The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-27


sometimes liberal Christian who
accepts this rigid, mechanical, slavish
materialism, while he who does not is
fossil-or worse-is marrow"
One of the grandest words in our
vocabulary is the word liberty, and
its derivatives. One of mans great
est prerogatives is freedom. "The
glorious privilege of being independ-
ent" seemed to Scotland's peasant
bard, as it should seem to ala
priceless boon. To be free has been
the incentive that has impelled man
to his most tremendous efforts, and
has prompted his greatest sacrifices.
Freedom of body, mind, spirit, is our
right and duty; that is, as much free
dom as is proper. for entire freedom
of all restraint is as impossible as it
is undesirable. On every side of us
as intellectual, moral, religious be-
ings, as truly as in our physical re-
lations, are impinging boundaries on
which the finger of God has written:
Thus far and no farther" Within
the short length of an unbreakable
tether we may come and go, but not
beyond it, without peril, if not disas-
ter. We are subject to the laws of
Freedom. There is "the perfect laaU
of liberty" which controls even free
DOM
Besides; freedom of itself alone is
worthless. 1t is means not an end.
1t is only valuable as a mode of
action for the accomplishment of
some Interior good. II am freeW
cries man. Free to do what? What
are you doing with your freedom7
Its only value is in the use you make
of it. Men sometimes abuse their
liberty oy placing letters on their
better natures. 1t was a besotted
drunBard who refused to 'sign away
his liberty" when the pledge would
have dissolved the chains of the most
abject slavery, and introduced him to
freedom of which he had never
dreamed.
| have known man who had not
severed the umbilical cord that tied
him to an inherited prejudice call
himself liberal with continual itera-
ton, while all his life perambulat-
ed little narrow circle like loco
motive on a turn table. 1t verifies the
statement of John W. Chadwick one
of the advanced radicals of the Uni
tarians. "For myself have found
much more narrowness and bigotry
among extremely radical people than
among orthodox" Leigh Hunt was
accustomed to condemn the 'illiber-
ality OF liberals, and the sectarianism
of the anti-sectarians."
For broader truths the Liberal thinker
pleads.
He rails at narrow bigots and their
creeds
Yet proves himself, it oftimes doth befall
The most intolerant bigot of them all.
/ am often reminded of an incident
of my boyhood. 1 was flying kite.
Impelled by strong breeze the kite
tugged at the string to get away. 1t
wanted its liberty to be free. A com,
panion said, "Let go the string, do
you not hear Gas the wind made a
harp-chord of the kite string) the as
piraticns of the kite to soar higher7"
What would have happened had |
been silly enough to obey7 My kite
would have fallen shattered wreck.
The parental command to the
child; the law to the citizen, the re
straints of the perfect law of liberty
in Christ to the Christian, are what
the string is to the kite, a seeming re
straint but essential to the largest
liberty. No child is ever so truly
free as when obedient to the parental
command; no citizen ever possesses
so much liberty as when governed by
law; no one on earth is ever 80 free as
he who subjects every volition of the
will, every movement of the intellect,
every affection OF the heart, every as
piration of the soul to the govern
ment of Jesus Christ. The freest
man living is the slave of the Lord.
Said Hosea Ballou, many years ago:
"Of all men the Christian is the only
one who can do just as he pleases
and not sin, for every desire will be
in harmony with his law whose SER
vice is the highest liberty"
In the matter of freedom to exer-
else opinion, and the right to remain
in a Christian organization after
abandoning its principles, and the
narrowness of those who object, and
the breadth of those who insist, as
exemplifed in such cases as that of
DR.. Briggs, there is no little misap-
prehension. Every man has certain