VII CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. GAL. v. 1. "Stand fast, therefore, in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." LIBERTY is a distinguished word. It is associated with the grandest human achievements, and with the loftiest spiritual conditions. It awakens thoughts of the stormy Past, amid whose battling elements have been laid the corner-stones of Empire, and the conquests of Heroes. It revives memories of that remote Antiquity which lies around the primeval Morn; whose great actors move in the dusky twilight of History, and entomb themselves in Catacombs and Pyramids.Liberty is the Watch-word of Man-repeated with magic faithfulness wherever there is a heart to prompt, a mind to direct, and an arm to strike; and preserved throughout the developments of Time, with a constancy as firm as it is glorious. It is the soul of Enterprise and the warrant of Adventure, when the chivalrous Crusader rides to the rescue of Christian Sepulchres, or the buffeted Puritan sings his psalm to the wild chorus of the Atlantic seas. Liberty is a term we use to express the happiest and most honorable condition. Considered in the political and social sensewhich is the widest view the world takes of Liberty, and the only aspect in which the multitude recognize it-it is doubtless of grand and momentous importance. In its defence, Patriotism has achieved a name second only to that of the Martyr, and unnumbered thousands have devoted themselves to death, on the battle-grounds of their country and the hearth-stones of their kindred, with a magnanimity which Gratitude treasures and Greatness emulates, in unfading records and immortal deeds. But the subject of our present thoughts is Spiritual Liberty, or that condition which is prepared in the soul of man, by the illuminating influences of the Gospel of Christ; by the infinity of its revelations, by the authority of its precepts, and by the sanctity of its demands. The announcement of Christianity is a proclamation of Freedom. In theory, it is adapted to free minds, and only through the loftiest exercise of our rational faculties, can it find means of any honorable and perfect development. In spirit, it is adapted to free hearts, and our sensations and our affections mingle and brighten, as they become unfolded to its genial light and stainless beauty. Its Author is God, the Universal Parent and the Uncreated Perfection, in whose government Liberty is just as essential an attribute, as light in the earth or harmony in the spheres. Its Teacher is that Christ, whose life-long theme was Equality and Brotherhood-its Embodiment that Savior who died to redeem Humanity, and render us all the united and glorified subjects of One august and everlasting Dominion. In every sense which lan guage can suggest, Christianity is a Religion of Liberty-a bestowment of vital and untarnished Activity, of the sublimest Privileges, and the most glorious Repose. And this freedom which pertains to our inner being-neglected and denied as it is-is the highest and dearest of all freedom;should be the first to be won, and the last to be yielded up. The power of martial multitudes, or the wisdom of political assemblies, may improve our outward circumstances, and bestow on us social and intellectual blessings of immense value and daily utility. But it is a nobler mission to so widen and exalt the mental capacities of men, and so quicken their moral perceptions, as to unveil to the earth-bound spirit the unspoken excellence of its Creator, and the glory of those mansions which he has reared for his intellectual Universe. The Power which presides successfully over the machinery of States, is doubtless a power to be honored and sustained; but far nobler is the Power that legislates in the deep soul of Humanity; and, by unfolding its latent energies and expelling its arbitrary foes, gives it an angelic existence and a boundless empire. The idea of Liberty supposes the existence of Bondage, and the gift of the first includes the removal of the latter. In the Scriptures, men living destitute of the Gospel, are frequently represented as bondmen, while those who have received its truths, and entered on its triumphant life, are recognized in the opposite condition. Thus Jesus declares, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And in the spirit of the same thought, Paul charges the Gallacian church, "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage." The work of Christianity in our souls is, then, both negative and positive;-negative, in breaking up the falsehoods of our Belief and the iniquities of our Practice, in severing the chains of Tradition, and prostrating the dungeon-walls of Custom; in transforming our whole Character, and bringing us into acquaintance with new circumstances :-and positive, in giving a new faith to our minds, |