p. 3 | Conceptions of Liberty

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 28, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 25.

Conceptions of Liberty

THE very longing for liberty is good, even tho that longing may be for license. To put it in another way, stagnation is death, and the soul in stagnation is not free. Liberty is life; and therefore the very longing for liberty, even tho that longing may be perverted, is hopeful. God has placed that longing in the human heart in order that man may develop and progress. Sin and selfishness have perverted it. He would have us know true liberty, and the greatest liberty is that which delivers us from the greatest bondage. The greatest bondage in this world is sin, because sin when it is finished brings death. There would be no death in God's universe if it had not been for sin, infraction of divine law. Therefore above all other longings for freedom, freedom from sin ought to be dominant.

The Old Liberty Bell rung at the time the Declaration was signed, and it bears upon it the old Jubilee inscription of more than a century before: 'Proclaim Liberty throughout All the Land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.'" But the inscription means. Liberty of soul is still needed by the people.

He comes to us with the assurance that "nothing is too hard" for God, and that tho the sins be "as scarlet," they shall be "white as snow," and tho they be "red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

MAN in himself has no power to free himself from sin. He finds himself in that condition. There he was born, and the tendency of the natural heart is to be selfish and selfish always, and all man's efforts to reform in and of himself alone are but putting one form of selfishness in the place of another. The latter form may be more respected, but it is just as essentially selfish; and yet down into this awful condition of humanity God has sent the mighty Liberator. Jesus Christ, one with the Father for all eternity, comes down into this poor dark world, takes upon Himself the very nature of man, wins the victory over sin, and offers it to every soul who will yield himself to the pure and reasonable government of God, and accept of the freedom that is offered. He does not ask us to understand the how, or to measure the extent. The bondage may seem so great and our experience so sad and unsatisfactory that no power in heaven or earth can break the bondage and set us free. We may have multiplied our sins until it seems that they are great overwhelming mountains that crush us down. But

THIS freedom, this spiritual freedom, this liberty of righteousness, He offers to every soul on earth. Whether that soul be the son of Japheth or the son of Ham, it is open alike to all; and whether the skin be white while the heart is black, He is able to cleanse the heart. But that cleansing can only be by righteousness, and the soul who accepts the cleansing must choose the righteousness. In that righteousness is life, life forevermore if persevered in. That does not mean that the grave may not hide for a time the possessor of freedom and righteousness. It hid for a time its Author; but in passing through the grave He made the way for all others who follow Him, tunneled its dark mountain and demonstrated on the hither side eternal life and immortality. For "in the way of righteousness is life," "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."

THERE is another freedom for which men long; namely, civil freedom, together with the equality that is vouchsafed of God. It is not His will that man should enslave his fellows; it is not in His order that civil government — divinely ordained as government — should be oppressive to any person or class of persons. All should stand equal before the law; all should have equal opportunity, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, "of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This means that legislation should be for the conservation of the rights of man. Men do not give up rights, as has been often said, when they enter society. Society or the civil government is organized, if rightly so, for the very purpose of the conservation of human rights — equal rights for all. It means that the strong shall not oppress the weak; it means the many shall not override the few. It means that the weak shall be protected

and the rights of the few as well as the many respected.

It is an utterly wrong principle of government that the country shall be run for a party. That party is worthy only to die, and die forever, that has for its principles the government for its class. That political party is worthy only to live which has for its principles the protection of the individual however weak he may be or whatever his condition may be. For the protection of the person and the conservation of the rights of the individual means the protection and the conservation of the rights of all — equality of mankind.

LIBERTY to the union man means many times the strongest rule imaginable over everything not connected with the union; the exercise of the strongest tyranny over those without for the benefit of those within. It is the turning in a new form of the old Mussulman's cry, "Acknowledge Mahomet or die." We know what labor is; we sympathize with the laboring man; we recognize the cruel tyranny of unrestrained capital, the overreaching lordship of the trust, and the domineering arrogance of the great landowner, the classifying and treatment of men as mere parts of great machines worthy of notice only as they serve their purpose. All this and much more may be seen by all unprejudiced eyes. There is tyranny in it, there is slavery in it; but we do not see how liberty can be secured by substituting one form of tyranny or slavery for another. We could not conceive that the slavery of the saw would be better than the slavery of the jack-plane. In other words the tyranny of the corporation magnate seems no worse to us than that of the walking delegate. Slavery under the union may be even worse than slavery under the trust. There are honest souls outside of unions and trusts; we believe there are many honest souls within the unions, who prefer neither slavery, but who rather believe a strong, sturdy, free, independent individualism is better. Yet the bondage of sin is worse than either of these.

