to manifest itself, and all appears to be gentleness and loveliness;—pride and malice and such like evils being necessarily absent, and humility and lowliness and dependance and such like tempers being by the same necessity present. So that it was with regard to _these_, rather than to _the subjects of them_, that Jesus said, “Of such is the kingdom of God.” This view harmonizes exactly with what He said in immediate connection with the words we are considering: “Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as _a little child_, he shall not enter therein.” The great object of the Lord evidently was, to set forth children, both as to what is _not_ seen in them, and what _is_ found in their meek, passive, harmless, submissive, and dependant state, as the pattern for His disciples’ imitation;—as, in fact, the exhibition of what must be found in every one, who would be a real subject of His kingdom. And that it was of _the age of infancy or childhood_, and not of the persons of the children themselves, that Christ was here speaking, is confirmed by a reference to the circumstance already mentioned, which is related by St. Matthew, in the beginning of the eighteenth Chapter, and which had occurred not long before the bringing of the children to Him. “The disciples came unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as _little children_, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,”—that is, so as to be as this little child is,—“the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Now it cannot be supposed, that this child was selected by Christ as having any peculiar excellency in him. _Any child_ would doubtless have served His purpose:—the child of a Gentile as well as of a Jew. Neither _the nature_ of the child, nor _the state of the child’s soul in the sight of God_, had any thing to do with the use which the Lord here makes of him. It was _the state of childhood_ that Christ evidently had respect unto, and this He makes the model of His disciples. Just as David had said,—“My soul is even as _a weaned child_;” and as St. Paul afterwards wrote to the Corinthians,—“In malice be ye _children_.” And if farther evidence that this was Christ’s meaning be needed, it is found in the transition which He, as it were, insensibly makes from the “little children” to “believers in Him;” “_those little ones_,” (the word used by Him being changed,) “_those little ones_,” He calls them, “_which believe in me_;”—evidently referring to such as regard themselves to be the meanest and most humble of His disciples. With respect to children themselves, personally considered, the words of Christ seem only to convey a general expression of good will toward them,—to be understood