“Are you ready now?” said little Emma, coming skipping into her
grandmother’s room. “I have just finished learning my verses in Romans,
and I so weary to hear about some more Scripture doctrines.”
“I am quite ready,” said her grandmamma; “but it would make me happy,
before I begin, to hear you repeat whatever verses you have been
committing to memory to‐night.”
So saying, Emma stood by her grandmother’s chair, and, without a
mistake, repeated from the 10th to the 15th verse of the eighth chapter
of Romans. The last one was this, “Ye have not received the spirit of
bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father!”
“I am happy, my dear child,” said old Mrs Allan, “that these have been
your verses to‐night, as they refer to the very subject I should like
now to speak to you about.
“You remember what I explained to you last Sabbath?”
“Yes, grandmamma,” said Emma. “It was about _Justification_. God the
Great Judge trying the sinner at His bar, and sending him away freely
forgiven for the sake of Christ.”
[Sidenote: Of Adoption.] “You are right, my dear; and we are now going
to speak about _Adoption_. I wonder if you know what that is.”
“Oh, no. I have often wondered what that word can mean, and I long to
hear from you.”
[Sidenote: Difference between Justification and Adoption.] “Well, then,
my child, as in Justification God acts as a _Judge_, so in Adoption God
acts as a _Father_.”
“How I should like to hear about this, grandmamma! There is something
terrible about the thought of a _Judge_; but there is nothing but love
and joy in the thought of a _Father_!”
[Sidenote: Of our State by Nature.] “It is true, my dear,” said her
grandmother; “but by nature none of us are in the family of God; we are
called ‘children of wrath;’ ‘children of the devil;’ ‘enemies!’ God puts
a very solemn and striking question about us—‘How shall I set thee among
the children?’ He sees that we are such poor miserable sinners, that if
He had dealt with us as we have deserved for our sins, we should have
been for ever ‘children of wrath!’”
“What, then, could have made God adopt us into His family?” said little
Emma.
[Sidenote: Difference between Man’s Adoption and God’s.] “This, my
child,” replied the other, “is the thing in which _God’s_ Adoption
differs from _man’s_. When a man takes a little orphan child into his
house, and is kind to it, and brings it up as his own, it is because of
something attractive, and lovely, and engaging in the child. I knew an
old gentleman who saw a lovely little boy with golden locks, and he was
so struck with his beauty, he would never part with him, but brought him
up as his own son. But how different is it with us and God! The Bible
represents sinners as lying all filthy and vile in the open field; so
vile, that none would look at them, ‘all passed them by!’ But God came,
lifted them up, and said unto them, ‘Live!’ ‘_I_ will be a Father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.’ What, my dear Emma, would
you call this act of God in Adoption?”
[Sidenote: Adoption all of Grace.] “Oh, I would say,” said her little
hearer, “that it is the same as with Justification. It is an ‘_act of
God’s free grace_’—that is to say, that there was nothing about us to
make God love us, or be kind to us, and that it was all of His own great
and wonderful kindness and mercy in Christ Jesus!”
“You are right, my darling; and do you remember the name of an aged
disciple of Jesus who delighted more than all the rest to speak of God’s
love? And perhaps you remember, too, what he says about this adopting
love of God?”
“Oh, yes,” said Emma; “I think that will be the text Mr R. was preaching
from last month:—‘Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!’ But, dear [Sidenote:
When Adoption takes place.] grandmamma,” continued she, “you told me
last Sabbath that Justification takes place _in this world_, whenever
the sinner believes in Jesus. It cannot surely be that this great honour
of being children of God, and adopted into His family, can begin on
earth?”
“Yes, dear child, it does,” said her grandmother. “Justification and
Adoption are just different names for one great act. God, as I said, is
represented in the one as a _Judge_, in the other as a _Father_. I don’t
know if Mr R. [Sidenote: The Apostle John’s Testimony.] took the next
verse in that beautiful chapter along with his text. If he did so, it
will tell you _when_ the believer is adopted, and can call God his
Father.”
Little Emma quickly turned up her Bible, and read as follows:—“Beloved,
now are we the sons of God!”
“You see, my child,” continued the old lady, “_when_ this act of
fatherly love takes place; it is ‘_now_;’ and if my dear little Emma
loves the Lord Jesus, she can _now_ look up to the Great God, and say,
‘He is my _Father_;’ and to Jesus, and say, ‘He is my _Elder Brother_!’”
“How kind in God,” said Emma, with the tear in her eye, “to love sinners
so much, and deal with them so tenderly! I think this, too, explains my
favourite story in the gospel—does it not, grandmamma?”
