, the world says, 'Struggle,
wriggle, fight, do anything to better yourself.' Paul says, 'You will
better yourself by getting nearer God, and if you secure that--art
thou a slave? care not for it; if thou mayest be free, use it rather;
art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou loosed?
seek not to be bound; art thou circumcised? seek not to be
uncircumcised; art thou a Gentile? seek not to become in outward form
a Jew.' Never mind about externals: the main thing is our relation to
Jesus Christ, because in that there is what will be compensation for
all the disadvantages of any disadvantageous circumstances, and in
that there is what will take the gilt off the gingerbread of any
superficial and fleeting good, and will bring a deep-seated and
permanent blessing.

Now, I am not going to deal in this sermon with that general
principle, nor even to be drawn aside to speak of the tone in which
the Apostle here treats the great abomination of slavery, and the
singular advice that he gives to its victims; though the
consideration of the tone of Christianity to that master-evil of the
old world might yield a great many thoughts very relevant to pressing
questions of to-day. But my one object is to fix upon the combination
which he here brings out in regard to the essence of the Christian
life; how that in itself it contains both members of the antithesis,
servitude and freedom; so that the Christian man who is free
externally is Christ's slave, and the Christian man who is outwardly
in bondage is emancipated by his union with Jesus Christ.

There are two thoughts here, the application in diverse directions of
the same central idea--viz. the slavery of Christ's free men, and the
freedom of Christ's slaves. And I deal briefly with these two now.

I. First, then, note how, according to the one-half of the
antithesis, Christ's freed men are slaves.

Now, the way in which the New Testament deals with that awful
wickedness of a man held in bondage by a man is extremely remarkable.
It might seem as if such a hideous piece of immorality were
altogether incapable of yielding any lessons of good. But the
Apostles have no hesitation whatever in taking slavery as a clear
picture of the relation in which all Christian people stand to Jesus
Christ their Lord. He is the owner and we are the slaves. For you
must remember that the word most inadequately rendered here,
'servant' does not mean a hired man who has, of his own vo