and to return.”  He said he would be absent “a long time,” verse 19.  And this is true.  He has been absent more than eighteen hundred years.  He said he would “return,” or come again.  And so he will.  It is just as certain that he will come again as it is that he went away.  And he will come, not in figure, or in spirit, but in person, as he went.  Remember what the angels said about this to his disciples, at the time of his departure.  “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven,” Acts i:  11.  He said he would return, and so he will.

But, in the meantime, he would have us remember that he is still our Lord and Master.  No master ever had such a right to be Lord and Ruler as he has.  God the Father has appointed him to be “Head over all things to his church,” Ephes. i:  22.  He is our Master, because he made us.  This is what no other ever did for his servants.  He is our Master because he preserves us.  We cannot keep ourselves for a single moment, but he keeps us all the time,—­by night, and by day.  And he is our Master because, when we had sold ourselves into sin, and were appointed unto death, he redeemed us.  He bought us with the price of his own precious blood.  He made our hands to work for him; and our feet to walk in his ways.  He made our hearts to love him;—­our minds to think about him; our eyes to see the beauty of his wondrous works, our ears to listen to his gracious words, and our lips and tongues to be employed in speaking and singing his praises.

We cannot be our own masters.  “I am my own master!”—­said a young man, proudly, to a friend who was trying to persuade him from doing a wrong thing; “I am my own master!”

“That’s impossible,” said his friend.  “You can not be master of yourself, unless you are master of everything within, and everything around you.  Look within.  There is your conscience to keep clear, and your heart to make pure, your temper to govern, your will to control, and your judgment to instruct.  And then look without.  There are storms, and seasons; accidents, and dangers; a world full of evil men and evil spirits.  What can you do with these?  And yet, if you don’t master them, they’ll master you.”

“That’s so,” said the young man.

“Now, I don’t undertake any such thing,” said his friend.  “I am sure I should fail, if I did.  Saul, the first king of Israel, wanted to be his own master, and failed.  So did Herod.  So did Judas.  No man can be his own master.  ‘One is your Master, even Christ,’ says the apostle.  I work under his direction.  He is my regulator, and when he is Master all goes right.  Think of these words,—­’He is your Master even Christ.’  If we put ourselves under his leadership we shall surely win at last.”