SERMONS. MR. I.* THE LIBERTY OF CHRIST. R. Speaker, Senators and Representatives of this Great Republic: It would indicate an insensibility which I do not claim, if I did not deeply feel, — if I did not at once relieve my mind by acknowledging, both the honor and responsibility which your distinguished kindness has this day conferred upon a stranger and foreigner by inviting him to occupy this desk, especially on the first Sunday after the reassembling of Congress. But it would indicate also great presumption if I accepted this position as a personal compliment to myself, rather than as an expression of your good will towards that kindred nation, of which, in some little measure, I may be regarded as a most humble representative. Although I feel myself inadequate to discharge competently the duties of such a position, I venture to make the attempt, most heartily thanking you, in the name of my countrymen, for that good will which, as in a multitude of other methods, * Delivered on Sunday morning, Nov. 24, 1867, by invitation of the Speaker, in the House of Representatives, Washington. you thus express. I earnestly invoke the help of Almighty God in one of the most important duties I have ever been called on to discharge in the exercise of my sacred ministry. And I cast myself on your generous indulgence. I cannot be expected, as though I were an American, to be versed in those questions which agitate yourselves in domestic politics; and, therefore, if I should utter a word which is capable of being interpreted as addressed to a party rather than to the whole American nation, united and free, I implore you to attribute it to ignorance and inadvertence, and not to a disregard of that neutrality in respect to your own affairs, which it would be a most ungrateful breach of courtesy, as well as a desecration of the sanctities of the Sabbath and of the church, were I intentionally to violate. At the same time, you will grant me that freedom of speech which both Americans and Englishmen are accustomed to employ, and that unembarrassed liberty which the sacred desk inspires, and which every minister of Christ should exercise, while I venture to address you on the words of the Apostle Paul, recorded in the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, at the 1st verse: "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Christianity is a sublime act of union and emancipation. Its Founder is the greatest Liberator of mankind. The Gospel is perfect freedom. Its object is to bring men into union with God and one another. This makes us free. The means it adopts are characterized by the ends it designs. Liberty is the result, and Liberty is the process. Liberty is not lawlessness; but harmony between the law and the nature and inclinations of its subjects. Law is essential to freedom; but freedom requires that the law. shall be such as comports with the best interests and highest reason of those who have to obey it; for then their best desires will concur with their obligations; and, wishing to do only what the law requires them to do, they will be conscious of no restraint. The whole universe is under law. From the loftiest archangel to the tiniest insect and the grain of sand, all things are included in a grand system of government. Only thus the universe is sustained. It would be self-destruction for any particle of that universe to break away. Only in obedience is there safety. And with moral agents, only in voluntary submission to the perfect law of the Supreme Ruler is Liberty. Freedom is not properly an attribute of the will; for a will which is free is simply a will which wills; and a will which is bound is no will at all. But freedom is harmony between the mind and its actions, taking into account all its capacities, convictions, and desires. The angels are free, not because they are without law, but because between them and the law there is perfect agreement; so that, desiring only what the law allows, and loving all that the law commands, they are conscious of no restraint. Sinful man is in bondage through the lack of this harmony. Duty points in one direction, inclination in another. With capacities for glorifying God, degenerate desires prompt to sin. Conscience places the double stigma of ingratitude and rebellion on conduct which nevertheless is pursued. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, yet cannot ignore it. The law is there, speaking, commanding; confessed by the higher reason, yet dishonored by the depraved will; and these are contrary the one to the other. Bondage is the result. The removal of this antagonism is the establishment of freedom. Two methods are conceivable. Either the law may be brought down to the depraved inclinations, or the inclinations lifted up to the holy law. In the former case, sin would cease to be punished; in the latter, it would cease to be desired. The body, for its own health, is subject to certain physical laws; and pain is the penalty of disobedience. While we desire no indulgence beyond the limits assigned by God and Nature, we are conscious of no restraint; bondage ensues only when the desires and the law are at variance when we wish that from which the fear of penalty deters, or when we are checked in the act of indulgence by the consciousness of folly and pain, or the dread of it. "The law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient." est Our alle As with physical law, so with spiritual. giance to God is a first principle and necessary obligation. Its impress on the soul cannot be obliterated. The keenpen of sophistry cannot overwrite the lines of it; the fiercest flames of lust cannot burn out the traces of it; the wildest storms of passion cannot sweep away the memorials of it; the ceaseless flow of the stream of evil habit may for a season fill up with mud, but cannot wear off the God-engraven characters of it. Misery, ruin, death must follow the continued violation of it; yet, tied and bound by the chain of its sin, the unregenerate soul refuses obedience. It is evident that harmony, and thus freedom, must be effected, not by any change in a law, which, as its Divine Author, is immutable, but by a change in the carnal mind, so as to bring it into union with the law. Emancipation from the thraldom of this spiritual disunion is effected by making our desires harmonize with our duties, not by degrading the law which frowns on those desires. And as all the laws of God tend to purify, ennoble, and render happy those who obey them, He confers liberty of the highest kind by bringing us into willing subjection to those laws; that is, by restoring us to union with Himself. The Gospel is His instrument. The liberty it aims to produce characterizes itself. Mere law, viewed alone, gendereth to bondage. Confessing the justice of its claims, we are conscious that we shall ever fail to satisfy them. Perfect obedience, as a ground of salvation, is not in harmony with our present state of sinful infirmity. Though we strive our utmost, we are oppressed with a sense of deficiency and a dread of punishment. "When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants." The law was a schoolmaster for the Jewish nation until salvation by faith in Christ was revealed. "When we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world;" that is, under the rudiments of religion. "But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Here was liberty. The full penalty of sin was now paid, perfect obedience was now rendered—not by the sinner, but by the Savior. There is harmony between our desires and our condition, for the salvation we seek is freely bestowed. We long for complete deliverance from guilt, "and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." Baffled in every attempt at self-deliverance, for "by deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified," we are set at liberty by the assurance, 66 'By grace ye are saved." The handwriting of ordinances, which was against us, is nailed to the cross of Christ, cancelled by His death. The veil of the temple is rent in twain; the way to the Holiest is opened, and liberty of access to the Mercy Seat is proclaimed to all. And now a new motive-constraining love—is imparted. Mightier than fear, it prompts to a better obedi |