Nevada County picayune., 1889-09-18

As life, eternal life, IS the glft Ot God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so freedom, spiritual freedom, is secured through the same channel. is concerned, God is the only being who enjoys Freedom in that sense for He is the Supreme Being, with no limit to his attributes or resources, and is the Sovereign King of the Universe, who IS in no wise responsi ble to any one else for the manner in which he sees fit to exercise his un- limited powers. But there in an i'm portant sense in which finite beings may secure the blessings of moral and spiritual freedom and it is to this phase of the question that we invite the thorough consideration of our readers.
 Poets and orators and statesmen have indulged in high-sounding praises of political freedom, and null titudes in all ages have shed their blood as a free libation on its sacred altars; but, alas, how many of it's devotees are in far worse state of bondage, in a moral point of view, than any of a political character from which they have made their es cape. The bondage of bad habits, the slavery of tobacco, liquor and opium, the sway of prejudice, exag- geration and tattling, the fearful dominancy of lust and pride and envy, these things constitute q far more galling and oppressive bondage than any of the political evils which sometimes convulse nations and pro- duce bloody and disastrous wars.
 But, the question naturally arises, how may we obtain and enjoy this wonderful and glorious freedom of soul which puts the body and all its grosser appetites and passions under the dominion of our higher nature! We answer, by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and con forming our lives to the requirements of the Gospel ;-''if the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
 One of the most important results of saving grace is the deliverance from the bondage and power of sin in all it's protean forms. Prior to re- generation the sinner is under the dominion of sin, under the control of his lower nature, led captive by the devil at his will but after the inn plantation of this divine principle of life and holiness, he becomes new creature in Christ Jesus, old things pass away and all things become new, and with the influx of new de- sires, new purposes and new princi- ples of action, the old bondage and power of sin and sinful habits pass away.
 It is true there are other effects, such as peace and joy, which follow this marvellous change in the re- newed man, hut the dcliverancc from the power of sin, and the con scious ability and disposition to do right, characterize in a pre-eminent degree the newborn freedom of the child of God. and constitute at once an endowment and possession which distinguishes him from men of the world This is freedom indeed. Nothing else deserves the name. It is spiritual freedom, the expansion and development and liberation of the faculties of the spiritual man, He who was dead in trespasses and sins, fettered by the galling yoke of Satan, walks out into the sunlight of Gods love, and exults in the consciousness of his adoption into the heavenly family.
 The law of death which formerly chained him down to the things of time and sense is now substituted by the law of life, under whose electric thrill all his ransomed faculties of mind expatiate on ever-enlarging field, in sweet unison with nature and the universe around him. The free dom of the redeemed soul consists in harmony with God in universal na- ture-a state of receptiyity for all that is good, and responsive to every thing that is beautiful and true. The fall of man, the degeneracy of man ners, the universal depravity of the race is the dark background upon which the Gospel of the Son of God plants it's lever of regeneration, and over which it sheds the celestial radi- ance of the spiritual world.
 True freedom, therefore, is the restoration of that spiritual life and power which was forfeited in Eden s Garden, and the re-kindling of that light which was quenched by that awful catastrophe. It is Paradise regained, and its possession rem dered doubly dear by the remem- brance of Paradise lost; and it is the earnest and the pledge of that life which shall become brighter and more glorious as the eternal years roll by.
 Let us seek for this freedom by overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil and when we come to the Jordan of death, its turbid waves