Table of Contents

24. In Laying Hold of Eternal Life

25. Heirship

26. The Liberty of the Glory

Appendix

H. F. Witherby - The Child of God - His Glory

Practical [5]

H. Forbes Witherby

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24. In Laying Hold of Eternal Life

The Child of God

By H. Forbes Witherby.

His Glory.

24. In Laying Hold of Eternal Life.

Glorious prospects — reigning in life — the hoped-for end — grasping the life now — entering into life.

The eternal life which God communicates has not only moral characteristics, but hopes pertaining to it. The circumstances, whatever they may be, which make this world what it is to each individual child of God, do not affect the actual nature of the life itself that all the family by grace possess. The life peculiar to trees is the same life everywhere, whether the tree grow in congenial soil or where it can barely find nourishment to exist.

Christ is our life, and should death touch the body of the child of God, no change is made to the eternal life itself, which he possesses. The circumstances of glory, in which he will be in heaven, will not alter the nature of the eternal life which he now possesses. In time and in eternity the life is the same, and the holy enjoyments, heavenly delights, and the fellowship pertaining to it, ever alike. But what the fulness of this holy enjoyment, and what the depths of the fellowship with the Father and the Son will be, we know but in part.

The natural mind evolves for itself the notion of a future existence from the basis of the things of this present life. The future state, according to the heathen, was a kind of shadow of the present, for the mind of man cannot imagine that which it has no data to work from; the future state according to modern infidelity, is the counterpart of its own mist and darkness concerning the origin of life; — "no God" for the beginning of life; "no God" for the hope of life, is its boast and its folly. The revelation of God declares to us an eternal life, explains its character by the gospels of the Son of the Father, and tells us not only what our future happiness will be, but also what our final state will be — likeness to Christ in glory. There is absolute explicitness in the word of God as to what we shall be, as well as the absolute certainty of our haying eternal life now.

Glorious prospects are before the children of God, and the contemplation of the future stirs up hope and leads hearts forward to the entering into life. Scripture teaches us, as we have sought to show, what the life is, and that the life is ours now; it also teaches us that there is an entering into life in the future. Thus life has eternal prospects attached to it, as well as present enjoyments, and the deeper the present enjoyment the more marvellous are the eternal prospects to the soul.

In one sense the idea of life, as it will be ours in the manifested glory, is more easily apprehended than is the fact of life in its actual, essential, ever-present character. The child of God thinks of himself, perhaps at a distant day, entering into life; which is well if the coming glory is before him; but if he thinks of himself in a way that separates him in his thoughts at the moment from this life, he has lost the sense of his life being in Christ, and has not the true thought of what entering into it is. The fulness of the eternal life, which is ours, will not be known until — spirit, soul, and body we are like the Lord Himself. At no point short of this great end, can the Christian's longings tarry, and his life-hopes reach right up to Christ where He is in heaven; "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3: 4.) The more the child of God enters into his present portion, the nobler and the more just will be his desires for the future.

We are not yet reigning in life, this prospect is before us. The full blessedness of the eternal life will be known only in glory. The first Adam, by his disobedience, brought death into the world, and by this work of sin death now reigns over the globe. The human race has death only for its last prospect. We began to live on this earth, and so soon as we were capable of thinking, we learned that we should have to die and leave the world and all its delights. What an awful darkness it is to have only such an outlook as this!

The last Adam, by his obedience unto death and through righteousness, brought the new life to the people of God; and though the circumstances of this world, where we receive the new life, are often sorrowful, the life itself has, as the prospect attached to it, only glory; "We shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." The life is our present possession, the glory our prospect — the one is as secure as the other. We have the eternal life, and we also look forward to it in the condition of glory. This, whatever the trial, harass, pain, or poverty that may beset the child of God, is his outlook. He has no less an expectation before him than entering fully into life.

There is an end before the believer. There is an end for his service of righteousness: "Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Rom. 6: 22); and also for his trials and conflicts, "He shall receive the crown of life." (James 1: 12.) Thus also, when the harvest is anticipated and the end of the good and the evil of these few years is before us, and consequently the sowing to the flesh and the sowing to the Spirit is looked at, the word for the people of God is, "He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Gal. 6: 8.) An end is before the christian. When everything in and of the world has come to its close, when the world and the lust thereof has passed away, when the great godless system built up on the earth is no more, and all its pleasures have melted away for ever, there lies an end for the christian, and that end is — eternal life.

"Lay hold of eternal life," said the apostle to Timothy, viewing him in his conflict on this earth, face to face with foes. (1 Tim. 6: 12.) He had been called to this eternal life, he had confessed the good confession before many witnesses. He possessed the life, could never lose it, neither could any ever take it from him, therefore, and with the more reason, he was to lay hold of it with all the force of divinely-given power.

