trast between liberty and law. "They err," wrote the judicious Hooker, they err who think that of the will of God to do this or that, there is no reason besides his will. He doeth all things, saith Paul, by the counsel of his will; and whatsoever is done with counsel or wise resolution hath, of necessity, some reason why it should be done; and it is said of wisdom, 'The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way; even before his works of old, I was set up.'" The more completely mere will, mere activity, is under the influence of reason and right and truth and love and beauty, the more perfect is the nature. Law we always must heed; the law of death or the law of life, the law of the flesh or the law of the spirit.

And now we are prepared to pass judgment upon certain lives, which, though often accounted free, especially by young and unskilful persons, are, indeed, quite the contrary. There is the freedom of the free liver; his life who disregards, as much as may be, the restraints of temperance, the sanctities of the hearth and of society, indulging himself in reckless contempt of rule and measure. He cannot bear to be bound. He must be his own master, though he should be a cruel one. He must be at liberty to indulge his animal propensities. He makes no professions of virtue, because they would endanger his liberty: they are too confined for a nature so impetuous and imperious, — only twigs of osier for such a Samson. But is this freedom? With all its loud, boisterous words, is it freedom? The pretence will not bear a moment's scrutiny. It is servitude, and that of the basest sort. The soul has been betrayed to a few paltry passions. To these, manhood and freedom have been sacrificed. The passions are loose, not the man. They, not he, wander wild and ungoverned; and the greater, the more gifted the soul, the more contemptible the bondage: the degradation of the moral nature is manifestly proportioned to the superior qualities of the mere intellect. The poor slave yields to an appetite; but he is above obedience to God and conscience. And may it not be worth. while for many persons to ask, whether much of what we sigh for as freedom, in the common course of life, freedom from its routines, and what are called its drudgeries, — freedom from the occupations by which we discharge our duties to society, and gain our daily bread; whether what we long for, as we walk about in the dust and mire and heat, is a true freedom, an enlargement,

a liberty for any thing, save sluggish minds and bodies, or dainty natures that shrink from rough contact, and dread lest soil come upon them; or for a few tastes innocent enough, yet not entitled to the whole of life, or capable of educating a soul for God's presence? Is it not indolence that would be free to be idle; luxury that would be free to be luxurious; selfish curiosity, that would learn every thing and impart nothing? Is it not cowardice that would shun evil rather than fight with it? Is it not indifference that would care for itself in some quiet corner, and leave the great problem of life upon which millions of sorrowful men toil to settle itself? One may wish often enough, amidst life's perplexities, to be free from it all: the wish is natural; but nature in this case, as in many other cases, is at fault, and needs to be taught of God.

And then there is the freedom of the freethinker, who sets such a high value upon his exemption from current beliefs, the faith that prevails in the world, what is his freedom, very often, but servitude to a narrow and shallow and belittling scepticism, to a common sense from which the highest experiences of earth's best and greatest souls have been carefully eliminated, to a poor, contracted, merely individual way of thinking and feeling; to a head which the heart has never warmed; to a mind that has never wandered through eternity, or pondered anxiously upon the mysteries of life; to a spirit satisfied with this world, content to be ignorant of spiritual things, a spirit which has never longed that what faith teaches may approve itself for truth? Not that free thought is not good. Thought must and will be free. But there is a slavery to doubt as well as to creeds; there is a bigotry of liberality as well as of illiberality; and unbelievers are frequently of all persons the most uncharitable. The freedom to doubt every thing is but a sad heritage. We are sometimes exhorted to take up the Bible as we would take up any other book, and subject its contents to a cold, impartial criticism. But can we do so? Can we refrain from taking sides at once with its spiritual heroes, with men who at once commend themselves to us as God's own prophets, martyrs, and saints? Not for all the philosophy in the world would we part with those messages to the heart, which the spirit only can discern. We would be so free from theory and material philosophy, that we could not be separated from those high lessons of eternal wisdom. We would receive the kingdom of God as a

little child, free from the conceit of opinion; sure of this at least, that there are heights which no human vision can reach, and depths which no plummet of earth can sound. The freethinker, who is not free to believe in a God, and a Saviour, and immortality, is a slave indeed.

