Seeking the Highest

Matthew xix. 14 v. “Suffer little children to come unto me.”

“Suffer the lowest to come to the highest “; that is not the world’s mode of thinking. The world thinks we gain most by meeting those on our own plane. It would send the little ones of the earth to be judged by the little. It would bid the incipient artist go to the commonplace critic. It would tell the fallen soul to repair to the previously fallen. Not so says Christ. He says to the labouring and heavy-laden of every department, “Come unto Me”; He says to those who toil amongst them, “send them to Me.” Ye who have completed your first piece of workmanship in art or in life, carry it to the judgment of the highest. Do not go to one a little above yourselves. He will sneer at your imperfections. He is too near the line of his own deliverance. He does not want to be reminded of his yesterday. He would fain forget that he stood lately on the same step of the stair, and therefore he will disparage the step; he will treat with undue severity your height below himself. But, would you get recognition for the small thing you have, go to the top of the profession. Let your motto be, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the /tills, whence cometh mine aid.” It may seem a bold thing for a sinful man to say “My safety cometh from the Lord, AVho made heaven and earth “; but it is not more bold than true. If you would have safety, ignore all steps but the final one. Pass by the converts of last week. Pass the climbers between earth and heaven. Pass the spirits of just men made perfect. Pass the angel and the archangel. Pass the cherubim and seraphim before the throne. Pause not till you reach the throne itself. Enter within the blaze of the burning purity, and spread your workmanship in the light of God. And the fire will not consume it, the light will not wither it, the Master will not despise it. He will see what the intermediate beings cannot see — the oak in the acorn; He will discern in the primal cloud the promise and potency of life. Oh, Magdalene, why standest thou in the house of Simon the lejDer? Thinkest thou that the leper’s own spots will

F make him mild to yours? They will not; they will intensify his criticism. Come up to the unspotted. Ascend to the stainless. Mount to the highest. Pour not out the treasures of thy repentance at the feet of the half -pure; they will laugh at the ointment of Spikenard, they will scorn the idle tears. Approach the throne, and thou shalt find thy mercy-seat. Come into the sunlight, and thou shalt meet thy dawn. Look up to the hills, and thy valleys shall be illuminated. In the Kingdom of Christ it is the extremes that join together. “Suffer the little ones to come unto Me.”