ves, if we arrogate to ourselves the right of doing
what we like with His possessions.

And, then, still further, there comes into our Apostle's picture here
yet another point of resemblance between slaves and the disciples of
Jesus. For the hideous abominations of the slave-market are
transferred to the Christian relation, and defecated and cleansed of
all their abominations and cruelty thereby. For what immediately
follows my text is, 'Ye are bought with a price.' Jesus Christ has
won us for Himself. There is only one price that can buy a heart, and
that is a heart. There is only one way of getting a man to be mine,
and that is by giving myself to be his. So we come to the very vital,
palpitating centre of all Christianity when we say, 'He gave Himself
for us, that He might acquire to Himself a people for His
possession.' Thus His purchase of His slave, when we remember that it
is the buying of a man in his inmost personality, changes all that
might seem harsh in the requirement of absolute submission into the
most gracious and blessed privilege. For when I am won by another,
because that other has given him or her whole self to me, then the
language of love is submission, and the conformity of the two wills
is the delight of each loving will. Whoever has truly been wooed into
relationship with Jesus, by reflection upon the love with which Jesus
grapples him to His heart, finds that there is nothing so blessed as
to yield one's self utterly and for ever to His service.

The one bright point in the hideous institution of slavery was, that
it bound the master to provide for the slave, and though that was
degrading to the inferior, it made his life a careless, child-like,
merry life, even amidst the many cruelties and abominations of the
system. But what was a good, dashed with a great deal of evil, in
that relation of man to man, comes to be a pure blessing and good in
our relation to Him. If I am Christ's slave, it is His business to
take care of His own property, and I do not need to trouble myself
much about it. If I am His slave, He will be quite sure to find me in
food and necessaries enough to get His tale of work out of me; and I
may cast all my care upon Him, for He careth for me. So, brethren,
absolute submission and the devolution of all anxiety on the Master
are what is laid upon us, if we are Christ's slaves.

II. Then there is the other side, about which I must say, secondly, a
word or two; and that is,