The

has no boundaries to the gaze of faith. saints of all times and dispensations, the companies of just men made perfect, the heavenly court, the throne of God, the purpose, mind, and will of the divine kingdom, the reality of all laws and mysteries of grace, stand out ever more and more clearly and vividly to the pure in heart. And with clearer sight comes greater strength; and with greater strength a greater ease in the whole life of faith.

With this comes also a deeper sense of the presence of God; a sense which grows up into a consciousness finer than all thought, and independent of all reflection. It is as the consciousness of an eye ever upon us,-an eye of love, in which it is happiness to live; a countenance ever shining downwards; a light lifted up in token of good-will; a reality out of ourselves and yet within us, or rather in which-as in the air or noonday lightwe are enshrined, enfolded, and encompassed. This is the witness of the Spirit with our spirit; something too deep and intimate for words, too high and subtil for logical proof; but sure, real, and perceptible by faculties above reasoning or sense.

Have you, then, these three marks of the sons of God: a ready will, a loving heart, a peaceful conscience? If so, happy are ye. If not, what are you doing, hoping, expecting?

In your baptism you were made members of the Son of God. He took your manhood, that He might impart to you His divine nature. He took our disinherited humanity, that we might be made partakers of His Sonship.

Take, then, some rules by which to seek this
There are two ways to it:

true spirit of a son.

1. By learning

things.

obedience even in the least

There is nothing small which God has commanded: His greatness makes all about Him to be great. Nothing is little by which He may be greatly pleased, or greatly offended. A thought

is a little thing, and yet it may be a great provocation of the divine Majesty; for every sin has the whole virus and principle of sin. So every duty, even the least duty, involves the whole principle of obedience. And little duties make the will dutiful, that is, supple and prompt to obey. Little obediences lead into great: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much."

The daily round of duty is full of probation and of discipline: it trains the will, heart, and conscience. We need not to be prophets or apostles. The commonest life may be full of perfection. The duties of home are a discipline for the ministries of heaven. A faithful servant has the

heart of a son of God.

A dutiful child lives in

the spirit of adoption. An obedient wife exercises the whole grace of submission. A faithful pastor may labour in the spirit of an apostle; and a soul in wrongs or sufferings may gain a martyr's crown. It is specially the common, unnoticed duties of life which are the safest and most searching tests. They have no ostentation or excitement, but are done from inward force, and a fruitful principle of duty.

2. The other way to a filial spirit is by habitual communion in the holy sacrament.

From the font we are invited to the altar. Once washed, we need to be perpetually fed with spiritual food. The life that was breathed into us from above cannot be sustained without the Bread of heaven.

What, then, is the state of those who never communicate? Sinful Christians slay their souls by wounds or poison: every sin that a man commits violates the gift of life. Slothful Christians starve their souls by wasting and exhaustion. Inconstant and irregular communicants undermine their spiritual steadfastness. Seldom communions make cold communions. Frequent communion is the best preparation for the altar; the communion of last Sunday for the next, of yesterday for to-day.

It is by habitual fellowship with the presence

of our Lord that our will is united with His will, our heart with His heart, our conscience with His Spirit.

It is by this union that we attain the will to choose His will, the will to cross our own. A will turned against itself is a token of the presence of God. As, if water should climb upward to its springs, or fire turn its points of flame downward to the earth, we should see and know that One greater than nature is here; so, when we choose pain and reject pleasure, when we will not what we will, but are willing for that against which our will is naturally bent, we may adore the presence of Him Whose Will gives law to all. Seek Him, then, continually in the even obedience of home, and in His presence at the altar, and He will lead you by the path of the sons of God to the peace of His kingdom.

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Your way shall be sure; I do not say it shall be smooth. In bringing many sons to glory, He hath made the Leader of their salvation, the first who trod the path, perfect through suffering." He may ordain this also for you. We know not: God knoweth. But, smooth or rough, the way shall be sure; and He will lead you unto the end, through all changes of life, through all shadows of the world, through struggles and pain, hope and

1 Heb. ii. 10.

fear, sorrow and the cross, up the ascending path, by chastisements and warnings, by sudden visitations and lingering cares, by tokens in your home and at the altar, by persuasions more moving than words, by pledges more assuring than a miracle, until every son shall be conformed to the Son eternal, incarnate, "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature," in the kingdom of our Father.

1 Col. i. 15.