othing from
a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and
governors, until the time appointed by his father. Even so,' he
says, we, 'when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world: but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son made of a woman, made under a law, to redeem them that were
under a law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.'

When we were children. He is not speaking of the Jews only; for
these Galatians to whom he was writing were not Jews at all, any
more than we are. He was speaking to men simply as men. He was
speaking to the Galatians as we have a right to speak to all men.

Nor does he mean merely when we were children in age. The Greek
word which he uses, means infants, people not come to years of
discretion. Indeed, the word which he uses means very often a
simpleton, an ignorant or foolish person; one who does not know who
and what he is, what is his duty, or how to do it.

Now this, he says, was the state of men before Christ came; this is
the state of all men by nature still; the state of all poor
heathens, whether in England or in foreign countries.

They are children--that is, ignorant and unable to take care of
themselves; because they do not know what they are. St. Paul tells
us what they are. That they are all God's offspring, though they
know it not. He likens them to young children, who, though they are
their father's heirs, have no more liberty than slaves have; but are
kept under tutors and masters, till they have arrived at years of
discretion, and are fit to take their places as their father's
_sons_, and to go out into the world, and have the management of
their own affairs, and a share in their father's property, which
they may use for themselves, instead of being merely fed and clothed
by, and kept in subjection to him, whether they will or not. This
is what he means by receiving the adoption of sons. He does not
mean that we are not God's children till we find out that we are
God's children. That is what some people say; but that is the very
exact contrary to what St. Paul used to say. He told the heathen
Athenians that they were God's children. He put them in mind that
one of their own heathen poets had told them so, and had said, 'We
are also God's offspring.' And so in this chapter he says, You were
God's children all along, though you did not know it. You were
God's heirs all along, although you d