Samuel Logan Brengle

“ Do you ask, 'How shall I enter into this sweet and gentle and yet all powerful bondage of love? I answer, by your own choice and by God's revelation of Himself to your soul. If your love to Him now is a very poor and powerless thing, it is because you do not know Him, you do not draw near enough to see the beauty of Him. ”

“ Set at liberty to do this, their freedom was complete, for he only is free who is permitted to do always that which pleases him. The love slave has no pleasure like that of serving his master. This is his joy, and his very 'crown of rejoicing.'
The love-slave is altogether at his Master's service. He is all eyes for his master. He watches. He is all ears for his master. ”

“ The word servant as used by them meant a slave. They counted themselves slaves of God and of Christ.
The word and the relationship seem harsh and forbidding, but not so when we realize its meaning to these Apostles. They were love-slaves. The bondage that enthralled them was the unbreakable bondage of love.
There was a law among the Hebrews that for sore poverty or debt or crime one man might become the servant of another, but he could not be held in servitude beyond a certain period; at the end of six years he must be allowed to go free. ”

“ This slave of love counts not his life dear unto himself. (Acts xx. 24.) It belongs to his master. The interests of the master are his interests. He has no other. He wants no other. He will have no other. He cannot be bribed by gold or honors. He would rather suffer and starve for his master than feast at another's table. ”

“ Like Moses they 'chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a, season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.' So you must choose. The choice must be complete and it must be final. Then as a love slave you must wait upon the Master. If He is silent to you, watch. When He speaks to you, listen. ”

“ That age with its false standards and corrupt glories was doomed and dying, and these early followers of Christ stood on the threshold, and were ushering in a new era in which service was to become a badge of royalty and a distinguishing mark of the sons of God and the citizens of heaven upon earth. ”