The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-09-09

Independent spiritual life, in his own
right and nature. He only is perfect
man who has himself in the embrace of
God The soul divinely lroodod re-
ccives it's power. Our faculties, like
the eye that must be flledwith light from
without, wal. for their power from a.
bove. It is the divine energy, acting
through the human faculty, that gives to
man his real existence Nor does any
man know his power, lis nature, his rich
ness of emotion, the height and depth
of h being, until he unfolds under the
stimulus of Gods imbreathed Influence.
What as that influence ? What is
this spirit which acts within or upon the
soul will tell you when you will tell
me what it is in light and heat that work
upon the root to bring forth the stem;
what it is that works within tire stem 20
bring forth the bud; what it is that works
upon the bud to persuade it into blos-
som and what that mysterious spirit 10,
that dismissing the beauty of the bloom.
holds back its life in tho new form Of
fruit. It is light, it is heat, it is moisture :,
it is The soil. it is the plant, it is the
vital, energy of Nature. Thus we stand
throwing words at a marvellous change,
whose interior nature we cannot search
nor fad out. $50 is every one thai Is
6or', Of The spirit"
But of the fact itself, it is full Of bless
edness to know that the soul has re-
lationship to God, personal, direct, vital,
and that it grows and blossoms by it,
while it langnishes and dxarfs without it.
The body grows by its true connections
with material nature; the social affeor
tions grow by their true relationsate
men and society; and the spiritual pow
ers must grow by their true relations to
God. In the material world, the roots
of trees arc in the ground, while the top
moves free above. But the soul roots
upward, and SO has its liberty down
toward tho earth. God is the soil in
which men grow. We are the branca.
es of Christ. ,"As the branch cannot
bear fruit Of itself, except it abide az
the zine, no more can ye except ye abide
in me-" sHo
Bat is not this bondage and restric-
tion? 1t is to selfshness, but not to love.
Selfstncss grows by shrinking, for con.
osnsratlon is the nature of selfshness.--
Rnt lnEa arnzzs hE- pressing ontMard and
evolving.
That We are bound to God is as great
restriction of our liberty as it is to
plants freedom to be held by the sun !;
t. the child's liberty that the double
orbed love of father and mother bear itup
from cradled nothingness to manly pow
er; or to the human hearts liberty, when,
finding another life, two souls move
through the sphere of love, flying now
with two wings, but one spirit. No
man has come to himself who has not
known what it is to be utterly forgetful
of self in loving. And no man has yes
learned to love who has not felt his heart
beat upon the bosom of God. ASS
bird born in a cage, and singing there,
smid short, impatient hops, from perch
to wire, from wire to ring, and from
ring to perch again, so is man unrenew7
ed. As this bird, when darting through
the open door, it feels with wondrous
thrill the wide sweep of the open air,
and dare not sing for JOY. but goes from
ground to limb, from lower limb to high
er, until the topmost bough be reached,
and then STOPPING for moment, springs
upward, and flies with wild delight, and
fills the air as it goes with all its sounds
Of ransomed joy-so is tho soul that
learns first its liberty is in God, and
goes singing heavenward in all "the
Light and liberty of the sons of God"
He who forsakes God for the sake Of
liberty, is like babe lost from its moth
er. They who refrain from God for the
sake of pleasure, are like men running
from the free air to seek sunlight amid
shadows and in dungeons. They who
withdraw from God that they may have
wider circuits of personal power, are like
birds that should forsake the forests,
aud fly within the fowler's cage, to fnd
= larger bound and wider liberty
Henry Wa1d Beecller in the Lndepend-
mt.