The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 253

from the condemning power of Law, and secured their adoption as sons. The world at the advent of the Son must have looked differently to the eye of God the Father. For millcniums he had been looking anxiously down to see if there were any that did under- stand· and seek God. But, alas I the verdict bad to be that "they are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy : there is none that doeth good, no, not one" ( Ps. xiv. 2, 3). But at the advent of Christ a new example presented itself, a new type arose-a sinless Being appeared upon the stage, with all the interest around him of sin- lessness. A breach of continuity took place when the babe was born in Bethlehem. Instead of the world being now condemned wholeRale, it possessed for the Divine mind e. deep attraction. . The drama of sinlessness amid temptation was being carried on, and a repulsive world became the centre of moral and spiritual power. A new age thus dawned upon humanity. Man's minority was over and his inheritance was at hand. • III. Tm: ADVENT OF THE SPmIT; (Ver. 6.) The magnificent panorama of sinlessness, however, might have passed 'impressively before the eye of God, and have given fresh interest to the problem of humanity, without at all affecting men themselves. But the. advent of the Spirit secured men in their spiritual inheritance. The cry of the human heart, which had been so indefinite before, became definite and pathetic. It became the cry of children who had learned at last to feel at home with God. The convetted Jew and the: converted Gentile began to cry to the one Father in heaven, and·to feel" or.ph'ans" no more (cf. John xiv. 18). The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption enables human hearts to look up hopefully ta heaven, and to realize that it is no longer empty,, .but filled with the presence of an infinite and. all-merciful Father, who_ desires above all things the welfare of his children. It is this marvellous arrange- ment of the advent of an infinite Spirit of adoption which ensure~ the reality of adoption, and makes all the sons feel at home. Poets doubtletis wrote about man being "God's offspring" (Acts xvii. 28), but the fancy of the poet could only become a, fact of human experience when the indwelling Spirit prompted the cry, "Abba, Father." IV. THE HEm THEREBY ENTERED UPON HIS MAJORITY. (Ver. 7.) The termination of slavish fear, and the advent of a sense of sanship, is what we call conversion. But we hardly realize at once the meaning of our inheritance. How magnificent it is I To realize that God no longer is angry with us, bnt looks down with ineffable tenderness as our heavenly Father; to realize that, though we have nothing of ourselves, we have became heirs of all things, and find that all things are being made to work together for our good (Rom. viii. 28); ta realize that we are "heirs of God through Christ,"~is surely glorious! There is happiness when noble heirs reach their majority. What feasting and good will and congratulation goes on in the baronial halls ! Poets sing of it, and artists paint the scene; But no joy of majority on earth can compare with the joy which attends the sense of our spiritual majority before God. The baron's heir is filled with mingled feelings if his heart beat true, for he knows that the condition of his inheritance is, alas! his father's death. He must be base indeed who can contemplate such a 'condition without emotion. But when the Spirit of adoption comes within us it is ta 'enable us to realize that, not only is our majority come, but also our inheritance as sons of Goel; into this inheritance we may enter at once. The Father never dies, and his·presence, instead of keeping us out of our enjoyment, consecrates and enlarges it to a heavenly fulness. "All things are ours, if we are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 20-23). May we no longer live as bond-servants before God, but enter by adoption into the privileges of sons !-R. M. E. Vera. 8-11.---The return of the legal spirit. Having spoken of the majority which it is intended we should realize through the gospel, Paul proceeds next to speak about the return to legalism which had ·characterized the Gau!s. Before Paul's advcr,t to Galatia and bis gospel message, they had been idolaters, but his preaching had brought them faoe to face, so to speak, with God. Into this Divine knowledge they had <lipped, but, alas I it had only been a swallow-flight, for, after tasting the liberty of the gospel, they had flown back to bondage. They had skimmed the surface of salvation, and ba,l winged their way back to the aid legalism which had characterized their idolatrous days. Here, then, we h:we suggested- !. THE LEGAUSM WIIICJJI NEC~;SSARILY CIIAilACTERIZES IDOLATRY, (Ver. 8.) '!'he  THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [dH. IV. 1-31.