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GIFTS AND THE GIVER

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 40.

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GIFTS AND THE GIVER.

It is a strange infatuation that causes us to love the creature rather than the Creator. There is nothing in all this world that is good and bright and gladdening, but comes from the hand of God. Every flower that delights the eye with beauty and flings its fragrance on the air; every sunbeam that cheers the world and dispels its gloom; every flavor that regales the taste, every sound that charms the ear, every sight that delights the eye, every comfort that gladdens the heart, comes from Him, our heavenly Father and our almighty Friend. "Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning."
But the Giver is greater than the gift. The fountain must be more than the stream, and he who has bestowed all this upon us, has every possible claim to receive our supreme affection for what he is as well as what he has done. It is no idle or unreasonable command that we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls. It is the clearest dictate of reason and intelligence that he who blesses us with his bounty should receive in return our grateful affection. A man bestows upon us some trifling gift and we thank him. God gives us a thousand, yea, ten thousand gifts, and there are those who never speak his name except with a curse, who have never thanked him for one thing which he has done for them. How unreasonable, how foolish, how sinful such ingratitude must be. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." These two commands, if obeyed, will fill us with peace and crown us with blessing. We shall find our truest wisdom and our highest joy in obeying him who has blessed us with such wondrous blessings, and who still waits to bestow his gifts upon us, and make us heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.—The Christian.