The Wise Man tells us that "the glory of children are their fathers" (Prov. xvii 6). What then must be the glory that belongs to us as the children of God! We have a Father who is infinite in His Divine perfections; one whose majesty, beauty, holiness, power, and knowledge no words can describe, no heart imagine. How proud we, the children of such a Father, ought to be! How we ought to love Him, honor Him, and seek to imitate Him! How sweet ought the Name of our Father in Heaven be to us His children!

When we turn from His glory to our own misery, how full of shame and of humility we should become! "Father, I am unworthy to be called Thy son. How often have I disgraced my noble lineage! How often have I done my best to efface that likeness to Thee which alone constitutes true loveliness! How I have dishonoured Thy Name by my words and deeds!" "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to Thy great mercy, and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity" (Psalm I. I, 2).

How can I, who am so vile, view the contrast between the Father and His child without being disheartened and discouraged? I can, when I remember that my Father has a Son of the same nature as myself, and that in that Son and through His merits, and because of my relationship to Him, my Father in Heaven forgets all my unworthiness, and welcomes me to His Divine love! He loves me in Christ, and for Christ's sake, and so I need not fear. "In His grace He has graced us in His beloved Son" (Ephes. i. 6) . "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."