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LL believers are the children of God. They possess faith in God's provisions of mercy for their salvation. They rest their hopes on Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer. They are the heirs of heaven. God has given them a present title to hope and future glory; this is faith. How great the privilege that we should thus be called the children of God,-the sons and daughters " of the Most High! God's "lights" in a dark world

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LL believers are the children of God. They possess faith in God's provisions of mercy for their salvation. They

rest their hopes on Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer. They are the heirs of heaven. God has given them a present title to hope and future glory; this is faith. How great the privilege that we should thus be called the children of God,-the "sons and daughters" of the Most High! God's "lights" in a dark world.

of sin. God's "epistles," to be "known and read of men." God's missionaries to do His work and promote His glory; and holding from Him in every scene and circumstance, the plain and comprehensive assurance, "Lo! I am with you alway." And yet, among those who are the children of God in this world, there is a great variety of feeling, as there must be acknowledged to be different degrees of faith in exercise. Some are strong in it, they have attained to a lofty standing-place, they can see through the darkest clouds, and consequently, they realize but very little of the sorrow in the spiritual life by which many seem to be afflicted. They can bear burdens which would overwhelm others, they smile while many are in tears, they can tread firmly amidst those rugged ways where many fear and tremble, they are happy because they lay hold of and enjoy

their privileges, they read God's promises as embracing themselves.

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But it is not all believers who can speak with the same unwavering accent, who can walk with the same firm step, who enjoy the same comfort in that faith by which God has characterized them as His children, through the operation of which He has brought them to Himself, and which, as their spiritual possession, makes them to differ from the world. There may be many who are as certainly the children of God as others, though they may and do want more help in the wilderness to make their experience that of peace and joy by the way. They feel often weary and almost worn out; they are troubled and often very disconsolate; like poor old Jacob, not knowing beforehand the design of God's discipline, they are apt to be exclaiming, in the midst of veiled mercies, "All

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