Sleep, little blossom, my honey, my bliss! For I give you this, and I give you this ! And I blind your pretty blue eyes with a kiss! Sleep !
Father and Mother will watch you grow, And gather the roses whenever they blow, And find the white heather wherever you go, My sweet.
3. The Heavenly Father transcends all earthly parents in His willingness to bless His children. Christ singles out an intensely human characteristic and makes it the hint of a cor- responding attribute in God, He takes it for granted, as a familiar fact, that parents are disposed to grant the reasonable requests of their children for good things, and, building upon this basis, He proceeds to bring God within the range of our appre- hension by the affirmation that He is equally willing to bestow upon mankind what He considers to be the best thing He has to give. It is clear that, according to Christ's representation, God, their Maker, is generously disposed towards the children of men. He wishes to help them, in the highest sense ; He would enlighten, enlarge, elevate, enrich them. This statement is of itself equiva- lent to a revelation. It announces this splendid truth, that
ST. LUKE XI. 13 241
benevolence, generosity, helpfulness, are basal and underlying attributes of God. It is His nature to communicate of His life, of His fulness and exuberant richness, to the moral creatures He has made. He wishes to impart to them, so far as they are able to receive it, His own point of view, His own contentment and repose. His own moral perfections.
^ It is told of Thomas Chalmers, that he was seen on the last morning of his life wandering among the flowers in his garden, as he murmured the words, "0, heavenly Eather, my heavenly Father." What nobler attitude towards the universe could you desire than that ? I ask for no God who would de- flect from its orbit a single star, or violate the laws which govern the growth of the meanest flower. I ask for no God who has no reverence for the way of the wind, or for those hidden processes whereby the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child. But in the evening and morning and at noonday will I pray out of the deep of my own personality to Him who maketh the seven stars and Orion, and who is the God of my life, knowing that He will cause all things to work together for good to them that love Him, and that He will hear my voice.^
4. The Heavenly Father has knowledge which earthly fathers have not. If even an evil parent has natural affection enough tc lead him to supply this simple want, so the most ignorant have knowledge enough, not always to do it in the best way, but at least to give what is absolutely necessary, and what is asked for. But we have deeper wants than the want of bread, and wants that require a far deeper knowledge to supply them; yet the inflnite knowledge and wisdom of God are sufficient for them all.
Sometimes, for instance, we are placed in difficult circum- stances, and know not how to act. In such a case man's know- ledge, both our own and that of our fellow-creatures, fails. Man cannot help us then ; but we seek guidance of God, and find that He knows how to give us just what we want. Our prayer is heard, help and guidance are given, and we are brought through our difficulties. Not perhaps immediately, and not by any strange means; yet in the end we are brought safely through. Our Heavenly Father knows how to give us just what we want.
^ Our little children in their ignorance make many a foolish request, but we do not insist they shall ask for nothing agaiu, ^ J. G. Simpson, The Sj)irit and the Bride^ 170,
ST. LUKE — 16
242 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We simply by our refusal train them to ask better, and to confied in a larger wisdom than their own. We sometimes ask God to deliver us from things that do not necessarily injure the soul, however unpleasant and dangerous they look, such as illness, poverty, bad business, loss, and death. And God does not hear our prayer. It takes us long to see that our prayer is best answered, not by what it does for us externally, but by what it effects in our mind and heart, in the way we look at life, and the way we trust God. We can never fail, however, to have the answer to our prayer when we ask to be delivered from sin, and callousness of spirit, and pride, and unbelief, for these touch us in our divinest part and imperil the soul's beauty and security. God loves our good more than our happiness, and works more for the sake of securing in us a childlike disposition than comfortable circumstances. Some of us may have said with Jean Ingelow: " I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered." ^
II.
The Gift.
I. The gift here promised is the Holy Spirit, and this gift includes every blessing. It is the essence of all good things, the highest good.