66

him at once to perceive that there is only one way in which these bestowments can be correctly accounted for on the part of God--one only way in which they can either be rightly accepted, duly acknowledged, or properly employed on the part of man. He had ascended from mercy to mercy, and now he has reached the climax of his blessedness in the heart of God as his Father, and, therefore, he pours forth his highest notes of praise upon this highest string of all earthly relationships, and says, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust." The right contemplation of our blessings, leads us directly into the heart of their Bestower. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning." James i. 17. The Psalmist rises above and beyond the mercy displayed in works of beneficence, and the forgiveness exhibited in acts of pardon. These are outward-these are expressions-these are results-these are streams. David now passes from the outward to the inward,-from the expression to the feeling,-from the results to the cause,from the stream to the fountain. He searches into the inner workings and recesses of the Divine benevolence, and rejoices to behold immeasurable compassions treasured there,-the heart of God abounding with paternal pity. Oh, rich and inexhaustible mine in the Divine bosom ! Blind and ignorant creature that I am, I valued it not at all. I sought my pleasures and my profits, on the mere surface of things. I knew not this hidden wealth; but He that knew it

from all eternity, the only begotten Son, hath come forth out of that bosom, to declare its treasures to my soul, to lead me into that mine, and to make it all my own!

Glorious is the discovery which a poor sinner thus makes, under the guidance of the good Spirit. Trials, difficulties, and disappointments, may have attended all his previous searchings. Now, by that unerring Spirit, he is led away from things seen and outward, and he is taken down, as it were, underground, by a deep and dark descent. He is led along through the various workings of sin and self, where the cross-shafts of Satan, and the world, and the flesh, meet him at every turn. Tremblings, it may be, seize his limbs, cold damps stand upon his forehead, and temptations to go back, and hesitations to go forward, rise thick and fast upon his heart. Aided, however, by divine grace, he grasps more firmly the safety lamp of the Word, as it brightly burns. with the oil of the Spirit. Re-established in confidence, he presses courageously forward, and reaches the spot where the rich vein shows itself. Entranced, he gazes with admiration upon its sparkling brightness, and scans in vain its breadth and length, its depth and height; these, he is informed, are all immeasurable: and astonished is his soul, with a great astonishment, when he is next informed, “ All this is yours in Christ.”

66

What a discovery for thee, poor sinner, that thou hast a treasure in the heart of God! Where now are thy regrets, after the surface-world thou hast left? Where are the fears that oppressed thee in the dark and terrible passages of thy descent? Where are thy temptations to return? Are they

not all fled at this joyful discovery? Welcome, wilt thou now say, welcome is the darkness of the pit, welcome are the damps of self-abhorrence, and welcome are the difficult and narrow passages of the world, since I have found this treasure at the end of them. Oh, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. The bitterest weanings from things seen and superficial, have been to me most blessed. Gladly do I give up whatsoever the world holds dear. For very joy, I will now sell all that I have, and buy this priceless field. Hither will I repair by night, by day, that I may count my spiritual wealth. Descending to my hidden treasure, standing within this spiritual mine, above and beneath me, on the right hand and on the left, are the rich ores of grace. I am surrounded still with God. His heart abounds with thoughts, desires, and purposes of love and pity towards me. Oh, it is good for me to be here--to be hid in God through Jesus Christ. "How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee." Psa. cxxxix. 17, 18.

Of all the names by which Jehovah has revealed His character, there is none more endearing than the title of Father. Man by nature knows not God in this near relationship. One great object of the Saviour's mission into our world was to manifest the Father. "I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me, may be in them and I in them." John xvii. 26. Teaching his disciples how to address their Great

Creator, the blessed Redeemer said, "When ye pray, say Our Father."

The God we have offended, presents Himself before us in the relation of a Father, and invites us to occupy toward Him the position of children. This is the relation from which sin had cast us out, and to which Christ has come to restore us. He condescended to occupy the place of an earthly child, that we might obtain the privilege of heavenly adoption. That adoption not more surely implies mutual obligations, than by grace it certainly ensures their mutual performance. "But I said, how shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, thou shall call me, My Father; and shalt not turn away from Me." Jer. iii. 19.

The title of Father, applied to God, implies that He is able and willing to bestow all the kindness and the benefits which a child may require. To call ourselves His adopted children, implies that we are bound and desirous to render to Him all the obedience and affection which a parent can demand.

Really to know God as a Father in Christ Jesus, will both effectually convince our heart of His paternal "pity," and inspire it with filial "fear." Without this knowledge we can neither appreciate the former sentiment on His part, nor exhibit the latter on our own. Indeed, we never scripturally and spiritually know the great God, till we have learned to regard Him in Christ Jesus as our Father. We may know a great deal about the Maker of heaven and earth we may believe that He is, and that He possesses wisdom and power

unrivalled, and holiness and goodness unsurpassed. We may be able to describe the whole circle of His glorious attributes; but a collection of attributes, however glorious, is not God. The Jews, His covenanted people, their scribes, their priests, and learned doctors of the law, knew a great deal about the Almighty; they conceived that they had learned all that was necessary to be known of Him; and they could even in words declare that He was their Father. But Jesus, His true Son, told them that they knew Him not. John viii. 21, 54, 55.

Till the heart of man, as a child, is brought to know and to love God as a Father in Christ Jesus, all other knowledge of Him is ineffectual to salvation. It is the felt and sanctifying apprehension of this nearest and most important of all relationships which unites us to our Great Creator in the closest bond, and produces within us the purest love, the deepest reverence. Suppose a child to have been early separated from its parents, by one or other of the many vicissitudes of life, and to have grown up to manhood without any personal knowledge of its father. It may have been in a dark night, amid the perils of the deep, when a gallant vessel struck upon a rock, and went to pieces before the morning dawn. Some of the passengers and crew may have found a watery grave, while "some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship, may have ́escaped to land.” A young emigrant-merchant may have sought, amongst the rescued remnant on the strand, for his wife and child, but he may have sought in vain; and then, disconsolate and miserable, he may have gathered the wreck of his fortunes to