Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1867-08-09
THB BACCALAUREATE.

The BACCALAUREATE-
Without any formal announcement of his
subject, President Angel proceeded to devel-
op the truth that the highest Freedom for
man Is the service Of God. lie said that he
who has not that spiritual discernment,
the possession Of which is denied by the
Apostle to the natural man, must find the
description Of the life Of a servant Of God,
in the Bible, iull Of paradoxes. We are told
that in the spiritual kingdom the road to
exaltatiOn lies through humiliation that
the last shall be first and the first last that
only by death do We enter life. To this
class of apparent paradOxes belongs the
truth, that in obedient service of God is
found the largest Freedom. This truth does
not always commend itseli to the conviction
of the young man as he leaves his college
balls. to enter on the work of lie. The love
OF freedom Is strong in his young blood. lie
sees distinction opening before him. The
fires of ambition begin to kindle in his
breast. "Bind me not," he cries, ''ihese
powers and passions were given me to use
this irrepressible vital force within me is
Gods command to do something with my
might, and would you bind me with clog
giug laws? No give me freedom to use
my powers as choose, and the victory shall
be mine" Starting with such eonfounding
Of liberty with license, he comes in time to
see that he cannot escape the operation of
Gods moral laws. The absolute Freedom be
seeks, he finds to be impossible. The penal
ties Of violated law thunder at him on right
and left. Wherever there is moral Being be
finds moral La,0 And it is well 50. for only
under law is society possible. In the moral
chaos, which would follow the absence Of
moral law, the seeker for absolute Freedom
would soon cry out for law, fate, God, any
thing for relief from anarchy. lie must
learn, sooner or later, that the only Freedom
granted to man consists in the power of
choice between obedience to God and i:s re-
ward, and disObedienee and its penalties.
Nr. Angel proceeded to show how DISC
bcdient spirit is unlayorable to elevation
Of character, and suggested that here might
be the explanation Of the mysterious failure
Of many n man, who bad apparently all the
talent for high success, but who, through
such confounding Of license with liberty has
expended his powers in warrins with him.
self, ard finds his strength only sufficient to
bring him to the field, with no reserve for the
fight. Suppose the man to still his con-
science, is that Freedom Is it not bondage
to habits whose bonds have gradually
changed from silk to iron In such bondage
the soul can never gain its highest proper
tious. Sin is not freedom but slavery.
On the other hand the obedient soul finds
the labor and duty Of to-day equipping him
for the duty Of tomorrow. To him even DIS
appointment Is but wholesome discipline, as
our rivers are swelled by the streams from
the mountains that bend and retard their
course. If obstacles rise he hurls himself
against them and down they 20. New
truths beekon him on to nobler action, and
he finds still fulfilled in his daily experience
the promise that they tina; wait on the Lord
shall renew :heir strength.
True freedom is thus found in conforming
to the law Of God in the love of it. No man
had the love Of liberty stronger in him than
Paul lie tells us it was a Laio that made
him free. When our hearts are IN sympathy
With the Law Giver his laws become simply
lines to show US which way to turn. Law
and Liberty become one, and We see that Hii
service is perfect freedom" BY aiming a
the stature of perfect manhood in Jesu
Christ we reach our best growth. By work
ing with God We reap the best harytst.
1t is because man has failed 10 see thi
. that History is record of such dreadful e1
. periments. In realizing the christian idea o
Freedom is now our only hope Of escap
from the fate of previous civilizations,
4 of progress for the race.
: The art and intellect of the ancients, s.il
:. the admiration of the world. could not saw
he .anc lent civilizations. Four hundre
years bounded the life Of Greece. Rom
with her sturdy physical strength reslste
: longer, but in time the barbarian thunders
I at her doors and Rome perished without
struggle. Why did these brilliant civiliz'