And be the wall to separate my heart So that I may at length repose me free;
That peace, and joy, and rest may be within,
And I remain divided from my sin.
(3) The fear of death, and of the terrible possibilities (at least) which must be faced just beyond death, is, no doubt, the chief cause of that spirit of bondage which oppresses man in life. The feeling that we are in another's hands, powerless alike over the duration and to a great extent over the circumstances of our own being, is a very formidable thing in itself. If we add to this, that the Power in whose hands we thus are is either unknown to us or supposed to be unfriendly, we have suggested a consideration which has exercised more influence than any other upon the religion, and through it upon the history, of the world. Hence all manner of superstitions : a powerful Being, absolute over our destiny, yet unknown to us in character, in will, and in intention, must be propitiated by such offerings as we possess or can dis- cover, that He may be induced to use His power for protection and not for destruction. Thus the spirit of bondage is the very religion of the heathen.
Why am I loath to leave this earthly scene ?
Have I so found it full of pleasing charms ? Some drops of joy with draughts of ill between:
Some gleams of sunshine 'mid renewing storms Is it departing pangs my soul alarms ?
Or death's unlovely, dreary, dark abode ? For guilt, for guilt, my terrors are in arms;
I tremble to approach an angry God, And justly smart beneath His sin-avenging rod.
464 THE SPIRIT OF A SON
Fain would I say, " Forgive my foul offence ! "
Fain promise never more to disobey; But, should my Author health again dispense,
Again I might desert fair virtue's way; Again in folly's path might go astray;
Again exalt, the brute and sink the man ; Then how should I for heavenly mercy pray,
Who act so counter heavenly mercy's plan ? Who sin so oft have mourned, yet to temptation ran.
O Thou, great Governor of all below !
If I may dare a lifted eye to Thee, Thy nod can make the tempest cease to blow,
Or still the tumult of the raging sea: With that controlling power assist even me,
Those headlong furious passions to confine ; For all unfit I feel my powers to be,
To rule their torrent in the allowed line; 0 ! aid me with Thy help, Omnipotence Divine.1
II.
The Spirit of Adoption.
i. The Adoption.
1. Adoption is that act whereby we are received into the family of God. We are none of us in God's family by nature. It is not a matter, properly speaking, of birth ; we are brought into it from without; literally, we are "adopted." And the way in which it is brought about is this; — God has one only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ ; we are never God's sons in exactly the same sense in which Christ is His Son: indeed, there is a word which is always confined in the Bible to Christ. That word conveys the idea of right, the right which Christ has really in Himself to be a Sod. For instance, in the passage in St. John's first epistle in which he says, " Now are we the sons of God," the word is not the same, though it has been translated the same, as when Christ is called the Son of God. The word used concerning us is children. It is a close, dear, affectionate, blessed word ; but it is not quite the same word as is used about Christ the Son.
1 Robert Burns.
ROMANS vin. 15 465
Christ, then, is the one Son of God. Into the Son, God elects and engrafts members. He elects them everywhere, and He engrafts them just as He pleases ; but they are all chosen from without, and brought in. As soon as the union takes place between a soul and Christ, God sees that soul in the relationship in which He sees Christ. He gives it a partnership in the same privileges ; He treats it as if it were His own child ; He gives it a place and name "better than of sons and daughters." In fact, He has " adopted " it.
2. We must not, however, confound " adoption " and the "spirit of adoption" — as though they were the same thing. They are never, indeed, very far apart ; but still they are not the same thing. For adoption, if it stood alone, would be no blessing. Suppose a man's relationships were changed, but his own actual state or moral condition remained unaltered — where would be the benefit? Would it not be an evil and an injury to him? Conceive a man to be placed as a son of God, and yet, all the while, to dislike and hate God ; or conceive that a man were called to take his place in spiritual societies, and heavenly fellow- ships, for which he had, and felt that he had, no taste or fitness whatever; if to that new relationship there were attached particular duties, and the man had no power or adaptation to fulfil those duties — is it not evident that the man, though his position would be really a better one, would be no gainer, but rather a loser, by that change ?