redemption into the position from which the first-born were delivered. And I cannot help thinking that there is an allusion to this fact in that great description of the Christian’s position in Heb xii. We there read, in ver. 23, that we are come ‘to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven.’ What is the meaning of that expression? Why are believers called the first-born, and why were their names thus written? Is it not because they are brought into the same peculiar relationship to God which was the inheritance of the first-born? Because, as the first-born were His own so are we? And because as they were enrolled as being His in the national register, so are we in the book of life? And is there any one amongst us that would wish to be free from that peculiarity? Is there one that has ever knelt down in the fulness of his heart and said, ‘Lord, I am thine,’ who would now rise up and say, ‘But I wish to be thine no more’? Is there any one who has ever borne the yoke of the Lord Jesus who would now wish to throw it off, and be free? No, never! We wish to be free from all that keeps us back from Him; free from every weight and from the sin which doth so easily beset us: free from every temptation that tends to hinder us in His service. But free from Christ! Never, never, never! The desire of our heart is to be His altogether; His without reserve; His in the exercise of all our powers; His in life; His in death; His for eternity; His whatever may be given up for His service; His, so completely, so truly, so heartily, that we may be able to say in the sincerity of our souls, ‘Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.’