And then, on the other hand, there was every reason why the Apostle and his co-workers should set themselves, by all means in their power, to oppose this restlessness.  For, if Christianity in those early days had once degenerated into the mere instrument of social revolution, its development would have been thrown back for centuries, and the whole worth and power of it, for those who first apprehended it, would have been lost.  So you know Paul never said a word to encourage any precipitate attempts to change externals.  He let slavery—­he let war alone; he let the tyranny of the Roman Empire alone—­not because he was a coward, not because he thought that these things were not worth meddling with, but because he, like all wise men, believed in making the tree good and then its fruit good.  He believed in the diffusion of the principles which he proclaimed, and the mighty Name which he served, as able to girdle the poison-tree, and to take the bark off it, and the rest, the slow dying, might be left to the work of time.  And the same general idea underlies the words of my text.  ‘Do not try to change,’ he says, ’do not trouble about external conditions; keep to your Christian profession; let those alone, they will right themselves.  Art thou a slave?  Seek not to be freed.  Art thou circumcised?  Seek not to be uncircumcised.  Get hold of the central, vivifying, transmuting influence, and all the rest is a question of time.’

But, besides this more especial application of the words of my text to the primitive times, it carries with it, dear brethren, a large general principle that applies to all times—­a principle, I may say, dead in the teeth of the maxims upon which life is being ordered by the most of us. Our maxim is, ‘Get on!’ Paul’s is, ’Never mind about getting on, get up!’ Our notion is—­’Try to make the circumstances what I would like to have them.’  Paul’s is—­’Leave circumstances to take care of themselves, or rather leave God to take care of the circumstances.  You get close to Him, and hold His hand, and everything else will right itself.’  Only he is not preaching stolid acquiescence.  His previous injunctions were—­’Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.’  He sees that that may be misconceived and abused, and so, in his third reiteration of the precept, he puts in a word which throws a flood of light upon the whole thing—­’Let every man wherein he is called therein abide.’  Yes, but that is not all—­’therein abide with God!’ Ay, that is it! not an impossible stoicism; not hypocritical, fanatical contempt of the external.  But whilst that gets its due force and weight, whilst a man yields himself in a measure to the natural tastes and inclinations which God has given him, and with the intention that he should find there subordinate guidance and impulse for his life, still let him abide where he is called with God, and seek to increase his fellowship with Him, as the main thing that he has to do.