privilege is called license, not liberty. We have certain rights as
men, but we have duties, too, as creatures, and it ill-becomes us to
prate about our rights, or the duties of others towards us, while we
ignore the obligations we are under towards others and our first duty
which is to God. Our boasted independence consists precisely in this:
that we owe to Him not only the origin of our nature, but even the very
breath we draw, and which preserves our being, for "in Him we live,
move and have our being."

The first prerogative of God towards us is authority or the right to
command. Our first obligation as well as our highest honor as creatures
is to obey. And until we understand this sort of liberty, we live in a
world of enigmas and know not the first letter of the alphabet of
creation. We are not free to sin.

Liberty rightly understood, true liberty of the children of God, is the
right of choice within the law, the right to embrace what is good and
to avoid what is evil. This policy no man can take from us; and far
from infringing upon this right, the law aids it to a fuller
development. A person reading by candlelight would not complain that
his vision was obscured if an arc light were substituted for the
candle. A traveler who takes notice of the signposts along his way
telling the direction and distance, and pointing out pitfalls and
dangers, would not consider his rights contested or his liberty
restricted by these things. And the law, as it becomes more clearly
known to us, defines exactly the sphere of our action and shows plainly
where dangers lurk and evil is to be apprehended. And we gladly avail
ourselves of this information that enables us to walk straight and
secure. The law becomes a godsend to our liberty, and obedience to it,
our salvation.