And why? Because they will not be righteous; because they will be
proud, boastful, lustful, godless, cruel, making a lie and loving it.
God help them! We are not here to judge them, but to take warning
ourselves. Now there is no use in boasting of our English freedom,
unless we have free and righteous hearts in us; for it is not
constitutions, and parliaments, and charters which make a nation
free; they are only the shell, the outside of freedom. True freedom
is of the heart and spirit, and comes down from above, from the
Spirit of God; for where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty, and
there only. Oh, every one of you! high and low, rich and poor, pray
and struggle to get your own hearts free; free from the sins which
beset us Englishmen in these days; free from pride, prejudice, and
envy; free from selfishness and covetousness; free from unchastity
and drunkenness; free from the conceit that England is safe, while
all the rest of the world is shaking. Be sure that the spirit of
freedom, like every other good and perfect gift, is from above, and
comes down from God, the Father of lights; and that to keep that
spirit with us, we must keep ourselves worthy of it, and not expect
to remain free if we indulge ourselves in mean and slavish sins.
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