He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. His spirit is not one of self-seeking, but of self-sacrifice. Some mysterious majesty of His presence or voice so awed and overcame His foes that they went back and fell to the ground before Him in the Garden of His agony, but He meekly submitted Himself to them; and when Peter laid to with his sword, and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus said to him, "Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" This was the spirit of Isaac. When he digged a well, the Philistines strove with his servants for it; so he digged another; and when they strove for that, he removed and digged yet another, "and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth" (margin, _room_): "and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.... And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed" (Genesis xxvi. 22, 24). This was the spirit of David, when Saul was hunting for his life; twice David could have slain him, and when urged to do so, he said, "As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed" (1 Samuel xxvi. 10, 11). This was the spirit of Paul. He says, "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat" (1 Cor. iv. 12, 13). "The servant of the Lord must not strive," wrote Paul to Timothy, "but be gentle unto all men." This is the spirit of our King, this is the law of His Kingdom. Is this your spirit? When you are reviled, bemeaned and slandered, and are tempted to retort, He says to you, "Put up thy sword into the sheath." When you are wronged and illtreated, and men ride rough-shod over you, and you feel it but just to smite back, He says, "Put up thy sword into the sheath." "Live peaceably with all men." Your weapons are not carnal, but spiritual, now that you belong to Him, and have your citizenship in Heaven. If you fight with the sword; if you retort and smite back when you are wronged, you quench the Spirit; you get out of the narrow way, and your new life from Heaven will perish.