I was sitting the other day in a large assemblage, where a sense of duty and not choice had taken me; and looking round upon it, I felt, in some measure, the pain of being a stranger, exposed, it might be, to notice and inquiry. My thoughts soon turned to my loved and deeply-remembered child; I fancied I saw him enter the room, and like myself suffer under the uneasiness of beholding a large, unknown assembly. But then, following my fancy, I thought of his suddenly turning his eye on me, and at once, without asking leave, taking part of my chair, and using my side as a shelter from all that was paining and disturbing him; and finding there more than a shelter, a loophole and calm retreat, from whence to look on the scene rather with delight than with painful amazement.
This parable was very sweet to my mind. It told me that such was the way of my Lord to me, and that such it would be to me, though the bright assemblage of unknown glories were all to open on my view in a moment. This was happy; but from this parable I drew more.
I concluded how important I and my confidence were to my Lord, if He and His presence were thus important to me. Because I was assured that, in the case assumed, my child was imparting more to me than I was to him. He was finding a shelter at my side; and in an instant a strange place, full of painful surprise to him, became more than a mere home to him. He was at ease, and I alone had made him so. This was my value to him. But then he was using my side and my presence without asking, or even thinking of asking, my leave; and this confidence, I was assured, made me far happier than my presence and shelter made him. And this was his value to me.
Did I not taste that it was more blessed to give than to receive? Did I not rejoice with joy of a higher order? How was the value and sufficiency of my presence set off under my own eye! I was everything, as I saw in my fancy, to my startled child; and he took everything at my hand without reserve or question. What value was he in all this to the purest happiness of my heart! And in the parable, I am the same to the
Lord in whom I trust. I claim anchorage at His side in full conscious safety; let the scene around, or without, he what it may. It may be altogether strange to me; but that is nothing. It may have splendors to dazzle me with, and even terrors and judgments to alarm; His side is enough for me. But all the while He is in a wealthier place than I am, and sits at a richer feast. For, "it is more blessed to give than to receive."
J. G. B.