king (i Kings 9), and in David from "following the ewes" (Ps. lxxvii. 70), to be raised to a throne, what ought we to think of the dignity of becoming the adoptive sons of God? Dust and ashes are associated to the sovereign Lord of all things, and the companion of worms is destined to become the companion of angels.
III. Under what obligations you are to God for having thus honored you, " raising the needy from the earth, and lifting up the poor man out of the dung-hill, that He may place him with princes." (Ps. cxii. 7.) O exalted honor! you who do not deserve, even to be the servant of God, are made His adoptive Son. "Acknowledge, therefore, O Christian! your dignity," writes the eloquent St. Leo, " and since you are become a partaker of the divine nature, clo not by any unworthy behavior Oegenerate to your former baseness."
TUESDAY.
The Benefit of Adoption. — II.
I. Many advantageous consequences result to manr from the benefit of adoption. It places us under the special protection of God, who governs, maintains, and defends us, as an affectionate father does his children. Hence royal David exclaims, "As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him." (Ps. cii. 13.) By the prophet Isaias he makes still greater promises : " Can a mother forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee." (Is. xlix. 15.) How great is our security when we are protected by such a Father! When He stands with us, we need not fear who stands against us.
II. By this adoption we are made " partakers of the
