for a
perpetual joy, a glory and a defence, the unwavering confidence, 'I
am Thy child,' go to God's throne, and lie down at the foot of it,
and let the first thought be, 'My Father in heaven,' and _that_
will brighten, that will stablish, that will make omnipotent in your
life the witness of the Spirit that you are the child of God.

SONS AND HEIRS

'If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ.'--ROMANS viii. 17.

God Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we can
receive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. There is a
sublime and wonderful mutual possession of which Scripture speaks
much wherein the Lord is the inheritance of Israel, and Israel is the
inheritance of the Lord. 'The Lord hath taken you to be to Him a
people of inheritance,' says Moses; 'Ye are a people for a
possession,' says Peter. And, on the other hand, 'The Lord is the
portion of my inheritance,' says David; 'Ye are heirs of God,' echoes
Paul. On earth and in heaven the heritage of the children of the Lord
is God Himself, inasmuch as He is with them for their delight, in
them to make them 'partakers of the divine nature,' and for them in
all His attributes and actions.

This being clearly understood at the outset, we shall be prepared to
follow the Apostle's course of thought while he points out the
conditions upon which the possession of that inheritance depends. It
is children of God who are heirs of God. It is by union with Christ
Jesus, the Son, to whom the inheritance belongs, that they who
believe on His name receive power to become the sons of God, and with
that power the possession of the inheritance. Thus, then, in this
condensed utterance of the text there appear a series of thoughts
which may perhaps be more fully unfolded in some such manner as the
following, that there is no inheritance without sonship, that there
is no sonship without a spiritual birth, that there is no spiritual
birth without Christ, and that there is no Christ for us without
faith.

I. First, then, the text tells us, no inheritance without sonship.

In general terms, spiritual blessings can only be given to those who
are in a certain spiritual condition. Always and necessarily the
capacity or organ of reception precedes and determines the bestowment
of blessings. The light falls everywhere, but only the eye drinks it
in. The lower orders of creatures are shut out from all participation
in the