and are better than the dumb beasts, you confess that you feel in
debt to Christ, and are bound to serve Him. For who gave you your souls
but Christ?

But even if you had had no souls, you would have been in debt to Christ,
and bound to serve Him. "What for?" you ask. Why, for life itself. How
did you come here? Who gave you life? Who brought you into the world?
Who but Christ, by whom all things were made, and you among the rest? Who
gave you food? Who made every atom of food grow which you ate since you
were born? Who made the air you breathe, the water which you drink, the
wool and cotton which clothes you? Who but Christ? Do you not know that
you cannot even breathe a breath of air, unless Christ first makes the
air, and then gives your lungs life to breathe the air? and yet you
cannot understand that you are in debt to Christ, and have been eating
His bread and living on His bounty ever since you were born?

And mind, all this while I have not said one word about the greatest debt
of all which you owe to the Lord Jesus Christ, even His own life, which
He gave for you! Only think but once that for _your_ sakes the Lord was
crucified--for _your_ sakes He died the most horrible, painful, shameful
death. And then say, Are you not in debt to Him? "Greater love has no
man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." If any mere
man had died for your sake, would you not love him--would you not feel
yourself in debt to him, a deeper debt than you can ever repay? Then
Christ died for you--how can you be more deeply in debt to any one than
to Him?

You have now no _right_ to choose between Christ and the devil, because
Christ has chosen you already--no right to choose between good and bad,
because God, the good God Himself, has chosen you already, and has been
taking care of you, and heaping you with blessings ever since you were
born.

And why did Christ choose you? As I have told you, that you may fight
with Him against all that is bad. Jesus Christ's work at which He works
for ever in heaven and in earth, is to root out all that is bad, all sin,
all misery; and He will reign, and He will fight till all His enemies,
even Death itself, are put under His feet and destroyed. And Christ
expects you and me to help Him. He has chosen you and me, and all
Christian people, to fight against what is bad, and to put it down and
root it out as far as we can wherever we find it; and therefore, first,
t