03.06. A PIONEER OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

A PIONEER OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

It was an unknown and an untrodden path on which James O’Kelly set his foot in that eventful hour when he withdrew, for he went out not knowing whither he went, but grandly, nobly, sublimely, he met the test, and patiently, but perseveringly, he pressed forward in the great task that Jay before him, and through all the years he wrought right mightily for his king. He was no whimperer; not an hour was lost in sulking; not an instant spent in criticism; not an instant wasted in mourning over his defeat; not a thought given to predicting the ruin of the Church he sought to save; not a glance backward to the place and things that had been his, but setting his face steadfastly toward the goal of a better service, he pressed on to the end. It would be a profitable pleasure to follow the road over which he traveled; to share with him the anxious hours; to keep him company on the burdened journey; to hear the groaning of his soul over the problems he was forced to solve; to see him on his knees before God at the midnight hour, as was his custom; to rejoice with him in the victories he won, and the progress he made; to walk with him as he blazed the way through the theological underbrush of an ecclesiastical forest, that it might be both safe and easy for his followers, but time and space combine against the pleasure. Suffice it to say that he reached the goal, and gave the world the slogan of the Church that has arrived, and which should be the slogan of the Church which is to come--It is "Individual Liberty in Christ."