the freedom of Christ's slaves.

As the text puts it, 'He that is called, being a servant, is the
Lord's freedman.' A freedman was one who was emancipated, and who
therefore stood in a relation of gratitude to his emancipator and
patron. So in the very word 'freedman' there is contained the idea of
submission to Him who has struck off the fetters.

But, apart from that, let me just remind you, in a sentence or two,
that whilst there are many other ways by which men have sought, and
have partially attained, deliverance from the many fetters and
bondages that attach to our earthly life, the one perfect way by
which a man can be truly, in the deepest sense of the word and in his
inmost being, a free man is by faith in Jesus Christ.

I do not for a moment forget how wisdom and truth, and noble aims and
high purposes, and culture of various kinds have, in lower degrees
and partially, emancipated men from self and flesh and sin and the
world, and all the other fetters that bind us. But sure I am that
the process is never so completely and so assuredly effected as by the
simple way of absolute submission to Jesus Christ, taking Him for the
supreme and unconditional Arbiter and Sovereign of a life.

If we do that, brethren, if we really yield ourselves to Him, in
heart and will, in life and conduct, submitting our understanding to
His infallible Word, and our wills to His authority, regulating our
conduct by His perfect pattern, and in all things seeking to serve
Him and to realise His presence, then be sure of this, that we shall
be set free from the one real bondage, and that is the bondage of our
own wicked selves. There is no such tyranny as mob tyranny; and there
is no such slavery as to be ruled by the mob of our own passions and
lusts and inclinations and other meannesses that yelp and clamour
within us, and seek to get hold of us and to sway. There is only one
way by which the brute domination of the lower part of our nature can
be surely and thoroughly put down, and that is by turning to Jesus
Christ and saying to Him, 'Lord! do Thou rule this anarchic kingdom
within me, for I cannot govern it myself. Do Thou guide and direct
and subdue.' You can only govern yourself and be free from the
compulsion of your own evil nature when you surrender the control to
the Master, and say ever, 'Speak, Lord! for Thy slave hears. Here am
I, send me.'

And that is the only way by which a man can be delivered from the
bondage of