^ For what good doth it to the Soul to know the Way to God, * A. Mackennal, Tlt-c Eternal Son of God, 36.
I JOHN III. I 275
if it will not walk therein, but go on in a contrary Path ? What good will it do the Soul to comfort itself with the Filiation of Christ, with His Passion and Death, and so flatter itself with the Hopes of getting the Patrimony thereby, if it will not enter into the Filial Birth, that it may be a true child, born out of the Spirit of Christ, out of His Suffering, Death, and Eesurrection ? Surely the Tickling and Flattering itself with Christ's Merits without the true innate Childship, is Falsehood and a Lie, whosoever he be that teacheth it.^
^ Knowing as 1 do what the revelation of God means to me, knowing what God's Fatherhood and the presence of God's Spirit is to my own life, my whole heart goes out with infinite pity towards those whose lives are unblessed by what is to me the very pole-star of my existence. I cannot bear to think of some stumbling blindfold through the pitfalls of life while my hand is clasped by a never-failing Guide ; or of others who look forward to the end of their earthly life with dread and trembling while I see only the outspread arms of the everlasting Father and the welcome of a life-long Friend.^
III.
The Recognition of the Fathek's Love.
1. " Such we are." The Apostle was not afraid to say " I know that I am a child of God," There are many very good people, whose tremulous, timorous lips have never ventured to say " I know." They will say, " Well, I hope," or sometimes, as if that were not uncertain enough, they will put in an adverb or two, and say " I humbly hope that I am." It is a far robuster kind of Christianity, a far truer one, and a humbler one, too, that throws all considerations of our own character and merits, and all the rest of that rubbish, clean behind us, and when God says " My son ! " says " My Father " ; and when God calls us His children, leaps up and gladly answers, " And we are ! "
^ Luther started from the necessity of a " comfortable assur- ance." Unconscious justification was not enough; a man must know whether he was being saved. And this assurance grace brought him, when it awakened his heart to faith; for anyone could tell whether he had faith or not.^
' Jacob Boelime. * Quintin Hogg, 310.
• Viscount St. Gyres, Pascal, 247.
276 THE LOVE THAT CONFERS SONSHIP
O heart ! be thou patient ! Though here I am stationed A season in durance, The chain of the world I will cheerfully wear; For, spanning my soul like a rainbow, I bear With the yoke of my lowly Condition, a holy Assurance.^
2. How are we to awaken to our sense of sonship? "As many as received him, to them gave he power (the right) to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name." None of us know Christ until He reveals Himself to us in our associa- tion with Him ; and as we commune with Him, and learn of Him, He becomes more and more to us. Accept Christ for what you feel He can be to you. Admit Him to your friendship ; He will admit you to His.
^ That day, if I had dared, I should not have set foot inside the chapel. I was out of humour, and certainly not the least inclined to endure the tedium of a sermon. To my great surprise M. Jaquet did not preach one, but began to read us a little tract. It was a sermon, but of a new kind : Wheat or Chaff, by Ryle [afterwards the well-known Bishop of Liverpool].
The title in itself struck me. "Wheat or chaff" — what does that mean ? And at every fresh heading this question re-echoed more and more solemnly. I wanted to stop my ears, to go to sleep, to think about something else. In vain ! When the read- ing was over and the question had sounded out for the last time, " Wheat or chaff, which art thou ? " it seemed to me that a vast silence fell and the whole world waited for my answer. It was an awful moment. And this moment, a veritalDle hell, seemed to last for ever. At last a hymn came to the rescue of my misery. " Good," I said to myself, " that's over at last." But the arrow of the Lord had entered into my soul. Oh, how miserable I was ! I ate nothing, could not sleep, and had no more mind to my studies. I was in despair. The more I struggled the more the darkness thickened. I sought light and comfort in the pages of God's Word. I found none. I saw and heard nothing but the thunders of Sinai. " Your sins : how can God ever forgive them ? Your repentance and tears ! You do not feel the burden of your sins : you are not struck down like St. Paul or like the Philippian jailer. Hypocrisy, hypocrisy ! " insinuated the voice which pur-