the perpetual giver...

Thanksgiving sermon week continues today with this from James Freeman Clarke...

"THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT
"Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift."— 2 Cor

"The text says, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift." Before we consider what this unspeakable gift is, let us consider those which can be easily spoken of.

What a wonderful world is this into which we have been born! What beauty, what variety, what majestic presence of law, what vast order, what infinite adaptations to the purposes of life!...

Life is a little day, but how it is filled with opportunity for knowledge, for work, for love. It has room in it for the sublime voices of prophets, bards, leaders, reformers, saints and martyrs. It has room for the happy homes of those whose sober wishes do not learn to stray from the cool sequestered vale of familiar affections. It has room for dear little children, innocent infants, with an aureole of divine light around them. It has room for generosity, patience, hope and self denying love. It has room for pain borne without repining, for bereavement sustained by faith, for a death made sweet by an infinite hope. It has room for love of wife and husband, for the tenderness of the parent and the piety of the child. It has joys and work and duties for youth, manhood and age. These gifts are evident ; they are new every morning. God opens his hand and supplies the wants of every living thing. He is the perpetual giver. His joy is in never-ceasing creation. The fountain of his love pours forth new supplies each moment. If his gifts are perpetually passing away, it is that they may be forever renewed..."

Blessings