by its godfathers and godmothers, repentance and faith, when it comes to years of understanding.  It is not God’s slave, as the beasts are.  It is God’s child.  But God does not wish it to remain merely His child, under tutors and governors, forced to do what is right outwardly, and whether it likes or not.  God wishes each of us to become His son, His grown-up and reasonable son.  To know who we are;—­to work in His kingdom for Him;—­to guide and manage our own wills, and hearts, and lives in obedience to Him;—­to claim and take our share as men of God of the inheritance which He has given us.  And that we can only do by faith in Jesus Christ.  We must trust in Him, our Lord, our King, our Saviour, our Pattern.  We must confess that we are nothing in ourselves, that we owe all to Him.  We must follow in his footsteps, giving up our wills to God’s will, doing not our own works, but the good works which God has prepared for us to walk in; and then we shall be truly confirmed; not mere children of God, under tutors, governors, schoolmasters and lawgivers, but free, reasonable, willing, hearty Christians, perfect men of God, the sons of God without rebuke.

Oh, my friends, will you claim your share in the Spirit of God, whom the Lord bought for us with His precious blood, that Spirit who was given you at your baptism, which may be daily renewed in you, if you pray for it; who will strengthen and lift you up to lead lives worthy of your high calling?  Or will you, like Esau of old, despise your birthright, and neglect to pray that God’s Spirit may be renewed in you, and so lose more and more day by day the thought that God is your Father, and the love of holy and godlike things?  Alas! take care that, like Esau, you hereafter find no room for repentance, though you seek it carefully with tears!  It is a fearful thing to despise the mercies of the living God; and when you are called to be His sons, to fall back under the terrors of His law, in slavish fears and a guilty conscience, and remorse which cannot repent.

And do not give way to false humility, says St. Paul.  Do not say, ‘This is too high an honour for us to claim.’  Do not say, ’It seems too conceited and assuming for us miserable sinners to call ourselves sons of God.  We shall please God better, and show ourselves more reverent to Him, by calling ourselves His slaves, and crouching and trembling before Him, as if we expected Him to strike us dead, and making all sorts of painful and tiresome religious observances, and vain repetitions of prayers, to win His favour;’ or by saying, ’We dare not call ourselves God’s children yet; we are not spiritual enough; but when we have gone through all the necessary changes of heart, and frames, and feeling, and have been convinced of sin, and converted, and received the earnest, God’s Spirit, by which we cry, Abba, Father! then we shall have a right to call ourselves God’s children.’