Galatians 5:1, 131Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)
13For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13); 1 John 2:2727But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:27); John 14:2626But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26); 1 Corinthians 2:1010But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10)
A friend of mine went to teach in Natchez before the Civil War. He and a friend of his went out riding one Saturday in the country. They saw an old slave coming, and they thought they would have a little fun. They had just come to a place where there was a fork in the road, and there was a sign-post which read, “Forty miles to Liberty.”
“Say, how old are you?”
“I don’t know, sir. I guess I’m about eighty.”
“Can you read?”
“Not very well sir.”
“Can you tell what is on that sign-post?”
“Yes, sir; it says forty miles to Liberty.”
“Well, now,” said my friend, “why don’t you follow that road and get your liberty? It says there, only ‘forty miles to Liberty.’ Now, why don’t you take that road and go there?”
The old man’s countenance changed, and he said: “That is a sham, young man, but if it pointed up there” and he raised his trembling hand toward heaven, “to the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free, that would not be a sham.”
The old slave, despite his lack of education, had even then experienced a liberty in his own soul that these young men, with all their boasted education, at that time knew nothing of.