And this simplicity of faith might perhaps be expected to be found in some degree in shepherds and men of little worldly wisdom; but here, in the case of these wise men, we find it existing in perfection amidst all the learning and wisdom of that day. Nothing could be more intricate, more full of speculations, than those systems of philosophy under which they had probably been brought up; no studies could have had a greater tendency to corrupt that childish simplicity of heart without which no man shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Yet these wise men, these magi, addicted doubtless to the same studies as the rest of their countrymen, no sooner just saw the star than, calmly and deliberately, and taking time for what they were doing, as became a serious and important event in their lives, they went in admirable integrity and singleness of faith to worship and fall down before One whom they had never seen and never known.

And these men were called wise from their proficiency in the wisdom of their own times, from their skill in the philosophy of their day, in the complicated arithmetical processes of that period, in the demonstrations of mathematical figures, in the science of the stars, in subtle disquisitions on the human soul, in logical and rhetorical questions, in the history of nature and the elements, in the history of animals and man, in the histories of former times and empires; all this, or parts of this, or whatever it was that constituted the learning of

their countrymen, had no doubt been their study from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood; and on these accounts they are called wise. But who does not see another and a better reason why they may be called really and truly wise?

Wise indeed they were in their human knowledge and learning, but wiser far, with a wisdom which is not of this world, when they brought all that knowledge and all that learning, the studies of their earlier youth, and the experience of their later years, and laid the whole down humbly and simply at the feet of their infant Saviour.

And though they brought gold, and though they brought frankincense, and though they brought myrrh, and though all these were doubtless in their kinds the most precious, the most excellent, gifts they could procure, yet was there one other unseen offering which they brought with them, more pure than gold, more sweet-scented than frankincense, more precious than myrrh; and this was the offering of a simple faith and a humble mind, and a holy heart, which resigns the wisdom of this world as foolishness with God.

If, then, in conclusion, there be any here, young or old, to whom it has been given that they should be educated to a farther extent than others; who accordingly feel inclined to take pride to themselves for their advances in knowledge, and to think much and highly of what they have learnt,

and in what they excel; let me urge upon them to bear in mind, and seriously consider, the history of these wise Gentiles, whom God fixed upon in His providence to be, after the shepherds, the second messengers of a new-born Saviour.

Let the young, in particular, shew true and real wisdom; not indeed by neglecting their studies, for that would be sin of another kind, but by making a daily offering of them to their Lord and God. And this they may do, first, by turning them into a daily subject of prayer; and secondly, by pursuing them in a Christian spirit, and with a view to spending their acquirements hereafter, according to their situations in life, to the honour and glory of Christ.

Thus, if they know little, that little shall be counted much with God, for His Son's sake. And if they know much, that much, being consecrated to God, shall become sanctified to themselves.

And may God the Holy Ghost so guide the hearts of us all, and direct them continually, that we may ever regard the mere wisdom of this world in itself as the deepest of human ignorance, and acknowledge the most ignorant in this world's wisdom to be truly wise, if they possess that wisdom which is from above. So that finally, when the world and its works and its wisdom shall melt away like a tale that is told, we may be found, if not like the wise men at the visible cradle of our Lord, at least clinging to His invisible Cross, which

alone shall be unshaken in that day, which alone shall be our stay or trust, through faith in Him, who for our sakes "became poor that we, through His poverty, might be rich;" who for our sakes entered into the ignorant state of childhood, that we might be made in Him wise for evermore.

1 2 Cor. viii. 9.

SERMON VIII.

CHRIST'S MOTHER AND CHRISTIAN MOTHERS.

THE PURIFICATION.

LUKE ii. 34.

And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also."

ON some future occasion we will hope to enter at length into the character and history of Simeon, dwelling particularly on that strange and wonderful position in which it pleased God to place him, when it was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ."

At present it is enough to observe, from the words of our text, that Simeon was not only a just and devout man, but was also a prophet; one of the first prophets, indeed, of whom we read in the New Testament. It was now four hundred years since the canon of the Old Testament had been closed in Malachi. Since that time the spirit of prophecy, after shining dimly for awhile