p. 1 | POWER AND FREEDOM by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1897

POWER AND FREEDOM.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Power belongs to the Lord alone. It is not safe to trust men with power. When men have power and use it they always become tyrants. The Lord has all power, and in the thought of

that is the most wonderful revelation of love, and kindness, and long-suffering, and freedom.

With absolutely all power, with the hearts of men in his hands, the Creator of men, living in the flesh and giving his life to us, so that we live upon his life, has never exercised his power over against our wills. Such is the Lord. Then no one who knows the Lord, and who yields to him and his power, will have anything of arbitrariness; there will be nothing savoring of force or compulsion in him. No man who knows the power of God, which is love, will try to compel others to agree with him; and of course no body of men who know the Lord will do so.

It is the Lord’s power that is to work in men. That power we see in all the visible creation. There is a mighty power there, as in vegetation; but no arbitrariness. That power will work its way out wherever there is an opening; but it works in quietness. That power has dwelt in us, yet never has it been exercised against our will. Can we conceive of any freedom greater than that? It is the freedom the Lord has guaranteed to men, and he himself will maintain it.

The very fact that the Lord has never compelled us to do anything, should show us that his will is not something against man. The Lord has revealed his will to us that we may choose it. His will is life and righteousness. When we choose that his will shall be done in us, then he will do it; for he has all power to work it. He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” And when we give him the privilege, yielding our way to his way, our judgment to his judgment, altho he works in us, yet we are still free.

This is religious liberty, the liberty that is to be proclaimed to men. There are many who profess to know the Lord, who are zealous and sincere, who yet do not know the Lord, because they think he is pleased to have them dictate as to how people shall serve him. The only way this can be counteracted, as far as it ever will be, is to proclaim the Lord, and the freedom of the Lord, to everybody.

Those only can proclaim the freedom of the Lord, who know it. When we recognize the fact that the Lord has been with us all the years, and yet waiting, having all power, and yet refusing to use one particle of it against our will, we shall know what it is that the Lord wants to be proclaimed to men. And this message will be proclaimed in love, for that is the power of the Lord.

It is his power alone that is to be manifested. We stand where Christ stood: “I can of mine own self do nothing.” We can say: “His power is dwelling in me, because I am willing it shall. I am zealous of good works. I know his power is sufficient to work them. I have tried to manufacture them, and could not; now I yield to him, that he may work in me that which is good through Christ Jesus.”

Then it is his power working in us mightily, and that power will work only that which is persuasive and gentle. There will be no compulsion of others, and the man who knows the Lord will always be a free man. “With freedom hath the Lord made us free.” The Gospel proclaims liberty to the captive; let us exercise it, and enjoy it. E. J. W.