Living by Regulation 10/27/40

Scripture: Romans 8: 28-39

It has been characteristic of pilgrims that they have sought an environment of freedom. In that restless and persistent search lies the origin of our nation. The pilgrims, who dissented from established religious expression, and went from one country to another, finally coming to the shores of New England, were in search of freedom to worship God according to the dictates, not of government or ecclesiastical authority, but of God Himself in the conscience. Not only were they determined on freedom to worship God as they believed right, but they were determined to create a government among themselves that would foster freedom. The time came, later on, when, together with other freedom-loving groups which had come to the shores of North America, they had to fight a war with the mother country in Europe to retain and make real in fact the freedom that they had sought.

Others have sought freedom, before and since then. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under the leadership of Moses is a classic example of the search for freedom, a search willingly undertaken even though it might mean death in the desert.

Within the last century the adherents of the first Protestant Portuguese Church in the world had to flee persecution in Madeira and travel to Trinidad, then to New York and Illinois, in search of freedom to live and to worship as they believed they ought to do. We laud the freedom sought, found and guarded by those who have gone before us and who have passed it on as our heritage.

But now and again we are under the necessity of re-examining our freedom. What are its true privileges? What, if any, are its limitations? What is the price of its preservation? The briefest reflection will convince any reasonable person that there is a vast moral difference between liberty to do what is right and license to do what is wrong. When a man who commits a crime is judged to have had too much liberty, some of his misused freedom is taken away, and he is thereafter subjected to the regulation of life in prison.

Now and again, most of us have brief periods of vacation from our regular routine. This means freedom for a short time from the round of duties which make up our regular routine. And we come back to our work renewed and much refreshed. But even a vacation is not a complete release from regulation. There are the needs, wishes, and welfare of other people to be considered - even of people who are, on their part, considering our wishes and welfare.

There is no true freedom without some sort of regulation. The more surely we know what are the truly necessary regulations of living, and the sooner we resolve to abide by them, the more truly we shall know what freedom means.

There is of course a limit to necessary regulations. A considerable portion of the world has been plunged into war. And our hearts are heavy with the knowledge. We are led to believe that the situation comes about, in part, because of the power of a very few individuals who have been able to regiment whole nations around their personal will. The people of the totalitarian nations, especially, have been subjected to regulations that are unheard of in our own land - and we hope will never be imposed upon us.

For years, the lives of some of these people have been so severely regulated that there has been no freedom at all to write, or speak, or even to think anything except what might be officially approved. They have been subjected to a regime that is, in our view, mechanical and deadly to the best impulses of freedom. And now that the nations of Europe, as well as of Asia, are at war, other peoples will, of seeming military necessity, be regimented as well. Over-regulation has led to more regulation until it all contributes mightily to the killing, hatred, destruction, moral lapse and disease that are an inevitable accompaniment of general armed conflict.

There is, then, no true freedom without some regulation. On the other hand, freedom disappears with over-regulation. So it appears that men may be free only by proper regulation.

I remember a clock on the wall in my boyhood home. For a while it had kept time so badly that my father finally had to regulate it by lengthening, slightly, the swing of its pendulum. I carry a watch which my parents gave me when I was graduated from high school. More than once, I have had to ask a jeweler to regulate it in order that I might depend on it for the correct time. It there were no regulation, no restraint, on a clock or watch, it would soon wear itself out with a frenzy of freedom that would destroy its usefulness.

Our lives are made valuable by regulated freedom. The laws of our city and state and nation are enacted by those who represent us, presumably to help us in this regulation. The rules and regulations and traditions of our church are to help us in free and responsible Christian fellowship. The moral laws which we have learned from the experience of mankind are necessary to our happiness.

Think for a moment what happens daily at the corner of First and Grand Avenues in Wisconsin Rapids. Whenever traffic becomes heavy a policeman steps out to the center of the intersection to direct it. Now all of the traffic - on foot and on wheels - has a right to cross the street and go ahead. That is part of our freedom. But the right is a qualified right. The traffic has to be regulated so that each will have his free chance to go ahead. The officer holds back one line for a time so that the other line may go through safely.

A great deal of living is just like that. We have to hold back something so that something else may go through. We have to hold many of our impulses in check so that better impulses may go ahead.

Free people have to be self-regulated people. Free people must impose the laws of right living on themselves. The writer of the book of Proverbs says, (13:14) "The law of the wise is a foundation of life, to depart from the snares of death.” The greatest concern of a freedom-loving people today must be the degree to which we are willing to discipline ourselves. It behooves us to study the laws by which we are to govern ourselves; our habits, and the things to which we give our attention.

A great deal of our self direction depends on our frame of mind. It has been observed that people standing before a great statue of Apollo, studying the beauty and strength of its lines, usually unconsciously straighten themselves and improve their own posture. Paul speaks of being "transformed into the same image.”

Silas Marner, the chief character in the book by George Elliot, made himself a miser as long as he gave himself to the hoarding of gold for gold’s sake. When he gave his attention to a little girl, who had wandered into his house, until she became the pride and joy of his life, he became quite a different man - truly human and fine.

One more word about this matter of living by reasonable and right regulation. Often we know what to do but do not get it done. Paul says - "the good that I would do, that I do not.” [Romans 7: 19].

The law tells us what to do but gives us little help (except fear of penalty) in doing it. Even after we know our duty, we need incentive to follow it. That incentive is spiritual. That is where we rely on moral perception and on our religion. That is where we follow our Lord and Savior. We look to God to kindle our hearts with the desire to do His will, which is the ultimate right, and our highest duty. And He will not fail us! He never fails His own!

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dates and places delivered:

Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, September 3, 1939 AM

Wisconsin Rapids, October 27, 1940

W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, July 17, 1941