Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-08-25
"WKO ARE SONS OF GOD"
Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Kew.
Robert A. MaCFadden.
-Four Sources Of Success are Blood, Will Of
the Flesh, viii Of Man and God.

terian Church. In the morning his subject
was "Who Are the Sons of God!" lie
said:
Ny subject is "Nho Are the Sons Of
God?" and my text John i: 10: (which
were born not of blood, or of the viii Of
the flesh or of the will of man but OF God
Here are four sources of success set in
contrast-blood, will of the flesh,. will of
man and God. At first sight they are
equal; but second sight reveals the war
fap that ever goes on between heredlty
and environment on the one hand and
fadyh in God on the other. This contrast
implies, though does not state, that the
one true success is spiritual success, and
for this a secret power is to be furnished.
Power in life means all the way through
to the final, victory over difficulties, and
difficulties cannot be ultimately overcome
except through this secret power.
Every life lived and every work done has
somewhere its sufficient explanation. God
has never yet permitted an accident III
His world Every deed has its pedigree
So much producing encrg:' in the cause
means SO much energy in the effect. There
is no such thing as luck. Every life has
its pedigree. Young men are SO apt to
think chance plays the great part in lie,
SO they wait for their chance. They see
some one do easily the thing he under.
takes, and they leap to the belief that there
is some trick about it. If they only had
The trick they could do it, also. Such
Young men need to be informed. The man
who succeeds to-day in business, scholar
ship or politics succeeds because he knows
how, and he knows how because he ha,
learned how. He who does not know how
is foreordained to failure. There is no
moro important question the young man
can ask himself than how he can prepare
for life as not to be a castaway; not lost
in the next world, but shipwreciied In
this"
For the ratio between what r1al is end
what he can do is a constant ratio. Every
man will have all the power he earns, and
the power that he has will tell, not because
people like it or like him, but because it is
power, and as such can keep itself erect
without being proppcd up by labor union
or held in its place because 1t is somebody s
son.
1t follows, then, that the most. import
ant thing boy can do is to get ready. 1t
is inspiration to know that every ounce OF
ENERGY put into work in the early years Is
SO much distinct guarantee of usefulness In
the adult years. And next to getting
ready, the father should tell his boy that
he must get ready for rough weather. The
boy must learn to handle the boat of his
own experience if he is not to be driven
upon the shadows or into the breakers. As
he meets and masters the difficulties that
beset him getting out OF thu harbor OF the
high school or the college, he is equpplng
himself for the enemies that will assail
hlm on the high seas.
.juIl. then. here points out the possible
WAYS OF getting ready. He asserts that
per- 'lncnt success does not depend upon
blood, will of the flesh, or will of man,
bu' ,oiely upon God. Let me translate
tin, INTO the four Fs: Family, force, fur.
n!shlnGS, faith.
..uhn says first a mans success does not
depend upon his family. Dr. Lyman Alb.
bolt has developed this thought rational.
ly: That no people are great or good SIM
ply because of their ancestry. The great
ness of America does not depend prlmari,,
| " upon its Pilgrim history No one would
| for a moment dispute this with him. But
] desire to emphasize this from the domes'
| tic viewpoint. A mans spiritual success,
says John, does not depend upon his fam
| lily. Then it makes no difference what the
| family, the Bible lays no stress upon here
dity. He who says this does not know the
Bible. The Bible lays great stress upon
heredity. When it writes the life of a
great man it begins with his parents. The
| foundations of one generation are IN all
respects laid in the antecedent generation
| In an important sense the boy begins to
| live when his father begins to live. The
child is the parent continued down into a
! new generation This is science, and it is
good science. But this is Scripture, and 1t
IS good Scripture. Scripture emphasized
heredity long before science was born
Hannah, the mother of Moses; Elizabeth,
Mary, Lois ard Eunice are all magnificent
| monuments. The Christian women who
would duplicate these glorious sons must
first duplicate their matchless mothers
| As believers in the Bible we have an in
terest in heredity 1t is the Gospel expec'
tation that the children grow up bearing
the physical features OF their parents, so
in time they will come to embrace and ex.
emplify the parents faith. That's what
Timothy did, in whom the great apostle
rejoced SO much. Heredity is mighty, but
| let us not think it is almighty. Heredlty
ing else. The children of good parents
take in goodness more easily than the chill
dren of bad parents. The children OF edu
| Gated parents acquire ideas more easily
than those of ignorant parents. The faith
| er, who for five and twenty years has been
saying: Two times two are four, l guess
| III make it fve,' gives to his baby child
| the tendency to make the same multipll'
| cation, but the child must make the choice
before it becomes to him a sin. How
! wish that that great sermon OF Henry
Ward Beeecher on "Heredity Influence
! could be printed as a supplement to our
| courses in ethics That sermon makes
men tremble at what they may bequeath
to their children. But after all, the grace
of God is stronger than the sin OF man
What a man is he chooses to be. Weak
ness, tendency are handed down, but tho
choice is made by the individual himself
Your spiritual success, young man, does
not depend upon your ancestry, your her
edity, your fathers habits, or your family
| John SAYS no man is safe simply because
of his family.
But it does not depend upon your per.
sonal force which is free translation for
the New Testament word "fesh.' 10
stands for the animal man, not necessarily
the bad animal man. 1t means strong
vigorous force in the man himself. Now;
| John says this strong, vigorous force will
| never give a man his spiritual supremacy
Let me illustrate, rather than debate the
proposition. Noah must have had strong
and vigorous will, but it did not insure
! him against drunkenness. Samson had a
| mighty will, but 1t was no match tor the
dark eyes of Delilah. David, what g,or'
| ious career in overcoming obstacles, What
vigor! What power! But in the presence
of his guilty love he was weak and
wretched. The Rev. Arthur Dimmerdae,
in that greatest American novel, ''The
Scarlet Litter" had a mighty will, but he
was lost in the presence Of Hester Prynne.
That great Irishman, greater than any
other, who ruled with a rod of iron; who
took the miserably misunderstood prob.
lem of home rule and lifted it into a cen.
trail place in the worlds thought; who
thrashed the London Times; who wrought
miracles in the House of Commons. and
who lifted William f. Gladstone into the
Office of Prime Minister for the fourth
time; that man, at the zenith OF his pow
er, was discovered to have invaded another
| mans home and was living in a hidden and
illicit way. The people of Great Britain
tore him from his throne, trsnped his
name in the dust, and within three months
he was laid away in his grave with brok'
en- heart. As the Traveller to-day walks by