Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-06-02
MEMORIAL SUNDAY.
SERMON

Post No. as, G.. 4. r., and Auxiliary
Organizations, Sunday, May 2S, 1899.
"1s free, and not using your liberty for
clOke of mdiiciouSHess, bat as he SercdHts
Of God."-I 81. Peter, ?, 10.
:. Peter here touches Il note which ap-
peals to the human heart in all ages and
everywhere. Freedom is one of those
words which need no recommendation
it belongs to the same category as light,
order, progress, law. 1t is one of the
ideas which, in some sense or other,
mankind accepts as an axiom; as a
landmark or principle of healthful life
which is beyond discussion. What do
we mean by freedom? We mean the
power of living being TO act without
hindrance according to the true law of
its life. A mineral, therefore, is in no
sense capable of freedom; it neither
moves nor grows; it does not live. A
tree, in very attenuated or in meta
phorical sense, is capable of freedom; a
tree does contain within itself the mys-
terry of a vital principle, which requires
certain conditions for its necessary de,
velopment; and thus we may speak OF
its having freedom to grow. The lower
animals, i'll very various degrees, are ca
pable of something which may with
much better reason he called freedom
their capacity for it varies proportion
ately to their approach to the frontier OF
self-conscious, self-determining life "A,
manifested in human beings. The brut,
does not merely grow, he moves from
place to place. lie does not move b,
any fatal necessity, but can take this di
rection or that as his instinct prompt!
him. TO interfere with his movement,
is to limit his freedom. Still it is onl,
instinct which he obeys. He does no
reflect; he does not choose, willie com
pretending his power of choice; he i
really, from moment to moment, gov
erned 10y that which is for the time be
ing the strongest impulse or passion
upon him. If he is free TO run about. t,
eat what he likes to sleep and rest whel
he likes, he has all he wants His in
stinct will probably guide him to sleep
eat, and take his exercise in such proper
tions and at such times as the law of hi
life requires.
With man it is otherwise. For maj
is moral being; he reflects, and know
what he is doing when he reflects; h
chooses and knows what he is doing i,
this exercise of choice. Much o
mans life, no doubt, is vegetative, lik
that of the tree. More of it is sentien
and under the government of instinct
like that of the animal We men g
through thousands of movements an,
acts, every day of our lives, without, a
we say, thinking about them. We obe
instinct, or habit, or some governing ii
, clination, without throwing any cor
sciouS and deliberate energy into the ac
of obedience. But our true life is highe
than this. Man lives and acts as man
, he asserts that which is properly his hu
{ man freedom, when he obeys some la,
which he knows he can disobey. Fo
. man is a moral being, and in this great
/ ness he consists. We may often hear o
8 read fine platitudes about the insignif
8 cance of man as compared with tn
planets; with the stars and sun tha
q shine above our heads. Certainly. if tn
d greatness of created beings is to be dt
4 tanned by their material bulk, man
: insignificant enough. He ranks far h,
low many other animals around him o
{ his own planet, But man can do tha
t which no planet can do; he can obey {
s refuse to obey the highest law of his lif
s, The planet cannot leave its appointe
v orbit. 1t circles on, age after age,
Q obedience to the law which governs il
8 God has "given it law which shall NJ
. . be broken" Man can disobey the higI
=. est law of his life; this liberty is ;
d once his prerogative and his DANCE
9 The highest law of mans life is to know
:. to love, and to serve the Being who gay
J. it him; the Being whose very eXistenc
o has not dawned upon the most INTEL
N gent of the creatures below man. &c
y wills that man should obey him freely
- that is, that he should be able to refus
o obedience, and yet should obey. Thl
mans consummate prerogative is nece
y sarily linked to fearful capacity fc
:, declining to exercise it. If man obeye
# God only as planet reyolves, or only
It brute eats, he would not be man.
y Now mans freedom is exercised i
= three main departments of his life;
4 his life as a social being, or his politics
life; in his life as a thinking being,
II his intellectual life; and in his life as
- moral being, or his spiritual life.
~ each of these departments of human a
@ tivity Christ has made men free.
;, Christ has given to us men, first of a
- political or social freedom. He has IL
l. indeed drawn out a scheme of COVER
't ment, and stamped it with His Divil
70 authority, as guaranteeing freedom. "
~ Americans RIGHTLY nriye a Rppublic