LUKE xii.
32. “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.”

NO one can read these verses without feeling that at least
in part, Christ called His flock “little” because it is the
language of endearment. The principle, that whatever
challenges our protection attracts our affection, is deeply
rooted in our nature. Are we not all sent back into a
spiritual little childhood, that good men and angels and
God Himself may the more tenderly love us when we are
babes?
I. The little flock.
Three things make the little flock—
1. God’s eye upon you lovingly.
2. An election out of the herd into the few.
3. An inward process of deepening humiliation every
day of your life.
II. It is to comfort “the little flock” that our Lord
speaks these words.
His argument is two-fold.—
1. The comfort of the fatherhood of God. There is a
strong tendency to treat God as if He were anything else
rather than a Father. No one on this side heaven can
have any conception what a dear thing it is to God to
save, keep, and love a soul. All that Christ bore upon this
earth is only the expression of the yearning love of our
Father’s heart.
2. There is comfort in the character of the Father’s
gift. Our Saviour evidently intends it to be a reasoning
from the whole to the part. “Fear not about things of
daily life, for it is your Father’s will and pleasure to give
you what includes far more—a kingdom.” Shall the child
of a king, nurtured in his father’s court, be anxious every
day about little crumbs? “The kingdom” which the
Father loves to give is inward. It is righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And this kingdom
in a man’s heart is what it is, a kingdom, because self-
government is begun. And the reason why there is self-
government, is that Christ is in His right place. His
pleasure is at the top, and all things are in subjection
to Him.
III. Fear is dishonouring to God. Fear paralyzes. Joy
makes us do all things well. God will do His own work,
only you trust Him for it. He will be a Father to you to
anticipate every want, and He will be a King to you to
supply you royally.
James Vaughan, M.A.