4. Now some of the signs of this filial spirit which cries " Father," are these —
(1) Boldness in Prayer. A child does not ask a father as a stranger asks him. He goes as one who has a right, — as one who 1 A. Thorn, in The Expository Times, xx. 527.
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has never been refused all his life, and never can be refused to all eternity. If a son finds his father's door for a moment closed, see how he knocks. " That door must open to me." And life grows very earnest in that spirit ; and that spirit is all real.
Tf Boldness in prayer was a new ingredient put into the religious consciousness by Christianity, and is a distinctive feature of the Christian faith. To come boldly to the throne of grace is a new and living way (Heb. x. 19). This can be seen by a com- parison between the way in which man approaches God under the OT dispensation, and the way in which the Christian approaches Him under the new covenant. In the OT man approaches God with fear and trembling ; he stands afar off " at the nether part of the mount" (Ex. xix. 17); even "Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heb. xii. 21). In the NT man approaches with bold- ness " the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," " God the judge of all," and " Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling" (Heb. xii. 22-24). It will be found, too, that in this matter of boldness the Christian religion is distinct, not only from the Hebrew, but from all other religions. Fear and shrinking rather than boldness and confidence are, universally, the concomitants of the natural man's approach to the Unseen and Eternal. The Christian alone has boldness of access to the throne of God.1
Of what an easie quick accesse, My blessed Lord, art Thou ! how suddenly
May our requests Thine ears invade ! To show that State dislikes not easinesse, If I but lift mine eyes my suit is made; Thou canst no more not heare then Thou canst die.
Of what supreme almightie power Is Thy great arm, which spans the east and west
And tacks the centre to the sphere ! By it do all things live their measur'd houre; We cannot ask the thing which is not there, Blaming the shallownesse of our request.
Of what unmeasurable love Art Thou possest, Who, when Thou couldst not die,
Wert fain to take our flesh and curse, And for our sakes in person sinne reprove; That by destroying that which ty'd Thy purse, Thou mightst make way for liberalitie !
1 D. Russell Scott, in Encyclopcedia of Religion and Ethics, ii. 786.
474 THE SPIRIT OF A SON
Since, then, these three wait on Thy throne, Ease, Power, and Love, I value Prayer so,
That were I to leave all but one, Wealth, fame, endowments, vertues, all should go; I and deare Prayer would together dwell, And quickly gain for each inch lost an ell.1
(2) Service for Love. He does not want wages ; but he receives rewards. He does not want them ; he works for another motive ; and yet he does not know that he has another motive, for he never stops to ask what his motive is. " Of course I love."
^[ It is just the old story of the way the birds got their wings. At first God gave the birds their wings as burdens, and bade them carry the burdens. They obeyed, and laid their burdens on their shoulders and wrapped them about their hearts, when lo ! their burdens became their wings, and carried them. So it is with every life that in unselfish service takes up the tasks and duties God appoints. As we carry them on our shoulders and wrap them about our hearts, instead of weighing us down they carry us. Our burdens become our pinions, our duties our privileges, our service becomes our reward, our sacrifice our song. Glory is a flame lit in the altar fires of service. Heaven is the homeland of all who travel a thorn-path of duty to the cross-crowned hill where life is laid down for the sake of others.
When God first made a little bird
For sheer delight, He gifted it with power of song
But not of flight.
Then by its side He gently laid
Those untried things That we, in human parlance, call
A pair of wings.
And said, " My little one, this load
Uplift and see, Beneath this strange disguise, my love's
Sweet thought for thee."
The feathered darling serious grew;
A sudden sob Choked all the music in its throat
And seemed to rob
1 George Herbert.
ROMANS viii. 15 475
The air of sunshine ; yet it gave
A patient nod, And said, " I'll bear it for your sake,
Dear Father God."
Then on reluctant shoulders, firm
The burden laid ; And lo, the merry winds of heaven
About it played,
Until in very ecstasy
It spurned the ground, And, borne upon its lifted load,
Glad freedom found.
(3) Fulness of Possession. He has a present possession in the whole universe. All creation is his Father's house, and he can say, " Everything in it, — everything that is great, and everything that is little, — everything that is happy, and everything that is unhappy, — every cloud and every sun-ray, — it is mine, on to death itself."