Obedience and Liberty [pp. 65-86]

OBEDIENCE AND LIBERTY.
ART. IV.-OBEDIENCE AND LIBERTY.
By Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Pittsburgh, Pa.
THE question submitted for consideration is this: Does obedience to God abridge liberty-true personal liberty-and stand
in the way of tile highest and broadest development of the soul?
Or more specifically: Is there necessarily any such antagonism
between obedience, properly conceived, and liberty, properly
conceived, that men need to cry out against following the divine
precepts as a species of bondage which must be thrown off; and
to affirm that individual inclination and individual preference
must have more scope in the plan of life, before there can be
any realization of the strength and fullness and symmetry of the
ideal manhood?
What occasion there is for this question, and for the earnest
discussion of it, will be apparent before we are through.
One thing is certain and, at the outset, may as well be placed
distinctly before us. The Bible, both in Old Testament and
New, enjoins it as an obligation, binding on every human soul,
to walk according to the counsels and ordinances and commandments and laws of God. When it is charged that obedience is
a characteristic and leading feature in the scriptural polity of
life, the charge must be admitted; for it is true. "Thou shalt,"
and "Thou shalt not,"-not in any harsh and arbitrary spirit,
but still as veritable regulations of conduct, hedge up the path
along which one is to travel all the way from cradle to grave.
One, doubtless, may grow up into such a mood of love, and
become so habituated to act from motives of love that obedience
shall not seem an irksome task, but a sweet privilege rather;
yet that alters nothing as to the essential duty of yielding the
life up to God's control, and doing what God would have done.
The temper of the obedience may be changed and carried up
from a mere reluctant to a completely devoted and hearty obedience-in this manner becoming perfect; so it ought to be, so
God wants it to be; but at bottom it still remains the one same
thing, submitting to and working out, not the human, but the
divine will.
We talk of the liberty of the Gospel. We do well. There is
such a liberty; and now and ever it is precious and glorious.
1874.]
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