Obedience the Test of Love.
God produces within us, says a writer in the Nashville Christian Advocate, the right spirit—the disposition to obey. This is the main thing. Then He furnishes us with great principles—not rules—for the guidance of our lives. Rules are made out of cast iron, and when we try to break them they break. But principles have infinite elasticity, and are capable of adjustment to all the varying circumstances of human life. Furthermore, lest we should fail correctly to interpret and apply these principles, God gives us particular cases under them—specimen cases—for our instruction. Finally, when He has done all this, He throws us on our liberty, and bids us walk worthy of our calling. When the little boy is just beginning to walk, his mother watches every step that he takes. Even after he gets large enough to go away from home, she still thinks it necessary to tell him how long he shall stay, with whom he shall associate, what he shall and shall not do—prescribing the very form of all his conduct. But when he passes the gates of manhood, if he be the high-minded young man that he ought to be, she knows that it is not necessary for her to do more than follow him to the door, put her hand on his shoulder, leave a kiss on his lips, and say to him, "My son, you must not do anything to-day that you think would bring grief and pain to my heart." She trusts him enough to throw him upon himself. So God trusts His children, not tying them down with petty and minute restrictions, but leaving them free to do as they please, with this only condition that they do nothing to grieve Him. He puts them on their honor; and it were better for them to die than to dishonor Him.