Obedience and Liberty [pp. 65-86]

OBEDIENCE AND LIBERTY.
out" any solitary element of our legitimate nature. Even the
will, the most perilous of all powers, was left free. As it was at
the first so it is now. The fall wrought no structural change.
The organism of man remains the same. Sin weakened all, and
confused all. Sin changed the direction of our inclinations and
purposes and loves. Sin worked in the soul diversion and perversion of loyalty. Sin brought man into the relation of a steady
and studied antagonism to God. Sin led man to seek in himself,
and in his own ways, the fulfillment of his destiny. Sin turned
man out of the right path, and made it impossible for him ever
to get back again without Divine Help. Sin changed the moral
character of man in such sense that he fell, at once, under the
fatal dominancy of self-will; and, though this may not be such
a crime as we have been in the habit of thinking it to be, the
fact of its existence, and its malign influence on human action,
are amply proven by the obstinate reluctance with which so
many men, great in all head faculties, and not wanting in high
moral aims, still cling to it as against submitting themselves to
the will of God. But notwithstanding this derangement which
has come through moral lapse, man, view ed as a rational being,
has the same make-up, the same powers and faculties and aptitudes and appetites, as before. And the possession and right
use of these is no more a displeasure and an offence, than on the
day on which man was created. Just as much now as ever every
capability has a functional place in human economy. This, both
in letter and in spirit, the Scriptures everywhere recognize. So
when men talk frantically about "crushing out," about "uprooting," about "consuming" these powers and faculties native to
us, they are fighting ghosts which their own bewildered imnaginations have conjured up, not evils that have any real existence in
the Christian system. AIen may fall into error, have fallen into
a thousand errors, in interpreting this system; but the system
itself is not responsible for the folly and narrowness of those who
may fail to comprehend its genius. For under this divine plan,
just as it lies open before us, it is not the having of these faculties and susceptibilities, nor the proper development and use of
them, which is the obnoxious thing; but the having of them, and
mis-using or using them wrongly.
Here, then, is the point where the restraining force of the law
of obedience brings itself to bear. Every faculty is hedged about
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[January,