted at five years of age, and at the age of thirteen was noticed by all her friends as one living near God, often enjoying seasons of inexpressible delight in meditation and prayer. In 1728, at the time of her marriage (she was in her eighteenth year), friends spoke of her as having made singular progress in holiness; but this was only the beginning of her attainments. This was her period of "lower degrees of grace." She was subject to unsteadiness in her frames, her temperament being rather of a melancholy cast. But Divine grace overcame these disadvantages. In 1788, after a new resignation of herself to the Lord, she found her views of the glory of God and the excellency of Christ become wonderfully enlarged. "A kind of omnipotent joy" filled her heart, and she lived from day to day in "all the riches of full assurance," says her husband. She had wonderful access to God in prayer; it often seemed to her that Christ was as near as if He was on earth standing by. She never felt any inclination, on this account, to slight the means of grace, but rather more and more prized them as most needful to her soul's growth. She used to look forward to the Sabbath with great desire, and began on Saturday her preparation for it. Several times after this she anew dedicated herself to the Lord, renouncing self and the world, and seeking "life more abundantly. In 1742, one day, having had her usual calm of mind disturbed by some things that bore on her husband's concerns and her own good name, she saw she must ask yet more from the Lord, and be enabled to resign herself more entirely still to Him. The words of Romans viii. 34, to the end, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ," etc., were brought home to her with extraordinary power, and seemed to tell her of God's unchangeableness, and her own unchangeable security in Him, so certainly that "the everlasting mountains and hills were but shadows in comparison. At the same time, Christ was seen to be a mighty Saviour, "The Lion of

the tribe of Judah taking her heart with all its corruptions under His care, and putting all under His feet." Not that she fancied herself free from sin, for she was even led to perceive more fully the sinfulness of her heart. And thus she was enabled to go on from day to day, week to week, year to year, as testified by such a calm credible witness as President Edwards, who watched and wondered at her walk during the remaining eight years they were spared to each other.

All the while there was no apparent tendency to pride, but rather deep abasement of soul, through a continual sense of unworthiness; a willingness to go behind all who were going heavenward. Her compassion for the lost and perishing often took away her rest; she was full of love to mankind. Her husband persuaded her to put down something of her feelings in writing for his own use; and among other things she says, "My heart and soul flowed out in love to Christ; there seemed a constant flowing and reflowing of heavenly and Divine love from Christ's heart to mine." And all this did not weaken, but, on the contrary, greatly strengthened her daily attention to ordinary commonplace duties. "I realized how great a part of godliness lies in the performance of our social and relative duties to one another." Necessary worldly business was found by her " as good as prayer, when done as service to God." She made her husband's home the abode of neatness and order, peace and domestic comfort; sparing no pains to have everything in family arrangements pleasant and agreeable to the family and to visitors. She was never gloomy, but always cheerful, even under sickness; guests and visitors found her most pleasant and kind. She bestowed great care on her children's training; was tender, but very firm in exacting obedience; and failed not to discipline them to good habits in all departments. She would, for example, inculcate the duty of watching against wastefulness and carelessness; often reminding her children "that Christ bade His disciples gather up the fragments of that bread which He had just before so easily created by a word." She was free from all censoriousness, saying as little as possible about other people's imperfections. Withal, she was liberal in giving away, and very charitable to the poor. It was always when her health was best and her mind most vigorous that her enjoyments were highest.

She survived her husband nine years, dying in the forty-ninth year of her age, 1758, and to the end continuing in the love of God,―

Now, examples like this one, though they are rare, might be found in the various sections of the Church of Christ, more or less remarkable. The hundred-fold is a great leap beyond the sixty