The Washington times., 1895-04-01
NAN IS HIS OWN MASTER
DR.. Stafford Discussed the Power
and Extent of Free Eill.
He Regards Suicide as One of the Proofs,
However Sad It May Ee. of Mans
Control of Himself.

The Rev. DR.. d. j. stasfords lecture
last night at st. Patrick's Church, was on
MAN as the master OF his own destiny
He asserted that God endowed Adam
with free will and as the absolute master
of his future fnte. Man is so to-day. He
does good to-day, he Goes evil tomorrow,
just as he wills it,
Free will carries with the idea Of human
liberty, and without freedom of action man
would be machine Virtue would have
no personal merit if man were a machine,
any more than a plant is entitled to merit
for it's act OF growing. But in the endow-
ment of man with liberty ofaclion God made
both virtue and vice possibilities.
God gave the first man and all men
passions. In the Garden of Eden man was
uncorrupted as long as his reason, his free
will controlled those passions. To satisfy
an appetite, man made his first appeal to
nature, and indulgence in the passions de
thToned reason. From that day 10 this
the object OF every religion has been 10
bring man back again into his condition
prior to his surrender to the senses and from
that day to this Gods law has been: Thou
shalt not"
God gave us two means by which we
can see the results OF passion. which. in
themselves, are good things. but evil in
their abuse: First. conscience, and next
knowledge OF the punishment that fol-
lows indulgence in sin, such as gambling
mtoxication and impurity, by all of which
man can be degraded to the level OF the
brute. the result sometimes being sui
eide
br Stafford ro,,a rdad e,,icila as ono oP
the proofs, however sad, of the absolute
control of man over his destiny.
Though il be the basest,'' he said,
land the greatest of all crimes, it is yet
an exercise of mans liberty. 1t is the
exercise OF our supreme domination over
ourselves; and while we condemn it, as
we must condemn it, antiquity has given
US some superb examples of those who
took this last resort which, while we pity.
we can not oondone. Cato, Brutus and
Cassius we can pity, but we can not con-
done their sin, even though they did not
understand Gods responsibility to man as
weunderstand il. They did not understand
human right as we understand IL, and with
the power OF the stoics in them they
said, Il hold myself and my life in my
own hands; / VIII no longer live under a
tyrant.' And SO, Cato OF Utica, when there
was TO him no longer free spot in the
world, no honor or ambition To fill his
heart, did what he considered the last act
Of human life.''
AS result of the abuse of the God given
passions, knowledge asks questions ii can
not answer, and the beauties OF the light
of an eye, the grace or form, the smile, the
curl of a lip, which God gave US as instru-
ments OF salvation, we make into instTu
ments of damnation. No man is free from
passion, anchoFite or stole, saint or sinner
and so, the real struggle is 10 subdul
passion by the exercise of will and reason
If man had no passions there would be no
merit in the exercise of virtue. True,
some men are naturally inclined 20 good
but In that case they must be credited only
with a negative virtue.
As the passions are necessity as much
as the free will OF man TO destroy them
because some abuse them would be tC
destroy the harp OF Homer because III
sang of false Gods. Nay, the harp of Homel
| is the harp of David. The passions which
would destroy the world saved man OF
| Calvary. As God, by His liberty, created
! the world He left man. by his liberty, u
make or destroy himself
The supreme test, then, of the dignity
| OF human nature, the solution OF the prob
| lem of man opposed by the passions, liberty
| and passion both being involved In his
nature, is to assert that dignity by declar
| ing, II will"
The sermon made prNgound impression
| on the audience, and was considered il
| many respects the best yet delivered by Or
/ stafford on the subject OF mans destiny
1 As usual hundreds came To the churcl
| and were obliged to return, as there wa
| no room to accommodate them.