Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-07-17

life and conduct the results Of such fret
choosing
The power to choose is the first thing
in moral freedom. This belongs to US
all and none can take it away from us
We may lose the power through disuse
Habit and oppression may make it slug
gish, but still 1t is there. In every mar
is this divine possibility Of saying he
will or he will not. Your will is yours;
one OF the eternal tests is, What are
we doing with our wills?
Such a power constantly involves the
exercise Of choice. We elect every mo-
ment between possible courses and we
always elect on the ground Of some
good, choosing that which seems to us
to offer the greatest good. Our ideas
of good may be poor, gross, perverted;
we may elect the good of the lusts of
the flesh we may choose death, but we
choose 1t because 1t seems good.
AS the powers and the intelligence
develop the choices of freedom involve
widening considerations. We choose the
good in the light of experience; we
choose the good, not of self alone but
of society, first Of home, then of friends
and neighbors, until the vision widens
to embrace world and its obligations;
we choose on the ground Of the good
of all.
The choice on the ground Of the good
of all involves the rejection often of
that which would seem the highest
good on the ground of my own individ-
ual considerations. Because higher mo-
tives enter in l freely choose to be
bound by them, to deprive myself, to
be governed, controlled by the lives of
others. This Is no loss OF freedom; 1t
is it's highest gain. 1t Is freedom from
the dominion of the lower self rising
into the liberty Of the higher life of
all
SO freedom becomes not an external
condition, but an internal function and
process by which in constantly making
and carrying out the choices of that
which seems good l learn to know the
highest good and form the habits Of
choosing and willing that. Out of my
consciousness Of q world of moral OBJ
| legations, a consciousness discoverable
only through the exercise of this free
dom, / rise into the greater living.
Evidently this freedom is something
quite different from license When the
exercise of the right to do as l will
leads me to will to do that which is
eternally right voluntarily place many
bounds about my doing, 1 acknowledge
the laws of duties to others, of the
rights of others. l am truly free be-
cause 1 submit myself Willingly to the
obligation Of the good of all.
| Out Of license freedom never grows:
! subsection and slavery lie that way.
Where none know any obligations the
few strong force the many weaker ones
to do their will Where freedom reigns
the imperative of the highest good, as
gradually it dawns ON all, compels each
one to will to serve the good of all, to
sink the lusts of the lower for the good
of the higher.
The light Of truth gives this liberty
to all. AS men como to see themselves
in the light of the glorious life, as more
than dust, as truly divine, come to see
their fellows as of this same family,
they catch with Joy the vision of the
possibility Of doing great things, of
giving their lives away for ideal ends,
of so living as to lead all to the high
est good; they enter into the freedom
of the truth, the freedom to will and
do the best we know
| --5 -