February 17

"Being made free from sin, and become servants to God."—Romans 6:22.

I AM enfranchised in order to be enthralled—made free from sin to become the bondservant of God. But whereas the old vassalage was slavery, the new is liberty the highest and sweetest and best.

It is the servitude of my grateful heart. God has redeemed me not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ His Son. I owe Him life and peace and everything. I cannot but surrender myself to Him who surrendered Himself for me.

It is the servitude of my adoring and worshipping heart. The vision of God's beauty, God's perfection, God's love-worthiness, has thrown its spells and charms over me. I am smitten with the hunger and thirst to resemble Him. I am a thrall to His enchantments.

It is the servitude of my obedient heart. Round me like chains of gold I have bound His precepts and injunctions. The yoke of His law lies upon my neck. But I do not find these commandments grievous; to keep them is my great reward.

It is the servitude of my God-occupied heart. He has come Himself and made His abode in me, through His Holy Spirit given to me. From within He rules me far more than from without. And so, rejoicingly and inevitably and eternally, I yield myself to Him.

"We are Jacobites to the Lord Jesus," Robert Barbour writes in one of his letters. "To us, too, as to our fathers, 'the King is over the water,' and we keep our heart's best place for an Absent One." Oh happy, happy bondslave! There is a perpetual song on his lips as he goes about the tasks of his Golden Prince.