prevailing; this disposition is one of acquiescence, resignation, and trust, and sometimes is accompanied by marked features of zeal for the divine honor. These are dispositions belonging to adoption, and are not in exercise, save where the spirit of a child is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost.

But prayerfulness is not the only fruit of adoption; every soul in this relation will be possessed of a principle of obedience to the divine command. "If, saith the Lord, I am a Father, where is mine honour." The true disposition is reverential; "let us have grace wherewith to serve our God with reverence and godly fear." It is not of the Spirit to generate a bold familiarity with Him before. whom the highest angels lie prostrate in adoring wonder. In proportion as our eyes are opened, to behold the glory of the Lord of Hosts, we shall be impressed with his Majesty, and bow before his light! and although bondage is removed, and love implanted, we do not treat our Father with disrespect, nor consider ourselves at liberty to trifle with his command. Genuine filial love will beget fervent appeals to be taught the holy precept; and when the precept is delivered, it will produce a ready compliance with the Divine Will.

It is thus that the children of God speak out their filial zeal : "shew me thy path,"

66

"lead me in thy ways,"—" what wilt thou have me to do:" and it is thus that we shall manifest like upright features with other children of the family; for we likewise, as sons and daughters of our covenant parent, delight in his law, and lovingly seek to be obedient. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments: for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous; for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." 1 John v. 2-4. And again, "He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us," 1 John iii. 24. We are often heard to speak of the blessing of a state of assurance: this blessing is intimately connected with that of adoption, as the figure shews; for as the adopted child received a copy of his lawful right as registered in the public courts, so doth God's child in the indwelling witness of the Holy Ghost. "He that believeth hath the witness in himself." Many are the adversaries who would seek to invalidate our claim

to the inheritance in Christ, and many who boldly dispute our title. The great enemy from the bottomless pit is in this sense an accuser, and would argue our souls out of hope, and our characters out of credit; we ourselves likewise do sometimes feel staggered by the force of the argument, and by conscious default in the dispositions of a child. Wherefore it is incumbent upon us, if we will preserve our own evidence unquestionable, to be looking to the inward witness, consisting of the seal of the adoption, in the Holy Ghost's transforming and assuring grace. For although there be immediate actings of the Comforter in the soul, wherein, irrespective of our acts of self-scrutiny, He is pleased to give forth precious assurance of God's love-and although our adoption be placed amidst the covenant gifts, without works or merit in us, our Holy Lord will not acknowledge us as his children, approved and justified, whilst we are leading a prodigal life. Neither shall we, even after our recovery to God, possess or exhibit unquestionable evidences, without having within us the mind and spirit of the Lord. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Rom. viii. 14; " and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth

himself, even as he is pure," 1 John iii. 3. "If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him," 1 John ii. 29. It is clear to every ingenuous mind that this order of things is holy and right; and if our mind is so constructed, we shall yield to the tide of evidence given us in the Scripture, and be convinced that no man shall see or enter the kingdom of God unless he be born of God-that the child of God is born of God-that none are so distinguished but as they are visited by the free Spirit given to them in Christ Jesus, that they become childen of God by an adoption undeserved by them, that God as a covenant parent is engaged to extend every thing needful to his child for time and eternity, and that the child is placed under the authority of his Father, bound by every solemn and every grateful motive to yield his parent joy and honour, and an obedience that is unlimited, zealous, and free. Placing these several considerations in a parallel line with the relations subsisting amongst men, we immediately feel and admit their force-how much more forcible is the statement when made to bear upon the spiritual relation subsisting in God's chosen family. And if this be admitted, how undeniably are we brought to the conclusion that it

is high time for us to be looking to what may be our relation and our prospect in eternal things. If discovering that we are as yet evidently estranged, we should consider to what a fearful issue our way is tending,-if finding that we are in a state of reconciliation, we should accept the joy it presents in the heritage on which we have entered, and to which we are fast hastening. Children of God should likewise receive their present lot with the filial disposition of children. Whatever it be, it is our Father's appointment, and must be wise and good; His correction also should be the subject of humble, and it may be, of penitential thanksgiving, seeing that these proclaim a parent's zeal for our best interests, and will yield abundant fruit to his glory and our holiness, even as we read Heb. xii. 5-11.

May the Lord the Spirit impart to us at this time, grace to exercise this spirit of adoption in a believing and fervent prayer, that whatever belongeth to the lot of God's children may fall to us; and that having in his strength obtained the final victory, we may from his hand receive the never-fading crown. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son," Rev. xxi. 7.