IS THE CHILD OF GOD A FREETHINKER?
By J. W. Stein
Yes, he alone; all others are enslaved
By evil thoughts, from minds that are depraved.
The worldly mind is ’neath the world’s control;
The mind satanic is unsound, not whole;
The carnal mind is hampered by its lust;
How oft the sordid mind trails in the dust!
A sinful understanding is not clear;
Rebellious judgments are enslaved by fear:
The wicked conscience by remorse is stung;
The evil recollection is but hung
With weights that drag it down; the stubborn will
Can not be free to choose the good, is still
Impelled to mischief, without help divine.
The sinful mind is but a slave: in fine,
It is the workshop of the evil one—
A play-room in which devils have their fun. The mind by God made free is free indeed;
Its thoughts become like his; its every need
Is furnished by the Lord’s paternal care;
Whichever way it looks, it sees God there.
Its aspirations, impulses, and choice
Are all unfettered, and in God rejoice.
Its sphere of operations is as vast
As is immensity; and just as fast
As time can roll its wheels, its growing strength
Is measured by eternity in length.
Its life, its love, its friendships, all are free,—
Bounded, if we can bound infinity! I emphasize the freedom of its life:
Commensurate with God, above all strife,
It enters on a blest, immortal sphere,
Free from embarrassment, besetment, fear:
Made free from sin, ’tis therefore free from death.
In God its strength renews at every breath. I emphasize the freedom of its love,
Applied to things on earth, or things above;
It chooses not to invade another’s rights,
But finds in its own objects, true delights;
It loves in purity each living soul,
That it can elevate and help make whole;
It loves God with the heart and soul and mind,
And seeks, in him, its good always to find;
It loves its neighbor as itself: in fine,
Its love is just, and godlike, and divine. I emphasize its friendship-freedom, too:
In its unfoldings all its friends are true.
Its enemies, like those of God, must die
(Because to be his friends they will not try).
Every intelligence that lives and moves,
Every intelligence that breathes and loves,
Every intelligence on earth, in heaven,
Has true affinities, which God has given
To give, and to receive, grace and good will
That can not die with sin, but linger still. The child of God is free; his sphere is free
As is immensity, eternity.
His life is hid in God; his highest love
Pertains to God and things that are above
And beyond sin and death; his heritage
Is undefiled, secured in every stage
By wisdom infinite. Almighty power
And tenderness uphold him every hour.
He e’er abides in God, and God in him;
Hence he is free to everything but sin.
Sinners can not be free: therefore to think
Away from God is but to drink
The bitter draft of death, and cease to be,—
Like sin itself,—to all eternity. Nor is the child of God the slave of creed,
Of priest, or church, or state. He hath no need
Of written law, save that within his heart,
Where God’s law lives, and reigns in every part.
The transgressor alone is under law;
He, and he only, needs to stand in awe
Of written statutes, judge, jury: these all
Are indications of a vassal’s thrall. Who loves the right pursues the right by choice;
In wrong he will not live, can not rejoice;
Therefore the law can not be made for him:
’Tis made to suppress wrong, to correct sin.
Where physical pursuits have liberty,
The mind controlling must also be free.
Who thinketh evil, lives beneath the rod:
A true freethinker is a child of God.