Ulysses, sailing by the Sirens' isle,
Sealed first his comrades' ears, then bade them fast
Bind him with many a fetter to the mast,
Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile,
And to their ruin flatter them, the while
Their homeward bark was sailing swiftly pastj
And thus the peril they behind them cast,
Though chased by those weird voices many a mile.
But yet a nobler cunning Orpheus used:
No fetter he put on, nor stopped his ear.
But ever, as he passed, sang high and clear
* Memories of Horatius Bonar, 108.
' G. H. Knight, Divine Uplif tings, 114.
2 COR. III. 17 75
The blisses of the Gods, their holy joys,
And with diviner melody confused
And marred earth's sweetest music to a noise.*
(2) This means also freedom for the will. A man may see and know the right, and yet shrink from doing it, because of the fear of suffering or reproach. This is to be in a state of bondage. He may see the evil and know that it is his duty to avoid it, and yet he may be drawn to yield to it because of the pleasure that is more or less blended with it. How is liberty from such a condition to be brought about ? Suppose that the will is strengthened, and that by dint of a high sense of duty the man is enabled to rise superior to the power of his passions ; shall we have in such an one an example of true liberty? Surely not. What the will needs, in the first place, is not strengthening, but liberating. It must first be brought into its proper environment ; there it finds its freedom. It may be weak, but it is no small matter that it is free. And being liberated, it is now prepared to be strengthened. The element in which the will finds its freedom is the love of God.
^ In the paper on " The Force of Circumstances " ( Works of T. H. Green, iii. 3) the relation of the Divine spirit to the human individual is more particularly developed. The " environment " or " system " of which each man may be regarded as the centre, is not " the outcome of the workings of the human mind," nor on the other hand is the human mind its creature or slave. If rightly regarded, it manifests to us in various ways " the spirit in whom we live, and move, and have our being " ; through what we call the " external world," the Divine mind, in whose likeness we are, is continually communicated to us, and in this communication we find ourselves and attain freedom. Man becomes free, not by flying from the inevitable nor by blindly acquiescing in it, but by recognizing in his very weakness and dependence the call of a being " whose service is perfect freedom." ^
^ There are two stages of experience, both included in the life of the Christian — the one being animated chiefly by a sense of right, the other by the power of love. We may illustrate the two stages by two concentric circles — the outer circle representing the duty-life, and the inner circle the love-life. We may be within the first, and yet not within the second ; but it is impossible to be within the inner circle, and not be within the outer circle > B. C. Trench, Poems, 143. ^ £_ l_ Nettleship, Thomas Hill Green, 29.
^(i THE LIBERTY OF THE SPIRIT
also. So, if we are " dwelling in love," we shall know what it is to do the right for its own sake as well as from inclination.^
3. Liberty is not perfectly realized until it has. transformed our outward conditions. Meantime its progress is evident. Wherever the gospel of the grace of God has free way — is preached and accepted — there you always find liberty following in its wake. Liberty is the attendant angel of the gospel. Let God's truth lay hold of any land, and despotism dies. The gospel creates an atmosphere that suffocates a despot; and where it is free it exercises an influence under which slavery of every description is certain to wither. Has it not been so in our own history as a nation? England owes her present liberty and all her glorious privileges to the possession of a Bible. Search through history and you will always find that a nation's greatest benefactors have been religious men ; you will find also that those who have struck the hardest blows for political liberty have been those who have loved the gospel most dearly. What all the secret political societies in the world may fail to do, that the gospel will accomplish simply and easily if only it is once let free. Let the truth as it is in Jesus spread through India, and India's caste thraldom shall be broken through. Let the truth only win its way amongst the nations of Europe, and all tyrannies shall depart ; for " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,"
^ Just as the alabaster box was in the house, and its presence may not have been known, so Christ has been a long time with many of His disciples, and they have not known Him ; that is, they have been comparatively ignorant of His glorious fulness. But po sooner was the box broken, and the ointment shed abroad, than the odour filled the house. So, when the love of God is poured forth by the Holy Ghost, when the infinite treasures of Divine love stored up in Christ are disclosed, revealed in us, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, their subduing, liberating, and transforming influences begin at once to be seen and felt.^