heavenly, the other an earthly one; and this in a double respect, first, as to the natural attributes and qualities, and, secondly, as to moral attributes of each parent.

As to the natural powers and attributes, then, of the earthly parent, independently of the fall and corruption of man, what measure of proportion is there between them, and those of the incomprehensible and infinite God?

Man's affections for his children are feeble, limited, inconstant. His knowledge of what is good for them, partial and obscure; his power of helping them, slight and capable of being opposed and thwarted by accidents; his means of supply, contracted and liable to diminution by all he expends; whilst he is capable only of being in one place at a time, for the purpose of affording even the partial help he has in his power. Jacob was not present with his beloved Joseph, nor the Shunamite mother with her son, in the hour of exigency. The parents of Moses were compelled to entrust the babe to the ark of bulrushes and the river. Hagar could do nothing for Ishmael but cast him under a bush, saying, "Let me not see the death of the child." The widow of Nain could only follow the bier of the son whom she could not save. Nor could the nobleman do more than entreat Christ, saying, "Sir, come down ere my child die.”

The inference is obvious. If, notwithstanding this feebleness of natural attributes, the earthly parent is so far from refusing or mocking his children. with vain or injurious gifts, that he knows how to bestow what is suitable and good upon them; how much more shall our heavenly Father, who carries out to an infinite extent all those powers and attributes, which in the earthly parent are so faint as scarcely to bear the most remote resemblance to them, give "good gifts," in the highest sense of the expression,

to his children who ask him? Is it possible for a mo→ ment to suppose that such a heavenly Father will give a stone for bread, or a serpent for a fish, or for an egg a scorpion? Is he not infinitely kind and good? Does he not love his children with an affection, in comparison with which that of earthly parents sinks into nothing? And is he less wise than he is good? Is he not "the only wise God?" Does he not know every thing that is really best for us-the time, manner, circumstances for accomplishing his designs? What is the feeble glimmering of human knowledge compared with divine? Did not God choose the best gifts for Abraham, and Jacob, and Job, and Hezekiah, and his other servants of old? Nor is his power less than his goodness and wisdom: "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" Can any stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?" And does not his all-sufficiency, again, stand in contrast to the narrow stores of the human parent; as well as his omnipresence to the single spot where only the earthly parent can act ?

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But there is a second branch of the comparison between the two parents, of the greatest importance. Our heavenly Father is of infinite and unspotted holiness; his moral attributes are unspeakably pure; he is entirely free from that "evil," which since the fall of Adam, infects the nature of man. This is stated in a clause interposed by our Savior when deducing his argument: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children." The corruption of nature, which is continually asserted and taught in Holy Scripture, is here incidentally adverted to, as a well known and admitted fact. Earthly parents are "evil." They are sinful creatures. They partake of a fallen, evil, ruined nature; have many sinful passions, many prejudices, many partialities. They have much ignorance arising from this their fallen condition. Sometimes

envy, avarice, ambition, love of pleasure, ostentation, pride, interpose in their judgment of what constitutes their children's good. A want of due perception of spiritual and eternal things often leads them to ruin their children by worldly examples, pleasures, and pursuits. Jacob's partiality to Joseph exposed him to the envy of his brethren by the gift of the manycolored robe. Rebecca taught deceit to her son, and encouraged him to impose most dishonestly on Isaac and Esau. The mother of Micah was little able to give good gifts unto her son, in whose presence she cursed about her idolatrous images. Nor could the daughter of Herodias, when dancing before Herod, and asking at her mother's instruction the head of John Baptist, have learned from that wicked parent many lessons of purity and virtue. It is implied, also, by the apostle's caution on the subject, that fathers are prone to provoke their children to wrath." And when the author of the epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us to be subject to the "Father of our spirits and live," he does it by instituting a contrast between him and "the fathers of our flesh, who verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;" that is, with wantonness and caprice.

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But I need not say how infinitely free from all imperfection and moral evil, or any the least approach to it, our Almighty parent is. His inconceivably holy character exalts him as much above us in respect of our sinfulness, as his infinitely glorious nature does as regards our feebleness and limited powers.

The argument, then, will now stand thus. If earthly parents, weak in themselves as creatures, and often mistaken and perverted in their judgment as sinful creatures, are yet led by natural affection to avoid refusing, mocking, deceiving their offspring; and, on the contrary, give them good gifts how much more will that glorious Parent whose abode is heaven, and who is infinitely exalted

above all the defects and errors incident to man, not give a stone, as it were, for bread, or a scorpion for an egg, but will rather bestow the highest and best gifts on his children!

3. The full force however of this expression," how much more," it is impossible to state; because no one can adequately understand either the fulness and corruption of the parents whose abode is earth, and who are "the fathers of our flesh;" or the almighty and infinite purity of him who is the Father of our spirits."

This is, then, the conception we are to form of the object of our worship. We are to think of him as of a tender parent, ready and able to help us. We are to think of him as the father of the prodigal in our Lord's parable, who saw him when he was a great way off, and had compassion on him, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him.”

This just conception of our God is most important as an encouragement to prayer. Without something of it, we cannot pray aright, we cannot rise up to the Deity, we can have no filial feelings, no expansive desires, no childlike confidence, no meek and patient resignation.

Nor is it easy to form this just notion of our heavenly Father's benignant, attractive, condescending character. To presume indeed generally on the mercy of God, when we are careless about religion, is abundantly easy. But to see God infinitely great and holy, and yet good; displeased with sin and with us as sinners, and yet good; just and righteous in the sanction of his law, and yet good; utterly rejecting all ways of propitiating him except the new and living one which he hath consecrated for us in the sacrifice of his Son, and yet good-to see all this, and yet to believe that he is a tender Father infinitely more able and disposed to bestow on us

good gifts than any earthly parent, is no easy matter. It can only proceed from that deep and affecting sense of our own sinfulness, demerit, and desert of punishment; and from that humble faith in the scriptural character of God, as in "Christ reconciling the world unto himself," which the teaching of the blessed Spirit communicates.

It is Satan's common art to represent God to the sinner at first as easy to be pacified; as too merciful to punish eternally any except a few outrageous transgressors; and as accepting our religious homage, though without any change of heart, or reliance on the atonement of Christ, or new course of conduct. But when this policy fails, he next labors to terrify us from God by false conceptions of his severity, justice, righteousness, awful judgments; by the straitness of the gate, and the narrowness of the way which leadeth to life."

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To oppose these suggestions, we must hold fast by the Fatherly character of God in Christ Jesus as set forth by our Lord in the text, to every sincere and penitent supplicant. We must attribute indeed, and justly, all our misery to ourselves; but to him we should ascribe all goodness, compassion, and truth. We should perpetually argue with our distrustful heart, and say, Would an earthly parent, though evil, know how to give good gifts unto his children; and shall not my heavenly Father much more vouchsafe me good things, if I devoutly ask him?

But this leads us to consider,

II. The chief blessing to be sought for in prayer. "How much more," saith our Lord," shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

This, then, is the brief but emphatic direction as to the blessings we are first to sue for. After this careful removal of false conceptions of the object