The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-09

tanning their proper liberties. Nor
does this signify that the people of
God should ignore their own liberty
Rather we should stand for the prin-
ciples of Righteousness, and both by
word and precept refrain from stirring
up violence. or jeopardizing the inter-
ests of others. Liberty of conscience
we should maintain in ourselves and
should encourage in others.
Liberty of Children of God"
st. Paul speaks in our text of the
liberty of the children of God" This,
primarily, signifies our desertion from
our taskmaster, Sin, and the surrender
OF our wills to God and righteousness
It means reputation of liberty to
do wrong and the grasping, through
Christ, of liberty from bondage to Sin
But, as the apostle elsewhere explains,
We find it impossible to conquer fully
the fallen flesh. We will find it i'm
possible as New Creatures to attain
the full liberty of Sonship under pres
ent conditions, because, as st. Paul
declares, 1.-THE flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the two are contrary the
one to the other" Galatians v, I'D.
We have a constant fight to resist the
ensfaving influences of Sin-to main
tain our liberties as sons of God. The
victory will not be fully attained until
our resurrection, when This corrup-
tibie must put on interruption" Then
our new minds will receive new, per-
feet spirit bodies, through which they
can operate perfectly, and exercise, to
the full, true liberty, true freedom.
The full liberty of the children of
God, therefore, is not attained in this
present life. but will be attained in the
resurrection, when we shall be per-
fected in the Masters likeness. And
in this connection it is well to note
that this is the liberty of the angels
also-liberty of freedom from Sin,
from the power and damnation of err
ror and superstition and weaknesses
through heredity. All the angels were
thus created, and father Adam and
mother Eve also were thus created, in
the full likeness of the children of
God. Some lost their liberty by DISC
bedience; they became slaves to Sin
and Death, and have been more or less
bound by these conditions from then
until now. So, then, 1.-THE liberty of
the children of God" is absolute per
fection-the ideal condition for which
the church is striving.
The Groaning Creation.
The apostle in our text is discussing
in general. He reminds us that 'the
whole creation groaneth and travail
eth in pain together until now Ro-
mans viii, 22). In the nineteenth verse
he tells US what they are waiting for,
namely, THE earnest expectation of
the (human) creature waiteth for the
manifestations of the sons of God"
The world of mankind is now enslaved
TO Sin and Death; they cannot help
themselves; they must wait until Gods
time for setting them free from this
bondage. Gods time will come in con-
nection with the glorification of the
church, and her manifestation with
her Lord in the glories of his Messiah
ic Kingdom. Then the grooming crea-
ton will be set free from the bondage
of Sin and Death, under which it now
groans and travails.
Made Subject to Vanity.
The apostle reminds us that the
slavery of mankind to Sin and Death
came upon the world through vanity,
or frailty, unwillingly. Our frailties
are the result of sin and of Divine
sentence. Father Adam was disobedi-
emit and our Creator. in sentencing him
to death, made the dying condition
such that all of his children would be
involved with him, as sinners, through
heredity, and thus sharers in his dying
condition. But God did not subject
our race to this dying condition, this
slavery to Sin and Death, with the in
tention of blasting the hope of human
ity to all eternity, much less with the
expectation of sending Adam and his
race to eternal torture. Rather, We