god's readiness to GIVE HIS HOLY SPIRIT.
Matt. vii. 9 — 11. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, 'will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, zvill he give him a serpent? If ye the?i, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him ?
TO argue from ourselves to the Deity, and to con- clude that, because we should do, or forbear any particular thing, he would do the same, is, in many- cases, extremely fallacious ; because many things may be proper as a rule of our conduct towards others, which can in no respect be applied to the moral
Governor of the universe. There are, however, some instances wherein such an argument may be urged, not only with propriety, but with great effect. Such an instance occurs in the passage we have now read ; in considering which, we shall,
I. Point out the force of our Lord's appeal —
Our Lord addresses himself both to our feelings and our jiidg7nent —
[Men who cannot understand a logical deduction, may comprehend, without any difficulty, the argument before us. Every one, whether he be a parent or not, knows sufficiently the feelings of a parent, to answer the question here put to him. We can scarcely conceive that any father should so divest himself of all the sensibilities of his nature, as to refuse a piece of bread to his child. Much less can we imagine, that he should mock his child, by offering him a stone ; or give him, instead of necessary food, a serpent or scorpion to destroy him. Who then would think of ascribing such a disposition to God? God is the common parent of all his creatures ; and he well knows that his Spirit is as necessary for the imparting and maintaining of spiritual life, as bread is for the support of our natural life. Will he then refuse that blessing to us, when we ask it at his hands ; and leave us to perish without affording us the needful succour? It may happen, that an earthly parent may be indisposed, by passion or caprice, to do what is right ; or he may be disabled through poverty : but there are no such impediments on the part of God, since he is subject to no infir- mities ; nor is there any thing impossible with him. We may be sure therefore that he will at all times act worthy of the relation which he bears to his creatures.]
But the force of the appeal lies in the contrast between God and us —
[At first sight the appeal may seem inconclusive, since our children have a claim upon us, but we have none on God ; and the gift of a piece of bread bears no proportion whatever to the unspeakable gift of God's Spirit. But it must be consi- dered that we are " evil," so evil as to be capable of the greatest cruelties even towards our own children. Instances have occurred, wherein parents have not only murdered, but even eaten, their own offspring^; and the treating of them with extreme harshness and severity is no uncommon failing. Yet, with all our proneness to evil, and our readiness, under the influence of passion or temptation, to commit the greatest enor- mities, there cannot be found a person on earth so depraved, as
a 2 Kings vi. 28, 29.