|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?”
|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.”
|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.”
|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, |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’?”
|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!”