36 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



regret, for they missed the merry patter of childish feet, and the 

 hearty childish laugh. But although the child ceased to be a child 

 ceased to be a blossom and even though the petals fell away, the 

 plant did not die, and the individuality of the child did not cease. 

 And why 1 Because " the word of our God shall stand for ever " 

 that word which equally breathed the spirit of life into the plant 

 and into the child. See here the responsibility of parents. They 

 were not to look on children as pretty playthings for the time 

 being, but should try to instil into their hearts the word of God, sa 

 that, although the flower should fade, the word of the Lord should 

 stand for ever. The responsibility was great, and they all had it to 

 some extent. Even children had it to each other, and those who 

 were older much more than children ; and they would fail if they 

 forgot it. The little child, of course, could feel none ; but when 

 children grew older they began to think What shall I do in the life 

 before me ? Later on, when they got into active life, the idea in their 

 minds, supposing them to be conscientious, was What am I doing 

 now ? Am I doing the work which God has given me to do 1 When 

 they passed into old age, then they asked themselves, What have I 

 done 1 and in all these cases there was a 'spirit of responsibility. 

 They could not Jbut feel, when young, that they should fail ; when 

 older, that they were failing ; and in old age, that they had failed. 

 And what of that 1 They were all human beings ; who was there 

 who had not failed 1 But suppose they learned this lesson that 

 God had breathed into them the breath of life and acted up to the 

 responsibility which that entailed ; then they would know that their 

 work would never fail and could never fail, because " the word of 

 the Lord shall stand for ever." 



This abstract is fairly complete and accurate ; and 

 yet it gives little true idea of the sermon. Its telling- 

 force depended so much upon the personal magnetism 

 of the preacher ; and no pen can transfer to paper the 

 deep earnestness which made it what it was. 



My father always used to complain that he was 

 terribly nervous when preaching, but no one who did 



