n never to have loved at all.'

It is but a quavering voice of praise, with many a sob between, that
goes up to bless God for anything but spiritual blessings. Though it is
true that all which comes from the Father of Lights is light, the
sorrows and troubles that He sends have the light terribly muffled in
darkness, and it needs strong faith and insight to pierce through the
cloud to see the gleam of anything bright beneath. But when we turn to
this other region, and think of what comes to every poor, tremulous,
human heart, that likes to take it through that Divine Spirit--the
forgiveness of sins, the rectification of errors, the purification of
lusts and passions, the gleams of hope on the future, and the access
with confidence into the standing and place of children; oh, then surely
we can say, 'Blessed be God for spiritual blessings.'

But if the word which defines may thus seem to limit, the other word
which accompanies it sweeps away every limit; for it calls upon us to
bless God for _all_ spiritual blessings. That is to say, there is no gap
in His gift. It is rounded and complete and perfect. Whatever a man's
needs may require, whatever his hopes can dream, whatever his wishes can
stretch out towards, it is all here, compacted and complete. The
spiritual gifts are encyclopaediacal and all-sufficient. They are not
segments, but completed circles. When God gives He gives amply.

II. So much, then, for the first point; now, in the second place, note
the one divine act by which all these blessings have been bestowed.

'Blessed be God who _has_ given'; or, still more definitely, pointing to
some one specific moment and deed in which the benefaction was
completed, 'Blessed be God who gave.'

When? Well, ideally in the depths of His own eternal mind the gift was
complete or ever the recipients were created to receive it, and
historically the gift was complete in the act of redemption when He
spared not His Own Son, but gave Him up unto the death for us all. A man
may destine an estate for the benefit of some community which for
generations long may continue to enjoy its benefits, but the gift is
complete when he signs the deed that makes it over. Humphrey Chetham
gave the boys in his school to-day their education when, centuries ago,
he assigned his property to that beneficent purpose. So, away back in
the mists of Eternity the gift was completed, and the signature was put
to the deed when Jesus Christ was born, an