^ When in the days of your youth the infinite passion, for the first time, lit up its glow in you, was there anything that you could do for the maiden of your heart that you would not do ? Was there anything that you esteemed too precious for the creature to whom you had given your heart ? In giving where you had given your heart, your whole nature was in force, and was one pleasure. That is the basis of the " freely." ^
3. With Him. — The expression "all things," unlimited as it is in the letter, must be limited in the spirit. Than the idea of God giving us all things that we might wish and ask for there could be nothing more perilous, more certain to prove destructive.
* John Pulsford,
ii8 THE INCLUSIVE GIFT
What would become of us if God were in this unqualified manner to give us all things? There are in the text two words that are very important. They are the words " with him," — " shall he not also with him freely give us all things?" The "all things" that He will give us are all things with Christ, and the expression suggests a certain relationship of congruity or fitness. Suppose a man makes his son a present of a microscope, the probability is that he will, with the instrument, give him all the apparatus necessary for making full use of the instrument. Or if he gave his son a house, he might, perhaps, with the house give him the furniture suitable for it, that so he might with comfort live in the house that was given him. And God will give us, and freely give us, all things with Christ, all things chat are connected with the gift of Christ, all things that will make the gift of Christ of practical service to us. So all things with Christ are all things that stand related to Christ, and to the purpose whicii God in the gift of Christ has in view.
1 would be quiet, Lord,
Nor tease, nor fret; Not one small need of mine
Wilt Thou forget.
I am not wise to know
What most I need ; I dare not cry too loud,
Lest Thou shouldst heed;
Lest Thou at length shouldst say;,
"Child, have thy will; As thou hast chosen, lo!
Thy cup I fill!"
What I most crave, perchance
Thou wilt withhold ; As we fi'om hands unmeet
Keep pearls, or gold;
As we, when childish hands
Would play with fire. Withhold the burning goal
Of tiheir desire.
ROMANS VIII. 32 119
Yet choose Thou for me — Thou
Who knowest best; This one short prayer of mine
Holds all the rest.'i
"With Him," observe; not without Him. It may be that, without Christ, God will in His providence give us many things, and many good things too. He may give us health, He may give us riches, He may give us much worldly comfort and prosperity. But these His best gifts, really far the best, the gifts of His grace, in forgiveness, holiness, life eternal, He gives only with Christ, only to those who in faith and thankfulness accept Christ.
^ There is often a strange coldness and unbelief in men when precious things are pressed upon them. One of our later poets has noticed this blindness and insensibility :
A dog will take The bone you throw to him; a mortal stares In obstinate hostility if one, Longing to swell the number of his joys. From laden hand beseech him to be blest. Teach men to suffer, and the slaves are apt; Give them fresh hope, entreat them to delight, They grow as stubbornly insensible As miser to a beggar's eloquence, Clutching their clownish imbecility As the gods grudged them that.
^ But surely this unwillingness to accept high blessing brought \,o our very doors finds its last and strangest expression in the insensibility of men to the gift of God in Christ ! Let us thank- fully, exultantly, promptly, open our heart to the full noon of spiritual blessing which shines upon us in the Son of God.
Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in ; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay. Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking;
'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking.^
» Julia C. E. Dorr, » Lowell.
No Case.
Literature.
Belfrage (H.), Sacramental Addresses, 330.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, 6tli Ser., 264.
„ (J. A.), Seven Words of Love, 146. Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 112. Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Ascension to Trinity, 63. Leitch (R.), The Light of the Gentiles, 100. Maurice (F. D.), Sermons Preached in Country Churches, 179. Newman (J. H.), Parochial Sermons, h. 206. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, v. (1859), No.
226 ; xxi. (1875), No. 1223. Thomson (E. A.), Memorials of a Ministry, 68. Thorold (A W.), Questions of Faith and Duty, 78. Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 278 (Tuck) ; xxv. 282 (Johnson).