think fit to bring us together. Whatever we may think of our divisions, the words of our Lord must never be forgotten : "Forbid them not."
The plain truth is, that we are all too ready to say, " We are the men, and wisdom shall die with us." (Job xii. 2.) We forget that no Church on earth has an absolute monopoly of all wisdom, and that people may be right in the main, without agreeing with us. We must learn to be thankful if sin is opposed, and the Gospel preached, and the devil's kingdom pulled down, though the work may not be done exactly in the way we like. We must try to beKeve that men may be true-hearted followers of Jesus Christ, and yet for some wise reason may be kept back from seeing aU things in religion just as we do. Above all, we must praise God if souls are converted, and Christ is magnified, — ^no matter who the preacher may be, and to what Church he may belong. Happy are those who can say with Paul, " If Christ be preached, I rejoice, yea and will rejoice," (Phil. i. 18.) and with Moses, " Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that all did prophecy." (Num. xi. 29.)
Notes. Luke JX. 46 — 60.
46. — [A reasoning.] The word so translated is tne same that is rendered "thought" in the following verse.
[Which of them should be the greatest] The expectation of a temporal kingdom about to be set up by the Messiah, must have been the foundation of this desire of pi*e-eminence.
48. — [This child.] We must beware that we do not wrest our Lord's language about children here and elsewhere, into the false notion that children are naturally innocent, and without sin. The simplicity, unworldliness, and dependent spirit of a little child, arising from its sense of weakness, and feebleness.