If the christian is grasping the things of the world he is not laying hold of this life. A hand that grasps glory is for the soul of the child of God a great practical deliverance from the glitter of the world, the strife of tongues and the questions of the hour. Where power of soul-grasp is deficient, and enervation prevailing among the children of God, we may be sure that there is not a stirring up of the soul to the glorious eternity which is before us. We cannot grasp eternal life and the world also; one or other must be let go. We want both hands to grasp aright.

The more truly we live in the power of the eternal life as in its future display, the more shall we be taken up with it and keep a firm spiritual hold of it. Vain babblings, points, and disputations on the one side, and worldliness and greed of money on the other, seem to have been before the apostle's mind in his exhortation to Timothy, as the great deterrents to the people of God laying hold of the eternal life. The former, evidence a mind far off from practical christianity, and filled with anything but genuine godliness; the latter, speak of hearts possessed with this poor present hour; both prove the absence of communion with God, from which desires for the coming glory must, of moral necessity, spring. Satan defiles and entangles men's hearts with both.

"Laying hold," is a great word for a day of christian feebleness. We have but to read the apostle's word to Timothy to be made to feel that he seems to have pictured our very times. What a vast amount of wasted time there is, on the one hand, over "questions and disputes of words," which might have been devoted to true godliness, visiting the sick, caring for the poor and the aged, and good works; whilst, on the other, what lack of simplicity, and oftentimes what reliance on position and wealth!

Eternity is out of sight when these and such like things are filling the mind. They are Satan's toys given to the child of God to play with, in order to make him forget who he is, and whither he is going. How little is eternity before even true christians as a present realisation! How little laying hold of that which alone is really life!

After all, what is truly life? The transitory things of the hour: the questions of the day, babblings, contention about men, fame and honor, and money and worldly glory? No, the eternal life only — the present delight of which, is the fellowship with the Father and the Son, and the prospects of which, are glory with Christ on high.

Practical godliness, the apostle had strongly before him in his words to Timothy, on the laying hold of the eternal life. Let none think that the real enjoyment of the eternal life, its vigor and Spirit-given energy, finds its answer in any concern less than that which is of eternal value. The world's honors are but for the day; those who receive them die, and there is the honors' end; but the things of God are for eternity as well as time, even the cup of cold water given in the Lord's name will never lose its reward. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1: 27.) The Lord, the Life, labored in love for souls. He went about doing good; so shall we, in our small way, if His life in us is unhindered in action.

The true display of what the eternal life is in God's children on earth, is true likeness to Christ in His path below. The one great object of the believer should be, God and eternity. The contemplation of eternity has a mighty effect on our lives. Let one school affect one line of exterior piety and another school a different one, may the reality of eternity, so near at hand, and the fact of our so soon being about to stand before our God and Father, govern the outcome of our behaviour!

If we have in any way a clear sense of what eternal life is, let us be absolutely real and earnest in our desires respecting it; let us lay hold of it. This spiritual energy will work out in the most practical way In every day conduct, and will make each hour of our lives worth living. The world lives for that which ends in death, the christian for eternity and life.

Our Lord speaks to us of cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye, of getting rid of every hindrance, even of hating this natural existence, in view of entering the eternal life. Exhortations of the most intense earnestness are addressed to the child of God to stir him to holy living and self-sacrifice in the view of eternity. And the more truly believers realize their present blessings, the more earnest will they be to lay hold of that which is their prospect.

The child of God is going into life in its condition of everlasting blessedness, and the enjoyment of what he has now is the stimulant to his spirit to make him long for that which is still future.

25. Heirship

The Child of God

By H. Forbes Witherby.

His Glory.

25. Heirship.

The Lord's hand fashioning his own for the inheritance before the glory is entered — God has made his children heirs — God will inherit all things in his children — the character of the kingdom — the hope of eternal life — God and the word of his grace.

The child of God is an heir of God. The glories of the kingdom await him; weak and suffering on earth though he be, no lower destiny is his, than being glorified by God, together with His Son. Because we are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son in our hearts; hence we now approach God as the Father in the spirit of adoption, and because sons we are also heirs of God, and hence shall possess glory. An heir to a great estate, an heir to a throne and mighty kingdom, would be stirred, when anticipating his entry upon his possession; that exceeding weight of glory which awaits the sons of God is commensurate with His character and kingdom whose heirs they are; the honors of their anticipation are worthy of their God.

What eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor heart of man at any time conceived of the things God has prepared for them who love Him, He has revealed to us by His Spirit. The heart takes in and tastes that which the senses cannot apprehend, the spiritual affections of the child of God already feed upon things which are inexpressible. The apostle could not utter the things of the third heavens, which, when caught up there he heard, but the eye shall see, the ear shall hear, and the sons of God rejoice in, what God has prepared for them. Previous to this fulness of blessing, the bodies of the children of God will be made glorious like to Christ's present glorified body. To enter that kingdom in these frames of weakness and of earthly mould would be impossible "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 15: 50.) It will be in our resurrection glory that the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, will be entered upon.

