The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-30
Preached at the First Methodist
 Church Last Night
ESPECIALLY TO YOUNG MEN
Gods Commandments Given not Be. cause He has Power, but Be- cause Obedience to Laws
 Is Necessary.

hear the conclusion of the whole mat ter Fear God and keep his command ments, for this is the whole duty of man"
 He said in part:
 For some weeks we have been trying to study some of the great problems of life in order to learn to live that life in the best possible fashion. As well as we could we have looked at sources of hu- man wisdom and of human strength. We have seen how the young man because he is young man has peculiar temptations; and we have seen how also because he Is a young man he has especial endow- ments of strength We have tried to learn something of the effects upon him of his companions of his reading, of his amusements, and of ideals. As we sum it all up and try to find some one thing toward which these separate things con verge, and which gives him meaning, where can we better Ind it than in these words of the text: Fear God and keep His commandments.
 The writer of these words has been going over lifer sometimes with tremend- out depth of insight, sometimes with 9 bitter cynicsm that cuts like a whip lash He is evidently a man who knows life and realizes that the determining element in satisfaction in life after all is not what man has, but what he is. Hence, he tells us that this is the one essential thing, honor God, aeknowl- sod fo His life That whatever else we may or may not have, life is fragmentary thing unless God be given the first place.
 This satisfies mans deepest desires. The cry of humanity in all ages has been that of David: My soul is athirst for God" Men have sought to know Him because they have felt that only then could they know the meaning of life. The man who even appears to have some new word of God to give out, will always have following This simply shows that deep down in the human heart there is a feeling that this writer in Eccles- tastes is right, that the fear of God is the summing up of every duty of life,
 What Duty Means.
 Indeed it Is only here that word duty gets it's supreme right to exist. Duty is what we owe. Now take out God, and all that has come to the world through the teachings of the worlds greatest thinkers concerning God, and add to this what the greatest of all teachers has given us, and what do we know of duty? Indeed can there be any duty unless there be some one to whom something is due? If am only a creature of day and you are as ephemeral as l. can l really owe you anything. is there such thing as duty? Is it not rather my duty to set for the little handful I call my own all that I possibly can get, even though 1t mean the sacrificing of you and the hand ful you call your own? Would not SUI preme selhshness instead of supreme sac rifice be the expression of the highest life if there were no God whose father hood made the brotherhood of man reality? The very idea of such brother hood is born of the idea of the father hood
 The commandments of God are given to us not because He has the power to make laws but because only by oped- fence to these laws is it possible for us to develop the highest manhood. The Master in laying down His law Of dis ciplineship appears at first to be harsh. He says except a man deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me- he cannot be my disciple" In this He is only telling us what every diseipieship tells Us. If you would be a successful business man, you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow that business with unremittng toll. It is the same thing in every profession. To be a disciple of another person or of another thing you must deny yourself and fol low the demands of that person or of that thing.
 Why Commandments are Given.
 In the same way the commandments of God are simply the expression of those truths which are essential to the deyel- opment of the highest manhood. Gods laws for human conduct are no more arbitrary than are his laws for govern ing the movements of material things in the world about us. The law of gravity is not an act promulgated by one who had power to make laws, but is sim pie solution of a problem that only a God could solve; having brought a uni verse into existence how to keep each atom in it so related to each other atom that there would be no clashing, but miitllal helpfulness
 So the laws of God or commandments as we have been accustomed to call them are not given because He is God and caii give, but because we are men and need just such laws to help us to realize the highest manhood. If We take these words to mean what are called the ten commandments we find in them a summary of duty that is very compre- hensiVe. If we reduce them, and with them all else that can be called law of God to man. to the two to which the Master reduced them to love God with all the heart and ones neighbor as one's $ self then we can easily see how no duty can lie outside of this, and how life can not possibly find an expression that is higher or more satisfying than this will bring. Love to God brings a man satis- faction in his inward life. He loves the highest the best and the highest and best in him is thus where it should be, the ruler of his life. If. he loves his neigh hor then his human relations bring him pleasure rather than pain, and life itself irrespective of the things he owns, or the