The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-09
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
LIBERTY AND Law, THE FORMER is
THE FRUIT OF THE LATTER.
A short Sermon By rev. Richard Cord
ley, Pastor Plymouth Congrega-
fionaI Church, Lawrence, Kan.


Ideas. Even those Of us who believe in both
law and liberty would still have feeling
that the two words expressed opposite
sides of great truth.
We perhaps should consider them as we
do the centrifugal and the certripetaI forces
in the realm of physics The tendency OF
the one is to fly from the center, of the
other to attract to the center. The perfect
balance Of the two forces constitutes the
harmony Of the universe. So we sometimes
conceive that law is restraint and liberty
is the absence of restraint Liberty
is the privilege Of doing as we please. Law
is the necessity of doing as we ought.
But this is hardly fair presentation of
either liberty or law. Law is the method
in which a force acts. The laws of light
are the methods by which light operates.
When men perfectly understand the laws
OF electricity, they will know to a certainty
just what 1t will do, and can guide 1t to
even greater service than now. Edison has
made his fame by studying and applying
the laws Of electricity. The more fully
he understands them the more variously
he can apply them and the larger use he
can make Of them.
The law OF any creature Is the proper
method in which his life should run. The
functions Of the body moving in the proper
way are obeying the laws of the body.
properly speaking, thing is free when it
is allowed tc follow the law of its being
when it car do without hindrance the things
1T was made to do. The eagle was made
for the air and sky and it is free when it
can soar among the clouds or rise towards
the sun. The deer is free when il can roam
through the forest and bound over noun
tain and stream. The fish is free when 1t
can dash through the unobstructing waters
of sea or lake, LAS darts the dolphin from
the shark. the deer before the hound.''
They are both free because each is follow
Ing the law of its life, doing the thing for
which it was made. The violation of this
law of life would be bondage, as when the
eagle is confined in a cage, or the fish in
small glass globe, or the deer in a little
pen. You set the eagle free when you let
him out into his own element to follow his
own law.
The common thought that law and liberty
lie on opposite sides arises from the fact
that man is the subject of two laws We
may call them the law of his conscience
and the law of his impulses His trouble
comes when these two laws come into con-
fict, The law that should govern him
comes into collision with the law that does
not as the law of his physical life. COM
pulsory. He can violate it and defy it, and
he does do both.
st. Paul says: "I delight in the law of
Cod after the inward man"-in my con-
science and IN my thought l approve of it
as the proper law that should shape my
course-' but see another law in my men,
bers, warning against the law of my mind.
and bringing me into captivity to the law
pf sin which is in my members" He calls
Il captivity instead of liberty, when he
breaks away from the law which should
govern him. and follows the impulse that
does govern him. 1t binds him to a life that
IS contrary to his nature and which can
produce nothing but friction and collision
and confusion all the way along. Paul SCI
lects exactly the right word when he SAYS
the two laws are warning against each
other. Liberty to do as one please is. in
the end, compulsion to do what will not be
pleasing. When a man clashes with the
law that was made to govern him, there
can be but one possible outcome and that
is his own undoing.
man attains to the perfect law of lib
erty when his impulses coincide with his
convictions. The law Of his conscience has
become the impulse of his life. Duty is no
longer task he must do, nor even a con-
viction he must obey. 1t is something to
which his heart itself instinctively responds.
He needs no rules and no restraint, for the
spirit within him Is surer guide than any
rules that can be imposed.
Nothing can guide a man In friendly
deeds like a friendly spirit. A kindly heart
Is a better guide in social life than a book
of etiquette. Love will read its duty in the
event of every hour aud paodc nh sp+o~
prefer. A loving child needs no rules to
teach him how 10 conduct himself toward
his father and mother. 1t is no task for
mother to do her duty toward her child; ii
is Joy and delight. and even if she con-
sumo herself in the abundance and intens-
ity of her service, it will be a sacrifice she
will rejoice to make. Her love rises above
her sense of duty or any conviction of con-
science, in a yearning desire to do the best
that may be for those she loves
The good citizen does not need to keep
q copy of the statutes of the State on
his table. nor does he have to live next
door to a lawyers office that he may con-
suit him as to the transactions of his bust
ness and social life Wendell Phillips once
said of popular criminal lawyer that 'he
is the man of whom thieves inquire before
they steal'' Men engaged in shady tran
sactions consult lawyer before they make
any important move.
Those of precarious health consult doc
tor before they take a journey or engage
IN anything requiring exertion. But men
of robust health trust their native strength
with unconscious assurance, and men of
high purpose and lofty impulses go forward
in their business and life without fear or
hesitation, trusting their own good sense,
will. They do not care to know how near
they can como 10 crime and not commit
crime. nor how close they can come to dis
honor and yet miss the statute provided
for such cases. The principles of right
and justice are SO wrought into their lives
ments. nor legal advice, to enable them
to walk honorably and kindly in the sight
OF their felow-men.
The law of liberty is planting the prin-
ciples of truth and righteousness in the
soul itself. 1t is when the law of God is
so wrought into the spirit that obedience
is it's first and free impulse 1t is not liberty
from law. but liberty in law. 1t is not
freedom TO disobey, but freedom In obeying
1t Is not liberty TO do as one pleases. but
pleasing to do as one ought. There is no
constraint in 1t, any more than it is con-
straint for a mother to do for her child
1t would require constraint to prevent her
doing for her child; she will so through
fire TO save her child from burning, she will