The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-09-14
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED;
..WHO ARE SONS OF CCD7"
THE Rev. Robert A. MacFadden Declares
That the Four Sources of Success Are
Blood, Will of the Flesh, Will OF Man
and God

Lib tne our SOuTCeS OF SUCCESS are
Blood, Will OF the Flesh. Will OF Man
and God.
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-The Rev. Robert A.
MacFadden. Of Danvers, Mass, preached
Sunday in the Lafayette Avenue Presby-
terrain Church. In the morning his subject
was "Who Are the Sons of God?" He
said:
My subject is "Who Are the Sons of
God?' and my text John j: Is: (Which
were born not of blood, or of the will of
the flesh or of the will of man but of God"
Here are four sources of success set in
eortrast-blood, will OF the flesh, will OF
man and God. At first sight they are
equal; but a second sight reveals the war
fare that ever goes on between heredity
and environment on the one hand and
faith 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, a 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 in
His world. Every deed has its pedigree.
So much producing energy 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 life,
so they wait for their chance. They see
some one do easily the thing he under
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 has
learned how. He who does not know how
is foreordained to failure. There is no
more important question the young man
can ask himself than how he can prepare
for life as not to be a castaway; mot lost
in the next world, but shipWrecked in
this"
For the ratio between what a man is and
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 propped up by a labor union
or held in its place because it is somebody's
son.
1t follows, then, that the most import
ant thing a boy can do is to get ready. 1t
is inspiration to know that every ounce of
energy put irto work in the early years IS
80 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 the harbor of the
high school or the college, he is eqr ;pping
himself for the enemies that will assail
him on the high seas.
John, then, here points out the possible
ways of getting ready. He asserts that
permanent success does not depend upon
blood, will of the flesh, or will of man,
but solely upon God. Let me translate
this into the four Fs: Family, force, fur
nishings, faith.
John 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
ly 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 it
is good Scripture. Scripture emphasized
heredity long before science was born.
Hannah, the mother of Moses; Elizabeth,
Mary, Lois and 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 IN 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
rejoiccd so much. Heredity is mighty, but
let us not think it is almighty. Heredity
gives us tendency. but it gives us moth
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 10 make the same multiph-
cation, but the child I4ust make the choice
before it becomes to him a sin. How L
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 the
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 a free translation Tor
the New Testament word "fesh." 1t
stands for the animal man, not necessarily
the bad animal man. 1t means a strong,
vigorous force in the man himself. Now,
John says this strong, vigorous force will
never give q man his spiritual supremacy.
Let me illustrate, rather than debate, the
proposition. Noah must have had a strong
and vigorous will, but it did not insure
him against drunkenness. Samson had a
mighty will, but it was no match for the
dark eyes Of Delilah. David, what 4 glcr-
ious career in overcoming obstacles! What
vigor! What power!. But in tie presence
OF his guilty love be was weak and
wretched. The Rev. Arthur Dimncrdalc,
in that greatest American novel. "The
Scarlet Letter." had q mighty viii, brit be
was lost in the presence of Hester Pryn1e.
That great Irishman, greater than any
other, who ruled with a rod of iron; who
took the miserably misunderstood prob
Ian, Of hnmn mile and lifted IL into q CEN