tical strait-jacket. Not so. When a man becomes a Christian,
he does not go down, he starts upward. Religion multiplies one by ten
thousand. Nay, the multiplier is in infinity. It is not a blotting
out--it is a polishing, it is an arborescence, it is an efflorescence,
it is an irradiation. When a man comes into the kingdom of God he is
not sent into a menial service, but the Lord God Almighty from the
palaces of heaven calls upon the messenger angels that wait upon the
throne to fly and "put a ring on his hand." In Christ are the largest
liberty, and brightest joy, and highest honor, and richest adornment.
"Put a ring on his hand."

I remark, in the first place, that when Christ receives a soul into
His love, He puts upon him the ring of adoption. Eight or ten years
ago, in my church in Philadelphia, there came the representative of
the Howard Mission of New York. He brought with him eight or ten
children of the street that he had picked up, and he was trying to
find for them Christian homes; and as the little ones stood on the
pulpit and sung, our hearts melted within us. At the close of the
services a great-hearted wealthy man came up and said: "I'll take this
little bright-eyed girl, and I'll adopt her as one of my own
children;" and he took her by the hand, lifted her into his carriage,
and went away.

The next day, while we were in the church gathering up garments for
the poor of New York, this little child came back with a bundle under
her arm, and she said: "There's my old dress; perhaps some of the
poor children would like to have it," while she herself was in bright
and beautiful array, and those who more immediately examined her said
that she had a ring on her hand. It was a ring of adoption.

There are a great many persons who pride themselves on their ancestry,
and they glory over the royal blood that pours through their arteries.
In their line there was a lord, or a duke, or a prime minister, or a
king. But when the Lord, our Father, puts upon us the ring of His
adoption, we become the children of the Ruler of all nations. "Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God." It matters not how poor our garments may
be in this world, or how scant our bread, or how mean the hut we live
in, if we have that ring of Christ's adoption upon our hand we are
assured of eternal defenses.

Adopted! Why, then, we are brothers and sisters to all the good of
earth