.....Man would fain make God a receiver instead of a giver; but this cannot be; for "it is more blessed to give than to receive"; and assuredly God must have the more blessed place.  "Without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better."  "Who hath first given to Him?"  God can accept the smallest gift from a heart which has learnt the deep truth contained in those words--"Of Thine own have we given Thee"; but the moment a man presumes to take the place of the "first" giver, God's reply is, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee;" for "He is not worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things."  The great Giver of "all things" cannot possibly "need anything."  Praise is all that we can offer to God; but this can only be offered in the full and clear intelligence that our sins are all put away; and this, again, can only be known by faith in the virtue of an accomplished atonement.
                                                                                                                                       C. H. Mackintosh