THE KING’ S BUSINESS
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the dispensation that fulfils the promises o f the preparatory. He had the beginning; we have the complement. W e know more than he did. He wrote these words, “ I have sought thy precepts.” He knew o f the Paschal Lamb. and o f its typical signifi cance; we know, the Lamb o f God that taketh away the sin o f the world. He knew the Hebrew priest and the general character o f his functions. W e know a High Priest who, has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son o f God. He knew o f the altar and the victim, and the blood that made typical atonement; we know o f the great sacrifice on the cross, bringing in a redemption that is complete and eternal. He knew o f a Messiah that was to come. You, even children in the Sunday-school today, know o f that Messiah risen, risen triumphant, risen a 'conqueror, risen for you, risen because He has finished the work God gave Him to do, I f the Psalmist studied God’s will that he might walk at liberty, how much greater is the obliga tion upon us to do the same, and how much greater our facilities and our encour agement, Let us try, then, to travel in the Psalmist’s steps, and let us see some, not all, o f the forms' of liberty that we can have by compliance with the divine precepts. There is liberty, in the first place, from the world. I use the word now in the sense in which it is used so frequently in the Bible—not merely this round globe or the hundreds o f millions that are upon it —not merely these millions in that capac ity. The world lieth in the wicked one ; the mass o f men, that is, do not know God. They constitute the world o f the New Testament; we can be in bondage to this world. Natural men are in bondage to it. They are not at liberty in relation to that natural world. It is without God; it does not ask what His will is. It enquires as to its own will, and it tries to enforce it. You sometimes see cliques and coteries aftd collections o f men insisting at ,any cost upon carrying out their own will. This' is only the spirit o f the greater world o f
which they constitute a section. Sorhe- times men are in bondage to the world in this sense, and the main-spring o f their life is to stand well with it, to do what their set, their society, the world round about them, wishes them to do. Some times the bondage is aggravated by another feature, viz., the effort to rise higher, to get upon a more elevated plane, to get into another set; and, oh, how aggravated is the bondage under which many thus live and labor! Freedom from that is obtained when we walk according to God’s statutes. Believers, the world is not your master. One is your Master, even Christ, and we aré brethren in Him, and He is reasonable and kind and just and brotherly, and you can walk with Him. His favor is enough for you, His smile satisfies you. Fellow ship with Him is the best society. Let so ciety stigmatize you, let it stamp its enmity upon you, but seek God’s precepts. I f you only have Christ walking with you, then you walk at liberty. But as to the life- work in which many are busy, or trying to get up a little higher socially, take this precept o f the Word, “ Godliness with con tentment is great gain” ; and these things, the godliness with the contentment,: will break these clanking chains o f insane and stupid ambition and will prepare you to walk at liberty. “I am in the place where God puts me. I am trying to do the work that God gives to me. I am responsible to Him. I belong to Him. He is my Father, Christ is my Brother, heaven is my home. This I believe on the authority o f His word. I will walk at liberty.” Let me com mend that form o f true freedom to you. THE WORLD ’S BAD WAYS There is liberty, in the second place, from bad ways. Do I need to describe these bad Tyays to you? You cannot live in the city, you cannot read the newspapers, you cannot hear the gossip, you cannot know what is going on in the circles in which you mingle, without knowing some o f these bad ways. There is the lover o f this world’s possessions, so strongly denounced in Isaiah’s prophecies: begift-
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