The crowning act of the Saviour's grace will therefore take place before the heir of God comes into his inheritance. The Lord the Saviour will deliver His people from the coils of their mortal frame, He will Himself "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil. 3: 20, 21.) Already, by His work of redemption, we are fit for the kingdom, we have been made meet by the Father to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col. 1: 12.) But as the Saviour, Jesus, has saved us from wrath, from judgment, from sin, so He will save us from weakness, suffering, death, and all the frailty of humanity, removing from each the image of the earthy. "We shall all be changed"; the circumstances of glory will be fitly entered; robes of glory will be worn; we ourselves shall be rendered, spirit, soul and body, fit for the eternal future. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Cor. 15: 49.)

How the glory of that hour stirred the apostle's soul. To him it was not as if he had already obtained the prize; he was not already perfected, made like Christ in heavenly glory; but as Christ had laid hold of him for the glory of that day, he must needs lay hold of the glorified Christ. (Phil. 3.)

The joy of the love of God is our present portion, the hallowed relationship of children with the Father our daily pleasure, but the future beams before us, and with increasing brilliancy, as life shortens: "Beloved, now are we the children (lit.) of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3: 2.) "Glorified together," "conformed to the image of His Son," "like Him"!

As our present portion, "We now that we are of God" . . . "We know that the Son of God is come" . . . "We know that; we have eternal life." (John 5: 19, 20, 13.) As our certain future portion, "We know that we shall be like Him" — the Son of God in glory.

The most exquisite comfort lies in this prospect. We will not say simply for our own personal blessings, for the prospect is of such a kind that we cannot limit it to our mere individual selves. Heavenly joys and coming glory will be shared in common by all the family of God; "we," who are alive and remain to His coming; "we," who are absent from the body, present with the Lord, who have gone out of this poor world to the Father; "we," the whole family of God, shall be like the Son.

The chords of our hearts are moved as we utter such words, for the dearest ones greatly beloved, who have left us, are present to our thoughts. Their flesh failed, and their poor frail bodies yielded to the touch of death; it was our lot to see their outward man perish day by day, and their inward man renewed; we watched and wept till at length we listened to the last long sad sigh, and then, so far as this world goes, all was over. "But we know that when He shall appear" God will bring our loved ones with His Son from the heavens. They are now in paradise, their spirits are with the Lord, but He will remove their dust from this earth, He will give them their bodies of glory, their corruptible will put on incorruption," and they and "we shall be like Him."

The Lord's crowning act of grace to His own, their initiation, as it were, into the glory of God, is a theme for the affections, of the most endearing kind. Jesus Himself, the glorified Man in heaven, is the witness of what we shall be, and His glories as man, declare to us the character of the glories awaiting us when we shall be "glorified together."

God Himself has made His children heirs, we are "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8: 17.) Christ being the Son of God has of right the inheritance (Heb. 1: 4), and as risen Man in glory God has appointed Him heir of all things. (Heb. 1: 2.) His own essential dignity, His eternal Sonship, and His effected work on the earth, require for His honor, the throne of the whole universe, and in infinite grace, yet for the pleasure and the joy of His beloved Son, God has made poor, weak, dying men co-heirs with His Christ. "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" (Psalm 8: 4.)

The kingdom of God will be full of happiness, glory and power; not a disappointment, nor regret, will he known there. In resurrection we shall receive the complete honors of sonship; this is the common glory awaiting all the children; the weakest and the youngest on earth will be like Christ, and all are heirs of God.

The fact of the believer being "a son, and if a son, then an heir of God" (Gal. 4: 7), was used by the apostle to rouse those whom he addressed from the mean religiousness they had adopted. An heir of God, knowing that he is such ponder over the words, not an heir of earth's royal houses, but an heir of God — turning to "the weak and beggarly elements, whereby ye desire again to be in bondage" was such an unnatural sight, that said he, "I stand in doubt of you." (Gal. 4: 20.) Let us in these days of like temptations consider our future, and by it regulate our present religion.

The exceeding meanness of that religiousness which permits to any man a hold over another's conscience, or dreams of angels and departed saints as intermediates between the soul and God, may well be shamed out of the heart by the light of the bright rays of the coming glory. The child of God, knowing the purpose of his God, could not turn to things or notions which dishonor the character of God. God is traduced by that system of so-called christianity, which is really a great plan for lowering His Christ in the eyes of christians, and of setting up men, and departed spirits or angels in His stead.

Since God's love is ours, the glory is secure; but let us remember it is God's love and God's glory of which we speak so confidently. The question is, Who and what God is; not what am I? We once heard a christian say, "Oh! if I could be sure of one of the back seats in heaven, behind the angels, I should be satisfied." But God would not be satisfied with having His child in such a place; our destiny is, by His grace, not a whit less than conformity to the image of His Son, that His Son might be the first-born among many brethren. (Rom. 8: 29.)

Not even an angel's place is that of a son of God. The angels, mighty and excelling in strength, have their place as servants, the child of God is heir.

