Free and Equal

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Sep 6, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 36.

"Free and Equal."—Americans ought to know the charters of their liberty, and also essential truth, better than to quote its stirring words in this way: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal." Now God has created all equal in privilege; to each belong life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is God's part. Man may have been deprived of these rights by his own course or by the tyranny of others, but God has given these rights equally to all. The equality of rights is God-given; the freedom is of man's choice. The equality of God-given rights is man's whether he choose it or not; but he must choose to be free.