of the spiritual world are neither objects of sense, nor the abstractions of such objects, nor imaginative copies of material things. Rather are they certain imperishable principles that pervade the universe. The principle of love, the principle of progress, the principle of reverence, the principle of hope, the principle of trust, the principle of freedom,— it is these that pervade all Nature, these that outlast all change, that outweather all the storms of disaster, and shall issue triumphant from the grave. And these, the invisible things of eternity, are clearly descried by faith in the visible things of time. For look at the very changes to which the things of time are subject, discerning the end from the beginning, regarding them not in their momentary fluctuations, but in their course from age to age; is it possible to doubt that they are changes for the better? We draw no pictures of a world to come; but, comparing mankind as it was in the primeval sheerness of its utter savagery with its condition in the present day, we cannot ignore the operation of these eternal principles, we cannot tremble for the issue of the conflict between the evil and the good. And if we refuse to let our fancy run riot in the halls of a material heaven, still further from our minds, if possible, is the fear of an eternal hell. Finally, as in all else besides, so too in the dogmas of theology, there are permanent principles of truth underlying the changing shape. It is never the form of a creed, it is only the faith it inspires, which has wrought any deliverance in society and done any good in the world. The belief in the Incarnation is gradually becoming extinct, but the nearness of humanity to God, which it was the aim of that belief to compass, is a truth just beginning to be felt as it was never felt before. The miraculous powers of healing and of raising the dead attributed to Jesus in very early times, are beginning widely to be doubted; but the spirit of benevolence that breathes from him through the legends, is a deathless factor in the dynamics of the world. The doctrine of his Deity is dwindling in the distance, but the transcendent goodness to which humanity has paid this signal and unexampled homage, will remain to bless us while the ages move. As the chords of the spirit still vibrate when the strings of the lyre are mute, and the strain which the ear has drunk in makes melody for ever in the soul, so, though the words of ancient creeds are silent on our lips, the eternal sentiments of veneration, love, gratitude, and trust shall yet maintain their hold upon our lives, shall yet perpetuate their music in our hearts. IX. MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM. "With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage."-GAL. v. I. THE name of freedom is a name of power; the voice of freedom is a mighty voice. Its sound has gone forth into the ends of the earth. Nations have leapt, and tyrants quaked to hear it. It has awakened the captive in dark dungeon walls, and the sorrowful sighing of the prisoner it has changed to the throbbings of expectant hope. It has moved to the loftiest enterprise; it has been the watchword of heroic struggles, a jewel treasured beyond gold and rubies, and gladly purchased by the noblest blood. For freedom ofttimes the husbandman has left the plough, the artisan the loom, the student his book, the author his pen, the lawyer his robes, the professor his chair, the preacher his pulpit, and peaceful hands have wielded the unwonted sword for love of liberty. Yes, for her sacred cause, great, glorious companies of apostolic men have, in the time of urgent need, laid down their ease, their wealth, their fortunes, and their lives. The Alpine heights of Switzerland, the prairies of the western world, the rock-bound shores encircled by the sea, the happy homesteads of our own dear country, all these are hallowed ground which freedom consecrated. The very air is purer for her breath, the very heavens brighter for her smile, the fields more fair which she has looked upon, the paths more pleasant which her feet have trod. The mountains which have been her stronghold seem to rear a prouder front, the dreariest waste is blither for her presence, she makes the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and something of her grace may yet enhance the beauty of the loveliest spot which she can call her own. But, after all, this outward liberty is but the type and shadow of an inward and a nobler freedom-the freedom of the soul. At best it is but the freedom to be free. Political liberty is the garden of the spiritual, the flower of whose growth alone can lend it charm and glory; whose absence will be marked, ere long, by desolating waste, whose vacant place will soon be rankly filled by all unseemly weeds. But she, the freedom of the mind, is an immortal plant, disdaining not indeed the kindly care of civil cultivation, and loving well the genial light of day, yet springing into bloom beneath the iron pressure of the tyrant's heel, and in the deepest darkness of the dungeon's cell scorning to wither or to droop her head. Rooted and grounded in the God of truth, she strikes her fibres deep, she rears her summit high, she spreads her branches wide; and, once the smallest of all buried seeds, she rises the goodliest and grandest of all fruitful trees. This freedom of the spirit, and no meaner thing, is that in which Paul exhorts us to stand fast, as the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. But spiritual freedom, like all precious things, is not without her counterfeit. All is not gold that glitters, and burnished brass seems often to outshine the genuine ore; nor are freedom's loudest champions always her truest friends. Oh, let us not be led astray by names. The rose, they say, would smell as sweet by any other name; but the mere name of rose would lend no fragrance to the gaudiest of scentless flowers. This is a day of loud and swelling words, high-sounding phrases, and magnificent professions; but these will not lead astray the simpleminded follower of Christ. He who has found that his yoke indeed is easy, and his burden light, he who believes in the unchanging God, whose service alone is perfect freedom, will look with some distrust, not only on all curtailment, but equally on all supposed enlargement of that glorious and eternal liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. "He is a free man whom the truth makes free, What, then, is Christian liberty? It is first moral, then intellectual, liberty. By moral liberty, I mean freedom from the bondage of sin; by intellectual liberty, freedom from the tyranny of opinion. And |