The Apostle exhorted the Galatians to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, or, more literally, "Christ has set us free in freedom. Stand fast therefore." We are not only set free, but set free in a free sphere, 1:e., "in Christ Jesus." .

Before the American War of"Emancipation it was open, for anyone to buy a slave and then set him free, but he was set at liberty in a sphere of slavery, and if by any mischance the erstwhile slave lost his emancipation papers he was liable to be seized by unprincipled men and impressed again in a state of slavery. In 1865 on the conclusion of the Civil War, slavery was abolished, and all the slaves were set free in a free state, and it was no longer possible for any of them to be brought again under the same yoke. .

The Christian is free from the law through the cross of Christ. "For I through the law am dead to the law that I may live unto God. I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:19, 20). The law, appealing to the responsibility of the man who has been set aside by God, changes what is living and spiritual into dead ritual. In Christ Jesus the law is no longer a guiding rule of life, but faith which worketh by love, and the Christian is thus free to serve in the Spirit. T. Oliver (Galashiels)