After our Civil War a white man suggested to a negro that he had been better off as a slave. He had had more to eat and been more certain of it, a better cabin and less concern about it, better clothes and more of them. The negro agreed, and added, "The place is still open if you want it, sir. As for me, I had rather starve and go cold and naked, and be free." It is quite impossible for some men to understand that. For that is the heart of liberty. Eating and clothing and dwelling have become all important to some men, and compared with them liberty is not worth having. But there are hearts which have tasted slavery and so know the zest of freedom. (Text.)—C. B. McAfee.
(1148)
FREEDOM, GOD RESPECTS OUR
God, having made man a free moral agent,
is a wooer, not a coercionist. If the knowledge
of the sacrifice made for man's redemption
will not win man's love, God will
not apply physical force to compel acceptance,
love, and obedience. A military chieftain,
tho holding the lives of his soldiers in
his hands, exhibits his greatest power by
refusing to exercise compulsion, and realizes
that the best service rendered is that which is
prompted by love of the commander. Thus
God shows His almighty power.
(1149)
FREEDOM, GRATITUDE FOR
On the 30th of August, 1833, the Emancipation
Act passed the House of Lords. It
was declared that all children under six
years old should be free on the 1st of August,
1834; that all other slaves should be registered
as apprenticed laborers and be compelled
to labor for their owners for a few
years—the time was shortened soon after.
Antigua alone has the honor of having said,
"We will have no apprentices; all shall be
free."
Meanwhile in all the islands dismal prophecies were made by the planters of rapine and ruin and negro risings; but the missionaries were busy teaching the poor blacks how to receive the coming boon of freedom. The eve of that momentous day, the 1st of August, was kept by the slave population of Antigua as a watch-night in church and chapel. They had been advised to await the midnight hour on their knees with prayers and hymns of gratitude. So, at the first stroke of midnight in the island of Antigua, all fell upon their knees, and nothing was heard but the slow booming of the cathedral bell, save here and there an hysteric sob from some overwrought slave-girl. The final stroke sounded through the clear air, and still the immense crowd kept silence, as tho they could not realize that they had become free. Then a strange thing happened: One awful peal of thunder rattled and crashed from pole to pole, and flash upon flash of lightning seemed to put out the feeble lights of cathedral, church and chapel.
God had spoken! The kneeling crowds sprang to their feet with a shout of joy; they laughed, they cried, they tossed brown arms abroad, and embraced one another in wild and passionate emotion; then they remembered God once more and prayed aloud.—Edward Gilliatt, "Heroes of Modern Crusades."
(1150)
FREEDOM OF SOUL
What a remarkable invention is the airship!
In it are wrapt almost boundless
possibilities for good or evil. The Christian
bound on his sacred mission may yet be
able to use the viewless air for his highway,
transport himself through its soundless
solitudes, hundreds of miles before the
dawning. He may transport himself with
ease from place to place and behold all the
marvels of creation on earth, having cut
loose from gravitation and being free in the
infinite ocean of starlight and sunlight.
The ideal of man is perfect freedom of the soul. (Text.)
(1151)
FREEDOM OR SLAVERY
I was in conversation with a man a few
days ago, and we were talking with reference
to evil propensities and signing pledges and
forming firm resolutions to quit bad habits.
He said, "I won't sign a pledge because I
won't sign away my liberty." I asked him
what liberty he meant, and he said: "Liberty
to do as I please." I said to him, "That is
not liberty. Any man that does as he
pleases, independent of physical, moral and
divine law, is a miserable slave."—U. S.
Shrimp, Church Advocate.
(1152)
Freedom, Religious—See Liberty, Individual.
Freedom, The Appeal of—See Earnestness.
FREEDOM THROUGH DRILL
R. H. Haweis gives an experience that would be good for all learners:
He (Oury) taught me Rode's Air in G—that
beautiful melody which has been, with
