'Not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye stand.'
So personal independence and individuality of character are the result of Christianity. 'I have made you go upright.
IV. Christ gives us freedom from the power of circumstances.
Most men are made by these. We need not here enter on questions of the influence of their environment on all men's development.
But Christ gives us—
(a) A great aim for our lives high above these.
(b) A foothold in Him outside of them. We are not the slaves of our circumstances, but their masters.
(c) The power to utilise them.
So Christians are 'free' in all senses of the word.
The great Act of Emancipation has been passed for us all. Only Christ has rule over us, and we have our perfect freedom in His service. We have been sitting in the prison-house, and He has come and declared 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to proclaim liberty to the captives.'