St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-19
BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL.
THERE rs A CONFLICT IN THE HUI
MAN SOUL.
THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

Rev. Mr.. Crothers breaches
Strong Sermon-We Make tho
Laws of Nature Serve Us-That
Which Brings Us Into Har-
mOny With the National Life.
Rev. Samuel M. Crothers. pastor of
Unity church, has the rare and happy
gift of translating the wisdom OF the
ancients into thoughts which are helpful
and encouraging to the present seeker
after truth. His sermon yeste rday;
morning was drawn from the seventh
chapter of the EpiStle to the Romans,
at the twenty-second and twenty third
verses, where st. Paul describes the
conflict between good and evil i'll his
soul-the war between the spiritual and
purely physical forces of his being.
He said: The Letter to the Romans
is one OF the most interesting books of
the New Testament. 1t is very different
from the gospels and the mystical Wis
ions of other parts of the Bible. 1t
contains things hard to understand.
Aside from the miraculous infallibillty
Paul was graphing with funda mental
questions. The argument is rabbin-
zeal, yet strong and fresh today ;.
Paul did not believe that man could do
whatever he willed to do. He specu-
lates upon dark questions of human
life under the shadow of destiny, which
may he fate, but which he feels is the
divine law. Paufs spiritual experience
showed divided allegiance. There
were two PauIs. His whole life was
one grim battle. fought out with him.
self. We have the same idea in Bum
yam, where the man seeking the higher
life takes his course with his guide
book in his hand, but great burden on
his back, which was his fate, his neces-
sity. Paul says his burden was like the
body of dead man, which he had to
carry. The glorious personality of
Jesus came to Paul like a new birth
bringing to him sense of freedom.
He was no longer slave, but son of
God
The moral freedom of life comes to all
of us, not through our escaping from
the memorable law, but in discovering
the higher phases of the law.
We make the laws of nature serve US.
For instance, we see a log at the mouth
of some great river. IL lies helpless in
the current. It lies in one medium
only-the water. 1t goes wherever the
law of the water takes it, along the
strongest currents of the river. Men
take it up and fashion it into a boat.
Still it obeyS the law of the water on
which it lies. He erects a mast and
spreads his sail. 1t ceases to drift, and
sails against the stream. 1t has
found other forces above the water;
but tie man has only transferred him
self from one master to another. How
shall he escape from these two masters,
the water and the wind? He finds that
the water reSiStS the movement of the
wind. At last he learns the principle
of the rudder. Now ne can sail accord
ing to predetermined course of his
own. He has learned how to steer.
Thus we can trace the growth in in
dividual manhood from idle drifting
until he becomes master of his clrcum-
stances. The man who is the slave Of
his circumstances is he who lives in one
element, like the log in the water. So
great multitudeS are living todaY-in
the element of the merely physical life.
Philanthropists call them 1.-THE sub
merged classes" They are creatures
of appetite. helpless in the world, moved
hither and thither by the currents of
the coslnic life. 1t is useless to appeal
TO the ideal or unSelfish in these men.
How shall we elevate the masses? By
ciViliZing the higher life, not by merely
minlstering to their physical wants;
we must spread the sails of the intellect
and the spiritual life. Make them capa-
BILE of self-goverCment. Fhe man de-
voted 20 one thing only, as money get
ting, is not the nobleSt type.
The first work OF the lover Of freedom
is to bring a sense of the higher neces-
sites of life, to kindle in them the
divine discomfort. to disturb their aui
mai content. Whenever any great idea
comes into the world, a certain amount
Of fanaticiSm results. 1t was so in the
early days of Christianity. Charity. SO
the duty Of indiscriminate giving was
taught, with the doctrine that no re-
Sponsibllity lay upon the giver.
The third stage in the spiritual life is
that which brings us into harmony with
the national life. The ideals of the
saints and the facts of science are alike
parts of the law Of the universe. Rea-
son verities the affirmation of the heart.
OuCC llOoC Iluu hSIOSo US1S
admired who were carried OH by inn
pulse, and whose lives were full of trag-
edy. Ignoring the lower necessities, we
come 10 the true self-mastery. Men like
Paul have been convinced of a higher
law through their struggle with the
lower We need the faith that comes
through self-control. molding the uni
verse to one great ideal, and thus we
attain to the higher life.