1 Chronicles 25:5

"Handfuls of Purpose,"

For All Gleaners

"And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters." 1 Chronicles 25:5 .

We mistake if we think that the sons and the daughters belonged to Heman alone. Heman himself would have taken a false estimate of the occasion if he had called these sons and daughters his own in any sense of proprietorship and right of destiny. It is only in a secondary sense that the child belongs to the human father; the father himself is a child, and every child is God's. Blessed and beautiful indeed is the dispensation by which even secondary ownership may become inspired with sacrificial love, a love that would give itself away to save the object on which its solicitudes are fastened. We must come to Job's state of mind if we would rightly accept the dispensations of Providence. Job did not say that the property and the children were all his own, and that he had indefeasible rights to them; he recognised the higher proprietorship, and was thus enabled to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Think of every child being a gift of God, a special, direct, immediate presentation from heaven, as a man might cull a flower and give it to a friend, or take a lamb of the flock and present it to some one who would love it and cherish it for the owner's sake. This is the right view of children; they are God's gifts; parents are God's trustees; we are to hear what the mother of Moses heard when the daughter of Pharaoh spake to her saying, "Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." This is God's charge to parents: Take this child; it is mine, keep it in my name, train it for my service, instruct it in my law, and when I send for it yield it to me as to an owner who has the right of claim. The religious interpretation of life always enlarges daily blessings, family mercies, household comforts. Let a man think that he himself has earned his bread, and has a right to it, without consulting any power, high or low, and the feast will be but a poor satisfaction even of natural hunger: but let a man see in every loaf God's whole system of growth and ministry and sustenance, a condensation of divine providence, and a special gift of divine affection, and instantly the hunger of his soul will be satisfied, and his home will glow as with the presence of holy angels. It is not enough to recognise Providence in some general way, as giving other people their children, and giving other people their blessings: a direct and special application of the law must be made by every man, and must be recognised in every house; then we shall have earnest piety, rational devotion, consecration to God founded upon fact and indisputable evidence.