giving. But is not so absolutely unlimited a promise as this
convicted of complete unreality when contrasted with the facts of any
life, even of the most truly Christian or the most outwardly happy? Its
contradiction of the grim facts of experience is not to be slurred over
by restricting it to religious needs only. The promise needs the eye of
Faith to interpret the facts of experience, and to let nothing darken
the clear vision that if any seeming need is left by God unfilled, it is
not an indispensable need. If we do not get what we want we may be quite
sure that we do not need it. The axiom of Christian faith is that
whatever we do not obtain we do not require. Very desirable things may
still not be necessary. Let us limit our notions of necessity by the
facts of God's giving, and then we, too, shall have learned, in
whatsoever state we are, therein to be content. When the Apostle says
that God shall fill all our need full up to the brim, was he
contemplating only such necessities as God could supply through outward
gifts? Surely not. God Himself is the filler and the only filler of a
human heart, and it is by this impartation of Himself and by nothing
else that He bestows upon us the supply of our needs.

Unless we have been initiated into this deepest and yet simplest secret
of life, it will be full of gnawing pain and unfulfilled longings.
Unless we have learned that our needs are like the cracks in the parched
ground, cups to hold the rain from heaven, doors by which God Himself
can come to us, we shall dwell for ever in a dry and thirsty land. God
Himself is the only satisfier of the soul. 'Whom have I in heaven but
Thee, and there is none upon earth that'--if I am not a fool--'I desire
side by side with Thee?'

But Paul here sets forth in very bold words the measure or limits of the
divine supply of our need. It is 'according to His riches in glory.'
Then, all of God belongs to me, and the whole wealth of His aggregated
perfections is available for stopping the crannies of my heart and
filling its emptiness. My emptiness corresponds with His fulness as some
concavity does with the convexity that fits into it, and the whole that
He is waits to fill and to satisfy me. There is no limit really to what
a man may have of God except the limitless limit of the infinite divine
nature, but on the other hand this great promise is not fulfilled all at
once, and whilst the actual limit is the boundlessness of God, there