"Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them:
otherwise you shall not have a reward of your FATHER WHO is in
heaven.... But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doth; that thy alms may be in secret, and thy FATHER WHO
seeth in secret will repay thee.... Love your enemies; do good to them
that hate you; and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you; that
you may be the children of your FATHER WHO is in heaven, Who maketh His
sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the
unjust.

"Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap,
nor gather into barns: and your heavenly FATHER feedeth them. Are not
you of much more value than they?... If you, then, being evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your FATHER WHO
is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him.... For if you will
forgive men their offenses, your heavenly FATHER will forgive you also
your offenses. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your FATHER
forgive you your offenses.... Thus therefore shall you pray: OUR FATHER
Who art in heaven."

From these and many other similar expressions found in the very first
sermon which Jesus Christ ever preached, we learn that it is the
expressed will of God that we should look upon Him as our loving Father;
and that, however unworthy we may be, we should look upon ourselves as
His beloved children. There cannot be a possible doubt of this, since it
is taught so positively by His only begotten Son, Who is "the Way, the
Truth, and the Life."

[Illustration: _Henry le Jeune._]