February 10

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength."—Psalms 8:2.

THERE will be a great revival of religion, one has truly said, when the childhood of the land loves and praises the Saviour.

He approves and invites their songs. There is something specially sweet to Him, and peculiarly priceless, in the simplicity, the spontaneousness, the unbroken trust, the overflowing heartiness, of the children's artless music. He would not lose it, even if He were to have Gabriel's full-throated melodies instead. "I miss My little human praise," God said when the boy Theocrite, in the master's poem, no longer threw back his curls and sang at his work morning, evening, noon, and night. It is out of the mouth of babes and sucklings that the most perfect tributes rise to God's glory and grace.

And it is a mighty thing in the world—this new song of the children to the God of their salvation. It does not only move the heart of the Lord, it moves and melts and conquers the hearts of men and women also. It convinces them. It converts them. It spiritualises them. The old word of the prophet is true for every age and every land, A little child shall lead them. When our girls and boys go singing after the chariot-wheels of Christ, we may begin by smiling at their guilelessness, but we end by following their example. The home becomes what Philip Melanchthon called his house—Ecclesiola Dei, a little church of God. The nation becomes a theocracy, a kingdom of the Lord.

Wherefore, for the Master's sake, and for the world's sake, let me encourage the children to cry Hosanna to the Son of David.