faces before Him! Bow your obstinate will,
surrender yourselves and accept Him as absolute, dominant Lord over
your whole being! Are you Christians after that pattern? Being
freemen, are you Christ's slaves?

It does not matter what sort of work the owner sets his household of
slaves to do. One man is picked out to be his pipe-bearer, or his
shoe-cleaner; and, if the master is a sovereign, another one is sent
off, perhaps, to be governor of a province, or one of his council.
They are all slaves; and the service that each does is equally
important.

'All service ranks the same with God:
There is no last nor first.'

What does it matter what you and I are set to do? Nothing. And, so,
why need we struggle and wear our hearts out to get into conspicuous
places, or to do work that shall bring some revenue of praise said
glory to ourselves? 'Play well thy part; there all the honour lies,'
the world can say. Serve Christ in anything, and all His servants are
alike in His sight.

The slave-owner had absolute power of life and death over his
dependants. He could split up families; he could sell away dear ones;
he could part husband and wife, parent and child. The slave was his,
and he could do what he liked with his own, according to the cruel
logic of ancient law. And Jesus Christ, the Lord of the household,
the Lord of providence, can say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes into
the mists and the shadows of death. And He can say to those who are
most closely united, 'Loose your hands! I have need of one of you
yonder. I have need of the other one here.' And if we are wise, if we
are His servants in any real deep sense, we shall not kick against
the appointments of His supreme, autocratic, and yet most loving
Providence, but be content to leave the arbitrament of life and
death, of love united or of love parted, in His hands, and say,
'Whether we live we are the Lord's, or whether we die we are the
Lord's; living or dying we are His.'

The slave-owner owned all that the slave owned. He gave him a little
cottage, with some humble sticks of furniture in it; and a bit of
ground on which to grow his vegetables for his family. But he to whom
the owner of the vegetables and the stools belonged owned them too.
And if we are Christ's servants, our banker's book is Christ's, and
our purse is Christ's, and our investments are Christ's; and our
mills, and our warehouses, and our shops and our businesses are His.
We are not His sla