upon, by becoming absolutely the servant of their needs.  So only shall you be independent of their whims.  There is one great figure, and it has taken in all Christian consciousness, that again and again this work with Christ has been asserted to be the true service in the army of a great master, of a great captain, who goes before us to his victory, that it is asserted that in that captain, in the entrance into his army, every power is set free.  Do you remember the words that a good many of us read or heard yesterday in our churches, where Jesus was doing one of His miracles, and it is said that a devil was cast out, the dumb spake?  Every power becomes the man’s possession, and he uses it in his freedom, and he fights with it with all his force, just as soon as the devil is cast out of him.

I have tried to tell you the noblest motive in which you should be a pure, an upright, a faithful, and a strong man.  It is not for the salvation of your life, it is not for the salvation of yourself.  It is not for the satisfaction of your tastes.  It is that you may take your place in the great army of God and go forward having something to do with the work that He is doing in the world.  You remember the days of the war, and how ashamed of himself a man felt who never touched with his finger the great struggle in which the nation was engaged.  Oh, to go through this life and never touch with my finger the vast work that Christ is doing, and when the cry of triumph arises at the end to stand there, not having done one little, unknown, unnoticed thing to bring about that which is the true life of the man and of the world, that is awful.  And I dare to believe that there are young men in this church this morning who, failing to be touched by every promise of their own salvation and every threatening of their own damnation, will still lift themselves up and take upon them the duty of men, and be soldiers of Jesus Christ, and have a part in the battle, and have a part somewhere in the victory that is sure to come.  Don’t be selfish anywhere.  Don’t be selfish, most of all, in your religion.  Let yourselves free into your religion, and be utterly unselfish.  Claim your freedom in service.

II.  THOUGHT AND ACTION.

I want once more to read to you these words from the eighth chapter of the Gospel of St. John: 

“As He spake these words, many believed on Him.  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  They answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man:  how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever:  but the Son abideth ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”