the petition. For indeed, in every act of His
quickening grace, in every God-given increase of our knowledge of God,
in every bestowment of His fulness, there is always more bestowed than
we receive, more than we know even while we possess it. Like some gift
given in the dark, its true preciousness is not discerned when it is
first received. The gleam of the gold does not strike our eye all at
once. There is ever an unknown margin felt by us to be over after our
capacity of receiving is exhausted. 'And they took up of the fragments
that remained, twelve baskets full.'

So, then, let us remember that while our thoughts and prayers can never
reach to the full perception, or reception either, of the gift, the
exuberant amplitude with which it reaches far beyond both is meant to
draw both after it. And let us not forget either that, while the grace
which we receive has no limit or measure but the fulness of God, the
working limit, which determines what we receive of the grace, is these
very thoughts and wishes which it surpasses. We may have as much of God
as we can hold, as much as we wish. All Niagara may roar past a man's
door, but only as much as he diverts through his own sluice will drive
his mill, or quench his thirst. God's grace is like the figures in the
Eastern tales, that will creep into a narrow room no bigger than a
nutshell, or will tower heaven high. Our spirits are like the magic tent
whose walls expanded or contracted at the owner's wish--we may enlarge
them to enclose far more of the grace than we have ever possessed. We
are not straitened in God, but in ourselves. He is 'able to do exceeding
abundantly above what we ask or think.' Therefore let us stretch desires
and thoughts to their utmost, remembering that, while they can never
reach the measure of His grace in itself, they make the practical
measure of our possession of it. 'According to thy faith' is the real
measure of the gift received, even though 'according to the riches of
His glory' be the measure of the gift bestowed. Note, again,

III. The glory that springs from the divine work.

'The glory of God' is the lustre of His own perfect character, the
bright sum total of all the blended brilliances that compose His name.
When that light is welcomed and adored by men, they are said to 'give
glory to God,' and this doxology is at once a prophecy that the working
of God's power on His redeemed children will issue in setting forth the
radiance of