(_a_) When you come to think of it, there is no explanation of man's possession of life, except the open-handedness of GOD. He simply _gave_ him life, and there is nothing more to be said about it. It is at present still a scientific truth that "Life only comes from life." Life has never been yet spontaneously generated. When men thought they had succeeded in creating life, it was discovered that some previous germ of life had been left in the hermetically sealed vessel. But even if, in the years to come, some sort of life was produced from apparently dead matter, would it really have any bearing on the age-long belief that this free, joyous life of man and animal has come from GOD? When you ask why He gave life, there is only one answer: That so many more living, sentient beings might sun themselves in the sunshine of His own happiness, He opened His Hand and life came out. (_b_) But He was not content with giving life. He gave all the colour of life; He painted the most glorious world out of the riches of His marvellous imagination; every variety of flower; every plumage of bird; every species of tree--often brought to the best by the slow process of evolution. He gave it all; He flung it out in all the exuberance of delight in what was "very good." He gave colour to our own life. He gave us our warm friendships; our keen intellectual interest in problems; the love of mother, wife, husband, father, child. He flung it all out, like a joyous giver; "He filled all things living with plenteousness." (_c_) But not content with this life, He had another ready when this was over. He knew the boys wanted life, and that this life would not be enough to satisfy them, especially if they died early; so He had another ready for them. And here, again, another psalmist dashes in with his word of praise: "He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him a long life, even for ever." This is our glorious hope to-day. It is only when we have grasped the splendour of the generosity of GOD that we can really appraise the meanness of man. Nearly all the ills of our life on earth--the poverty, the class hatred, the wars--come from an unfair grasping at an unfair share of the gifts of the generous GOD. "They ask no thrones; they only ask to share The common liberty of earth and air," some poet sang of the gipsies. GOD gave plenty of land, and plenty of water, and plenty of air, and if the New Testament motto had been followed, "Having food and raiment, with these we shall have enough," the generosity of GOD would have been mirrored in the generosity of man.