Obedience and Liberty [pp. 65-86]

OBEDIENCE AND LIBERTY.
can in nowise be objected to. But our concern is not with
covering the whole ground; it is to note the reflex influence on
mind and character of some of the leading aims placed before
us in this economy of obedience. Take love. Than this is there
anything better fitted to call out a man's reflective powers, to
awaken and elhergize the latent possibilities of his nature, to
educate his senses to fine appreciations, to enrich and enlarge
his entire being. Beyond controversy growth is never so sure,
is never so harmonious in all its parts and proportions, is never
so inwardly sound, as when the roots of the life are watered by
genuine love. Take purity. Is there any achievement to which
a man can devote brain and heart that is higher, that has more
guaranty of uplift and expansion in it, that will put every best
force which is in one under a more steady strain, that will more
certainly clarify vision, and quicken insight, and correct what
is, false in view, and tone up what is low in habit, than observing
the l;ws, and cultivating the instincts of purity. Did not the
Great Teacher assure to purity that supreme perceiving which
will come in answer to no philosophic searchings, and( which
sometimes has awed men into a sense of nothingness, and sometimes has raised devout spirits into an unutterable ecstasy.
"Blessed are the pare in heart, for they shall see God." By no
process can human capabilities be trained to rarer and more
royal issues Take truth. Is there any subject of investigation
more becoming, inre re warding, more fructifyi,, that helps one
mote effectually to conquer his prejudices, and that reacts into a
bro;tder catholicity of sentiment, than the sincere quest for
truth. Lessing could think of nothing in all the universe compara-ble to the search for truta. Socrates made truth his study
and occupation; and he grew so tall and massive in the nourishment of it, that the shadow ot his great name has fallen benigna-tly across all these centuries. Take justice. Is not this
a school whose tuition is of the best? When a man aims at,
informing his own soul with the principles of justice; and
when hle gives himself heatrtily to the righting of wrong, and
the securing of equity amongst his fellows, does not the purpose approve itself to the cormmon understanding as one through
which every faculty and sensibility that is in him will derive
benl -fit? A man may be so intent on justice. in some particular
sphere, as to become harsh and one-sided; but if all tlese aims
1874.]
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