Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-17
Sunday Morning Talk.
A Man and His Foes.

Our text this morning is from the gospel
according to Roosevelt as found in his re-
cent Thanksgiving proclamation. where he
remarked THE foes from whom we should
pray to be delivered are our own passions
appetites and follies, and against these
there is always need that we should war
Pretty plain talk this from a man who
peheves in ironclads in foot ball and in the
manly art of self-defense, as well as in the
vigorous defense of the nations honor
whenever imperiled
De you know where your biggest foes
live? Perhaps you have thought that the
man whe has pursued YOU so relentlessly
all these years who played you a mean
trick the othsr day, who is underta king to
Dust you from YOUR position, who has de-
signs upons your most cherished interests.
Is your greatest enemy. Not so. Or per-
maps you think that you have enemies.
GU nave maintained peace with all your
Fellows by observing all the amenities of
life, BY carefully avoiding treading on any
one toes. Oh no, you have no enemy.
everybody wishes you well. All but YOU
too mistaken.
With the X-ray of imagination look with
In your own breast and see the passions
appetites and follies" which there reside
Note the Impulses to impurity greed ex-
travaganee, back-biting, -sloth seIfishness.
II you do not realize the deadliness of these
loes II is because you are only, half awake
iAioi sbiIy. Iii Tie TOlu CH60lOGlGS all these
foes to the better life were brought to-
gether ia one conception. that of a per-
sonaI devil We may think we have out
grown this notion, but we ought not to
throw away the idea for which it stands.
The theory of a personal devil is a good
working hypothesis or, at any rate, a good
fighting hypothesis.
We are all engaged in a struggle to root
out the beast that is in us and to establish
ourselves in ways of decency and honor.
Some Of us are fighting this battle inter-
mittently and languidly, some of us persis-
tently and VIGOROUSLY But that the bat
lie Is on, that the foes are at hand and
that they are foes not from without but
OF our own household we ought to see One
night Martin Luther wax awakened by the
sound of scratching in his room. He
thought it was mouse. lit his candle and
hunted about until all of sudden it burst
upon him that this might be his old foe,
"oh. it is you is it?' blew out his candle
and went peaceably to bed, not to be dis
turbed again until morning.
When we locate our foes we have taken
the first step toward conQuering them and
II We really know what our besetting
faults are We can begin to level our guns
at them. AS Gen. Grant used to say II
am not SO anxious to know where the
where am going to strike. And SO If we
know we are likely to eat too much or
drink too much or to say something one
moment the memory of which half an
hour later will dissolve US In tears, or If
we know that we are penurious and mean,
OF extravagant and vain, or inclined to
sloth and procrastination or disposed to
speak evil of our brother, we can, because
of this definite knowledge aim straight at
one or another of these beseting faults and
keep up the attack long enough day in
and day out, until we gain the victory
And 1t is well also to remember that al
most every vice represents an excess of vir-
tue. Your boy, for example, is boisterous
and misunderstanding. Why not harness
the energy, which is the real source of these
outbursts and which in itself Is commend
able, to some useful tasks? You would
not have your boy any less lively. Your
problem is to give him something to do on
which he can expend his energy without
doing any one else any harm and with a
possible outcome, too, in the direction of
helping others.
And yet, one would not like to prosecute
the fight for character, relying solely
his own energies. That would leave the
issue of the battle in doubt. We never
can vanquish these inward foes until we lay
hold of the help from above. This is just
as real as the aid to the mountan-climber
from his guide further up the slope. Null
titudes of men through the centuries testify
that this divine help has supplemented their
own weak strivings and lifted them to noble
living All you need to do is to test it
yourself THE PARSON.