These and numberless instances, which need not be specified, show but too clearly our need of some comprehensive principle, which shall be our guide to a right estimate of liberty, and a wise effort after its attainment. And the principle which we would suggest is this:

Freedom is valuable, beautiful, holy, just in proportion as it prepares the way for obedience, the obedience of faith, of trust in God's truth and law, the obedience of the gospel. When freedom proposes this end to man, her cause may rightfully be assigned to the highest plans in the human soul; it becomes spiritual, moral, religious, Christian, a cause to be presented to the worshipping congregation, to be brought before the heavenly Father in the faithful prayer of the believer. Let every desire for freedom be put to the test of this principle, "whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God:" so always must the case be stated, there must the issue be joined. Every noble struggle for freedom not only accepts, but joyfully invites, this test. Why is it, for example, that the struggle and the plea for social and political rights are carried on in such a spirit of holy enthusiasm? Simply because servitude to man is always a most formidable, and often an insurmountable, obstacle to obedience to God. It is degrading and demoralizing; it shuts men out from the light, whose revelations it fears; it neglects the moral sense, whose first act would be a sentence against the oppressor; it is fatal to culture and refinement, and, by favoring the animal nature of man, separates him from God, who is a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Place this end obedience distinctly before the mind and heart, and what might otherwise have been a mere party strife becomes a great moral enterprise.

It is a matter of comparatively small moment to bring a slave to the ballot-box, and so make a man of him, though this is very well as far as it goes; but our sympathies are enlisted, our blood is warmed and stirred, when we see men to whom the word of God cannot be given, - men who must be animal, unrefined, undeveloped, immoral, at best only superstitious, because it is not

safe for them to be instructed. Let there be a nation of sceptics and pleasure-seekers, and it matters little whether they choose their president or obey their emperor: they are slaves in either But let there be men struggling for a spot of God's earth to do his working, struggling to be free for this, though in the wildest wilderness, and the spirits of freedom and of obedience join their voices, and cry God speed! God bless the righteous

case.

cause!

Just so in our personal relations, if the first and greatest object is to become more obedient, better servants of righteousness, our struggle to be free gradually assumes a really noble form, shapes itself into a contest with passion and untoward circumstances, a struggle with the world, an effort to throw off every yoke and the easily besetting sin. It is sin, not law against sin, that will press upon, confine, and keep us down. The bondage of death is this, — that, when we would do good, evil is present with us: only this bondage has power to make us truly wretched. The worst constraint may be that which we least feel, simply because we love the chain. And it is a great step in spiritual and moral progress, when we become impatient of all passions and habits, of all artificial wants, of that position in society, of influences of every kind, which make obedience so imperfect. This is a noble restlessness, indeed, not to be impatient of care and poverty and sorrow, not to be impatient of obscurity and neglect, not to be weary of labor and responsibility; but to be impatient of evil. The child, that has been enticed into danger by other children, must be set free from dangerous companions, that he may be safe in obedience; so man must be set free from men to obey God. The planet, which has been torn from its orbit by some disturbing force, must be set free from this disturbing influence, that it may circle again about its sun, and bathe in life-sustaining light. So the power of passion, which draws man from his true centre, must be broken. The eye that is capable of appreciating the beautiful must be charmed by beautiful objects; and it is a noble obedience, a sweet constraint; and freedom from such an influence would be wholly a misfortune. The nice ear is bound to melody just in proportion to its nicety. The perfect Being can in no wise be hindered from loving the truth, the truth which is with him, which is himself for ever. Christ, too, must do the will of Him that sent him: no conceivable restraint can

prevent this. And men, too, beginning at their low grade, with all their infirmities clinging to them, by steadily abiding with the truth, shall know at length its charm, and be free indeed; free as he is free, who calls no man upon earth the master of his soul. May God so open the eyes of our understanding, that we shall clearly see the great law of truth and love, to which it is good to be in subjection, by which it is beautiful and honorable to be firmly bound. Then we shall not desire enlargement, that we may be more largely and successfully selfish, that we may have a wider field to serve ourselves in; we shall crave that liberty of the sons of God which is akin to His perfect freedom and perfect righteousness.

R. E.

TALENT AND ITS TREATMENT.

PASCAL affirms, that any talent that rises much above the common level is as often the object of the sneers of the many, as a marked deficiency in intellect. Nothing above mediocrity passes unquestioned everywhere: he does it at his peril who presumes to go beyond the average of wit and culture that prevails in the society in which he lives. He will be pointed at as a pedant, perchance even as a fool. The plurality fix the limit; and it is the plurality who will maliciously bite him who openly makes it his object to excel.

Perhaps, in this diluted rendering of Pascal's idea, I am doing no credit to the fine discernment and keen point of the satirist. But, even in the terse original, I find in it more of bitterness than truth. I know not how it may have been, how it may be now, in lands where society is assorted by certain fixed laws, with little regard to merit or mental superiority. In our free and universally educated communities, it seems to me that talent is the object of public idolatry and private enthusiasm. Wealth has been sarcastically said to hold that position in the affections of our people; but I believe it is chiefly admired as the sign or measure of the success of business-talent. A rich man must be a "smart" man also, to hold a large place in the public estimation. It is by no means necessary that talent should take a sordid vent to