p. 547 | CALLED UNTO LIBERTY by Fannie Bolton

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 10, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 35.

CALLED UNTO LIBERTY.

By Fannie Bolton

BY FANNIE BOLTON.

WE are living in days when our attention is called to the subject of religious liberty. The very fact that this is so is one that does not wholly forebode evil. There were times more dark, when men were under so cruel a bondage that the very thought of liberty was looked upon as almost treason, and there are places now on the earth in this age, where men have grown so sottish in thought that they are content to be in bondage. There is a picture on the cover of "Dowling's History of Romanism" that illustrates the bondage into which men go who meekly submit to the power of the mystery of iniquity. In this picture is the pope, wearing his three crowns, with the keys of heaven in his hand, and the wealth of the world at his feet. There are his lordly palaces and magnificent cathedrals, and around him swarm his black-cowled priests dealing out indulgences to an impoverished people. Around the churches and palaces are the hovels of the poor. Schools, colleges, places of industry, have crumbled into ruins, and only the church is left, like a great vampire, sucking the blood from the vitals of the nation. Wherever Rome has worked out her policy to its legitimate end, this has been the result. The history of Spain, Italy, Mexico, and South America justifies this assertion. These Rome-ridden countries are far behind the progress of the world. South America in the parts under Roman rule is given up to vile superstitions and ignorance.

When Luther first began to preach the gospel, the cry of liberty began to ring through Germany, and from thence to the world. For with the preaching of the gospel, comes light upon man's moral freedom, as well as his obligation to claim and maintain it. Although Wycliffe, Huss, and Jerome, in times past, had preached the true faith, yet the world was but little enlightened. Germany was under the dominion of avaricious monks, among whom was the monstrous Tetzel, who forced the sale of indulgences upon the people. In this day of enlightenment we look with horror upon a people so bound by superstition that they were even worse than the heathen in their blindness, bowing down to wood and stone, and we would think it impossible that we could reach such a state of evil; but did we follow the same course of reasoning, our foolish heart would also be darkened, and bondage of mind and body would ensue.

Unwittingly the world is on its way to this very evil, although to-day the plea for liberty is sounding far and near. The very Christianity of to-day is spreading backward. In ages past men fell away from the gospel, and in this way lost the liberty which it alone insured. Paul even in his day saw the mystery of iniquity beginning to work. Faith was passing out of the heart, and with faith the Spirit of God, by which alone the gospel was made plain, and true liberty defined. Men

became unable to understand the voice of the true Shepherd, because they failed to obey that voice, and yet they felt the necessity of an infallible voice. Unwilling to study God's word, unwilling to humble themselves before him, they were still willing to humble themselves before men, and ask that councils of the church decide for them their duty, and proscribe their actions. They were willing to tamely submit their religious liberty, and give to men the power to control them.

Now in our day, as there was of old, there is much talk concerning the Bible. In what is called the "Higher Criticism" churchmen are presuming to say that certain portions of God's word are of higher worth than others; that one part is inspired of God in a greater degree than another part; but the outcome of this is confusion and darkness. Already the fruit of this teaching has set the church and world afloat as a great wave on the ocean of doubt.

On the one hand we have forces contending that the word of God is not the God-inspired book that Christians of other days thought it; even the pulpit voices this opinion. Not only do we hear it from Universalists, Unitarians, and Free-thinkers, but from pulpits thought to be evangelical and orthodox. The belief that our divine Lord was but a man, an example simply to be classed with Buddha, Zoroaster, and other reformers, has a wide foothold. This paganism, instead of working for man's liberty, works for his bondage.

On the other hand, those who see these dangers, are loudly advocating doctrines nowhere contained in the Scriptures, insisting on eternal torment, on man's natural immortality, etc., and also combining with these heresies, theories of Christ's divinity and authority. Many are becoming strong advocates for the compulsion of conscience, and are most bigoted in their beliefs and fears. So free-thought on the one hand, and bigotry on the other, work for the enforcement of so-called Christian laws, for the binding of man's liberty given him of God. The combination of forces now martialing in the world, makes the preaching of liberty essential and inevitable.

Standing for a moment outside the light which God has shed upon our pathway, let us look upon the world from the honest citizen's standpoint. There is ruin on every side staring him in the face, and of whatever school he may be, the practical issue brings him to the conclusion that the world must be arrested in her mad career. Men of humane minds, unenlightened by the Spirit of God, look upon the nations, and see but one end,—ruin,—unless the church can do something to prevent it. Satan has inspired the mad counter-forces to seemingly work one against another, in order to bring about just such a conclusion. Satan cannot brook God's law, but ordains one to his own liking,—a counterfeit of the divine. It is in a crisis of this kind that God steps in, and bids his servants proclaim liberty. Luther said: "Let there be no compulsion. I have been laboring for liberty of conscience. Liberty is the very essence of faith." God's word received as his word, received as the word of power, by which the heavens were made of old, by which they are sustained now, is the Creator and Preserver of liberty. The word of God has been unchained from monkish cells, but it is still chained by the traditions and superstitions of men. Were it absolutely free in men's minds through faith, its power would set men free. It is to the word of God we owe liberty. In it the position of man before God and his fellow man is defined. But aside from the word of God there is no way of remaining free. Cowper well expressed the truth when he said:—

"He is a free man whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves beside."

(Concluded next number.)