AMBASSADORS T he apostle P aul called himself “ an ambas sador in bonds” . He was often in chains, a minister in manacles, a prophet in prison. He said, “My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places” (Phil. 1:13). He was in bonds for “ the mystery o f Christ” (Col. 4 :3 ). He asked the Corinthians to remember his bonds. Onesimus, his son in the Gospel, was be gotten in bonds. On his way to Jerusalem, Paul said “bonds and afflictions abide me” (Acts 20:23). On trial before Agrippa, he preached in chains and when the King said, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” , Paul wished that Agrippa and all who heard him could be as he was “ except these bonds” . What a Gospel that can make a Christian, instead of wanting to be a king, wish rather that every king could be a Christian! To Timothy Paul wrote: “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed o f David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, EVEN UNTO BONDS; but the word of God is not bound” . The messenger may be in chains but the message is unfettered. An ambassador in bonds! Many another since Paul has been God’s witness in shackles. But this kind o f “ prisoner of Jesus Christ” finds that stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage. “Our fathers, chained in prisons, dark Were still in heart and conscience free.” “We are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20) and there are ambassadors in bonds of quite an other sort than the chains of Paul. Those were honorable fetters but many a Christian, many a minister, is bound by Satan and shackled with bonds of his own forging. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib erty.” The scarcest article in pulpits today is spir itual liberty. Certainly liberty is a preacher’s priv ilege: “ Ye shall know the truth, and the truth
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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