Ezra 2:1,2

Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity.

Going up out of captivity

I. The deliverance from captivity.

1. This captivity had been--

(1) A degradation;

(2) a subjection;

(3) a transformation;

(4) a retribution.

The most deplorable degradation and the most real and terrible subjection are those of sin.

2. This deliverance--

(1) Originated in the favour of God;

(2) was effected by an unlikely agent;

(3) was permissive and not compulsory.

Salvation from the bondage of sin is freely offered in the gospel, but no one is compelled to accept the offer.

II. The journey home. This journey was--

1. A restoration.

2. A restoration to their own home.

3. A restoration to religious privileges. The salvation of Jesus Christ restores man to his true condition and to his forfeited inheritance.

III. The subordination to leaders. Society could not exist without leaders and rulers. They are necessary--

1. For the maintenance of order.

2. For insuring progress.

3. Because of the differences in the characters and abilities of men. (William Jones.)

Emancipation

The Rev. J. Jackson Fuller, of the Cameroons, a coloured missionary, said at the Young People’s Meeting of the Baptist Centenary: “Although our fathers in my country were born under the British flag, yet we were nothing more and nothing else than the chattels of the Englishman. We were British slaves, and it was partly by the missionaries going to our country--the island of Jamaica--and telling us of the love of Jesus Christ that their vivid description of our oppressed condition aroused the English nation, and in the year 1834, after paying twenty millions of money, you set us all free. The very day you passed the Emancipation Act in England, I was made free. You young people would have been glad, or your fathers before you would have been glad, had they the opportunity of seeing that morning in the year 1884 when thousands of children and their fathers and mothers gathered together during the evening, waiting for that morning of the 31st of July to dawn. At eleven o’clock at night they gathered in mass and waited for the hour to pass when the clock should strike twelve. And then you would have been glad to see that mighty mass of human beings rise on their feet and sing the Doxology--‘Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.’ I was among that number that gathered that night. I heard the Doxology sung. I am one of the boys that were rescued when you paid twenty millions of money and set our fathers free.”