I asked for bread; God gave a stone instead. Yet, while I pillowed there my weary head. The angels made a ladder of my dreams, Which upward to celestial mountains led. And, when I woke beneath the morning's beams, Around my resting place fresh manna lay; And, praising God, I went upon my way. For I was fed.
God answers prayer ; sometimes, when hearts are weak. He gives the very gifts believers seek. But often faith must learn a deeper rest, And trust God's silence when He does not speak; For He whose name is Love will send the best. Stars may burn out, nor mountain walls endure, But God is true. His promises are sure To those who seek.
II.
The Giver.
" Every good gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of lights."
1. These words plainly state that all good and perfect gifts come from one and the same source — that every good gift and every perfect boon has its origin beyond time, beyond earth and man, beyond all secondary and creaturely causes, in the Eternal
^ James Vaughan.
JAMES I. 17 7
Uncreated Divine First Cause — that all physical beauties, all providential bounties, all gracious influences, all that is true, all that is lovely, all that is pure and righteous and holy, all genuine satisfactions, all real blessings, are from the all-perfect and all- loving Father in whom we and all things live and move and have our being. As all rays of sunlight issue from the sun, so all good gifts are bestowed by the one good Giver. The sun in the heavens ever raying forth light and heat, and so beautifying and nourishing all nature, is an emblem of God and His giving ; but bright and glorious although it be, it is only a feeble and inade- quate emblem. God is all light, pure light ; has no darkness or shadow in Himself; can have no darkness or shadow pass over Him ; and His light shines. His good and perfect gifts flow forth from Him, without interruption, without cessation.
^ The rising sun first illumines the loftiest mountain top, and then the light creeps down from the higher to the lower levels, and at last fills all the valleys with its radiance. In some remote primitive parts of Switzerland a man stands at early dawn on a rising ground near his village, and when he sees the highest snowy peak flushing red with the first rays of the sun, he sounds his alpine horn, and all in the neighbourhood who hear it know that a new day has begun, and they prepare to go forth to their labours.^
2. " Every man," says Solomon, " is a friend to him that giveth gifts." How then, we may ask, is it that God, the Giver of all good gifts, has not more friends on earth ? The reason is that we do not remember God's mercies and are not sufficiently grate- ful for them. But God does not cease giving because we forget the Giver. He gives as a father to his children.
(1) The " Father of lights " is not too high above the earth to remember His children. It is the good pleasure of the Father to give to His children. He does not bargain with them — so much blessing for so much service. He gives, and gives freely and liberally, all that we need. He is the all-wise and the all-loving God, and therefore He can give only the perfect things — that which is best fitted to make us truly blessed. He does not give capriciously or by partiality, bestowing upon one and withholding from another. He knows the things that we need, and He will
1 H. Macraillan, The Gate Beautiful, 224.
8 THE GOOD GIFTS OF THE FATHER
give them to us; not a stone but bread for our hunger, not a serpent but an egg for our feast.
Good tidings every day.
God's messengers ride fast.
We do not hear one half they say, There is such noise on the highway.
Where we must wait till they ride past.
Their hands throw treasures round
Among the multitude.
No pause, no choice, no count, no bound, No questioning how men are found,
If they be evil or be good.
And of the multitude.
No man but in his hand
Holds some great gift misunderstood, Some treasure, for whose use or good
His ignorance sees no demand.
These are the tokens lent By immortality;
Birth-marks of our divine descent;
Sureties of ultimate intent, God's gospel of Eternity.^
(2) We receive many of our blessings as a matter of course, blessings from a Father's hand, which we have received in the weakness of infancy, throughout our manhood and womanhood ; strewn along the path of our more mature life, showered down upon us with unchanging constancy in our old age. What delights the Father is our coming and asking. " Ye receive not," says St. James, " because ye ask not."
^ Good must be voluntarily accepted. We must make it clear that we want it. There had been ten preparatory days of prayer before the promise of the Pentecost could be fulfilled. And it has invariably been observed that, whenever a great outpouring of spiritual blessing has been experienced, the gift has been pre- ceded by a stirring of strong desire in those who knew the value of prayer.2