^ J. T. Trowbridge.
I JOHN III. I 277
sued me. I had come to the end of all strength and courage. I saw myself, I felt myself lost — yes, lost, without the slightest ray of hope. My difficulty was, I wished I knew what it could be to believe. At last I understood that it was to accept salvation on God's conditions ; that is to say, without any conditions whatever. I can truly say the scales fell from my eyes. And what scales ! I could say, " Once I was blind, and now I see."
Never shall I forget the day, nay, the moment, when this ray of light flashed into the night of my anguish. " Believe," then, means to accept, and accept unreservedly. " As many as received him, to them gave he power — the right — to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his name." It is plain, it is plain, it is positive. " 0 my God," I cried, in the depth of my heart, " / believe." ... A peace, a joy unknown before, flooded my heart. I could have sung aloud with joy.^
^ CoiUard of the Zambesi, 19.
What We Are and W^hat We Shall Be.
Literature.
Ainger (A.), Sermons in the Temple Church, 13.
Ball (C. J.), Testimonies to Christ, 118.
Binney (T.), Sermons in King's Weigh-House Chanel, 2nd Ser., 316.
Bvo6ks{^.), The Law of Growth, MQ.
Burrell (D. J.), The Golden Passional, 243.
Campbell (R. J.), The Keys of the Kingdom, 21.
Chadwick (G. A.), Pilat^s Gift, 183.
Davies (J.), The Kingdom without Observation, 84.
Drummond (R. J.), Faith's Certainties, 149.
Eyton (R.), The True Life, 207.
Fraser (J.), University Sermons, 167.
Harris (S. S.), The Dignity of Man, 222.
Haslam (W.), The Threefold Gift of God, i. 6G.
Holland (W. L.), The Beauty of Holiness, 68.
Ker (J.), Sermons, i. 365,
Lewis (A.), Sermons Preached in England, 162.
„ (F. W.), The Work of Christ, 134. Mackenzie (R.), The Loom of Providence, 146. Maclaren (A.), A Year's Ministry, ii. 255. Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 286. Murray (A.), Like Christ, 241. Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 313. Punshon (W. M.), Sermons, i. 66. Pusey (E. B.), Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, 479. Robertson (F. W.), The Human Pace, 43. Selby (T. G.), The Lesson of a Dilemma, 243. Thew (J.), Broken Ideals, 186, 187. Vincent (M. R.), The Covenant of Peace, 174. Virgin (S. H.), Spiritual Sanity, 272. Webster (F. S.), Tlie Beaidies of the Saviour, 143. Wright (D.), The Power of an Endless Life, 217.
98o
What We Are and What We Shall Be.
Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him even as he is. — i John iii. 2.
The Apostle has just said that all Christians are children of God. Here he adds that they are now His children. "Now," he says, in this life, with all our shortcomings, " we are children of God."
But the future of the believer is even more wonderful and glorious than his present. He is to be made "like" Christ, because he will " see him as he is." If the vision of Christ, even though His glory be only reflected as from "-a mirror," transforms us now "into the same image" (2 Cor. iii. 18), what will be the effect of beholding the unveiled glory of the Lord ? Here His Godhead is only partially revealed to His disciples ; there the Godhead and the manhood — or rather the Godhead in the man- hood— will be fully manifested, and, according to Christ's own prayer for His disciples, they will behold His glory (John xvii. 24) ; and the result of this beatific vision will be their complete trans- formation into the likeness of the Lord. In every part of their being, in body and in soul and in spirit, they will be " like him."
^ As with a garden in winter, nothing we see in it tells us what it will be when the spring winds have loosened the frost, only we know that there is life beneath the snow, and that one day that life will show itself in leaves and blossoms and fruit. So with the believer. He will one day have a part in that glorious revealing of the sons of God for which creation is waiting. Meanwhile his spiritual life, like that of a plant safe all the winter in the root of it, is hid with Christ in God. More than this we cannot say of ourselves.^
» 0. Watson, Fi/rst Ej)i8tlr of John, 149. aSi
282 WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE SHALL BE
The Seeds of Destiny.
1. We are children of God — His offspring, not His creatures merely. Ours is a Divine birthright, depraved, but not wholly- obliterated ; alienated, but not discrowned. Man still preserves his capability of regaining departed purity and felicity. What belongs to his character has been lost, what belongs to his constitution he retains. His character may change, but not the essence of his being. His enmity may die, his immortality never dies. His life is sacred, because he bears the image of God. Moral resemblance to God is the completion and crown of the filial relationship. It is the relation that gives the right; but where the relation has not been acknowledged and established, the right cannot be pleaded. The true child of God is born of God. He is a partaker of a Divine nature, and that nature quickens, brightens, perfects his own. He is " created anew in Christ Jesus." " Ye are all the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus." " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."