our present bodily life will all drop away in putting on 'the body of
glory' which shall be ours. The new tongue will perfectly utter the
new knowledge and rapture of the new life; new hands will perfectly
realise our ideals; and on every forehead will be stamped Christ's
new name.

That unveiling will be further realised by a divine act indicating
the characters of the sons of God by their position. Earth's
judgments will be reversed by that divine voice, and the great
promise, which through weary ages has shone as a far-off star,--'I
will set him on high because he hath known my name'--will then be
known for the sun near at hand. Many names loudly blown through the
world's trumpet will fall silent then. Many stars will be quenched,
but 'they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament.'

That revelation will be more surprising to no one than to those who
are its subjects, when they see themselves mirrored in that glass,
and so unlike what they are here. Their first impulse will be to
wonder at the form they see, and to ask, almost with incredulity,
'Lord, is it I?' Nor will the wonder be less when they recognise many
whom they knew not. The surprises when the family of God is gathered
together at last will be great. The Israel of Captivity lifts up her
wondering eyes as she sees the multitudes flocking to her side as the
doves to their windows, and, half-ashamed of her own narrow vision,
exclaims, 'I was left alone; these, where had they been?' Let us
rejoice that in the day when the sons of God are revealed, many
hidden ones from many dark corners will sit at the Father's table.
That revelation will be made to the whole universe; we know not how,
but we know that it shall be; and, as the text tells us, that
revelation of the sons of God is the hope for which 'the earnest
expectation of the creature waits' through the weary ages.

THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY

'The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body.'--ROMANS viii. 23.

In a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians have
received 'the Spirit of adoption.' They become sons of God through
Christ the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine life from God
through Christ, and that life is like its source. In so far as that
new life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers have
received 'the Spirit of adoption,' and by it they cry 'Abba, Father.'
But the body still remains a source of weakness, the seat of