’I am not mine own; be Thou my will, my Emperor, my Commander, my all.’  Loyola used to say, as the law of his order, that every man that became a member of the Society of Jesus was to be like as a staff in a man’s hand, or like as a corpse.  It was a blasphemous and wicked claim, but it is but a poor fragmentary statement of the truth about those of us who enter the real Society of Jesus, and put ourselves in His hands to be wielded as His staff and His rod, and submit ourselves to Him, not as a corpse, but yield yourselves to our Christ ‘as those that are alive from the dead.’

II.  Now we have here, as part of the ideal of the Christian life, the conquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general.

Two groups made up the triumphal procession—­the one that of the soldiers who had fought for, the other that of the prisoners who had fought against, the leader.  And some commentators are inclined to believe that the Apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellows as belonging to the conquering army, and not to the conquered enemy.  That seems to me to be less probable and in accordance with the whole image than the explanation which I have adopted.  But be that as it may, it suggests to us this thought, that in the deepest reality in that Christian life of which all this metaphor is but the expression, they who are conquered foes become conquering allies.  Or, to put it into other words—­to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ.  And the praise which breaks from the Apostle’s lips suggests the same idea.  He pours out his thanks for that which he recognises as being no degradation but an honour, and a participation in his Conqueror’s triumph.

We may illustrate that thought, that to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ, by such considerations as these.  This submission of which I have been speaking, abject and unconditional, extending to life and death, this submission and captivity is but another name for liberty.  The man who is absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ is absolutely independent of everything and everybody besides, himself included.  That is to say, to be His slave is to be everybody else’s master, and when we bow ourselves to Him, and take upon us the chains of glad obedience, and life-deep as well as life-long consecration, then He breaks off all other chains from our hands, and will not suffer that any others should have a share with Him in the possession of His servant.  If you are His servants you are free from all besides; if you give yourselves up to Jesus Christ, in the measure in which you give yourselves up to Him, you will be set at liberty from the worst of all slaveries, that is the slavery of your own will and your own weakness, and your own tastes and fancies.  You will be set at liberty from dependence upon men, from thinking about their opinion.  You will be set at liberty from your dependence upon externals, from feeling as if you could not live unless you had this,