The glorious doctrine of liberty which is characteristic of the

ministry of the apostle Paul must ever be ours to maintain against all odds.

It is interesting, however, to notice that, while this liberty is sounded out

with clarion notes in the epistle to the Galatians, at the close of the

epistle the apostle shows that he, the champion of freedom, who stood alone

before the Council at Jerusalem against those who would bring the believer

into bondage, was at heart the bondslave of Jesus Christ: 'I bear in my body

the marks (stigmata, brand marks of a slave) of the Lord Jesus' (Gal. 6:17).

Again, in Galatians 5:13: 'For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty;

only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one

another'.  Redemption, which sets us free, binds us for ever to the Lord: 'Ye

are not your own.  For ye are bought with a price' (1 Cor. 6:19,20).

The reader should remember that in the following passages the word

'servant' in the Authorized Version is the translation of doulos, meaning,

literally, 'a slave':

'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ' (Rom. 1:1).

'Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake' (2 Cor. 4:5).

'lf I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ' (Gal.

'He took upon Him the form of a servant' (Phil. 2:7).

'The servant of the Lord must not strive' (2 Tim. 2:24).

Peter, James, and Jude, equally with Paul, rejoice to call themselves

'the bondslaves of Jesus Christ' (Jas. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1; Jude 1).  In the

following passages in the Authorized Version the word translated 'to serve'

is, in the original, douleuo, 'to serve as a slave':

'That we should serve in newness of spirit' (Rom. 7:6).

'Fervent in spirit; serving the Lord' (Rom. 12:11).

'Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one

another' (Gal. 5:13).

'Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God' (1

Thess. 1:9).

The first occurrence of doulos in the New Testament is in Matthew 8:9, and

the words of the centurion give us a good idea of what the service of the

Lord's bondmen involves:

'For I (also) am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I

say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh;

and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it'.

The words of Mary might well be the motto for all who would serve thus:

'Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it' (John 2:5).

The second symbol of service that we are to consider is that of the

builder.  We propose to divide the subject into three sections; the

foundation, the building, and the materials.

The foundation.  Every building needs a foundation.  A house

'founded upon a rock' stands; 'built upon the sand' it falls (Matt. 7:25 -

27).  The foundation for all spiritual building must be Christ: