to one day. "All liars," we are told, "have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." And how has that little boy learnt to tell a lie? Has he always heard you speak only the truth? Have you never thought it a little thing to tell a lie, to say something not quite true. Oh! let us all beware of the first little tender blade that comes up from the devil's evil seed, let us beware of calling any evil thing a little thing.

But, also the good seed comes up first a little tender blade, a small thing, in the heart of a little child, and yet it is from above, it is the sowing of the Son of man, of Him who was once a holy child; it would grow up a glorious plant, but, oh, how easily crushed, how easily trodden under foot, by the carelessness, perhaps by the ungodliness, of those around. How very sweet are the first holy buddings of the spiritual life in a little child. Do parents when they bring up their children to Holy Baptism, that they may be engrafted into Christ, seriously consider how holy these Christian children should thenceforward be in their sight, how carefully kept for Him to whom they belong, as children of His kingdom? What is the condition of the homes to which these children are taken, and in which they must grow up; will it cherish,

J Rev. xxi. 8.

or will it quench, the life of the Spirit in them? Let all parents ask themselves this question.

The wheat and the tares are growing together now, men often cannot distinguish them. The servants are not permitted to gather up the tares now; the Lord of the field will not allow them to do so, lest even one little stalk of wheat should perish with the tares. "He is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" and so men are apt to think He is forgetting this field, not paying any attention to it; not marking the wheat or the tares particularly. They think that He who wept over Jerusalem, is forgetting those for whom He died; that He is not caring that Satan should prevail over those who should be the children of His kingdom. They cannot think that a farmer would be indifferent to the field which he has ploughed and sown; yet they think that the Son of Man can be indifferent about that field for the redemption of which He shed His precious blood. They say, "where is the promise of His coming," as if they thought He would never come. How greatly will they find themselves mistaken, when that great harvest-day comes, when the tares shall be forever separated from the wheat, "The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and

they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity." Out of His kingdom, oh, to think that they should have belonged to it, and that they have become children of the wicked one. What a separation will it be, from all that are good, and holy, and true; from the kind and loving hearts that would have saved them; from Him who is love itself; from Him who so long set before them an open door and they would not enter. To be separated forever from Him, and to become the companions of the devil and his angels. Oh, let us resist the Devil now, and he must flee from us. Parents resist him in your houses, in your children, as well as in your own hearts; let us fight the good fight of faith against him.

"And thus shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Is not that a glory worth fighting for? To be with Jesus, and to be like Him when we see Him as He is. Who even in this life can be so happy as those who "love His appearing," and who know that He shall speedily come in His glory, to take them to Himself? Then shall they "serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads."

! Rev. xxii. 3, 4.

THIRD SERIES.

VII.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life.

In my

JOHN xiv. 1-9.-"Let not your hearts be troubled : ye believe in God believe also in me. Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me. If f ye known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast

had