As men are prone to mix law and redemption through Christ, so they are prone to mix law and sonship. They fail to see that redemption from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redemption from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), redemption from under the law (Rom. 6:14), means to be placed in a higher, more sacred relationship to God. Even in nature God has two grades of existence, a lower and a higher, for some insects, even; the mosquito, first in the water; then by a simple process it rises into the higher kingdom; the caterpillar, a creeping worm, then the butterfly. But were there no analogies in nature, God has clearly revealed a higher relation for those who are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), "God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,"--Gal. 4:4, 5; "Having in love predestinated us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself."--Eph. 1:5. Where is man in the scale of being? "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels."--Ps. 8:5. But even the angels, who are above man in the scale of being, are not the sons of God. "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son?"--Heb. 1:5. But to _every man_ who has been redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from under the law (Gal. 4:5), God says, "Ye are _all_ the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father."--Gal. 4:6. "Ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."--Rom. 8:15. Much of the confusion concerning the higher relationship of the redeemed with God has been caused by teaching the redeemed and the unredeemed to pray what is called the Lord's Prayer. The Saviour did not teach the unredeemed to pray in this manner. They cannot pray it truthfully, honestly, for they are not the children of God. "They that are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God."--Rom. 9:5. If they are not, then they cannot truthfully say "Our Father," "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."--Heb. 12:6-8. The language, "bastards and not sons," has some meaning, but it can have no meaning if God is the Father of all human beings, and all have a right to say "Our Father." It is true, that in the Old Testament God is referred to as a Father, but it is only as Father of Israel, the redeemed. "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us?"--Mal. 2:10. But who are the "we"? "The burden of the word of the Lord to _Israel_ by Malachi,"--Mal. 1:1;--Israel, God's redeemed people.