Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-02-16
THE PULPIT.
SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON RY
THE REV. HERBERT n. MOTT.

\ SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON eY |
THE REV. HERBERT H. MOTT.
Subject: Can Man Do as He Likes:
Boston, Mass The following SER
mon was contributed to The Christian
Register by the Rev. Herbert II. Mott.
1t is entitled "Can Man Do as He
LikeS:" and the text is: "Choose you
this day who you will serve. Joshua
xiv, Is.
Can a man do as he likes?
OF course not! you say. All sorts OF
barriers hedge him round. He would
like to fly as the birds fly, but the
weight of his flesh and bones keeps
plodding along the ground. He is born
poor or stupid; consequently he can
neither buy steam yacht nor set the
Thames on fire, though he would like
dearly to do both The force of public
opinion compels him to don tall silk
hat and a frock coat when he would
much prefer to go about in golf cape
and a shooting jacket. The force of
public law compels him to run his auto
at ten miles an hour when he very
much wishes to spin along joyously at
the rate of thirty. Every man exists
under a set of compulsions. He is
obliged to submit to many limitations,
natural and artificial, and he is COM
PEELED. by pushes and pulls and press
ures he is unable to resist, to do many
things he doesn't want to do.
Nevertheless, in spite of mans alb
ject slavery in certain directions. is
there not some small space, some little
area, in which, instead of being a
slave, he is actually and truly free?
department of life and conduct in
which he can do as he likes?
The old doctrine-the doctrine be-
lieved by our fathers, and by nearly
the whole Of humanity, civilized and
unciviliZed, in every part of the world,
from the beginning of recorded time
was that there is such department Of
life and conduct; that in all vital mat
ters. in all matters that have to do
with the moral quality of life, man
can do as he likes. Our fathers held
| that, whenever we stand at a point
| where two roads diverge, we are able
| to choose, select, determine, which
road to pursue. In such a situation
the casting vote remains with us.
Whenever two or more governments,
leaders, employers claim our allegiance,
we can Choose whom we will serve"
This is true, said our fathers, no mat
ter how severe. the pressure. The
temptation, urgency, force Of circum-
stances, may be so great as to resem-
BILE compulsion. 1t appears as if we
were obliged to take one road rather
than the other. This, said our fathers,
is appearance only. In reality, when
ever two or more alternatives pre-
sent themselves, whenever two roads
open before us, the decision remains
with us. It is with us to say yes or
no, to lift the latch or not to lift it, to
take the left or the right. No matter
how great the pressure brought to
bear on us, in the last resort we can
always choose poverty instead of
riches, captivity instead of freedom,
suffering instead of ease, and instead
of life, rather than yield, if need be,
we can always choose death.
This is the old doctrine, and, al
though it has stood both the test OF
time and the test of experience, there
appears to be, in these days, a widely
spread tendency to ignore it. No one
denies that circumstances exercise q
powerful influence over our lives, bu1
the tendency nowadays is to ascribe
everything to circumstances.
1t is related that the eminent natur
alist, Professor Boulton, placed tht
eggs of caterpillars in differently col
ored boxes, and left them there tt
hatch out, with the remarkable resul
that the eggs in the blue box matched
out into blue caterpillars, those in th,
red box into red, and those in the yel
low box into yellow caterpillars. The.
were, you see the product Of thei
surroundings, they were what the tin
Of their surroundings made them. An'
so, It is declared, are you and 1; w
are what our surroundings and thos
of our ancestors make us. We are th
planes of outside conditions, past am
present.
Here is a man who is an enemy O
society. He preys upon his kind. Hi
, career is divided between debaucher
and other crimes. He is the victim
the helpless victim, of outward circun
stances. we are told. His mother wa
a drunkard, his father was a thie1
, He was reared in the Sums. Wha
can you expect? True, he has been t
a reform school; true, he has bee
helped and aided by various phiia1
, thropic people whom he has merciles!
ly deceived. But he. poor fellow
could not help himself. Like Profe!