Obedience and Liberty [pp. 65-86]

OBEDIENCE AND LIBERTY.
properly their own." A severe indictment. But, without hesitation, it may be admitted to be largely true, in reference to the
general habits of men in those intellectual and social spheres he
has been canvassing. At thle, point here reached, however, he
puts the question "Now is this, or is it not, the desirable condition of bumran nature?" Our answer is ready and positive.
And it may be presumed that no one who has read thus far,
would shrink for a moment from joining in the response: No,
this is not the desirable condition of human nature. It is a condition wholly utdesirable. Yet note the singular reply our
Essayist makes: "It is so on the Calviiistic theory." Then he
continues: "According to that the one great offence of man is
Self-will. All the good of which humanity is capable is comprised in Obedience.n.... Human nature being radically corrupt, there is no redemption for any one until human nature is
killed within him. To one holding this theory of life, crushing
out any of the human faculties, capacities, and susceptibilities,
is no evil; man needs no capacity, but that of surrendering himself to the will of God; and if he uses any of his faculties for
any other purpose but to do that supposed will more effectually,
he is better without them. That is the theory of Calvinism;
and," —for he now brings his guns to bear on those who may
have been rubbing their hlands and chuckling over this ferce
onlaught on what seems t) them a harsh and unwarrantable
interpretation of Scripture, andl congratuilating themselves meantime that their own milder views -would shield them from sucl
an attack-" and it is held, in a mitigated form, by many who
do not consider themselves Calvinists; the mitigation consisting
in giving a less ascetic interpretation to the alleged will of God
asserting it to be his will that mankind should gratify some of
their inclinations; of course not in the manner they themselves
prefer, but in the way of obedience, that is, in a way prescribed
to them by authority; and, therefore, by the necessary conditions of the case, the same for all." That sweeps us all in together, and makes the cause of those who attempt to regulate
their lives by Christian principle a common one. But not even
yvet is he content to rest the arraignment. He grows still more
hot and trenchant declaring: "In some such insidious form
there is at present a strong tendency to this narrow theory of
life, and to the pinched and hide-bound type of human character
5
1874.]
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