should be the daily prayer and endeayour of all who love life. When the apostleis said, " increase our faith," they did well.
Have we any faith at all P This, after all, is the first question which the subject should raise in our hearts. Saving faith is not mere repetition of the creed, and saying, " I believe in God the Father, — and in God the Son, — and in God the Holy Ghost." Thousands are weekly using these words, who know nothing of real believing. The words of St. Paul are very solemn, "All men have not faith." (2 Thess. iii. 2.) True faith is not natural to man. It comes down from heaven. It is the gift of God.
If we have any faith let us pray for more of it. It is a bad sign of a man's spiritual state when he is satisfied to live on old stock, and does not hunger and thirst after growth in grace. Let a prayer for more faith form part of our daily devotions. Let us covet earnestly the best gifts. We are not to despise "the day of small things" in a brother's soul, but we are not to be content with it in our own.
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Let us notice, for another thing, in these verses, what a heavy blow our Lord gives to self-righieomnesa. He says to his apostles, " When ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you, say we are unprofitable savants : we have done that which was our duty to do."
We are all naturally proud and self-righteous. We think far more highly of ourselves, our deserts, and our character, than we have any right to do. It is a subtle disease, which manifests itself in a hundred different ways. Most men can see it in other people. Few will