e day of redemption draweth nigh.” It is ours to exercise filial trust and childlike confidence in our heavenly Father, who “‘is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.” 6. 4 fourth characteristic, Another characteristic ig simplicity. Wedo not mean that a child of God must be a pay sce uite the opposite. We are to be “ wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Now, by Christian simplicity we understand guilelessness and harmlessnesa, We take it to denote single- ness of heart, of tongue, and of eye; it becomes the Christian, it glorifies God and impresses man. ‘Outof the mouth of babes and sucklings God hath ordained strength.” The children in the temple proclaimed, “ Hosanna in the highest!” Once in a stage- coach, as we have read, a little interesting girl five years old was sitting beside her mother. A gentleman was paying attention to the child. After a time, turning her full blue eyes upon him, with childlike lovingness and in her own simple accents, she said, “ You love God?” The gentleman passed the child’s question off as best he could, The coach reached the place of destination, the journey ended. But still the words of that child haunted him. The question she asked was new to him; he had never thought of it before. He never rested till, by the grace of God, he was able to answer it by felt experience. Time rolled on. A few years after, as he passed through the streets of a town, he saw the mother of that little child at a window, in weeds of mourning. He called to inquire for his favourite, but she was gone; God had taken her home to glory, and to be for ever with himself.
TV. Consequences, 1. Contrasé. Over the entrance to Plato’s famous academy at Athens was written the sentence, “‘Let no one enter here who does not possess a knowledge of geometry.” Over the gate of heaven is written, not the proud maxim of the philosopher, but this plain statement, “‘ Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein.” 2. What ts implied in exclusion. Not to enter heaven, in other words, exclusion from heaven, implies the absence of holiness, of hope, and of happiness. It is never to see the King in his beauty, never to see the land that is altar off, never to enjoy peace, never to enter into rest, never to meet God in mercy, never to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and never to join the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn which are written in heaven, Still more, exclusion shuts out from wearing the crown and occupying the throne, from tenanting the mansion, and tuning the harp, and swelling the anthem of “ Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” Not to enter heaven is to be excluded from the holy presence, from the blessed fellowship of patriarchs and prophets and apostles and martyrs and confessors; to be shut out from the life and light and love of the upper sanctuary; to be shut up with the devil and the damned, with lost spirits, with devouring fire and everlasting burnings; to be doomed to “ weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth,” and to dwell for ever in that prison-house of hell, “ where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,” —J. J. @.
Vers. 17—31. Parallel passages: Matt. xix. 16—30; Luke xviii. 18—30.—1. The rich young ruler’s great refusal. 1. His appiication. 1. The position of this man. We have in this section a most interesting narrative. The subject of it was @ young man, in the bright and beautiful prime of life, as St. Matthew tells
102 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (om. x. 1—62.
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