nger for a few brief hours,
but the same amount invested in the "bread of life" will give one an
inexhaustible feast. A drink of water refreshes for the moment; the
same amount invested in the "water of life" may make of one a spring
overflowing with blessings.

A Bible costs a few cents and yet upon it may be built a life that is
worth millions to the human race. It was a Bible that made William Ewart
Gladstone for a generation the world's greatest Christian statesman;
it was a Bible that made Jose Rodrigues for a quarter of a century the
greatest moral force in Brazil. The Bible has given us great leaders in
the United States. It is the Bible that has sent missionaries throughout
the world to plant in little communities everywhere the teachings of the
greatest of sentimentalists--and, at the same time, the most practical
of philosophers. Christ has taught us the true value of those things
which touch the heart and, through the heart, move the world.

"Suffer little children to come unto me;" Christ used the child to
admonish those older grown. The Church is following in His footsteps
when it makes the child the subject of constant thought and solicitude.
It is when we deal with the child that we get the clearest conception of
the superiority of faith over reason. The foundations of character are
laid in faith and not in reason; they are laid before the reason can be
accepted as a guide. No one who exalts reason above faith can lead a
child to God, but a child can understand the love of the Saviour and the
tender care of the Heavenly Father. For this reason the Sunday school
increases in importance. Its lessons build character; its songs echo
throughout our lives.

The law arbitrarily fixes the age of twenty-one as the age of legal
maturity. No matter how precocious a young man be, the presumption of
law is against his intelligence until he is twenty-one. He cannot vote;
he cannot make a valid deed to a piece of land. Why? His reason is not
mature, and yet the moral principles that control his life are implanted
before he reaches that age. His ideals come into his life long before
the reason can be regarded as a safe guide. Before the reason is mature
he believes in God or has rejected God. If he lives in a Christian
community he has accepted the Bible as the Word of God or rejected it
as the work of man; if he is acquainted with Christ he has accepted or
rejected Him. A child's heart cannot remain a vacuum. It is fi