God will inherit all things in His children. In the fulness of times, when ages and dispensations shall have run their course, God will set His Son as head over all things in the heavens and on the earth; and the vast multitude of the sons of God will be associated with Him in His reign and glory. The apostle prayed that the people of God might know "what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, is; and deeply wonderful is the consideration of the truth, of God as having riches of glory in His people. Yet may we with reverence, form an illustration, from our earthly homes; what greater joy could a father have in his sons, than seeing them in positions of honor, carrying out all the purposes of his heart!

There is vastly more than the bare fact of getting to heaven before us in such prospects as these. God is God, and has wrought for His own glory and joy. Let not a jot of all the favor of God to us be surrendered by our souls. Lost or forfeited, naught can be, for we are heirs by the divine will; but the enemy would cheat us, if possible, from enjoying by faith what is ours.

The holy character of the kingdom is frequently enforced in the word. Evil works and fleshly activity will be barred out of it: "The unrighteous shall not enter the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6: 9.) The kingdom will be after the character of the King, and the heirs of God should now walk worthy of the coming kingdom. That which may never enter the glory should be kept out of our lives on earth. The future should govern the present; the future is secure in God; the present is our responsibility. Prospects of glory have a reflective strength, and evidence their existence in the walk and ways of the child of God. We do not in this world expect a king's son to do mean things or to think low thoughts. His heirship and position govern his condition before men; how much more so should this be true of the children of the God of glory!

Any dishonest or mean behaviour, or any of the low practices of Satan's world, should be abhorred by the heir of God. Deception, falsehood, and the whole circle of unrighteousness, are obnoxious to the coming kingdom. Thoughts, words, and ways worthy of that glory should be found in or at least be sought after, by those who speak of such prospects as belong to the child of God.

The hope of eternal life is glory. "Being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3: 7.) As we read again: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1: 27.)

Until the hope be realized, the child of God must, of the necessity of his new nature, long for its fulfilment; and we believe every possessor of eternal life has this hope. The intensity of the hope will vary, no doubt, according as the lamp is well or feebly supplied with oil. The more communion there is with God the Giver of life, the more pure will be the hope of the life in the child of God; and the more fully the life is practically lived out on earth, the more earnest will be the hope for glory in heaven. The apostle who said, "To me to live is Christ," said also, for Him I have "suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." (Phil. 1: 21; Phil. 3: 8.) Living Christ in his daily life made him long to win Christ in glory, and knowing Christ in glory was the spring and vital force in him of his living Christ on earth.

God and the word of His grace are our support on the way to the inheritance. Ten thousand adverse things still beset our path; it is not intended that the heir of glory should reach the inheritance without hardship and conflict.

The path of the Lord on earth is set out by Him as that of His people. The servant is not above his master. Suffering on earth and reigning in heaven are linked together: "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." (2 Tim. 2: 12.) There is in the ways of God a necessity for His children to learn what trial and suffering are. The path of His Son on earth is the path to which they also are called.

Sin has brought death and misery into this world, therefore the path of men going to glory must of necessity be contrary to the world. Righteousness must occasion loss in a world of iniquity. The people of God belong to the kingdom of God now as much as ever they will, but its glories are to them yet future. Holy living and eternal glory are morally associated, even as evil living and eternal darkness are connected together.

The believer is, however, not only exhorted to abstain from evil because of the glory, but he is cheered by the prospect of overcoming: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." (Rev. 21: 7.)

In the sense of our responsibility it is joy to repose our feebleness on God: "I commend you to God," said the apostle, "and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." (Acts 20: 32.)

26. The Liberty of the Glory

The Child of God

By H. Forbes Witherby.

His Glory.

26. The Liberty of the Glory.

The liberty of the grace of God — fitness of spirit soul, and body for the glory — the power of hope — creation waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God — eternal life, light, and love.

The liberty of the grace of God is the present portion, the liberty of the glory, the prospect of His children. God met us in His grace in our estrangement from Himself, pardoned our sins, brought us to Himself, made us to know His love as our Father, put His Spirit in us, and gave us to rejoice in His Son. All this is grace, perfect grace, and the child of God is in the holy and happy liberty of this grace in the presence of his God.

We have as our present privilege by Christ "access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." We have our prospects also, and which for excellency can only be compared with the blessing of the present favor; we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 5: 2.) What the glory of God in its full extent is, we know not, but sufficient has been told to make us eagerly long for the day of its display. His glory as Creator is declared by His heavens; His glory in the new creation will be declared in His children.

A glory far transcending the glories of this creation awaits His people. Christ the Son of God, the risen Man, is the head of the new creation, and its glories will be worthy of Him. Glimpses of heavenly glory have been seen for moments on this earth. One was granted on the mount of transfiguration, and again the glory shone from the face of Jesus in heaven as Saul was on his way to Damascus. The prize of the calling up on high awaits the children of God. They will be made like Christ, glory will be revealed in them, they will shine with Him, manifesting the glory of God.

