“THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY.”
To the sinner the law of God is a yoke, a bondage, a condemning judge. To the believer, in whose heart the law is written, it is a law of liberty. This is admirably expressed in the following, from a sermon by the Rev. Richard Cordley, Congregationalist, of Lawrence, Kansas; and the principle is true of every part of the law: The law of liberty is planting the principles of truth and righteousness in the soul itself. It is when the law of God is so wrought into the spirit that obedience is its first and free impulse. It is not liberty from law, but liberty in law. It is not freedom to disobey, but freedom in obeying. It is not liberty to do as one pleases, but pleasing to do as one ought. There is no constraint in it, any more than it is constraint for a mother to do for her child. It would require constraint to prevent her doing for her child; she will go through fire to save her child from burning; she will go through water to save her child from drowning. It is the law of her life and soul. It is the law of water to flow downward. It is constrained only when hindered by obstructions. It is the law of the needle to point to the pole. It points elsewhere only when its own election is interfered with. These things act by a law within them. It is the law of liberty to them; for we call anything free when its native tendency is unobstructed. So in the highest state of virtue the law of truth and right is wrought into the very soul, and becomes the impelling force of life and conduct. It is a force within, not a constraint without. Inclination and obligation flow in the same channel. Duty and desire go hand in hand. Impulse and conscience are tuned to the same key, and sound forth in accord and harmony. Love and law have joined hands and are going on together, love the moving principle, and law the line of guidance. “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” But if the spirit of love be not in the heart, all conformity of conduct is dead and profitless. If a selfish man observe the law from selfish motives, he is in no wise transformed thereby. He may be a safer man to live with, but he is not a better man. When Paul saw that other law in his members warring against the law of his mind, he cried in despair: “The good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The Spirit of Christ in a man’s heart will attain the end of the law in his life. For “God is love,” and “love is the fulfilling of the law.” And love is free, and therefore its law is the law of liberty. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”