September 21

Ye are not your own. - 1 Corinthians 6:19.

CHRISTIANS are not their own; they are bought with a price, even “with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” This, therefore, is not only a great, but oh! what a powerful claim. Therefore, we have no title to ourselves, and having no title to ourselves, how is it possible that we can have a title to anything we now call our own? “No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; but whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; so that living or dying we are the Lord’s, for to this end he both died and rose again, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and the living.” Our time, our talents, our endowments, whatever they may be, are to be employed and improved for him. “Occupy till I come,” he says; and when he comes, he will expect to receive “his own with usury.”

Let us therefore remember that, as our time is not our own, we may not lie as long in bed in the morning as we please, or that we may lounge and loiter in the day as we choose. We shall soon have to appear before a Being who has said to us, “Redeem the time.” Nor can we suppose that our tongues are our own, and that we may use them as we please. We shall soon be summoned into the presence of him who has said, “For every idle word that men shall speak they must give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned;” and who inspired his Apostle to say, “If any man among you seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth himself, that man’s religion is vain.”

Nor is our substance our own, that we may either hoard it or expend it as we like. We shall soon be in the presence of a Being who has told us “to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Our thoughts are not our own to be placed upon what subjects we please; but they are to cluster around him, and we should be able to say with David, “How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them.” We have passions, and we ought to be able to say with Watts-

“If there be passions in my soul,

And passions, Lord, there he,

Let them be all at thy control,

My Saviour, all for thee.”

And, whatever be our talents, “as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same.” “If any man speak, let him speak according to the ability that God giveth,” “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever.”