Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-08-27
WHAT 1T is TO BE FREE.

The Perfect Law of Christianity - Free
| That We May Serve God.
1t is good thing ito be free; liberty
is condition of real obedience and
fidelity. The right one does because he
must is not has right-doing-h has no
part in it, no more than stone has in
the force which hurls it or holds it still;
but freedom has meaning and pur-
pose. LET My people 60, that they
may serve Me- Liberty exists for
men, that through liberty they may
serve God. This is the highest law of
liberty-that its end Cinal cause) is
| righteousness of heart and life. Freedom
| exists that we may do well with it. not
| that we may do i'll; not that we may do
as we please. but that we may please to
do well. Exactly in the measures in
which man is rational he will feel
| that liberty is trust for a high pur-
pose, that he is made free for noble
ends. The man is Irrational, and there
fore unfit for liberty, who thinks that
he must prove his freedom by wrong
doing, or that since he is free he may
do what he likes. Liberty is not law
lessness. God gives us freedom that
we may keep the law in freedom. If
we are not irwardly constrained by our
reason and our conscience to righteous
living, we have been ''let go" in vain.
We are free that we may freely ''serve."
All the higher possibilities of our
character and conduct depend on lib
erty. In bondage we can not serve God,
neither in Egypt nor i'll the United
States But it is plain to all observa-
ton that men desire liberty much more
than they desire to be fit for liberty;
thew seek freedom, not that they may
serve God, but that they may do as they
please. That freedom IS stewardship
how few realize and live under a sense
of it! 1t is our great human evil that
we do not cultivate in ourselves the
sense of obligation under liberty. We
can neglect duties, and we neglect
them. We can do wrong, and we break
the commandments. We can do as we
please, and we please ourselves. 1t is
the evil.of the world. We are getting
all around the globe civil and religious
liberty, but freedom is only imperfectly
fruitful in men who in freedom forget
God and neglect their duties. We must
seek to know the duties of liberty as
zealously as we have sought relief from
bondage; we must serve God and our
country, or freedom will carry us back
into bondage; for the condition OF lib
erty is that we shall righteously use it
for its divine ends. Abused freedom
will not stay always to be abused. We
shall wear out the patience of the law,
if under it we fail to seek and get its
proper good. Free that sOe may SERGE!
it is riddle to the careless and law
less; it is the law of life to be obedient.
There is no high service which is not
free service. Christ girded Himself
with towel and washed His disciples
feet. 1t was free service, and the
model of all genuine service. This
slave of duty is the only free man on
earth. He serves in freedom, sincerity
and will. Being free he does right, re-
joicing in his freedom to follow that
glorious path He knows that he can
60 the other way; he does no: wish or
choose to do so. Liberty has found in
law-for him there is perfect law of
liberty" The emancipation procla-
nation has lifted him to the high plane
of its eges-freedom to do right.
He could not serve God if he were not
free. All the good in his life is an
etfiorescence of liberty. What men and
angels admire in him is liberty sancti-
tied by service of the truth.
We are missing something in our
talk about the foundation of our free in
situations. That foundation is not edu-
cation; education helps to build the
real foundation, which is an enlight-
ened sense of our political duties. II
we feel that our liberty is uncondition-
ally ours; that we may do what we like
with it, we shall be poor citizens how
ever well we are educated. If we take
our liberty as trust of God, a steward
ship for the country, We may serve
God and our country tolerablv well
with imperfect lights of knowledge
We can not keep pure so sweet a good
as freedom in the cutters of self-will
and sensuaity. We can not be a free
nation long unless the people who are
''let go" go forth to serve God. We
are in no small peril from babblings
about the liberty to do wrong-to do as
we please. We are not free for such
miserable purposes of bad men and
devils.
THAT they may serve Me-" All liber.
ty leads up to this. Every emancipa-
ton proclamation seeks that sublime
end. We need not liberty for the low
er ends of existence. No one need de-
spair of devising means of making
men physically perfect in a system of
bondage. Perhaps slavery would best
attain that end. Liberty looks higher.
1t seeks man made more precious
than silver or gold" for divine uses
and services. Let men go-from all
task masters. oppressors. kind masters,
spiritual rotentates-that they may |
serve the Almighty. In such service |
exists then true happiness, their glori- |
Gus destiny, their immortal blessedness
By liberty alone can the divine image |
in them be revealed for the admiration
of the universe. What a beast then is
he who, though he wears the semblance
of a man. uses liberty to Wallow in the
mire and degrade his nature by self
will and unseemly Iving'-N. w. Chris.
tia7a AdcOcate.
You picture to yourself the beauty
of bravery and steadfastness. You let
your imagination wander in delight
Al -