^ It is at once strange and true that there is no state so dear to the highest type of man as that of independence. One of its greatest poetic prophets was Eobert Burns, and you will call to mind his words —
To catch dame Fortune's golden smile,
Assiduous wait upon her; And gather gear by ev'ry wile
That's justified by honour; Not for to hide it in a hedge,
Nor for a train attendant; But for the glorious privilege
Of being independent.
That yearning for independence runs through all his poems, and we regard it as the first and foremost of his manly virtues. Yet, sad irony, it must be confessed that poor Burns was bound hand and foot by a master quite as cruel and despotic as a golden one — the master of low passions and appetites. But the case of Burns, so far from being solitary, is universal. Men may boast of their independence, and in some particular lines they have a right to do so, still they are servants or slaves of some^power.
•jl It is not the spirit of obedience that is wanting in man ; he is not only willing to obey, but there is a necessity on him to do so. In his maddest dreams of freedom he enthrals himself to a Marat ; in his wildest theory of individual judgment he makes a Pope of Chalmers or Wesley or Canning. Only let a man see
^ P. Carnegie Simpson, The Life of Principal Rainy, ii. 201.
JOSHUA XXIV. 15 139
what he ought to obey. Here rather is the difficulty. " I will not obey the Church," says one, " for the Church does not exercise any power over me; I do not acknowledge its authority; I do not feel its superiority." " I am not a loyal subject," says another, " because I know that the Queen is an inexperienced little girl, no wiser than one of my daughters." It is only by attesting their divine mission that institutions can be, or it may be ought to be, obeyed.^
Fair is our lot — 0 goodly is our heritage!
(Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth !)
For the Lord our God Most High
He hath made the deep as dry, He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth !
Yea, though we sinned — and our rulers went from right- eousness— Deep in all dishonour though we stained our garments* hem, Oh, be ye not dismayed, Though we stumbled and we strayed, We were led by evil counsellors — the Lord shall deal with them!
Hold ye the Faith — the Faith our Fathers sealM us; Whoring not with visions — overwise and overstale.
Except ye pay the Lord
Single heart and single sword. Of your children in their bondage shall He ask them treble-tale !
Keep ye the Law — be swift in all obedience — Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford. Make ye sure to each his own That he reap where he hath sown; By the peace among our peoples let men know we serve the Lord ! ^
II.
We may choose our Masteb.
1, The Bible is full of the recognition of the responsibility of each man for his choice. We go back to the very beginning of
^ Lord Houghton, in lAfe of Monchlon Milnes, Lord Hovghton, ii. 486. ' Rndyard Kipling.
/
I40 THE CHOICE OF A MASTER
the Bible history, and we find that the Eden story all revolves round the ability of the individual to choose for himself. Now you may have any theory of the first chapters of the Bible that you please. You may call the story of Eden a parable or literal history. We shall all be agreed, however, when we recognize that the very central thought of all is that sin came into the world by disobedience, disobedience in point of power to choose in the opposite direction. A little later on we come to the Ten Commandments. A commandment implies that it may be obeyed or disobeyed. Obedience must choose in one direction or
/hoose in another direction. ^ From the very beginning of the Old Testament to the very end of the New there is a run of invitation, beautiful words, golden words, diamond words ; the most glowing words of all the Bible are those words of invitation. But invitation implies a possibility of resistance; if an invitation cannot be resisted it cannot be accepted.
2. A sense of power to choose between good and evil is part and parcel of the primitive consciousness of the race, and the speech of the rudest tribesman implies it. It is stamped upon every language, presupposed in all social systems, and is the sure foundation upon which the earliest and the latest codes of justice rest. It is for many reasons denied in theory by the great majority of the human race, and implied in practice. Fetish- worshipper, Pantheist, Muhammadan, even the Christian has repudiated the doctrine of moral freedom, but the repudiation has been limited to the sphere of religion, and has rarely, if ever, been applied to citizenship. The savage who, if he has any theory of the world, looks upon it as a ghostly despotism against which man, apart from charms, is helpless, forgets his religion of Fate, and deters his child from evil by frowns and encourages him to good by smiles. Every expression of the countenance witnesses to the belief that man moulds himself to vice or virtue. The student of science makes the laboratory or museum his universe, and convinces himself that the power of environment is limitless, and that the human faculties which are supposed to resist or modify it are less than nothing, and he comes forth from his refuge to applaud an act of heroism in the streets, or to scathe with denunciation some foul wrong done to a widow or a little