As long as we feel the presence of God to be a terror, as long as we feel, "Thou God seest me," to be the same as the eye of a keeper upon a maniac, or of a task-master upon a miserable slave, we have not the Spirit of adoption; for as soon as we feel the Spirit of adoption, we feel every sound of the footfall of God to be music in our ears; the sweep of his glory, as it passes by, we regard, not as the lightning-flash, that crushes and consumes, but the sweet sunshine that warms, cheers, and makes happy. Prayers full of deprecations of God's wrath are not most scriptural. We ought to pray less as criminals in the dock, deprecating the vengeance of the judge, and more as sons, disobedient sons, sinful sons, but still sons asking their fatherly blessing and forgiveness.