its deepest reality, as between man and man, is
possible, is blessed, is joyful and strong when it is required by, and
rendered to, Jesus Christ. We are His slaves if we have any living
relationship to Him at all. Where, then, in the Christian life, is there
a place for self-will; where a place for self-indulgence; where for
murmuring or reluctance; where for the assertion of any rights of my own
as against that Master? We owe absolute obedience and submission to
Jesus Christ.

And what does the metaphor carry as to the basis on which this authority
rests? How did men acquire slaves? Chiefly by purchase. The abominations
of the slave market are a blessed metaphor for the deep realities of the
Christian life. Christ has bought you for His own. The only thing that
gives a human soul the right to have any true authority over another
human soul is that it shall have yielded itself to the soul whom it
would control. We must first of all give ourselves away before we have
the right to possess, and the measure in which we give ourselves to
another is the measure in which we possess another. And so Christ our
Lord, according to the deep words of one of Paul's letters, 'gives
Himself for us, that He might purchase unto Himself a people for His
possession.' 'Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price.'

Therefore the absolute authority, and unconditional surrender and
submission which are the very essence of the Christian life, at bottom
are but the corresponding and twofold effects of one thing, and that is
love. For there is no possession of man by man except that which is
based on love. And there is no submission of man to man worth calling
so except that which is also based therein.

'Thou hearts alone wouldst move;
Thou only hearts dost love.'

The relation in both its parts, on the side of the Master and on the
side of the captive bondsman, is the direct result and manifestation of
that love which knits them together.

Therefore the Christian slavery, with its abject submission, with its
utter surrender and suppression of mine own will, with its complete
yielding up of self to the control of Jesus, who died for me; because it
is based upon His surrender of Himself to me, and in its inmost essence
it is the operation of love, is therefore co-existent with the noblest
freedom.

This great Epistle to the Galatians is the trumpet call and clarion
proclamation of Christian liberty. The breath of