It is our joy to know that we are not waiting for the manifestation of grace: "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared." (Titus 2: 11.) Each believer is a grateful witness to this fact, for "according to the riches of His grace" God has redeemed us from this world to Himself by the blood of His Son; He has forgiven us our sins, and by grace we are saved. We can joyfully say, as applying the passage to our very selves, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Rom. 5: 20.)

God's grace towards us is perfect this very day. Do we view ourselves as we were in our sins upon this earth, enemies to God and alienated from Him by wicked works, still we think of that which is greater than our sins and deeper than our natural hatred to God — even His grace toward us. Do we lift up our eyes from ourselves and all that we are by nature, and look to heaven — there in glory we see Jesus the Beloved One of God, who died for our sins; and we learn, "to the praise and glory of His (God's) grace," that we are accepted, brought into divine favor, in the Beloved, where He is. The grace of God in its riches is for us as sinners in our poverty and misery, meeting us in our sins; the grace of God in its glory is for us as His people, washed and made fit for heaven.

Our sins are removed by the blood of Jesus shed on earth, and this being so, we are taken into the acceptance of Christ, who is in heaven. The riches of the grace of God are for us in our lost and evil state by nature; the praise of the glory of His grace, is His work and purpose in taking such as we, into the very love and smile which rests upon His own Son in heaven. In the presence of this grace of God we are in liberty, we go about this world, and perform our daily duties in the consciousness of His free favor toward us; the glory is yet to come, and for it we hope.

When we are in the glory we shall be so fashioned as to be in liberty there. We might have a place set apart for us in a palace, but before we could enjoy it, two things would be necessary; first the palace must be entered, next we must be in a fit state to enter it. Sup posing we were taken to the palace just as we are, from the midst of the rough usage of daily life and toil. Our everyday attire and demeanor, as we might so express it, would not conduce to our liberty. We should require to be conformed to the character of the palace in order to be at home there. Now, not only have the children of God glory awaiting them, not only has the Lord said, "I go to prepare a place for you," but He will make His own perfectly suitable for the bright place into which He will bring them.

Frail humanity could not bear the weight of glory, the present state of our bodies could not partake of it. The three disciples, who saw the Lord and the two glorified saints enter the cloud, feared, as they beheld these glorified men in such a place. It was a strange sight to witness men pass into the glory with the Lord. But Moses and Elias were perfectly at liberty in the Shekinah with Jesus.

The blessed Lord's appearance became changed on that day, "the fashion of His countenance was altered" (Luke 9: 29), the Man of Sorrows shone for a moment as the Man of Glory, "His face did shine as the sun." (Matt. 17: 2.) He was the "same Jesus," but "altered." He is now glorified in heaven, and the light of His glory is "above the brightness of the sun." (Acts 26: 13.) Heaven's brightness shines from His face, not even the sun's — the greatest light this earth knows. Before that brightness Saul fell to the ground, and seeing Him in heaven, John fell as dead at His feet. (Rev. 1: 17.) We have faint ideas of the present glory of Jesus the Lord, but eventually the child of God, from the youngest to the eldest, will be at home in His presence as He is. All will be glorified together with the Lord, and all will appear in glory with Him.

These bodies will be transformed. Like Moses and Elias on the mount, we shall be "men .. . in glory." (Luke 9: 30, 31.) The child of God will be clothed upon with his house, which is from heaven: The tent of mortality will be exchanged for the house of incorruptibility. In this tent we groan. Sorrows around and pains within us, occasion the grief. Sighing according to divinely-given affections and hopes, is quite distinct from discontent and murmurs. The apostle was a man of praise and ecstasy, yet he groaned, being burdened. The love of Christ in him, the indwelling Spirit made him do so. Deep sympathy with suffering, and sorrow for sin and surrounding wickedness, and desires to be with, and like Christ, called forth his sighings: "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." (2 Cor. 5: 2.) "Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption — the redemption of our body." (Rom. 8: 23.)

The child of God is waiting for the redemption of his body; his body is not yet redeemed, but is still in the frailty and corruption attendant on this creation. His spirit, not his body, is at liberty in God's presence. Glory is to be revealed in him (Rom. 8: 18); and he will be altogether changed from his present estate and condition.

Divine knowledge now possessed is imperfect. "We know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. . . . Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Cor. 13: 9-12.) However much we may know, how little it is at the most! Many cannot fail to be sensible in themselves of a sorrowful immaturity of knowledge of Christ and of God His Father. "The measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4: 13) is not yet reached by us. We look on the unseen as through a window of dulled glass; the character of the glory is not in our full view, Here we are learners in the school of God; there we shall stand in the fulness of the adoption, with our lessons learned and the liberty of full age come.

