In truth, brethren, whatever Christ's Mother is to him by nature, that she is to us by adoption. Just in proportion to our union with him are we bound to her. And if we wish to know him well we can study in no better school than his Mother's. If we wish to love him tenderly, her maternal heart can best teach us how. And if we have favors to ask him we shall be glad, if we are not too self-conceited, to secure her prayers to assist us. ------------------- {373} Sermon CXIII. Gratitude. My brethren, we have had a word to say before this about the vice of ingratitude, and of how mean a vice it is, especially in a Christian. Now let us consider the opposite virtue--gratitude. It is, to be sure, one of the little virtues. Yet how can we call any class of virtues little? No doubt there are, strictly speaking, grades of merit very much higher one above the other. But that is not so much from the action done in each case as from the motive that inspires the action. One saves a man's life for the love of money; another gives a glass of cold water for the love of God. The glass of water is nothing compared to a human life; yet the glass of water will be rewarded for all eternity, and the saving of the human life is paid for as we pay for a load of coal. Brethren, beware of thinking there is any thing to be called little that has to do with God and eternal life; and always bear in mind that, by practising little virtues with an earnest purpose to please God, your merit is according to your heart, and not according to your hand.