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Liberty! Freedom!

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 10, 1857

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 11, No. 5.

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Liberty! Freedom!

By J. Clarke

Much is said and written in favor of freedom, and many conflicting opinions are held in regard to the best mode of governing free states. Many loud boasts are made of our free country; but I will venture to assert that real liberty and true freedom is unknown to the world. Satan holds the world in bondage.
Politicians make a noise; States and statesmen grasp the shadow; and while they struggle for the substance, it eludes their grasp. Satan laughs at their folly, while he listens to the clanking of their chains, which he has forged. He gloats over his success. Burdened consciences, broken hearts, contemners of God's law, criminals of prison dye, or fashionable sharpers, whitewashed professors, and all the variety of sinful humanity, are his victims. They talk of freedom; but ah! well does the arch-fiend know how strong the fetters which bind them to his car. Oh the folly, the madness of poor man!
It is joyful to know that there are a few exceptions. Yes we are sure that some are free in the best sense of the word. The Christian who walks with God, who takes up his cross daily, who conforms his life to God's holy law, who worships him in Spirit and in truth, he and he alone is truly a free man.
While his body is here, his freed spirit soars to heaven, and while he visibly converses with men, his soul is communing with God. While his bodily powers are wearing away in labors, and trials, his mind is being trained to meet the exigencies of that hour, when the voice of God shall wake the dead, and call the living saints to meet him in the air. With such aspirations and hopes, and such faith, the Christian soars far above the cares and temptations which enslave and intoxicate the world at large.
On the other hand the lukewarm or cold professor, who becomes proud and careless, is a very oppressed man. Conscience worries him, memory haunts him, demons torment him. The wicked are no solace to his chafed heart. Life is a load of care, and death a hell to him.
But let him rise in his Saviour's might, and gird to him his spiritual armor, with the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, and like a true soldier fight manfully, how soon do spectres flee, and evil men and spirits withdraw.
Onward, he exclaims, to the prize. His mind once dark and troubled, is now peaceful and serene. A chastened, holy zeal, an intrepid boldness animates his soul; his being is lost in God, his thoughts, words and actions are alike subdued by the bright light shining upon him from the glorious risen Saviour. No unholy influence can draw him from the mount, where he sees, by faith his adorable Saviour transfigured before his enraptured vision.
To him earthly thrones and dominions, crowns and diadems, are level with the dungeon and hovel; he sees with angel's vision, and longs for full communion with God; but with Christ he prays, "Not my will, but thine be done." At the call of duty he comes anew to the conflict, invigorated and inspirited, he draws fresh courage and new strength from the exhaustless fountain, he drinks the cool draught of the river of life by faith.
Thus refreshed and strengthened, he sees difficulties vanish, clouds scatter, enemies flee, mountains are removed, and to him the promise is sure, "one shall chase a thousand."
With the eye of faith he sees how awful the chasm which separates the wicked from a holy God, what fathomless depths! what woe and sorrow! Oh folly! Oh madness! to tempt the terrible God. By faith he grasps the ladder Jesus has cast from heaven to earth, so strong that none but God can remove it. On it, Enoch and Elijah outrode the storms of earth. On it, the prophets and apostles sent up their prayers, and by its means, full assurance of a blessed resurrection, has been transmitted to millions of persecuted saints, tossed upon life's troubled sea; martyrs at the stake, on the wheel, in the dungeon, or amphitheatre, torn by wild beasts, or wilder and more brutal men; these mangled, distressed ones, have by faith borne all with patience, and often with pleasure and holy joy.
Oh faith, truly thou art the gift of God, nothing less could work such wonders as thou hast wrought.
Oh thou frail man, whoever thou art, cast off thy vanity. Abase thy pride. Lose thyself in God. Prove this faith. Be strong, and thus obtain true freedom and real liberty. J. CLARKE.