more than two or at the most, three, shall
speak in a tongue in one gathering and that not even one shall speak
unless there was an interpreter, and that no two shall speak at the same
time). The defense that they made was that the Holy Spirit led them to
speak several at a time and many in a single meeting and that they must
obey the Holy Spirit, and in such a case as this were not subject to the
Word. The Holy Spirit never contradicts Himself. He never leads the
individual to do that which in the written Word He has commanded us all
not to do. Any leading of the Spirit must be tested by that which we know
to be the leading of the Spirit in the Word. But while we need to be on
our guard against the leading of false spirits, it is our privilege to be
led by the Holy Spirit, and to lead a life free from the bondage of rules
and free from the anxiety that we shall not go wrong, a life as children
whose Father has sent an unerring Guide to lead them all the way.

Those who are thus led by the Spirit of God are "_sons_ of God," that is,
they are not merely _children_ of God, born it is true of the Father, but
immature, but they are the grown children, the mature children of God;
they are no longer babes but sons. The Apostle Paul draws a contrast in
Gal. iv. 1-7 between the babe under the tutelage of the law and differing
nothing from a servant, and the full grown son who is no more a servant
but a son walking in joyous liberty. It sometimes seems as if
comparatively few Christians to-day had really thrown off the bondage of
law, rules outside themselves, and entered into the joyous liberty of
sons.

CHAPTER XV. THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARING WITNESS TO OUR SONSHIP.

One of the most precious passages in the Bible regarding the work of the
Holy Spirit is found in Rom. viii. 15, 16, R. V., "For ye received not the
spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God." There are two witnesses to our
sonship, first, our own spirit, taking God at His Word ("As many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God," John i.
12), bears witness to our sonship. Our own spirit unhesitatingly affirms
that what God says is true that we are sons of God because God says so.
But there is another witness to our sonship, namely, the Holy Spirit. He
bears witness _together with_ our spirit.