Do not we most usually think and speak as children, and are not our thoughts, too, generally crude and ill-formed, and our utterances disconnected? Even the few giants in knowledge that exist, "know in part." But, then when glorified together with Christ, we shall know as known. We shall see "face to face" Himself the light of the eternal day, His glory and the glory of His God being the ceaseless sunshine of the eternal home. It will be our joy to see His face, and His name shall be in our radiant foreheads. (Rev. 22: 4.) Each of the many sons shall be the reflex of Himself. Each among the countless multitudes of the redeemed, shall shed abroad the brightness of His light for ever.

In the liberty of the glory He will look into our hearts, and we shall look into His heart and find nothing but love. No mean thoughts will crowd our spirits then, all will be pure and holy, and all full of love in the light. We shall behold His glory, fully understand Him, and have perfect communion with Himself and His Father. "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory." (John 17: 24.)

In the liberty of the glory we shall look into each other's hearts and find nothing but love; no restraint or constraint will then exist, no separation, no distance, no coldness amongst the children of God. Each one will be in his right place, and each will be perfectly transparent to the other, God shining through each, to the glory of His own name and character. What a contrast with this present time, its bickerings and strife, its jars and discord! Yet even now, if Christ were all to the children of God, not only would they be more heavenly, but earth would be like heaven where they were. Can we do other than sigh for the day of glory, yet with patience wait for it?

The power of hope even in the things of this world is a vast force within the human breast. Hope to the christian is an immense strength; "We are saved by (or in) hope." (Rom. 8: 24.) The hope is sure and certain, it cannot fail. Ht is not like hopes built upon an earthly basis; the foundation for our hope of glory, is God and His glorified Son. No limit short of glory with Christ in heaven, is the outlook of our expectations. No one can be subject to disappointment, for God is the faithful promiser. Each individual child of God will be brought into the fully-developed privileges and honors of the sons of God, every divine-given hope of joy will then be consummated, every faithful word of God fulfilled.

"Conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8: 29), is our destiny, and when this fills the heart, it is an irresistible impetus to the affections. How this hope has lighted up the long hours of suffering, cheered the dying, and soothed the wearied! Many a faint-hearted traveller to eternity, has it invigorated and quickened into zeal; for the time is short, and suffering will soon be passed for the child of God. Many a saint, depressed by reason of the way, jaded by the buffetings of Satan, and sick at heart because of his malice and cowardly wiles, has it lighted up into a very flame of ardour; for the end is near. Many a slothful servant has this hope stirred into fresh devotedness, awaking him from his spiritual torpor and mysterious inactivity for the salvation of souls, and for the good of God's people. Eternity is at hand. Its brightness already beams before the eye of faith. Faith soon will be lost in sight. Servants of the Master, awake, then! seek not ease below, arouse and work; now only during this little while is the opportunity for telling the sin-stricken world of the once crucified Saviour, of present peace, and of coming glory for those who believe in Him; now alone is the time to cheer the faint-hearted and to comfort the weary now only is the time to battle on for Christ's sake through adversity and enemies, strong in the hope of the approaching day.

The very fact of hope dwelling in and stimulating the soul, is evidence that there is much awaiting the child of God. It tells its own tale to the world, which has no hope, no certain prospect for time, whose eyes are sightless, and oh! how dark for eternity! "What a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for"? (Rom. 8: 24.) What the world offers man sees, but for what God spiritually gives it has no sight. Faith possesses all things, and hope stretches on to the fulness of the possession, yet in no rest less mood, for patience sits by the side of hope in the christian's soul, and teaches him to wait for the glory of his God. "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." (Rom. 8: 25).

The hope of being conformed to the image of God's Son has a purifying effect within the heart. "We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." (1 John 3: 2, 3.) The steersman's eye is fixed on the glory, and by his hand the vessel's helm answers to the object in view. By the light of glory he shapes her course: that light which pierces through earth's darkest gloom and densest fogs.

Holiness and purity follow the hope of being like Christ; he who is looking forward to be like Christ in heaven, seeks to be like Christ on earth; he whose prospects are the brightest, hastens on the path of holiness with quickest step. The prospects and the path are in accord with each other.

The purpose of God is to bless creation through His children. Here on the earth made partakers of the divine nature, here where sin and death abound, being given eternal life, and here, as to the body, having the self-same lot as other men, the child of God is the channel of blessing for men generally. But failure and self-seeking too often clog the communication, the souls of men are not watered, and God is hindered from using His children, as would be the case were humility and Christ-like character prevalent in them. In the coming day "we shall be like Him," and all evil being absolutely removed from us, we shall be the pure and perfect channels for God to use for His own purposes of light and love.

There will be nothing then to mar the bright shining out from us of God in us. We see a transparent cloud floating before the sun in the pure blue sky, and note its excessive brightness, yet the light is not its own, but that of the sun shining through it. Such an illustration seems to indicate what, speaking spiritually, a child of God glorified will be, even a lovely, unsoiled expression of God and of Christ, — a fair transparency through which God shall shine. When John saw the holy Jerusalem having the "glory of God," he noted "transparent" golden streets, and stones "clear as crystal," and the city itself as "clear glass."

Creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God; its groans will cease on the day of their glory. Hope was left in the cup of its sorrow when, by reason of man's sin, creation was made subject to vanity. Suffering and death are not to hold in their arms God's creation for ever. It "groans and travails in pain together until now." There rises up to God a moan from His suffering creatures on this earth, an unison of sorrow from its four quarters, as day by day passes by.

What human mind can conceive the immensity of misery that exists upon this globe? The very thought of suffering on a large scale so overwhelms the mind that it grasps it not, and so it is easier to consider it than the detailed misery of one misfortune. We feel compassion, and are moved to tears, over one starving child; we hear of famines and of thousands perishing, and fail to grasp the meaning of the words. But every sigh, every sorrow, every pain — every detail of each grief over the whole face of His creation is known to God, and the cry thereof rises up to Him.

But presently His creation will break forth in lasting song heaven and earth will utter the love of Him who has redeemed the people of God by His blood, and angels with loud voices will re-echo His praise. (Rev. 5: 11-14.) Then will creation be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory (lit.) of the children of God. (Rom. 8: 21.)

The earnest expectation of the creature, the stretching out of its neck in eager longing desires the manifestation of the sons of God, for it is the divine purpose that His creature man shall he the communication of blessing in His creation. At the first, Adam was the intelligent ruler of what God had made on this earth; he named the animals, each according to its nature, and through him the praise of this creation should have risen to the Creator. Sin has plunged the whole creation into confusion and distress; but the purpose of God will yet be fulfilled on the sure basis of resurrection, for the resurrection will be the day of glory for the sons of God.

Life, and love in their fulness, and without the supervening circumstances incidental to this present life, are near at hand — the perfect freedom of the children of God approaches. All will soon be made like to Christ as He now is; all will presently have entered life everlasting; all will be before God according. to His nature, holy, and without blame, in love. Fellowship with the Father and the Son will be without interruption, the indwelling Spirit will never more be grieved. The marvellous words of the Lord to the Father will be fully realized: "And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may he one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." (John 17: 22, 23.)

This brightest of all bright prospects nears daily, this glory is at our very doors. The sons of God are waiting with the expectant creation for their manifestation, they are longing for the redemption of the body. Our cherished graves cry out for that day, our broken hearts weep out their yearnings, our silence and bereavement sigh for it; we are hoping to see our dearest once more face to face, to see them not as we last beheld them, in their dying weakness, but glorious in the accomplished hope of eternal life.

That transient scene of coming glory witnessed upon the mount of Transfiguration, indicates the holy friendships and sweet companionships of heaven. Communion with Jesus will be then our joy. The crowns of rejoicing composed of glorified saints who on earth were brought to God by the servants' means, await the weary worker of this hour; the holy fellowship of men and women, who followed Christ on earth, will then be resumed, never more to be broken. Weakness of body will soon have passed, flagging of mind will soon never more be known; and instead, for ever and for ever, fresh gladness, fresh songs, fresh sights of Jesus', fresh knowledge of the Father.

Happy are they who now in this day of salvation come to Christ as guilty sinners. He came from heaven to teach us of heaven, and to give the eternal life to all who come to Him. Happy are they who have learned, in His death and resurrection, God's righteousness, and who, receiving the Son, obtain the eternal life; happy, even now, in a world of sin, and sorrow, and death. But what mind can conceive, what tongue utter, their eternal happiness in glory! What lips can frame the language which shall express the lengths and depths, the breadths and heights which the child of God in glory shall know of Life and Light and Love!

Appendix

The Child of God

By H. Forbes Witherby.

Appendix.

The following references may be helpful to the reader who would investigate the use made in the New Testament of the words son, child, infant, and kindred terms.

Son huios.

There is a large number of passages where the word Son occurs in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. These, which it will hardly be necessary for our object to give in detail, may be divided into four groups. Those passages which speak of Him as

Son of God,

Son of Man,

and Son of David;

and all the other passages where the word is used concerning Him.

Passages where the word carries with it a spiritual meaning.

Matt. 5: 9. — They shall be called the children (lit. sons) of God.

Matt. 5: 45. — That ye may be the children (lit. sons) of your Father which is in heaven.

Matt. 8: 12. — But the children (lit. sons) of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.

Matt. 9: 15, Mark 2: 19, Luke 5: 34. — Can the children (lit. sons) of the bride-chamber.

Matt. 13: 38. — The good seed are the children (lit. sons) of the kingdom, but the tares are the children (sons) of the wicked one.

Matt. 23: 15. — Ye make him twofold more the child (lit. son) of hell than yourselves.

Luke 6: 35. — Ye shall be the children (lit. sons) of the Highest.

Luke 10: 6. — And if the Son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it.

Luke 16: 8. — The children (lit. sons) of this world are in their generation wiser than the children (sons) of light.

