Editorial May 4, 1918 Issue

The Chimes of Liberty

William D. McCrackan

Liberty cannot be separated from God, for liberty is of God. The more men understand God's power the more liberty they have. In the liberty of God men are tuned to each other in one grand harmony of unity. The chimes of spiritual liberty ring for victory even while physical sense seems to lie in bondage. At the very time when evil believes it can work its will with the world, liberty sounds its joyous peal of freedom and calls a new nation out of the ruins of the old. The bells announce to receptive hearts the dawn of day, the reign of righteousness, the never fading light. They tell of lessons learned, evil plans forestalled, revenge frustrated, hatred baffled. They proclaim the downfall of tyranny buttressed by mistaken evil intent, the failure of physical force though expressed in multitudinous inventions, the powerlessness of human will even when hypnotically intensified. The bells ring out the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven at hand, of man as God's child, of a universe governed by divine Love.

The spiritual chimes reach those who have learned to hear God's messages. They penetrate the clamor of council chambers where the struggle for place and power makes wisdom of none avail; they resound above the thunderings of the battle front; they nullify the secret arguments of esoteric magic, and bring comfort to the wounded, and God's presence to the bereaved. The call of Liberty, metaphysically understood, rends the veil of the temple and dissipates the fear of death. With irresistible swing and stroke these bells challenge mortal opinion with divine facts. "O death," they cry with Paul, "where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" When God made man in His image and likeness, man's safety was assured forever, because God's work is unchangeable.

Sometimes little children, with complete trust in God, hear the call of Liberty when their elders are aware only of the booming of fear. During the recent bombardment of Paris the little daughter of an English colonel went to the orderly and said: "You know, you needn't be afraid at all, because nothing can hurt me. You see, God's arms are under me, then under Daddy and Mummie, and after them everybody else." As the Liberty bells sway to and fro they ring out to a waiting world such immortal phrases from the Scriptures as these: "The glorious liberty of the children of God;" "To set at liberty them that are bruised;" "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

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