EQUALITY of mankind does not mean equal physical proportions, nor equal mental caliber, nor equal ability to grasp, or power to command, opportunity; but it does demand equal liberty for each one to be and say and do just as far as ability and circumstances permit. Politically the weakest is his fellow citizen's equal in life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It was a glorious hour for the world when America's star rose above the horizon and shone this truth anew in the minds of men. As long as it was in the ascendant for its first one hundred years of shining, its influence over all lands was beneficent, speaking freedom to the oppressed of all nations, and hope to the despairing toiler. Seeing it shining from afar, millions in the oppressed and downtrodden monarchies, despotisms, and overcrowded countries of the Old World found here what Emerson designated Opportunity. And when the Old World saw some of the best of her peoples flocking to America, rather than to her own colonies, her own feudal laws of the Dark Ages were softened, amended, or swept away before the enlightenment and liberty of America.

For that freedom our flag stood, but "how has the most fine gold become dim!" While race slavery as such has been abolished, and that part of the land of which it was the curse is better to-day, industrial slavery flourishes in the sweat-shops of our large cities; the spirit of imperialism stalks boldly abroad; we have the "masses" and the "classes," and if we do not have the "lords" we have the "servants." Gold barons, and kings and queens of various sorts, bear sway continuously and temporarily, and the Republic of America is following in the footsteps of the Republic of Rome. No longer where floats to the breeze "the Red, White, and Blue" is there freedom and equality. Man is no longer a peer of his fellows as he was but a few decades ago. And what will be its influence on the Old World?

WHEN the American ship of state was launched, it placed on the reverse side of its great seal this inscription: "Novus Ordo Seclorum," —

A New Order of Things

This new order was especially manifest in these two ideas: Government is of the people; and government is, if right, absolutely separate from religion. This thought is well expressed in the following from George Bancroft the great historian:

"The CONSTITUTION establishes NOTHING that interferes with EQUALITY or INDIVIDUALITY. It knows NOTHING of differences by descent, or opinions, of FAVORED CLASSES, or LEGALIZED RELIGION, or the political power of property. It leaves the individual alongside the individual. . . . Religion was become avowedly the attribute of man and not of a corporation. . . . VINDICATING the RIGHT of INDIVIDUALITY even in religion, and in RELIGION ABOVE ALL, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting in its relations to God the PRINCIPLE FIRST DIVINELY ORDAINED IN JUDEA. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American Constitution, in harmony with the people of the several states, WITHHELD from the Federal Government the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience, the sanctuary of the soul; and not from indifference, but that the infinite Spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom and purity and power." — "History of the Constitution," book V, chapter 1.

Under these guarantees of equity and liberty, during the succeeding century, both government and genuine religion prospered as under no other government. And this was expected. Said James Madison at that time:

"Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT WILL BOTH EXIST IN GREATER PURITY THE LESS THEY ARE MIXED TOGETHER." — Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822.

On this the compiler of "American State Papers" well remarks:

"How different is this from the constant opposition of so many Christians to-day against every application of the doctrine. If state chaplains are not hired, the early destruction of the state is predicted; if Sunday laws are not enforced, anathemas are pronounced against the whole nation;—and all this, too, when religion in America has prospered better, far better, under the secular principles of government than ever it did in any nation with all its religious teaching by the state. The words of General Grant should ever be remembered by the American people, 'KEEP THE CHURCH AND STATE FOREVER SEPARATE.'" — "American State Papers," page 77.

THE only hope of continuance in any government or organization is to abide true to its principles which gave it life. If it be false to those principles, there is nothing to preserve it. This is true of Protestantism; it is true of republicanism. The two great principles standing in the forefront of American republicanism and democracy were the equality of men; man's right to choose to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. These principles preserved in national life, in state and municipal government, and the hearts of the citizens of America, would perpetuate the Republic forever; but if these principles be trampled under foot, America will go as have all the other countries of the world; and instead of a shining light of liberty to the nations of the earth, she will become an ignis fatuus to lead the world back to the slough of despond, to the darkness of oblivion — the Dark Ages.

When she turns as she is doing from the "new order of things," which gave the world itself a new lease of life, to the Old World methods, to imperialism, to class distinction, to court honors, to religion and state union, to autocratic rule, she is leading the world from light to darkness; and the Old World, which has been groping toward the clear shining of the light, is now saying republics are a failure, American freedom and equality of men are myths or at the best but impractical ideals in government; and the whole world, in consequence of America's lapse, is reverting — in "a highly civilized manner" of course, but not the less truly — to the despotism of the Dark Ages.

WE may try to look upon the question lightly, but the wholesale demand arising from religious bodies for a Sunday law is just what Rome did in the beginning of her downfall. That demand for religious legislation marks two great things: first, that the church is losing her power with God; and secondly, that she is substituting for the power of the Spirit the arm of flesh; and this has inevitably worked ruin both to the church and to the civil body which united with it.

THIS is a matter of divine prophecy. This great part which America is playing in the world's drama, is just as truly a matter of the prophetic Word as

was the part which Rome played. It behooves every intelligent American and every true Christian to lift warning voice and earnest protest against the downward trend. It may go on in spite of him, and the prophecy assures us that it will go on to ruin; but there lies beyond this Republic and all the world's empire the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ, for the glorious inheritance of which He is now gathering out His subjects ruled by their own consent, serving eternally of their own glad volition. That is the government, reader, that gives the liberty to which these imperfect notes invite you.