Freedom  --- J. C. Ryle

1. We live in a land where our “bodies” are free.

So long as we don't hurt someone's body, or property, or character, no one can touch us: the poorest man's house is his castle.

2. We live in a land where our “actions” are free.

So long as we support ourselves, we are free to choose what we will do, where we will go, and how we will spend our time.

3. We live in land where our “consciences” are free.

So long as we are peaceful about our beliefs, and do not interfere with others, we are free to worship God as we please, and no one can compel us to take his way to heaven.

4. We live in a land where no foreigner rules over us.

Our laws are made and altered by people like ourselves, and our governors and leaders live among us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

In short, we have every kind of freedom to an extent which no other nation on earth can equal. We have personal freedom, civil freedom, religious freedom, and national freedom. We have free bodies, free consciences, free speech, free thought, free action, free Bibles, a free press, and free homes. How vast is this list of privileges! How endless are the comforts which it contains! The full value of them perhaps can never be known. It was well said by the Jewish Rabbis of long ago, “If the sea were ink and the world parchment, it would never serve to describe the praises of liberty.”