Sunday, 259. Mclntyre (D. M.), Life in His Name, 215. Maclaren (A.) *Creed and Conduct, 39.
„ ^Expositions of Holy Scripture, Romans, 136.
„ *Sermons Preached in Manchester, i. 54.
Martineau (J.), Hours of Thought, i. 45. Patton (W. J.), Pardon and Assurance, 18. Pusey (E. B.), Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, 175. Walker (W. L.), The Holy Spirit, 61. Young (R. N.), The Witness of the Spirit, 1. Cliristian Age, xliii. 309 (Cuyler). Christian World Pulpit, xxi. 138 (Beecher); xxix. 181 (Brierley) ;
xlviii. 156 (Rawnsley) ; lxviii. 333 (Cuyler). Churchman's Pulpit (Eighth Sunday after Trinity), xi. 54 (Mackay), 57
(Moore). Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 325 (Tasker). Pulpit Encyclopaedia, i. 327 (Maclaren*).
It is one and the same sermon by Dr. Maclaren that is found in all these places.
480
The Assurance of Sonship.
The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. — Rom. viii. 16.
The subject is the Witness of the Spirit; and we may ask these questions about it —
I. What is the Spirit a Witness to ? II. Why is the Witness of the Spirit needed ?
III. How does the Spirit make this Witness ?
IV. Are there any ways of confirming the Witness ?
I.
To What is the Spieit a Witness?
1. In answer to this question the words of St. Paul are quite explicit. The witness is to our Sonship — "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." "The Holy Spirit," says Swete, "enables the members of Christ to realize their consecration by creating in them a sense of their filial relation to God, and opening and maintaining communication between God and the individual life. The Spirit in the human heart is 'the spirit of the adoption' which corresponds with the spirit of sonship in the Christ, and cries in us as in Him, Abba, Father." x
2. The witness of the Spirit, then, is given to assure us of the fact of our sonship. Being adopted into the family of God we receive the Spirit of adoption, and in that Spirit we are able to express our filial desires ; we cry, " Abba, Father." But we need fuller, more sure, more abiding confirmation of our position as children. And the same Spirit of adoption provides it. For not only is His presence a witness to our adoption, but one of His very offices, if we may use the word, is that of suggesting
1 The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, 346. ACTS & ROM. 31
482 THE ASSURANCE OF SONSHIP
and confirming the witness of our own spirits. Without that suggestion and confirmation we should have little confidence in our approach to God, and little joy in our Christian life.
T[ A religious life dependent for its confidence on mere inference would always be exposed to those fluctuations which constitution and temperament encourage. Some impressions of the mind are healthy ; some are morbid ; some are presumptuous. In some cases the premises on which the soul founded its judgments would be false; or the process of reasoning would be unsound; or the reasoner himself prejudiced and incompetent. For, as a rule, no man is an infallible judge of his own feelings or actions. A tender conscience, a diffident estimate of one's own character, a morbid tendency, would rob the truest soul of peace; while, on the other hand, a native buoyancy of disposition, a sunny temperament, an indulgent conscience, would interpret the most equivocal evidence in its favour.1
^J I would remind you that this is not a luxury, such as when one lies listlessly on one's body by the Mediterranean, basking in the sunshine. God does not afford us privileges merely to increase the luxuriousness of the Christian life. I do not for a moment say that there is no life where this witness of the Spirit is not recognized and rejoiced in, but I do say there is no real Christian life where that witness is not. Wherever there is adoption, and adoption responded to, there is the witness of the adopting Spirit. Continually we come across people who are in a state of restlessness and perplexity, because they know nothing of the inner witnessing of the Spirit ; and it may be after frequent interviews, when one seems baffled and beaten, that one drops some sentence which awakens a response, and the hearer says, " Oh, if that is what you mean, I know it already." All believers know it, only they do not know they do. It is true you may be in a state of real living union with Christ and yet experience perplexity. But you will never come to be all that a Christian should be until this inner witness is clearly yours, and until you can say with full utterance, without any stammering whatever, "Abba, Father."2
II.
Why is the Witness of the Spikit needed?
1. The Witness of the Spirit is needed to enable us to enter into perfect communion with God. This is the necessity and glory of Christian life; but until we feel His power possessing us,
1 R. N. Young. 2 Canon G. Body.
ROMANS viii. 16 483
until we see the smile of the Father behind every sorrow, we shall fear Him, and flee from His presence ; not until then can we perfectly commune with Him. In some natures, particularly in the stages of infancy and youth, God's presence seems to address itself to the emotions. There is an instinctive yearning for a perfect and absolute object of love, trust, worship. A vast void waits to be filled with the apprehension of infinite excellence, infinite sympathy, infinite friendship. The heart cannot rest away from God. Till some unknown secret of love is distilled there, stabs of sudden pain are felt, grievous and incurable wounds, strain and distress of the sensibilities. The peace of home, the accord of marriage, the wealth of far-ranging friendship, only palliate the trouble for a time. At last a strange power of loving God springs up within the fevered, distraught, and half-famished affections. That implies and guarantees an accomplished recon- ciliation. The persuasion comes by the pathway of these tender, sensitive, love-craving conditions of temper, and seems to grow out of them. But it is the great Spirit Himself who witnesses in and through the affections. The heart-chords respond to some vibration in His own nature. A God who irresistibly makes Him- self an object of love must be a God who is already reconciled. An assurance wrought in this way is just as authoritatively Divine as though proclaimed by a voice from the skies.