infinitely more light than all the dewdrops ever did or
ever will reflect. And so of our heavenly FATHER: Himself the great
Source of all that is noble and true, of all that ever has been loving
and trust-worthy--each beautiful trait of each beautiful character is
but the dim reflection of some ray of His own great perfection. And the
sum-total of all human goodness, and tenderness, and love is but as the
dewdrops to the sun. How blessed then to confide in the infinite and
changeless love of such a FATHER--our FATHER in heaven!

How safe too! "There is none like unto the GOD of Jeshurun, who rideth
upon the heaven in thy help, and in His excellency on the sky. The
eternal GOD is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Ofttimes where the love of earthly parents has not failed, yet have they
been powerless to bless and to keep. The cruel tyrant has tortured the
parent in torturing the child; while there has been no power to deliver.
And in the presence of human want or suffering how impotent has the
strongest human love oft proved to be! Not so the love of our heavenly
FATHER: His resources and His power are as inexhaustible as His love;
and they are blest and kept indeed whom He deigns to bless and keep.

May we not add "they only"? The foolish prodigal imagines that he can
secure greater happiness for himself when no longer curbed by his
father's presence and will; such always come to want, and, alas! do not
always return quickly to the home where reconciliation and blessing
alone are to be found. He is poorly kept who tries to keep himself; and
though the pleasures of sin may for a season gratify, they can never
satisfy![B]

"JEHOVAH, the FATHER, bless _thee_, and keep _thee_." It is an
individual blessing: and it includes every form of blessing, temporal as
well as spiritual--"My GOD shall supply all your need"; and this
"according to His riches in glory in CHRIST JESUS," not according to our
consciousness of need. He is _able_ to bless, able to make all grace
abound--to so wonderfully abound towards us, that we always having all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: He is able to
keep--to keep us from falling, to keep us from all evil. And not only is
He able, but He has already "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly things in CHRIST," and He wants us, His children, to know and
to enjoy the love that is the source of all blessing: the love that can
never by finite wor