Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-09
CHOOSING A MASTER.
Everybody Serves Somebody or Thing
Whether He Will or Not.
THE CHOICE is WHO TO SERVE.
Story of Good Saint Christopher and His
Search for Master.
LEGEND OF THE DEVILS PARLIAMENT



The only choice is choice OF masters.
The master may be man or a thought;
the master may be an ideal, purpose or the
embodiment of that ideal and purpose in some
notable human life--or both together.
Whon1soever influences us, We serve.
Whatsoever influence leads US, that inhu-
ence we following after serve. Influence
means mastery. The artist serves the greater
artist under whom he studies, after whom he
patterns. Or if he be great enough to have
men who rather pattern after him, he serves
still some high ideal, some imagined grace
and loveliness whose approving smile he
strives to win. So with all people who are
working, or even living, in this world. We
are all servants. We all pay obedience some
where. We have only one choice in the mat
ter-the choice of masters.
This choice OF masters, whether or not we
desire to make it, whether we are even con-
scious or not of making it, we must make.
We cannot help it. 1t is part of the in
evitability of service.
can think OF only one man who might
be exempt from it: that would be man cast
on some absolutely deserted island, blind,
deaf and bereft of memory. And perhaps
even such q man would have to choose. Yes,
even such q man would have to make a
choice unless you took away his reason and
his will, too. So long as he could dis
tinguish right from wrong he would have to
choose his master.
THE SUPREME CHOICE
which confronts every human and reason
ing being in this world--the choice between
God and the devil-would inevitably con-
front him. We begin to choose our master
as soon as we know wrong from right, and
while that knowledge lasts, choose we sbso-
lutely must. This, you will observe, con-
tradiets fatalism sharply. There Is no such
fact as fatalism in human life. Take one on
whom the hand Of fate, as men say, seems
laid the heaviest-the child of degraded and
depraved parents, inheritiDg the vices of a
dozen generations of rascals, born in the
most miserable, heathen, deYilish slum,
hearing almost nothing except evil, seeing
almost nothing but sin. If there is such a
great unalterable law, as some think,
its constable, that child has no chance
at all. There is no law like that. Even
such being has q chance. To even such a
being there is present every day worse and
a better; every day God speaks to him, calls
him by the invitation of the better; he may
choose that, and right the worse if he will.
And choosing what il better to-day, he will
infallibly see CLEAN of something better
still tomorrow. And so it will be like
climbing a long ladder, round by round, out
of black pit into the blaze of sunlight into
the clear air of heaven. Every man and
woman in this world has such ladder close
beside them, and can climb it if they will.
THE LESSON OF FREE WILL,
This universal possibility, this universal
necessity of moral choice is what the doc
tors of theology mean when they talk
about free will Now, the lesson of free
will is the lesson of human responsibility.
For think of it. This is the way it runs,
like demonstration in geometryi We must
choose masters; we may choose whatever
master we will; the sort Of life we lead, the
sort Of man or woman we are, depends upon
that choics, and we are responsible for it. 1t
is terrible truth. But there is no getting
away from it. True it is. We are in
evitably and absolutely responsible.
These three truths: the inevitability Of
service, the Inevitability of choice, and per-
sOnal responsibility for choice, go straight
on logically into fourth truth: the duty of
choosing the service of the best master.
The beautiful and familiar story Of ST.
Christopher is a symbol of the right fulfill
ing of this duty. You remember how that
good man, before his name was either
"Saint" or christopher, was stirred at
heartily great desire to serve the strongest.
He wanted to put his great strength at the
service of the very best master in the world.
And so he chose, you remember, the most
powerful noble of his native country, and
served him. But one day, riding in this
mobiles train, they passed a splendid COM
pany of knights and gentlemen, and among
them one dressed in gorgeous raiment, to
whom all paid reverence, and before whom,
as they met, the noble humbly barred his
head. And to the giants question the noble
answered, .fThat is the King" So Christie
pher had found greater than his master.
He left the noble and entered the service of
the King.
A GREATER THAN THE KING.
But one night, passing through q gloomy
forest, thunder muttering in the distance,
black sky above, broken by ftful CLEANS of
lightning, the wind signing strangely in the
branches, the King seemed troubled. He
looked from right to Left he hurried his
horse and several times made the sign of the
cross upon his breast And when Chris
topher made bold to question him he an
swered that he was dreadfully afraid Of the
the King. Therefore Christopher sought
diligently to serve the devil.
But upon another gusty night, as he rode
in Satan's company, Christopher noticed
that the devil made a very long detour,
going four or five miles off the main road,
with the intention of avoiding a certain
spot where four ways met. And when
the strong man looked there stood
by the roadside, beneath the shelter of a
rude shrine of wood, a figure Of One with
thorns about His head and nails piercing
His hands and feet, hanging on a cross. The
devil was afraid of anything which remind
ed him of Him who hung upon the cross
So at last, going thus from master to master,
seeking the strongest, Christopher came to
Christ, and found no greater than he, ever.
That beautiful old story is symbol, say,
of the duty Of the choice Of service. Choose
the strongest.
Ii wealth and strength are strongest, and
YOU can discover nothing better in this hu-
man life, choose them. Devote yourself to
making money. Do not give thought to
any other purpose in the world. But first,
be very sure that you are right If to be
great, to have position, to be much thought
Of in the world Of politics, or commerce, or
letters, or science, or society, to be king
among men, to be q queen among women
If there is no worthier service 81
IN THIS HUMAN LIFE
nothing better to aim at or try after, then
choose that. Give yourself to that unceas-
ingiy. Whatsoever man soweth that shall
he also reap. If that is just the harvest
which you want, do the right sort Of sowing,
and do it diligently, add you will reap. You
will have your reward-such as it is. Is il
the best that one can have, or long for7 Be
very sure of that If the spirit of sin can
make your life the happiest, can make you
most permanently successful in this world
and the next, choose that. Whoever serves