FEELING AT LIBERTY by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 12, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 45.

FEELING AT LIBERTY.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

THE religion of Jesus Christ is not simply one of emotions. It does not quench feelings, but it consists of more than emotions. It is a fact. It holds good when a person can have no emotions. It holds good when the body is paralyzed, and the nerves are numb,—when there is scarcely enough consciousness left to take notice of anything, and the mind has almost ceased to work. The man who knows Christ does not then have to reason out his hope, but rests in the consciousness of the fact of the life.

It is a glorious truth that the religion of Christ needs not to be reasoned out. We do not have to trace evidences, and weigh arguments to know at any time what it is. This does not mean that God discounts the intellect with which he has endowed his creatures, but that faith is superior to reason. Human reason, not guided by the Spirit of God, leads to folly. Faith is the guide of reason; but the truth of the Spirit of God is not to be reasoned out, else there would be partiality; the kingdom of heaven could not in that case be received by a child as well as by a philosopher. But "the world by wisdom knew not God." (1 Cor. 1: 21.) The righteousness of God is not revealed to reason, but to faith. When one is at the very point of death, and the brain so sick and sore that it is a positive task to think at all, one can lie perfectly still and know that he is accepted, not because he feels that he is, but because God has said so. He need not look about to see if his feelings correspond to the demands, but he can rest in the Lord, knowing that he is in his hands.

There are times, and they will come to every Christian, when he will not feel that he is free. He may be depressed in body. The weather often has an effect on people, and at any rate we are all still in the flesh. The flesh is still unconverted, and it will always remain so; for it is enmity against God, and can not be subject to him. It will demand that we serve it in this and that thing, and will demand satisfaction. Then is the time we want to know that we are free. If there is any doubt then we are in danger.

The devil knows the weakness of the flesh, and he will work to regain his position. You say: "I am in doubt, and do not know. The other day in meeting the Lord seemed to set me free; but I do not feel so now. If I were free why should I feel so depressed?" And when we begin to hesitate and temporize, the devil, who is an expert in his art, brings us into discouragement and captivity. It is a fact that the Lord has proclaimed liberty to the captives. He holds the keys still, and the devil never can get hold of them. He has loosed the bonds of every man. David says, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant; . . . thou hast loosed my bonds," and it is true of every soul. There is not a soul in the world who might not say with truth, "Thou hast loosed my bonds;" and if he continued to say it on the authority of God's word, he would continue free; for the Lord has proclaimed liberty to every captive.

It is not a matter for feeling, but for practical use. When the enemy comes to destroy, when the flesh would rise up to assert its domination, then is the blessedness of this word, "I am free." God has freed from that power, and he has power to maintain the freedom. Why should the experience of so many professors be fitful, now rejoicing and then again gloomy and full of doubt? God has declared freedom; will he put us in prison again?

How many times we hear people talking about being in the dark—"it was light, but now it is gloom." They have simply allowed Satan to thrust them into the dark cell, because they wandered near Doubting Castle. Bunyan had the truth of the thing when he told the story of Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle. They had been lying there in the dark for a week or more when Christian bethought himself of the key of Promise which he had in his bosom, which opened every door and gate in the castle, and they walked at liberty, because they believed the Lord.

Now why should we be in Doubting Castle when the Lord sets us free and enlightens the gloom? We have the promise that the word is not far off. It is not in heaven, that we should go up to bring it, nor across the sea, that we should send for it. It is nigh thee, even in thy heart. So to every one that key has been given, and all can be free all the time, if they will use it. The Lord never puts us in bondage, and the time for us to assert our liberty is when the enemy would drag us back into captivity. He would be a strange man who, when the notice came to him in prison that he had been pardoned and set free, should wait until he felt free, before walking out at liberty. It would show that he did not believe in the genuineness of the pardon, or that he doubted its authority. It is because people do not believe God, that they refuse to assert their freedom when he proclaims it to every soul. E. J. W.