The scene presented by these words is indescribably lovely; and the eye that contemplates it, must affect the heart of the beholder with every tender and grateful feeling. It exhibits the eternal Son of God holding in his arms the infant of a day; laying his mighty and merciful hand upon its head; and bestowing upon it his own effectual blessing. Wonderful as all this is, it is however in perfect harmony with the whole of his character, and of the great work which he came to accomplish. The infants which were now brought to him, ignorant and helpless as they were, were creatures which he himself had formed, and which he had inspired with the breath of life, and with the germ of all those intellectual and moral faculties which would render them immortal and responsible to God. He, therefore, who guides the flight of the sparrow as well as of the archangel, cares for the infant as well as for the man; and he has testified his care, not only now, when he was gathering these lambs in his arms, but through all the preceding dispensations of his mediatorial reign. His disciples, influenced by the same mistaken feelings which led the multitude to rebuke the blind men, who cried for mercy to the son of David, rebuked the parents, who were now desirous that their infants should receive his gentle touch, and “that he should put his hands on them and pray;” “but when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God,” and “of such is the kingdom of heaven.” When heaven was more immediately his residence, he had there been accustomed to gather little children in his arms, and to introduce them to the joys and royalties of his celestial palace; and when that palace is completely furnished with guests, little children, who have died in their infancy, will constitute no small portion of the glorious number. When he first formed a church on earth, and separated the subjects of his own kingdom from others, he did so _with an express reference to the children of his people_; and he appointed the ordinance of circumcision to be administered to them at eight days old, as the token of his everlasting promise, “I will be a God unto thee, and unto thy seed after thee.” When that church was reorganized by Moses, and during the whole period of the Jewish dispensation, the same divine regard to infants is manifested, and their dedication to God, by “the token of the covenant,” is continued. When, during that dispensation, the gospel times of the church are predicted, children are always represented as sharing in the same privileges which they had been accustomed to possess; for then, says Isaiah, “the people shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.” And now in the fulness of time, when Christ himself personally appears in the