probably because the prevailing impression, even of Christian parents, has prevented them from recognizing a work of grace when it has occurred in their own households, and has prevented the profession of faith on the part of their children till they had reached maturer years. But without dwelling upon the proofs which the Scriptures and these annals afford, the Christian parent surely has a sufficient encouragement in the injunction to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, for confident prayer and unwearied effort.

Human wisdom and strength are indeed inadequate to this office, but with that injunction before them, believing fathers and mothers may go together to a throne of grace, and wrestle with God on behalf of their children, in the assurance that according to their faith so it will be to them. When can any two believers agree on earth as touching one thing, if not a father and a mother pleading for the soul of their child? Parents! in this case your children will be more to you than sweet playthings for the entertainment of your leisure. But in the midst of these solemn responsibilities, as you are sustained by the grace of God, the home which is ordered on these holy principles, and for these holy ends, will become to you and your children a scene of peace and happiness such as earth rarely witnesses. What an over-payment of delight will you have for all your pains and toil in the day when you know that they are indeed children of God. Until that day comes, the promise of God will be a satisfying security for the blessed result. Even should you be called away from them before you have distinctly seen the evidences of a work of grace in them, you know that your presence or absence does not affect the certainty of the answer of prayers offered in faith in the name of Jesus. The faithfulness of God does not require your

watchful eye to see that He makes His promise good, and you will say farewell, as confidently anticipating a meeting with them in the day of our gathering together unto Him, as though you had been privileged to look and see that their names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

THE PARABLE OF THE KING RECKONING WITH HIS DEBTORS,

THE series of parables in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew is, as we have seen, prophetic-designed to unfold the course, character, and issue of the present dispensation. The next parable which we find recorded, that of "the king reckoning with his debtors," is the first of another class of parables which may be styled "the moral," in distinction from "the prophetic." The parables of this class are not allegories, designed to unfold something in the future history of the great plan of redemption, but are incidents, either from real life, or framed in harmony with real life, designed to illustrate some practical lesson, or to make a practical application of some great truth to the hearts and lives of the hearers. In the instance before us, though we have no good reason to conclude that the transaction actually occurred at the court of any Oriental sovereign, there is nothing in the circumstances inconsistent with the supposition that it may be historical; parallels to its principal circumstances may be found in actual history. Even the enormous debt, which amounts to sixteen millions of dollars, if we understand it as ten thousand talents of silver, is not unexampled in the relations of these sovereigns and their servants; nor was it beyond the possible means of such servants to liquidate, for it is the very sum which Haman offered to pay into the treasury of Ahasuerus, as the price of

gratifying his malice against the Jews. The sentence of the indignant monarch, which included the wife and children of the offender, is in perfect harmony with the constitu tion of Eastern despotisms, which regarded all the subjects, with their families and households, as the slaves and creatures of the sovereign. The wife of Haman and their ten children were involved in his ruin; and profane history enables us, if it were necessary, to multiply examples.

This parable is recorded in the close of Matt. xviii., and forms the appropriate conclusion of a discourse which was called forth by the question of the disciples: "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?" Though there is not the close connection between the various parts of the discourse which we should expect in a regular and methodical composition, we shall find it profitable to take a preliminary glance at the principal topics introduced by the Lord in His reply to the question of His disciples. We need not at present inquire into the occasion of their dispute as to who should be the greatest among them; only it will be remembered that the dispute occurred after the Lord had taken three of them apart as the witnesses of His transfiguration, and when they were on their way to Capernaum.

Capernaum, it will be remembered, was the temporary abode of Jesus in the intervals of His public labors throughout Judea and Galilee. What we know of the course of Him who was "meek and lowly in heart," forbids the supposition that the children and youth of Capernaum were overlooked by Him. Nor would it appear surprising if, when the great and wise despised Him, the young found an irresistible attraction in the gentle love of their Friend. Though, from the very circumstance of their youth, they do not appear as actors in the Gospel narratives, there may have been many of these "little ones who believed upon

Him," and who were among the foremost to welcome Him on His return from His journeys of mercy. The tradition that Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was the child whom the Lord set before the disciples as an example, is as worthless as these traditions usually are. But there are several things in the discourse which lead us to the conclusion that the boy was a youthful disciple, whose unaspiring humility and unquestioning faith furnished the emphatic rebuke of the pretensions and rivalries of older disciples. Bengel attempts to meet the necessities of the case by the supposition that "it was doubtless a child of excellent disposition and most attractive appearance, then present by divine providence." But there is no reason, except in the very disposition to slight these little ones which the Lord rebukes, why we should seek to explain away the plain import of the action and the language, which recognize the little one as a believer. The child is kept before the twelve as the instance and illustration through the whole discourse. The Lord points to him not only when he says, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child"-the child He then clasped in His arms; but also when He says, "Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me;" not any little child, but "one such little child "-" one of these little ones which believeth in me "-for no other can be received in

His name. While in receiving one of these believing ones, we receive Christ, because Christ is in them.

The force of the discourse is not impaired by understanding it thus literally, as relating to the boy before them, not as in some way a type of believers, but as himself a believer. For what could more emphatically rebuke the unhallowed ambition of the twelve, or more clearly illustrate the principles which the Lord inculcates, than just such a living instance of His own distinguishing grace. The an