1. Have we obtained deliverance from a carnal mind ? " For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." The carnal is not always the sensual; it includes those temptations into which a man's spirit has infused a charm. Freedom from this is the first sign of sonship. Here, then, is the witness: the old affections are being uprooted; a deep desire is being created after perfect purity; the chains of sin are being snapped. The heart with its love, the head with its under- standing, the conscience with its quick response to the law of duty, the will with its resolutions — these are all, as sanctified by Him, the witness of His Spirit; and the life with its strenuous obedience, with its struggles against sin and temptation, with its patient persistence in the quiet path of ordinary duty, as well as with the times when it rises into heroic stature of resignation or allegiance, the martyrdom of death and the martyrdom of life, this too is all (in so far as it is pure and right) the work of that same Spirit. The test of the inward conviction is the outward life; and they that have the witness of the Spirit within them have the light of their life lit by the
1 A. Maelaren.
ROMANS viii. 1 6 489
Spirit of God, whereby they may read the handwriting on the heart, and be sure that it is God's and not their own.
2. Have we the spirit of Prayer ? Sometimes the Christian prayer transcends all words. The heart's wounded affections — blighted hopes — unexpressed longings — all burn in one deep impassioned cry. This spirit of prayer possessing us is a sign of adoption.
3. Have we the spirit of Aspiration ? " And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." This is a sign of sonship — life's imperfectness the ground of hope. The feeling that here there is no rest — the whole life becoming one prayer for more light, greater power, deeper love — not, mark, the cry for happiness, but the cry —
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee ! Even though it be a cross
That raiseth me.
That aspiration, possessing the soul, forms the power of the Christian, and is a witness to his sonship of the Father.
Tj An aspiration is a joy for ever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust, and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity. To have many of these is to be spiritually rich.1
The white doves brood low With innocent flight. Higher, my soul, higher I Into the night ! — Into black night!
Beyond where the eagle Soars strong to the sun. Nought hast thou, if only Earth's stars be won — Earth's stars are won.
1 Robert Louis Stevenson, El Dorado.
490 THE ASSURANCE OF SONSHIP
Beyond, where God's angels Stand silent in might, Higher, my soul, higher! Into the light! — Straight to God's light!1
1 Maarten Maartens.
Joint-Heirs with Christ.
Literature.
Hall (F. 0.), Soul and Body, 135.
Johnstone (V. L.), Sonship, 29.
Knight (G. H.), Divine Upliftings, 75.
Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 86.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, i. 81.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iii. 209, 329 ; vi. 113 ; viii. 313.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vi. No. 339 ; vii. No.
402 ; li. No. 2961 ; lvi. No. 3198. Vaughan (J. S.), Earth to Heaven, 115. Wilberforce (B.), Sanctification by the Truth, 119. American Pulpit of the Day, iii. 366 (Perinchief). Christian World Pulpit, lvi. 54 (Glover). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Series, xiv. 77 (Burrows). Homiletic Review, lvi. 147 (Lee), 380 (Jones).
49*
Joint-Heirs with Christ.
If children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.— Rom. viii. 17.
"The eighth chapter of Eomans," says Spurgeon, "is like the garden of Eden, full of all manner of delights. Here you have all necessary doctrines to feed upon, and luxurious truths with which to satisfy your souL One might well have been willing to be shut up as a prisoner in Paradise ; and one might well be content to be shut up to this one chapter, and never to be allowed to preach from any other part of God's Word. If this were the case, one might find a sermon in every line ; nay, more than that, whole volumes might be found in a single sentence by any one who was truly taught of God. I might say of this chapter, 'All its paths drop fatness.' It is among the other chapters of the Bible like Benjamin's mess, which was five times as much as that of any of his brothers. We must not exalt one part of God's Word above another ; yet, as ' one star differeth from another star in glory,' this one seems to be a star of the first magnitude, full of the brightness of the grace and truth of God. It is an altogether inexhaustible mine of spiritual wealth, and I invite the saints of God to dig in it, and to dig in it again and again. They will find, not only that it hath dust of gold, but also huge nuggets, which they shall not be able to carry away by reason of the weight of the treasure."