TOO MUCH LIBERTY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 28.

“TOO MUCH LIBERTY.”

A Baptist minister in Stockton, Cal., in course of a Fourth of July sermon, remarked that “the trouble with this country is that there is too much liberty.” He didn’t tell his congregation how much of his liberty should be taken away from him. Presumably this omission was owing to the fact that, like all men who talk in that strain, he had reference to the liberty of other people. His argument was based upon the increase of crime, and the idea advanced was that when men’s opinions lead them to commit crime, their opinions should be restrained. Such argument carried to its logical conclusion is tyranny and the Inquisition. God himself never has sought to restrain opinion, no matter how erroneous; he seeks to correct opinion and restrain wrong action by the power of his Word and Spirit. He has not delegated to man the authority to restrain opinion. Civil government was ordained to restrain uncivil action, to enforce a recognition of the rights of all classes of people. Because fiends commit horrible crimes, it does not follow that the people have too much liberty.

The assumption that crime is the result of liberty is decidedly erroneous. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Crime is the abuse of liberty nominally guaranteed by law. In what way should such abuse of liberty be restrained? It can only be legitimately restrained by proper law properly executed. Men forfeit their liberty by the commission of crime; but how can we say that there is too much liberty because some men abuse the liberty designed for all? We might as well argue that there is too much life in the world because some men act improperly and legally forfeit their lives by uncivil or vicious acts. Shall we take away or curtail the lives of the masses because some prove to be unworthy of life? We can not rightly conclude that there is too much liberty in the country because some have forfeited their right to the enjoyment of that liberty. There could be no greater incentive to crime than the curtailing of the liberty of the people.