[Sidenote: Our Lord’s Parable about Adoption.] “I remember now what your
favourite is,” said the other, after thinking a moment; “it is the
_Prodigal Son_; and you are very right; there is no portion of the Bible
which speaks more beautifully of God’s adopting love. You remember, at
the very same moment that God forgave the Prodigal, He ordered ‘the ring
to be put on his finger’ (the ring of _adoption_); and He calls him,
‘_This, my son!_’”
“Oh! I shall love to read that parable more than ever,” said Emma. “I
don’t think any earthly father would have been so kind to an ungrateful
son. But you often tell me that ‘God’s ways are not as man’s ways;’ and
it is surely so in this.
[Sidenote: Evidences of Adoption.] “But how can I know, dear grandmamma,
whether _I_ am a child of God? I would feel as if I was richer and
happier than the richest in the world, and greater than earthly kings or
queens, if I could be sure that the Great God was my Father, and that I
was His child.”
“That is a very natural question, my dear, and I shall do what I can to
answer you. Let me ask you another question. What are your feelings
towards your earthly parents?”
[Sidenote: Love of God.] “I love them,” said Emma, “very much; I try to
do what they bid me, and I am always unhappy when I do anything that
vexes or hurts them.”
[Sidenote: Hatred of Sin.] “It is the very same, my dear,” said her
grandmother, “with the children of God. If you are really a child of
God, you will love Him, and try to do all His will, and be unhappy
whenever you sin against Him or displease Him.”
“I will tell you another thing, grandmamma,” interrupted the little
girl; “I am never happy when I am far away from my father, or when my
father is far away from me. Sometimes he has to go away for many days to
a distance, and I so weary for his coming back. I think and speak of him
all the day long; and once I remember, when I was a week away at aunt
Fanny’s, I so longed to get back again to be with him.”
[Sidenote: Filial Nearness.] “Well, dear child, you have just given
another mark by which you may know if you are a child of God. Do you
love your Heavenly Father’s presence? Do you love prayer, [Sidenote:
Prayer.] which brings you always near Him? and are you always unhappy
when you forget prayer, which drives you away from God; or commit sin,
which drives God away from you?”
“Oh, yes, dear grandmamma, I think I can say I am; but then, I often
sin, and I fear”――
“Stop, my dear child,” said the old lady. “Remember, it is a great cause
of grief to the true child of God, that the power of sin is so strong in
his heart, and that the devil is so often tempting him.”
“But,” exclaimed Emma, “does not the Bible say, ‘We _cannot_ sin,
because we are born of God’?”
[Sidenote: How the Child of God “cannot sin.”] “Yes, my child, you are
correct; but I must tell you the real meaning of that verse, so that you
may not be cast down by supposing it asks what you cannot give. That
verse means, that God’s children cannot go on in a _course_ of sin. They
cannot love sin, and continue _in_ sin; but it does not mean that their
lives are so perfectly holy that they never can know what it is to have
a bad heart and wicked thought. Alas! this never can be, till the
adopted children of God get safe into their Father’s house in heaven!”
“Oh! how I wish,” said Emma, “I could love this kind Heavenly Father
more than I have ever yet done; and hate sin more and more every day!――I
am afraid, dear grandmamma, I tire you with my questions; but I have
just one more to ask to‐night, and then I shall go to bed. You often
speak of it being our duty to ‘_fear_ God.’ Now, how should we _fear_ a
God that you have just been telling me to _love_?”
[Sidenote: What it is to “fear” God in Adoption.] “I do not wonder, my
child, at your question. But there are two kinds of fear; the wicked
‘_fear_’ God as an awful Judge; they fear Him—that is, they are _afraid_
of Him, and tremble to think of His hatred of sin, and His judgment day.
But the children of God ‘_fear_’ their Heavenly Father in another sense;
they ‘_fear_’ to _offend_ Him. It is because they _love_ Him so very
much, that they are _afraid_ of doing anything that would displease Him.
The wicked man’s fear is what the Bible calls ‘the fear that hath
torment.’ The other is the fear, and reverence, and godly awe of
‘perfect love.’
“Good‐night, then, my dear,” said the kind old lady, kissing her little
scholar. “I love you much as an earthly parent; but your Heavenly Father
loves you more. When you go down on your knees to pray to Him to‐night,
think of that sweet verse in Jer. iii. 4, ‘_My Father!_ thou art the
guide of my youth!’
“You will not know all the wonders of the subject I have been speaking
about to‐night till the gracious Heavenly Father who adopts you opens to
you the gates of His own palace in glory, and when, taking you by the
hand, and shewing you all the unsearchable riches which Jesus has
purchased for you, He will say, ‘My child! _thou art ever with me; and
all that I have_ IS THINE!’”