_"

Those people are greatest who are most like God. We become partakers of
the Divine nature through a child-like relationship to God. The grace and
power of God pour into our souls when we wait upon Him like a little
child.

Child-likeness opens the doors and windows to the incoming of the
Almighty. The child-like is the trustful, and no barriers of cynical
suspicion block the channels of spiritual communion. And the child-like is
the docile, and no boulders of arrogance or self-conceit block the channel
of the invigorating waters of life. And so the child-like become the
God-like, and, of course, they are the greatest among the sons of men. The
little child enshrines the secret of the God-man, and we should be
infinitely wise if we had the little child always in our midst.

OCTOBER The Twenty-third

_MASTERS AND SERVANTS_

MATTHEW xx. 20-28.

It is always our peril that we hunger for place more than for character,
for position more than for disposition, for a temporal sceptre more than
for a majestic self-control.

These disciples coveted places on the right and left of the Lord, and they
had little or no concern about their worthiness for the posts.
Temporalities eclipsed spiritualities, fleeting fireworks hid the quiet
stars. They wanted to be great and prominent, the Lord wanted them to be
pure and good. They longed to be Prime Ministers, the Lord purposed that
they should be glad to be ministers, working contentedly in an obscure
place.

Now mark our Lord's response. "_Are ye able to drink of the cup that I
drink of?_" They wanted to be the King's cup-bearers; He offers them to
drink of His cup. They call for sovereignty: He asks for sacrifice. They
crave sweetness: He offers them bitterness. They seek a life of "getting":
He demands a life of "giving." Who has a cup of bitterness to drink? Go
and share it with him! Where are the morally and spiritually anaemic? Go
and give them thy blood! "Whoever shall lose his life shall find it."
Through self-sacrifice we pass to our throne.

OCTOBER The Twenty-fourth

"_PUSH_" _AND_ "_PULL_"

LUKE xiv. 1-11.

The world canonizes "push." It eulogizes the "man of push." It loves to
see a man elbowing his way through the jostling crowd, and gaining for
himself a "chief seat" at life's feast. He is proclaimed a "successful"
man, and he rises in "the chief seat," and amid loud hurrahs he responds
to the toast of his health.

Yes, "push" is the wo