Our Lord tells us in this striking text that our very souls by reason of
sin are not our own. He tells us that we have lost hold of our souls
before we have as yet come to know that we have souls. We only discover
that we have souls after we have lost them. And our Lord,--our best,
indeed our only, authority in the things of the soul,--here tells us that
it is only by patience that we shall ever win back our lost souls. More,
far more, is needed to the winning back of a lost soul than its owner's
patience, and our Lord knew that to His cost. But that is not His point
with us to-night. His sole point with each one of us to-night is our
personal part in the conquest and redemption of our sin-enslaved souls.
He who has redeemed our souls with His own blood tells us with all
plainness of speech, that His blood will be shed in vain, as far as we
are concerned, unless we add to His atoning death our own patient life.
Every human life, as our Lord looks at it, and would have us look at it,
is a vast field of battle in which a soul is lost or won; little as we
think of it or will believe it, in His sight every trial, temptation,
provocation, insult, injury, and all kinds and all degrees of pain and
suffering, are all so many divinely appointed opportunities afforded us
for the reconquest and recovery of our souls.
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