The Penn's Grove record., 1904-08-26

0ASOAg ~ " AC 8ACeAs VI 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 Cod?" He
said:
Ny subject is "Who Are the Sons Of
God" and my text John i: I3: (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, win 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 docs not state, that the
one true success is spiritual success. and
tor 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.
80 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
takes, and they leap to the belief that there
IS some trick about it. Ii 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 mas
learned how He mho 1Oos DoA l-nau- -
is foreordained to failure. There is no
more important question the young nan
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 u 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 OF 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 TITO work IN the early years is
SO much distinct guarantee Of usefulness in
the adult years. And next to getting
ASoNT, N1C IdtLCI EuOulQ lGll HIS UDN I0aL
he must get ready for rough weather. The
boy must learn to handle the boat of his
W experience If he is not to be driven
upon the shadows or into the 5reakers. As
he meets and masters tie difficulties that
beset him getting out of the harbor of the
high school or the college, he is ~equipping
himself for the enemies that will assail
hin 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.
joan says first a mans success does not
depend upon his family. DR.. Lyman Alb
bott has developed this thought rational
"; mat no people are great Or good sim
ply because OF their ancestry. "The great
ness of America does not depend primari-
ly upon its Pilgrim history" No one would
tor a moment dispute this with him. But
L 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 o n 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-
empify the parents faith. That's what
Timothy did, in whom the great apostle
rejoiced 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: 1.-Two times two are four, [ guess
I'll make it FIVE" gives to his baby child
the tendency to make the same multipli-
cation, but the child must make the choice
before it becomes to hin 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 hequeath
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
edity, your fathers habits, or your family.
John say no man is safe simply because
Of his family.
But it does not depend upon your per-
sonal force, which is a free translation for
the New Testament word flesh" 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 a man his spiritual supremacy.
Let me illustrate, rather than debate, the
proposition. Noah must have had a strong
and vigorous viii, but it did not insure
him against drunkenness. Samson had a
mighty will, but it was 10 match for the
dark eyes of Delilah. David, what a glor-
lous career IN overcoming obstacles! What
vigorl What poweri But in the presence
OF MS guilty. love lie was weak ana
wretched. The Rev. Arthur Dimmerdale,
in that greatest American novel, THE
Scarlet Letter" had a mighty viii, but he
was lost in the presence of Hester Prynne.
That great freshman, 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 E. 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, trampled his
name in the dust, and within three months
he was laid away in his grave with a brok-
en- heart. As the traveller to-day walks by
an unmarked grave in the Mt. Joy Gene
terry of Dublin, he says; No, Mr.. Par
nell, a mighty will does not make every
great man safe" What shall fathers tell
their boys? That a weak viii is the better
for them? Nay, verify. Great force is to
the boy what momentum is to the rife