adopting lovo ie realized within. He co.n give the famlly Rpirit a.A well as the legal eto.nding oe eons. Sonship among men, and especially adoptioo, may be destitute of tho becoming spirit, The children may despise their parents or their foster-paren te, and treat them inconsiderately. But in God-given sonsh1p_ there is as its essenC"l submission to God's Spirit. 'l'he o.dopted soul abandons himself to the Divine inspira- tion; the right filial attitude is reo.ched; and life becomes the outcome of inspiration. They only are sons of God who are led by his Spirit. III. ALL Goo's TRUE CHILDREN PROVE PBAYEBFUL. (Ver. 15.) The spirit of bondage which leode souls to fear like stricken slaves before God gets cast out by the Spirit of adoption, and there is within us the divinely prompted cry," Abba, Father." Just o.e true children love to have fellowship with their earthly parents, so God's children love to hold fellowship with their heavenly Pa.rent. Prayerfulness is one of the best tests of our relation to God. It is the instinct of an adopted child. In this way the spiritual relationship is realized. Just as fellowship is the essence of family relationship, so is it with the family of God. IV, THE PRAYERFUL 0HILDBEN BEOEIVE THE SPIBrr'8 WITNESS TO THEIR 80:SSHIP. (Ver. 16.) The witness of the Spirit is something distinct from the testimony of our own consciousness, as the verse implies. The latter concurs with the former. What is it, then? If we consider Jesus in his baptismal prayer, we shall find that he received not only the gift of the opened heaven, that is, it.11 needful revelation, and the gift of the descending dove, that is, the perfect inspiration, but also the audi)ik assurance of his Sonship, when the l'Oice came from heaven to say, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Father assures the Son of his ineffable relation. Now, this passage shows that there is something corresponding to this assurance granted to God's sons. They are enabled to hear the Father's voice, and a.re reassured thereby.· It is not, of course, an audible voice, as when they said, "It thundered;" yet a voice which speaks home to the spirit within. It comes through God's Word. Up to a certain point the Bible is a. splendid literary treasure; but the Spirit comes, and the Bible becomes a chud's book, with a. Father's voice ringing lovingly through it all. These spiritual tones are found to coincide with experience, and we have the witness within. It is thus that we are enabled to examine ourselves through God's Word. We begin to read it as children should to whom a father is faithfully speaking, and we a.re reassured and comforted thereby.1 V. THE PRAYERFUL 0HILDBEN THROUGH LISTENING TO THE FATHER'S VOICE COXE TO REALIZE THAT THEY ABE HEms OF Gon, AND JOINT-HEIBS WITH CHRIST. (Ver. 17.) Heirship succeeds the sense of sonship. Now, in earthly inheritances the sad condition now is the pa.rent's death; but it was not so under the ancient law. Then, as in the parable of the prodigal son, the inheritance could be divided in the father's lifetime, and either enjoyed with the father or away from him.• Thus the father says to the elder son, "All tho.t I ho.ve is thine;" and the promise to God's children is clear, "All things a.re yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's " (1 Cor. iii. 21-23). When we realize, therefore, that God is to us "all in all, n then have we entered into our inheritance with him. And what adds to its precious- ness is the fa.et that it is a Joint-inheritance with Christ. It is through him that it has become ours. What he_ gets we get. He has raised his brothers and sisters through adoption to the platform of his own inheritance. VI. FELLOWSHIP IN BUFFERING IS THE SIGN A.ND PLEDGE OF FELLOWSHIP IN THE OOMING GLORY. (Ver. 17.) Now, we must remember tho.t fellowship through suffering is the closest fellowship of all. It is when hearts ore together in the fires that they are welded or rather melted into one. Now, life gets sooner or later for the true son of God like Nebuchadnezzar's fiery.furnace, with one like unto the Son of God in the fire along with him. "Whom the Lord loveth he chastcneth, 11nd scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Heb. xi. 6, 7). It is to this fellowship in his sufferings that we t1re providentially oolled, tho.t so we m11y become in due s1111Son conformable unto his de:\th (Phil. iii. 11). We should reconcile ourselves to our inheritance of suffering, setJin g 1 Of. Tholuok'a 'Worko,' band Ii. s. 22, eto. 1 Of. Mo.ine's 'Anoim1t Law,' eh. vi., "On tho Ea.rly History of T,;stmnontary 8u00011Sion." li011AN8, 5 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL '1'0 THE HOMANS, [lln. vm. 1-89.
that it is through it we, as a rule, reach our inheritance of wisdom,l And &S 11 suffering ,oith Christ is the sigu and pledge of being glorified together with him, we should hail it as the birthright mark, and rejoice in hope of the glory.-R. M. E. Vers. 18-30.-&lllGnOn in spite qf su.fering. "Paradise regained " in this life la not a sorrowless and painless oondition. The sons of God are ohastened, They know what suffering is. And there is here the great religious evidence. When the world sees men and women c.omposcd and e¥en cheerful amid untold tribulntion, then it sees a l'l'lBlity in religion. Job, for instance, was an evidence for the reality of religion that even Satan himself oould not gainsay or deny. How is it that the Christian spirit can &."Sert its supremacy amid suffering of the most intense character? It is because it is enabled t.o keep it.<;; eye on the hidden good, and bless God for it. And so in this 800tion we have the spirit of the apostle asserting itself upon this important subject. l. THERE IS THE 00:t.'TRAST JlETWEEN PRE.SENT SUFFERINGS .AND THE PERFECTED SANCTIFICATION. (Ver. 18.) God's end in his dispensations is to create a glory in us of an eternal character--the glory of sanctification when it comes in fulness. We may 1!1118 the prioe we pay in the stanzas of the poetess.