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CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND ITS COUNTERFEIT. 3...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Cause Which Is Represented Hy This M...
In God , in tlie fatherly heart and ' righteousness . , of God , niight find comfort and benefit in _inany ordinancesas tokensreminding him
of the invisible Father , and means of , discipline for , his thoughts and _. habits , and would be in . no danger of falling into servitude .
He to whom such a direct trust in God was unknown was ready ; to subject himself to outward acts as means of making himself
-safe with God ; and whether his observance were much or little , he would equally be in bondage to ordinances , equally subject
_jto them rather than to the grace of God , equally prevented by them from having free access to the Father . Now St . Paul saw
In the acts of the Galatian Churches , symptoms that they were , allowing their view of God's grace in Christ to be obscuredand
_, were learning to trust in observances rather than in that g * race . And so he warned them that they were falling back into a
bondage from which the Gospel had called them out ; and he "ventured to speak of those excellent institutions which he himself
was accustomed to honour in his daily practice , as weak and _povertystricken rudiments , compared with that glory of free sonship
before God , of which Christ crucified had made men inheritors . Men , whether as Individuals or in fellowship together , cannot
live without rules . They must have daily and common observances as a kind of framework for the more spiritual element of their
lives . . St . Paul knew this as well as any man . And he is therefore much misunderstood when it is thought that he was an enemy
of religious ordinances and seasons , of sabbaths and new moons , of days , and timesand years . We should not , come any nearer to
, the Pauline idea of Christian life if we gave up the keeping of _Sunday , and the habit of coming to church at stated times , and
, the acceptance of the Christian Sacraments . But the Great Apostle does warn us of the danger of being in bondage to these observances .
If we think of them as the means of our safety , we may easily let them obstruct our way to God ; we fall from grace , to come under
law instead ; we reject the freedom into which these very ordinances are voices to call us . Let us remember this perpetual ,
haunting danger , but let us not suppose we escape it by mere neglect of Christian customs . We do not enter into the true
Christian freedom by setting ourselves . up as superior to Church-going and Sabbath-keeping , and the minding of sacred seasons . Some
ordinances or other will assert a tyranny over us unless we allow Christ Himself to . make us free by bringing us , in the spirit of
sonship , to the Father . But it is always natural for men to fancy , when ordinances
pharisaically kept and imposed are denounced as binding a yoke r apon the , consciencethat they are invited to the enjoyment of
licence , and meant to , make themselves comfortable according to their own notions of what is agreeable . We observe signs of this
mistake in the Gospel narratives . Our Lord , taking up the message of the Baptist , proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven as a kingd d 2
Christian Liberty And Its Counterfeit. 3...
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND ITS COUNTERFEIT . 363 .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 2, 1863, page 363, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02021863/page/3/
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