The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-24

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ages, but in this we must remember that
we are the children of our own yester-
days.
Conditions of Life
The conditions of life are heredity and
environment, but there is sometimes still
another which for want for better term
we may cal accident. A man may be
the child of very poor parents and his
! surroundings may be of the most squalid
character. He may spend his childhood
/ and his youth SO surrounded and then
there may come to him sudden wealth.
Neither. his inheritance nor his surround
ings prepared him for this new posses
sion, and unless he has made out of
! himself a being capable of using this
wealth the certainty is that it will prove
to him a source of utter evil. Heredity
and environment do not make life, they
are the materials under which life must
be lived. To each man is given his own
life, and 1t is In a measure unlike that
Of his parents. He must take the con-
ditions and out of them make a life for
himself, good or evil according to the
use to which he puts himself Around
the man and within his reach are those
things which his life lays hold of, and out
of which his life is made.
Take a man like Burns. He was a
poet The poet in him was the great
thing in his life. Such a man could take
a field mouse turned up by the plow-
share and make it poetic He did not
have to write poetry. 1t was not in the
ls1f us,,I,c > Ii
thought of his associates. lie might
have said, "Why try to do this Can |
not do better by sticking to the plow?"
And so he might have done as many
another has done, claimed that lack of
opportunity, lack of proper training and
proper surrounding was the excuse for
the burying of a great talent
Talks of Environment.
| We talk a great deal about environ
ment and it Is force but it does not
make man on the other hand a man
makes it. We must never lose sight of
the fact that man is the maker of both
himself and his surroundings His sur
roundings really express him. Take two
small colonies of men and let each colo
ny be grape growers. One set may mar
ket large portion of their fruit and
prosper; the other may make wine of a
go to the dogs. In a very little while the
colonies will present entirely different as
poets, but 1t is not to be forgotten that
the colonists have made the conditions
under which they live. They are express
ing themselves. 1t is not what some others
have done or what conditions have
brought about that has prospered the
one and ruined the other; they are sim
ply inheriting from themselves, they are
reaping in results what they have been
sowing in acts.
1t is almost impossible for men to realize
that the moral law is as infiexible as the
laws of nature. Our reason .or this, per-
haps, Is that men have COMPOUNDED the
idea of mans being pardoned for his
sins, with the motive that such pardon
carries with 1t such a complete removal
ton of life that the part is as though
q had not been. So far as mans rela-
ton to God is concerned that is true,
but not true in reference to the mans
relation to himself. The pardoned MUIR
derer Is free from the penalty of the
law, and as far as the law is concerned
the man is a free man and for that
crime cannot suffer legal punishment. but
the fact that he has killed his fellow
man remains forever a fact. Murderous
desires may be taken away from him,
but the murder is thing he inherits
for himself and he must carry that with
him for all time.
| sec
the certainty and the inflexibility of the
moral law Is that heterogeneous upon 1t
do not show themselves Immediately upon
the character. man puts his hand into
the fire and he is Immediately burned. He
goes out into very severe cold and be-
fore he knows what Is taking place his
hand is frost bitten. Men know these
things and act upon the knowledge. They
do not, however, realize that the telling
of a lie produces just as immediate eff
feet upon character because neither they
nor those about them see the effect.
Sowing and Reaping.
Those words of the Apostle Paul are
tremendously significant, and of the
greatest value If we will only take them
to heart. In the days when people ex-
posed their children to certain diseases
which they regarded as inseparable from
childhood a great number of children
died and many, of course, survived We
de not so expose our children today A
man is not physically stronger for hav-
ing had some illness. he is physically
| weaker. The scar of the disease, though
Invisible it is. is for all that in the con-
| stitution of the man, and the old wound
is weak place that must be watched
The sowing and the reaping live really
! inseparable. You cannot do one thing
| today and be another thing tomorrow. Let
| us take this then as regulating prin-
| cipe of our conduct. IT should come to
us as a warning. and beget In us a noble
| fear of wrong doing.
| 1t comes to us, too, if we will so use
it, as an inspiration to duty. The SOW
| ing will mean a reaping If there Is a
sowing to the flesh, that reaps corruption,
| we are assured that there IS sowing to
the spirit that reaps eternal life. BE not
| deceived God Is not mocked." We cannot
| pla.- fast and loose with our character.
"God is not mocked." He is the law;
81 1fr--f1 ia In
| life. We cannot escape it, nor should
| we desire to do so. 1t is given US not