The natural mind is deceived.  Spirit has in it more of reality than matter has; because it is an immortal and indestructible essence, while matter is neither.  Spiritual things are more real than visible things; because they are eternal, and eternity is more real than time.  Statements respecting spiritual objects, therefore, are more solemnly true than any that relate to material things.  Invisible and spiritual realities, therefore, are the standard by which all others should be tried; and human language when applied to them, instead of expressing too much, expresses too little.  The imagery and phraseology by which the Scriptures describe the glory of God, the excellence of holiness, and the bliss of heaven, on the one side, and the sinfulness of sin with the woe of hell, on the other, come short of the sober and actual matter of fact.

We should, therefore, beware of the error to which in our unspirituality we are specially liable; and when we hear Christ assert that “whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin,” we should believe and know, that these words are not extravagant, and contain no subtrahend,—­that they indicate a self-enslavement of the human will which is so real, so total, and so absolute, as to necessitate the renewing grace of God in order to deliverance from it.

This bondage to sin may be discovered by every man.  It must be discovered, before one can cry, “Save me or I perish.”  It must be discovered, before one can feelingly assent to Christ’s words, “Without me ye can do nothing.”  It must be discovered, before one can understand the Christian paradox, “When I am weak, then am I strong.”  To aid the mind, in coming to the conscious experience of the truth taught in the text, we remark: 

I. Sin is spiritual slavery, if viewed in reference to man’s sense of obligation to be perfectly holy.

The obligation to be holy, just, and good, as God is, rests upon every rational being.  Every man knows, or may know, that he ought to be perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect, and that he is a debtor to this obligation until he has fully met it.  Hence even the holiest of men are conscious of sin, because they are not completely up to the mark of this high calling of God.  For, the sense of this obligation is an exceeding broad one,—­like the law itself which it includes and enforces.  The feeling of duty will not let us off, with the performance of only a part of our duty.  Its utterance is:  “Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.”  Law spreads itself over the whole surface and course of our lives, and insists imperatively that every part and particle of them be pure and holy.