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HEAVEN GAVE THE BEST

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 15, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 7.

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HEAVEN GAVE THE BEST.

By T.

THERE is no treasure that is prized by a true and natural father so highly as a faithful and only son. There is nothing that he would not give to save such a son from disease and death. If he is dangerously ill, the very best medical skill obtainable is employed. And so devoted is the fond father to his son that he would not only give up every dollar of his wealth, but even his life is not held too precious to sacrifice for his beloved offspring. Ask the fond mother, as she presses her first-born son to her bosom, what she prizes as the dearest thing on earth. Her beaming eyes, as she raises them from beholding her treasure, will tell you the deep sentiments of her heart.
Fathers and mothers, suppose that you were called upon to make the most priceless gift that is within your power to bestow in order that you might show your fervent love to another. Would houses or lands or silver or gold or any other treasure of wealth be equal to a well-beloved son? There are many treasures that we may prize very highly, but none of them are so priceless in their unspeakable value as our children.
Then when our heavenly Father gave us His Son, He gave us the very dearest, the most incalculably priceless, the most touchingly tender gift that divine love could bestow. Is it any marvel that one apostle should say to us, "God is love"? And what consolation in the words of another apostle, saying, "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"! And that precious text (John 3:16) must ever become dearer and dearer to us, and filled with a deeper and ever still deeper meaning. Let us read it again together, for, while it is "the old, old story," yet it is also the new, new story that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
God commends His love toward us by the rich Gift with which He has paid the price of our salvation. And had He not loved us beyond the powers of human language to describe or human intellect to fathom, how could He have given us "His only-begotten Son"? It was love, the deepest, the fullest, and the tenderest love, that led our heavenly Father to lavish upon humanity the richest treasure of His heart.
He manifested that love toward us in order that He might win us from the ways of sin and death back to His haven of rest and righteousness. When such loving-kindness is fully manifested toward us, how can we find it in our hearts to resist it?
And since Heaven has bestowed upon us the choicest gift in its possession, with what devotion should we render our very best service to our heavenly Father in return! He has given us the best that He has; can we be ungrateful enough to give Him anything short of our best? With the Lord's rich gift before our minds, can we find it in our hearts to hold anything in reserve?
We are altogether worthless. Our nature is that of sin. When we look upon our lives and characters we find them full of defects, and we wonder what the Lord can see in us that He wants. But He loves us, regardless of all our sins, and wants us for Himself. And since He made no reserve, but gave His best gift for our ransom, this should cause a well of gratitude to spring up within our hearts that would lead us to place all upon the altar.
O, if we would only take the time to reflect upon our Father's love, what changes would be wrought in our lives! We could not be so ungrateful as to make any reserve in our devotion to Him. And when the Lord asks us to yield to Him fully it is not that He may receive some selfish benefit out of it, but that we may be brought back to the peaceable ways of righteousness and joy. And in changing our night into day, our mourning into gladness, our sin into righteousness, He finds His own infinite delight. It is worth our while to place what there is of us wholly in our Father's hands. It is base ingratitude not to do it.