d that men should teach you the very rudiments of
the oracles of God." Is it not a sad thing to see a believer who has been
converted five, ten, twenty years, and yet no growth, and no strength, and
no joy of holiness?

What are the marks of a little child? One is, a little child cannot help
himself, but is always keeping others occupied to serve him. What a tyrant
a baby in a house often is! The mother cannot go out, there must be a
servant to nurse it; it needs to be cared for constantly. God made a man to
care for others, but the baby was made to be cared for and to be helped. So
there are Christians who always want help. Their pastor and their Christian
friends must always be teaching and comforting them. They go to church, and
to prayer-meetings, and to conventions, always wanting to be helped,--a
sign of spiritual infancy.

The other sign of an infant is this: he can do nothing to help his
fellow-man. Every man is expected to contribute something to the welfare of
society; every one has a place to fill and a work to do, but the babe can
do nothing for the common weal. It is just so with Christians. How little
some can do! They take a part in work, as it is called, but there is little
of exercising spiritual power and carrying real blessing. Should we not
each ask, "Have I outgrown my spiritual infancy?" Some must reply, "No,
instead of having gone forward, I have gone backward, and the joy of
conversion and the first love is gone." Alas! They are babes in Christ;
they are yet carnal.

The second mark of the carnal state is this: that there is sin and failure
continually. Paul says: "Whereas there is strife and division among you,
and envying, are ye not carnal?" A man gives way to temper. He may be a
minister, or a preacher of the Gospel, or a Sunday-school teacher, most
earnest at the prayer-meeting, but yet strife or bitterness or envying is
often shown by him. Alas! Alas! In Gal. 3:5 we are told that the works of
the flesh are specially hatred and envy. How often among Christians, who
have to work together, do we see divisions and bitterness! God have mercy
upon them, that the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, is so frequently
absent from His own people. You ask, "Why is it, that for twenty years I
have been fighting with my temper, and can not conquer it?" It is because
you have been fighting with the temper, and you have not been fighting with
the root of the temper. You have not seen that it is all becaus