'Move upwards, casting out the beast,
And let the ape and tiger die.'
But how is this heavy bulk of ours to 'move upwards'; how is the
beast to be 'cast out'; how are the 'ape and tiger' in us to be
slain? Paul has told us, 'By the mercies of God.' Christ's gift,
meditated on, accepted, introduced into will and heart, is the one
power that will melt our obstinacy, the one magnet that will draw us
after it.
Nothing else, brethren, as your own experience has taught you, and as
the experience of the world confirms, nothing else will bind
Behemoth, and put a hook in his nose. Apart from the constraining
motive of the love of Christ, all the cords of prudence, conscience,
advantage, by which men try to bind their unruly passions and manacle
the insisting flesh, are like the chains on the demoniac's
wrists--'And he had oftentimes been bound by chains, and the chains
were snapped asunder.' But the silken leash with which the fair Una
in the poem leads the lion, the silken leash of love will bind the
strong man, and enable us to rule ourselves. If we will open our
hearts to the sacrifice of Christ, we shall be able to offer
ourselves as thankofferings. If we will let His love sway our wills
and consciences, He will give our wills and consciences power to
master and to offer up our flesh. And the great change, according to
which He will one day change the body of our humiliation into the
likeness of the body of His glory, will be begun in us, if we live
under the influence of the motive and the commandment which this
Apostle bound together in our text and in his other great words, 'Ye
are not your own; ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God
in your body and spirit, which are His.'