“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”  1 Peter 2:9

King George III of England is well known for several reasons, both in England and in the United States.  I suppose he is best known as the King who lost America.  But he was also noted for his many children, his long reign of nearly sixty years, and . . . in the end . . . his insanity. The old king would wander about his palace, a pitiful sight with stooped form and an empty stare.  Reason would occasionally return to him for a season, and he would boldly assert, “I am a king!”  But then his mind would again become clouded and he would become poorer and more pitiful than the least of his subjects. A pathetic state of being indeed!  And yet, how many of our heavenly Father's children live their life in the same manner! Now and then we arise to our state of privilege, and assert our right, and declare, "I am a child of the King," and live the royal life, a noble life, a life of honour and blessing and plenty.  At other times we find ourselves in a far country, or under a convenient juniper, living far beneath our privilege and representing royalty in a most unbecoming manner.  We forget our royal state, we lose our sanity, we waste our time and energies on things that are of no eternal value, and we bring shame and reproach upon the royal house. How hapless is the Christian who lives his life thus, and how greatly to be pitied.

Dear reader, let us not allow ourselves to live beneath our royal state.  Let us do our level best to represent the King’s family aright by walking worthy of our high calling, in order that we may sing, together with the great chorus of overcomers in Christ Jesus our Lord, the words of the old hymn :

I belong to the royal family,
My Father is the King of kings;
Then dwelling in palace or cottage,
Each day rich blessing brings.
While walking my lowly pathway,
Oft my spirit mounts with wings.
As I think of the home over yonder
In the mansion of the King of kings.