1 H. Alford. 2 T. G. Selby.
8 Mirkhond, in Field's Little Booh of Eastern Wisdom, 25.
440 THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT
3. As the sons of God are characterized by the leading of the Spirit, so at the same time the leading of the Spirit produces certain broad results in them, so that in the sons of God we dis- cern (1) life in God, (2) union with God, (3) likeness to God.
(1) Lift in God. To be a son is to be a partaker of the im- mortal life of God. Paul speaks of the immortal God. To be a son is to participate in His eternal life. The Spirit that leads is in him whom He leads " a well of water springing up into ever- lasting life." Sonship holds in it a growing conviction, a con- sciousness of life eternal. In the course of years it becomes a main factor of thought, faith, and feeling; indeed, it becomes a fixed, unfluctuating part of consciousness. It never suggests a doubt, a question, but settles down immovably among the certain- ties : an intuition of God's indwelling Spirit. Thus it comes to pass, as Channing finely argues, that our strongest proofs of im- mortality are not the analogies of nature, not the reasonings and deductions of intellect, but the possession of Divine purity, truth, and love. These give vitality to hope, and to faith the full force of a realization. He who has hold of, and grows up into, these, is not left to the doubtful determinings of the logical understand- ing ; he has a surer token, he has got the eternal life itself. He knows. He has Christ in him, the hope of glory. He is an heir of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ. To be led by the Spirit, is to enter and grow in the life of God, and so become a being after God's own kind. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.
(2) Union with God. " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." That reveals the secret of true communion and intercourse with God. That shows the root of it. It is more than an emotion or a feeling, more than a happy mood ; it is a life principle, deep, pure, strong and eternal ; and happy feelings, pleasures of emotion, are but one form in which it may declare itself. It is really a community of life which identifies the human soul with God in His mind, will, and character.
(3) Likeness to God. This is the final result of the- leading
ROMANS vm. 14 441
of the Spirit of God. The man is broken off from fleshly and devilish affinities, and enters into moral affinity with God. He and God are like-minded. The similitude is not of form, but of character. The likeness is inward, spiritual. It is a disposition revealing itself in tastes and tempers and deeds. We sometimes say of a lad, " He is his father's son ; he is his father over again." We mean, generally, more than appearance. We point to a like- ness more essential. We mean he is of his father's spirit — has his habits and tendencies. In this moral or intellectual sense a lad very often is not his father's son ; he is sometimes his mother's. In association with this fact we at once call to mind other words of the Lord Jesus ; they are these — " But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
T| There is a law of unconscious assimilation. We become like those with whom we go. Without being conscious of it, we take on the characteristics of those with whom we live. I re- member one time my brother returned home for a visit after a prolonged absence. As we were walking down the street together he said to me, " You have been going with Denning a good deal " — a mutual friend of ours. Surprised, I said, " How do you know I have ? " He said, " You walk just like him." What my brother had said was strictly true, though he did not know it. Our friend had a very decided way of walking. As a matter of fact, we had been walking home from the Young Men's Christian Association three or four nights every week. And unconsciously I had grown to imitate his way of walking.1
II.
The Leading of the Spirit is Conteolling and Continuous.
i. It is controlling.
1. One is not led, in the sense of our text, when he is merely directed in the way he should go, guided, as we may say, by one who points out the path and leads only by going before in it ; or 1 S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 20.