n
self-control, and self-control depends upon letting Jesus Christ
govern us wholly. So the measure in which it is true of me that 'I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' is the measure in which
the lower life of sense really belongs to us, and ministers to our
highest good.

And then turn to the other member of this wonderful antithesis,
'whether life or _death_.' Surely if there is anything over which no
man can become lord, except by sinfully taking his fate into his own
hands, it is death. And yet even death, in which we seem to be
abjectly passive, and by which so many of us are dragged away
reluctantly from everything that we care to possess, may become a
matter of consent and therefore a moral act. Animals expire; a
Christian man may yield his soul to his Saviour, who is the Lord both
of the dead and of the living. If thus we feel our dependence upon
Him, and yield up our lives to Him, and can say, 'Living or dying we
are the Lord's,' then we may be quite sure that death, too, will be
our servant, and that our wills will be concerned even in passing out
of life.

Still more, if you and I, dear brethren, belong to Jesus Christ, then
death is our fellow-servant who comes to call us out of this
ill-lighted workshop into the presence of the King. And at His magic
cold touch, cares and toils and sorrows are stiffened into silence,
like noisy streams bound in white frost; and we are lifted clean up
out of all the hubbub and the toil into eternal calm. Death is ours
because it fulfils our deepest desires, and comes as a messenger to
paupers to tell them they have a great estate. Death is ours if we be
Christ's.

IV. And lastly, Christ's servants are the lords of time and eternity,
'things present or things to come.'

Our Apostle's division, in this catalogue of his, is rhetorical
rather than logical; and we need not seek to separate the first of
this final pair from others which we have already encountered in our
study of the words, but still we may draw a distinction. The whole
mass of 'things present,' including not only that material universe
which we call the world, but all the events and circumstances of our
lives, over these we may exercise supreme control. If we are bowing
in humble submission to Jesus Christ, they will all subserve our
highest good. Every weather will be right; night and day equally
desirable; the darkness will be good for eyes that have been tired of
brightness and that need repose