"Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit" (2 Cor. 5:5).

God hath wrought us" by His own sovereign act, by His Spirit, through the Word:He has given to us the divine nature-"Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth" (Jas. i:18). Thus, as begotten of Him, we have been wrought into fitness to receive "the selfsame thing." This "selfsame thing" is "our house which is from heaven." Our present earthly tent-house may be folded up and its occupant pass into heaven, but our hope is that we may be "clothed upon with our house which is from heaven," "that mortality might be swallowed up of life."

As the pledge of this, God has given us His Spirit. The Spirit of God having taken possession of our bodies, is God's pledge that these bodies shall be made the fit witnesses of His power, at perhaps no distant day, when "clothed upon with our house which is from heaven," with wonder we shall exclaim, "What hath God wrought ! "

At present, we have "a spirit of sonship," wrought in us by the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, "whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15,16).

But, concerning God's purpose for His children, it is written," Whom He called, them He also glorified," having predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son. Thus we are waiting for the sonship-the full physical likeness to His Son, that is, " the redemption of our body."

Then shall we have this "selfsame thing" for which God has "wrought us," for He has "predestinated us unto the sonship, by Jesus Christ, to Himself" (Eph. i:5).* *In Eph. 1:5 the words "of children" ought to be omitted. We are not children of God by "adoption" but by new birth. "Adoption" in the New Testament I understand to be sonship. Hence the full manifestation of our sonship awaits the time when we shall be conformed to the image of His Son.* "Beloved, now are we the children 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."

"We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He hath before prepared that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Alas, how frequently the flesh in us hinders the manifestation of this ; but the day is coming when the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, "shall quicken our mortal bodies" -shall make them instinct with divine life.

God haste that day, when,

"All pure without, all pure within the breast," we shall bow before Him who gave Himself for us and say, "Lord Jesus, we owe it to Thy blood." G. MacKenzie