The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-13
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
LIBERTY COMES ONLY TO HIM WHO
is TRUTHFUL IN ALL THINGS.
Sermon by the Rev. G. Monroe Royce,
Late Rector American Episcopal
Church, Florence, Italy.

] shall make you John V, 30.
Truth liberates. falsehood enslaves. How
true this is of everything in this world OF
/ ours. We are free just in so far as we are
| truthful and no further The man who
| lives in the spirit of perfect truthfulness
| is the only free man, the only man who
| enjoys real liberty. No circumstances OF
law nationality; conditions or forms
| of government can give, true freedom to
men and women.
! Magma Charta and declarations of indie
pendence may assert and secure political
| liberty, but they cannot give freedom to
| the mind and heart. Which, think you,
was the real slave, Epictetus, the calm.
WISE high minded philosopher. or the bru-
tai and ignorant master who broke his
| bones and tortured him in so many devilish
| ways? Master said Epictetus, you may
| do what you viii with this body in which
am encased, and which. by the laws of
Rome, belongs to you, but my mind is. my
! own. and knows master but truth"
! We fear because we are ignorant, be-
| cause we do not know the real character
| and nature of things Take away our ig-
| norance, and our fearful forebodings van
ish into air. The child listens to old wives
| tales with fear and trembling and sees a
| boyle in every strange object. But as it
grows to manhood or womanhood. it
| acquires a true knowledge of the world.
| this childish terror is cast off and the spec
| ters and hobgoblins of the nursery tale
lose their power to brighten or alarm. The
man looks steadily into the dark chamber,
| or walks boldly into the deep night; and
| the lame goose the swinging pillow and
| the white cow, which would have been so
many ghosts to his boyish fancy, are met
and passed without the twitch Of a muscle
or the slightest tremor of nerve. He
knows the truth and the truth has set him
free from his childish terrors.
The world, for a long time, for many
long centuries, was under this bondage OF
childish fear Every element of earth and
sky was the abode of countless demons;
every event in nature was attributed to
an all-powerful and all-wrathful deity, who
was to be propitiated by sacrifices not Of
calves and goats only, but by the sacrifice
of the closest and dearest ties of kindred
and of affection. When the thunders rolled
and the lightnings flashed, Jupiter was
thought to be angry with the children
of men, and they, in their childish blind
ness and childish ignorance, duplicated
his gracious pardon with their prayers
and their tears and the very likelihood OF
their sons and daughters.
Even the chosen people Of the true
God, the children of Israel-and how sig
ni1cant the word children" here--I say
that even the Israentes, after the great
deliverance from their bondage in Egypt.
after being led by the hand of God through
the long wilderness into the promised
land even they were stiIl under the cruel
bondage of ignorance and superstition; and
read, with a shudder, how that Jeptha.
the brave and victorious captain of Israeis
host, gave his only child. a well-beloved
daughter a burnt offering to the god
of battle in pious fulhllment of rash
and foolish vow. I'VE shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you Free Yes,
we have been liberated from the horrible
superstition which caused alike the Hindoo
mother and the Hebrew captain to offer
up the life blood of innocent childhood and
youth as a human sacrifice to a mon
strous belief in an all-wrathfu God.
But how much of life is still domi-
mated by ignorance? Very much more, L
fear, than we wont to think or would
be willing to allow.
General Sherman, when asked the secret
Of General Grants success, is reported to
have said something like the following
II think L know many things that Grant
does not know; think / can plan a cam
paign and command army at the time
of action as well as he can; but 1 cannot
ton constantly torments me about the pos
sible force and position of the enemy. Now
Grant is never troubled In this way. He
seems to care almost nothing about the
enemy's force or movements. He musters
all the men he can get he disposes his
forces in the best possible manner and then
he sleeps and wakes as quietly as If he
were far away from the scene of war. It
is this that / envy in Grant. and 1t is
this which explains his power"
General Grant was one Of those rare men
who would not be dominated by what he
did not and could not know. 1t was this
that freed his mind from anxious fears,
and suffered him to lie down and rest in
peace though the daylight should bring
the clash Of mighty armies and decide,
perhaps. the fate of the Nation.
1t is said that all soldiers would be brave
in battle If they but knew the exact
strength and position of the enemy. They
are terrified by an unknown foe. 1t Is
their ignorance that causes them to falter
in the charge turn and flee at the wild
shout of an advancing foe. 1t is Ignorance
even more than conscience which doth
make towards of all. Whoever feared
on the darkest night to walk through the
tangled wood of his native forest. wheiss
he roamed as a boy, free the air and
happy as the birds? 1t is impossible for
one to associate danger with the ssques-
tered haunts of ones boyhood days.
whoever saw a ghost in the house of his
father. the home of his mother, where ne
was born and played and grew TO man
hood and where every brick and stone
and board seemed TO answer his look and
to speak TO him of peace and joy. and a
mothers love? No, Il is in the depth OF
the strange wood that the will-o'- the-wisp
dances before ones frightened gaze IL Is
In the unknown and deserted mansion that
one hears sepulchral sounds. and secs un-
earthly sights which freeze the hearts
warm blood. In a word II is our ignorance
that terrifies us, that ensiaves us.
But the truth not only liberates us from
the slavery of fear, but il makes us free
to pursue the right. 1t clears our pathway
of the many hindrances and obstacles that
obstruct our course. In our ignorance we
make mistakes we commit errors; we are
led captiye by falsehood. 1t is the truth
that makes us free in thought and word
and act If this be true of our common,
lower. earthly life, how much truer is Il or
our higher. nobler, spiritual life?
'.Ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free
Jesus the Christ is the worlds emanci-