"denth." Consider how this incnrnation of Christ leads to our adoption. 1. It is tbe secret of his influence over us. Attraction is in proportion to nearness. To influence a me.n you must descend to his level. '!'here the power of sympathy is most felt. So Christ stooped to us that he might lift us (see Heb. iv. 15). 2. It is the source of his power to conquer our great foes, sin and death (see Heb. ii. 14). Sin and death chain us down from the glory of the Divine life. To conquer these Christ faced them. 3. It is the ground of his atonement with God. God could not welcome us ,vhile all right and justice opposed. Christ, as the representative Man and for his brethren as both Priest and Sacrifice, opened the way back to God (see Heb. ii. 17). Hence the great privilege-Divine sonship. He became as we are that we might become as he is; he joined himself to us that we, united with him, might rise to his glorious life. IJ, CHRIST WAS MADE SUBJECT TO LAW THAT HE MIGHT FREE US FROM THE BOXDAGE OF LAW. 1. He was born subject (1) to the Levitical Law-as a Jew; (2) to the social law-subject to his pa.rents, etc. (Luke ii. 51); (3) to the civil law (Matt. xvii. 24-27); (4) to the moral law-not onJy to that pure morality which God and all holy beings follow, but to the definite precepts of morality which accompany the limitations of human life. 2. He was also subject to the penalties of the Law though himself sinless: (1) to the shame and trouble of the world genernlly which he shared in entering it; (2) to death, the distinctive doom of sin. 3. How does this lead to our liberation? (1) By facing the death-doom of the La.w Christ conquered this for us. (2) By obedience to the La.w he triumphed over the La.w. The largest liberty is in obedience. The La.w is made for evil-doers ; it is powerless against the good. Christ makes his people righteous (Rom. viii. 3), and so frees them from Law. (3) By rising from obedience to the letter of the La.w, to the higher obedience of the Spirit, he leads us also to that freer service of love which is the emancipation from La.w.-W. F. A. Ver. 6.-" .Abba, Father." I. TRUST IN THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD IS A PECULIARLY CHRISTIAN GRACE. 1. Christ revealed the fatherhood of God. Mohammedans think of "Allah" a.s a.n omnipotent autocrat, a.nd Jews regard" the Eternal" as a. righteons Lord,' but Christians know God a.s "our Father in heaven." It is not that the idea of the fatherhood of God was not conceived before the time of Christ, for Hebrew psalmist;; found comfort in it (Ps. ciii. 13), and even Homer sang of "the father of gods and men." But (1) Christ gave prominence and supremacy to an idea which before was only co-ordinate with, or even less regarded than, other Divine attributes; and (2) he revealed for the first time the richness and tenderness of this the inmost character of God. 2. The fatherhood. of God is to Christians a relationship of love and gentleness. God is not regarded, like the Roman father, as one who might be a terror to bis children. The "Abba, Father" in the old home la.ngua.ge--the language of the nursery-suggests the feelings of little children to their father, and may we not say their mother (see Isa.. xlix. 15)? 'l'he type of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven is a little chilr! ; a little child's affection for his parents is the pattern of the purest Christian devotion. Nevertheless, this childlike confidence does not conflict with the rightful authority ot' God. 'l'he father is not weak becanse he is gentle. The trust of love is an obedient trust. 3. From trust in God's fatherly love the Christian life grows iuto a habit of aspiration. 'l'he yearning of the soul for God is met only to be deepened and intensi- fied, so that the Christian learns to press on ever nearer and nearer to Gou, the burtlen of his heart's desire finding utterance in the cry, "Abba, Father." II. THIS Gl\ACE GROWS OUT OF AN INSPIRATION OF TIIE SrmrT OF Goo's So'>. Christ reveals the fact of the fatherhood of God; but the mere knowledge of that fact which we may derive from studying the words and life of Christ will not enable us tu realize the spirit of trustful sonship. It is little to know that God is a Ft1thcr it we do not experience the love and close relationship of his fatherhood. So great a chau~o is required before we can do this that not.hing short of o. Divine inspiration can make it possible. Indeed, it is Christ's Spirit in us that utters the cry," Abba, Father." 'l'hu~ the yearning of tho soul for God is itself the result of God's visit to the soul. All aspiration springs from inspiration. Bccauso Christ lived in trust and commuuion with God, his Spirit entering us enables us 10 do the same. He is the true Son, and thercforo his Spirit gives to us the grace of sonship. JII. THF. DIVINE INSPIBATION DEPENDS ON OUR RELATION OF SO~SIIIP WlTII GOD, 234 THE EPISTLE 'l'O THI<1 GALA'l.'IANS. Lon. 1v. 1--31.
'l'hou:-:1~, God is n~turally the Father_ of. all, It is not every one who can cry, "Abba, Father. The mmgled trust and aspiration of such a cry arc only possible to those who are sons indeed, reconciled to God and restored to the family home, The Spil'it that inspires the cry is not given to all. We must be receptive if we are 'to receive it. 'l.'he Spirit of God's firstborn Son is given to the true sons of God. The sonship1 St. Paul teaches, is the consequence of our own faith, and the inspiration follows. '1.'herefore 1he consciousness of trustful aspiration towards God as our l?ather'is a proof of sonship. 'l'he Spirit thus bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God.-W. F. A.