Luke 19: 9. — This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a Son of Abraham.

John 12: 36. — Believe in the light, that ye may be the children (lit. sons) of light.

John 17: 12. — None of them is lost, but the son of perdition.

Acts 13: 10. — O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child (lit. son) of the devil.

Rom. 9: 26. — There shall they be called the children (lit. sons) of the living God.

2 Cor. 6: 18. — Ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Gal. 3: 7. — They which are of faith, the same are the children (lit. sons) of Abraham.

Eph. 2: 2. — The spirit that now worketh in the children (lit. sons) of disobedience.

Eph. 5: 6, Col. 3: 6. — Cometh the wrath of God upon the children (lit. sons) of disobedience.

1 Thess. 5: 5. — Ye are all the children (lit. sons) of light, and the children (sons) of the day.

2 Thess. 2: 3. — That man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Heb. 2: 10. — In bringing many sons unto glory.

Heb. 12: 5. — Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children (lit. sons), My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.

Heb. 12: 6, 7, 8. — The Lord . . . scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? If ye be without chastisement, . . . . then are ye bastards, and not sons.

1 Peter 5: 13. — The church . . . saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

Passages specially referring to privileges of sonship.

Luke 20: 36. — Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children (lit. sons) of God, being the children (sons) of the resurrection.

Rom. 8: 14. — As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Rom. 8: 19. — The manifestation of the sons of God.

Gal. 3: 26. — Ye are all the children (lit. sons) of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Gal. 4: 6. — Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts.

Gal. 4: 7. — Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Rev. 21: 7. — He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.

Child — teknon.

Passages where the word marks spiritual birth or spiritual relationship.

John 1: 12. — As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons (lit. children) of God.

John 11: 52. — He should gather together in one all the children of God that were scattered abroad.

Rom. 8: 16, 17. — We are the children of God. And if children, their heirs, heirs of God.

Rom. 8: 21. — The glorious liberty (lit. liberty of the glory) of the children of God.

1 Cor. 4: 14. — As my beloved sons (lit. children) I warn you.

1 Cor. 4: 17. — I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son (lit. child).

2 Cor. 6: 13. — I speak as unto my children.

Eph. 5: 1. — Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.

Phil. 2: 15. — That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons (lit. children) of God.

Phil. 2: 22. — As a son (lit. child) with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

1 Tim. 1: 2. — Unto Timothy, my own son (lit. child) in the faith.

1 Tim. 1: 18. — This charge I commit unto thee, son (lit. child) Timothy.

2 Tim. 1: 2. — To Timothy, my dearly beloved son (lit. child).

2 Tim. 2: 1. — Thou therefore, my son (lit. child), be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Titus 1: 4. — To Titus, mine own son (lit. child), after the common faith.

Philem. 10. — I beseech thee for my son (lit. child) Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.

1 John 3: 1, 2. — Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons (lit. children) of God. Beloved, now are we the sons (lit. children) of God.

1 John 3: 10. —  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.

1 John 5: 2. — By this we know that we love the children of God.

3 John 4. — I have no greater joy to hear that my children walk in truth.

Passages where the word marks a spiritual condition.

Matt. 3: 9. — God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Matt. 11: 19, Luke 7: 35. — Wisdom is justified of her children — all her children.

John 8: 39. — If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

Rom. 9: 7, 8. — Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. The children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Gal. 4: 25. — And this Agar . . . . answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Gal. 4: 28. — Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

Gal. 4: 31. — So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman.

Eph. 2: 3. — Were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Eph. 5: 8. — Ye are light in the Lord: walk as children of light.

1 Peter 1: 14. — As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts.

1 Peter 3: 6. — Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters (lit. children) ye are.

2 Peter 2: 14. — An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.

Rev. 2: 23. — I will kill her children with death.

There are various other texts where the word marks natural birth, and some where it is used as a term of kindness, as, for example, "Son (child), be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." Matt. 9: 2.

Little Children — teknion.

John 13: 33. — Little children, yet a little while I am with you.

Gal. 4: 19. — My little children, of whom I travail in birth.

1 John 2: 1. — My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

1 John 2: 12. — I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you.

1 John 2: 28. — And now, little children, abide in him.

1 John 3: 7. — Little children, let no man deceive you.

1 John 3: 18. — My little children, let us not love in word . . . . but indeed.

1 John 4: 4. — Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them.

1 John 5: 21. — Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Infant — nepios.

Matt. 11: 25. — Hast revealed them unto babes.

Matt. 21: 16. — Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou bast perfected praise.

Luke 10: 21. — Hast revealed them unto babes.

Rom. 2: 20. — An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes.

1 Cor. 3: 1. — As unto carnal, even as babes in Christ.

1 Cor. 13: 11. — When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Gal. 4: 1. — The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant.

Gal. 4: 3. — Even so we, when we were children.

Eph. 4: 14. — Be no more children, tossed to and fro.

Heb. 5: 13. — Every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.