I. God has special ownership in some people.

'The Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His
inheritance.' Put side by side with those other words of the Old
Testament: 'All souls are Mine,' or the utterance of the 100th Psalm
rightly translated: 'It is He that hath made us, and to Him we belong.'
There is a right of absolute and utter ownership and possession
inherent in the very relation of Creator and creature; so that the
being made is wholly and altogether at the disposal, and is the
property, of Him that makes him.

But is that enough for God's heart? Is that worth calling ownership at
all? An arbitrary tyrant in an unconstitutional kingdom, or a slave-
owner, may have the most absolute right of property over his subject or
his slave; may have the right of entire disposal of all his industry,
of the profit of all his labour; may be able to do anything he likes
with him, may have the power of life and death; but such ownership is
only of the husk and case of a man: the man himself may be free, and
may smile at the claim of possession. 'They may '_own_' the body,
and after that have no more than they can do.' That kind of authority
and ownership, absolute and utter, to the point of death, may satisfy a
tyrant or a slave-driver, it does not satisfy the loving heart of God.
It is not real possession at all. In what sense did Nero own Paul when
he shut him up in prison, and cut his head off? Does the slave-owner
own the man whom he whips within an inch of his life, and who dare not
do anything without his permission? Does God, in any sense that
corresponds with the longing of infinite love, own the men that
reluctantly obey Him, and are simply, as it were, tools in His hands?
He covets and longs for a deeper relationship and tenderer ties, and