| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 4 |
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But the first principle of true religion declares that we belong to God, that His right over us is absolute. It is nothing unreasonable, either, that is thus required of us. We rightfully belong to God. The authority He claims over us is neither arbitrary nor assumed. He made us, and has the Creator’s right over us, His creatures. He is our Father; and as His children we owe Him all homage, obedience, submission, and love. Then, He is our Lord and King; and we ought to recognize His authority, and without question submit ourselves to Him, bringing every thought, feeling, disposition, and affection into subjection to Him.
But there is a higher ground on which this ownership rests. “Ye are bought with a price.” We know well what this price was. We need to think much of the cost of the blessings we enjoy as Christians. It will make them far more sacred when we remember that it was through the humiliation, sorrow, and death of our Redeemer that the blessings of faith became our. A nation’s flag is dear, not merely because of the pieces of cloth that compose it, but because it represents, not only all that the nation stands for, but has written into it all the story of the nations’ life.
“Did worth not find its symbol in the flag,
‘Twould only be a gaudy, sorry rag;
But while high sentiments our people hold,
We need not blush to greet each beauteous fold.”
So in the symbols of Christianity are folded up for us all that Christianity means to the world and to our own heart.
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