Matthew 18:14

Even so it is not the will ... — The form of the proposition has all the force that belongs to the rhetorical use of the negative. “It is not the will” suggests the thought that the will of the Father is the very opposite of that, and so the words are identical in their teaching with those of St. Paul, “He will have all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). The continued presence of the child is again emphasised in “one of these little ones.”