we are created and created in the image of our Maker
constitutes sonship. He is our Father Who gives us life. "Have we not
all one Father, hath not God created us?" There is, therefore, a
sonship which is natural and universal, but it is not in itself
complete. Its value consists in the fact that it is the ground of a
higher relationship. It is the capacity for sonship, which, however
hidden or dormant, we believe to be in every man.

Nevertheless so long as men are ignorant of God and indifferent to Him,
they are not in any full sense His sons. We find, therefore, in the
Bible another kind of sonship. God is our Father because He gives us
more abundant life, a life of redemption from ignorance and sin. This
is illustrated in the Old Testament by the choice of Israel and the
great covenant promises involved in it, "I will be their God and they
shall be My people," "I will be his Father and he shall be My son." In
the New Testament we find the same principle in the choice by Christ of
His Apostles and disciples for special privilege of knowledge and
grace. This choice is perpetuated by Christ in His Church. Our
Christian sonship is a special sonship. It is ours by Baptism wherein
we are made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the
kingdom of Heaven. Two practical considerations follow. First, if
there are different levels of sonship there are different degrees of
brotherhood. The message of the premiers is right. The hope of a
brotherhood of humanity _does_ repose on the deeper spiritual truth of
the Fatherhood of God. This brotherhood, however, is not a
relationship which comes to us simply by nature; it is a relationship
which in social, individual, national and international life must be
morally won.

Again, those who have Christian knowledge and grace have not received
this privilege for themselves alone. They are God's sons who have
special gifts in trust on behalf of all mankind who have them not. The
call to Missionary work is based on this responsibility, and will
remain so until "the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the
waters cover the sea."

Finally, there is the unique sonship of Christ Himself. His sonship is
perfect and complete. It is also the channel through which our
sonship, whether of creation or redemption, comes to us. "All things
are delivered unto Me of My Father, and no man knoweth the son but the
Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save th