By Rev. W. J. Grant, M.A. age, and, bringing all three lads with her, she solemnly and prayerfully consecrated herself to the sacred task of rearing them in the fear and nurture o f the Lord. The eldest young ster had reached an age where he could understand and appre ciate what was being said. Eventually I put my hand upon his head, and said, “ The Lord bless you and keep you.” He looked up into my face with thoughtful eyes, and unquestion ably was awed by the little service. Was he wondering what was the meaning of the invocation? He certainly sent the min ister home, asking himself what the words blessing and blessed really meant. If the lad had asked for an explanation, the minister would have had to grope about fo r an answer. What is this blessing which appears so often in the Bible, and which people covet today? Dr. Boreham, in his ministerial jubilee book A Late Lark Singing, retells the story o f Sir Walter Scott, the hero o f the border country of Scotland, be stowing a blessing upon the little daughter o f James Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd. Scott had dropped in at Hogg’s home. It is related: “ Before leaving, he smiled affectionately at Mr. and Mrs. Hogg’s little daughter, walked to where she was sit ting, took her up in his arms, kissed her, set her down again, and then, laying his hand devoutly on her head, exclaimed fervently and impressively, ‘God Almighty bless you, my dear child! God bless you !’ When James Hogg came back into the house after bidding farewell to Scott, he found his wife in tears. ‘ Oh,’ she cried, ‘I would have given everything I possess in this world— everything—everything—if only he had done the same to all the children!’ ”
A ARON and his sons were commissioned and instructed by God to bless the children o f Israel. The words of that blessing were on this wise: “ The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace” (Num. 6:24-26). The reverberations o f that blessing have reached to all Christian experience. Beati tudes dot the sacred pages o f Holy Writ like stars in an even ing sky. Paul, in a day far removed from that o f Aaron, con sidering the blessing o f God, which had been kept alive, could not contain himself in steady prose, but burst forth into a poem o f praise as he wrote, “ Blessed be the God and Father o f our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1 :3 ). The echoes o f the blessings can still be heard in the remotest regions of popular sentiment and speech. ‘Good night and God bless you; God bless you, my dear’.” What does blessing mean? This question came very forcibly to me once when a mother brought her three sons to be dedi cated. The youngest was but a baby, the eldest eight: all three were bright, attractive lads. The husband had not been inter ested in the claims o f Christ upon the life of the home, and the disturbances of the war years had not helped the mother. However, when the third boy arrived, she plucked up her cour- “ I passed by your window in the cool of the night, The lilies were watching, so still and so white; And oh, I sang softly, though no one was near—
Interior of Bath Abbey, Bath, England.
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