When he was going away, I told him he could take it with him. "I'll make you a present of it," I said. To my surprise, he put his hands behind his back, and said, "Oh, no, thank you." "Don't you want it?" I asked. He shook his head, though he eyed it lovingly. "I assure you, your mother will like you to have it," I said. But nothing would induce him to take it, and he went away without it. I fancy he was trying to be extra good. He thought it was not good manners to take a present away. "What a silly boy!" you say. But we often act like that with God. And it is such a pity, for we lose so much by not stretching out our hands to take what He offers us. We may have a present offered us, but if we won't put out our hands to take it, what is the good of it to us? And how ungrateful to the kind giver! Sometimes people get unsuitable presents. I heard of a little girl who bought a tiny doll's tea-set, and gave it to her mother as a birthday present. And a scholarly old bachelor uncle gave his little nephew on his seventh birthday a Latin book, "Virgil's Aeneid." We can fancy that neither of these presents was suitable! Now God knows exactly what we want, and He gives us everything suitable to our age and circumstances. But there is one gift that is wanted by everybody, big and small, rich and poor. Many of the gifts we get in this world, wear out, and come to an end; this one cannot come to an end. And it is the gift that God likes to give us. Some presents cost a lot of money. This one cost Somebody His life to get, and that makes it the most valuable gift in the whole world. In the time of slavery, there was an old negro woman who had a son whom she loved very dearly. She and he lived and worked on a sugar plantation in the West Indies, for they were both slaves. But at that time some of the slave owners would allow their slaves to purchase their freedom, and though it cost them a great deal of money, some freed themselves in this way. It was this old woman's one desire in life to work overtime, save her money, and free her son from bondage. She did not tell him what she was doing but she worked when he was asleep—and never took any rest or holiday herself. The consequence was, she ruined her health, and after many years of this dreadfully hard laborious life, she broke down, and had to take to her bed. But by that time she had earned the money to buy the freedom of her son. She called him one night to her dying bed, and produced a canvas bag. "Here," she said, "is money to set you free, my son. You will never be a slave any more. I have worked all my life to get it, and now I have got the money, I die in peace." She died in her son's arms—and he felt that his freedom had cost his mother her life. Now the gift that God offers to us all cost the Lord Jesus Christ His life, and it is only through Him—or because of Him that we can get it. What is it? "The Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."