If God is Father...

"Were a man to petition his enemy, there were little hope; but when a child petitions his father, he may hope with confidence to succeed.  The word "Father' works upon God; it touches his very bowels.  What can a father deny his child?"

"This may embolden us to go to God for pardon of sin, and further degrees of sanctity.  We pray to a God of mercy sitting on a throne of grace...we have a Father to pray to, and the Spirit to help us to pray, and an Advocate to present our prayers.  God's children should in all their troubles run to their heavenly Father...surely God, who hears the cry of ravens, will hear the cry of His children!"

"As sheep thrive best on short pasture, so God sees too much may not be good for his people; plenty might breed surfeit (excess).  In prosperity men's characters run riot.  God sees it good sometimes to diet his children, and keep them short, that they may run the heavenly race the better.  God's children sometimes see the world's emptiness, that they may acquaint themselves more with Christ's fulness.  If God sees it to be good for them to have more of the world, they shall have it.  He will not let them want any good thing."

"He will clear the innocence of His children.  His children in this life are strangely misrepresented.  They are called factious, seditious; as Elijah, 'the troubler of Israel'; and Luther, 'the trumpet of rebellion'.  Athanasius was accused to the emperor Constantine as 'the raiser of tumults'; and the primitive Christians were accused as 'killers of the children, guilty of incest.'  Tertullus reported Paul to be 'a pestilent person'...Wycliffe was called 'the idol of the heretics', and reported to have died drunk.  If Satan cannot defile God's children, he will disgrace them; if he cannot strike his fiery darts into their consciences he will put a dead fly to their names; but God will one day clear their innocence; he will roll away their reproach.  As He will make a resurrection of bodies, so of names.  

The night casts its dark mantle upon the most beautiful flowers; but the light comes in the morning and dispels the darkness, and every flower appears in its orient brightness.  So the wicked may by misreports darken the honour and repute of the saints; but God will dispel this darkness, and cause their names to shine forth."

"A father may have lost his goods and have nothing to leave his son but his blessing; but God will settle an inheritance on his children, and an inheritance no less than a kingdom.  This kingdom is more glorious and magnificent than any earthly kingdom.

Heaven's eminence is its permanence; and this kingdom God's children enter into immediately after death...God's children shall not wait long for their inheritance; it is but winking, and they shall see God.  How should this comfort those of God's children who are low in the world!  Your Father in heaven will settle a kingdom upon you at death, such a kingdom as eye has not seen; He will give you a crown not of gold, but glory; He will give you white robes lines with immortality.