256 REV. W. R. INGE, D.D., ON FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE. 



against Him. They were right from their point of view. His 

 teaching was subversive, not of the law, but of legalism. So 

 St Paul saw clearly, and St. Paul understood what the Gospel 

 meant. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 

 you free," is his exhortation. " If the Son shall make you free, 

 ye shall be free indeed," says the last and greatest of the inspired 

 interpreters of the Divine message. 



But Christian freedom, like all other Christian rights, duties, 

 and virtues, contains a paradox, and needs a good deal of analysis. 

 Christianity is a simple creed, but its simplicity is that kind of 

 simplicity which consists in ultimate harmony and perfection, 

 and not in poverty of content or shallow obviousness. The 

 ancient collect which addresses the Deity as " 0 God who art the 

 author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom 

 standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom " : 

 or in the splendid terseness of the Latin original, borrowed from 

 St. Augustine, Deus auctor jpacis et amator, quern nosse viverCy 

 cui servire regnare est : expresses with more dignity the same 

 truth as the modern epigram, " The Christian is the Lord's 

 servant, the world's master, and his own man." The way to 

 Christian freedom is ''to bring into captivity every thought to 

 the obedience of Christ." It has in it an element of fear, fear 

 of God — an unpopular doctrine which we forget at our peril. 

 Modern Europe does forget it. Heine in his mocking vein 

 says that the German appropriates the Deity (" unser Gott ") ; 

 the Frenchman patronizes Him Bon Dieu " — the good- 



natured, easily propitiated God of the French Catholic) ; the 

 Italian insults Him (by mixing Him up with the definite article) ; 

 the Englishman ignores Him (by never mentioning Him in 

 conversation). The old Puritan ideal of living always under 

 " our great Taskmaster's eye," though harshly expressed, is 

 Christian. " Yea, I say unto you, fear Him," our Lord said. 

 And we cannot overstate the rigour of the self-discipline with 

 which the Christian must purchase his right to be free. Outward 

 liberty without inner self-control, self-development without 

 self-sacrifice, are ruinous. It is because men do not rule them- 

 selves that it is often salutary for them to bear an external 

 yoke. An arbitrary government, a tyrannical Church, may in 

 some cases be schoolmasters to bring men to Christ, though it 

 is a sad pity that such methods should ever be necessary. There 

 are many, on the other hand, who never rise in this life from the 

 fear of God to the love of God. We must not blame them. 



