The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-18

heavens, lassoed electricity, which Morse
trained for a message carrier. George
Stephenson harnessed steam into block
traces and made the iron locomotive take
the bit, Daguerre has made the sun
print our pictures. Robert Fulton point
ed the ships prov into the teeth of the
northeast wind. Thomas Edison has
turned midnight into midnoon. Yes, man,
in a material sense is king. As the
psalmst sang OF the great Jehovah: HE
covereth himself with light as with
garment He layeth the beams of his
chambers in the waters. lie maketh the
clouds his chariots. He walketh upon
the wings of the wind"
Not only is man a ruler In material
sense; he is also a king in a personal
sense. He has absolute control over his
own actions. He Is a free agent. God
endowed him with this freedom warning
him Of the consequences of using 1t to do
wrong. Yet how have men abused 1t!
1t is as when a boy leaves his father
house and goes out into the world. His
father might keep him at home under
parental restraint. but that would not be
the way to make man of him. He
must go out and learn to resist tempta-
ton. Sometimes he learns only by bitter
experience what are the consequences of
yielding. So God left man free, and the
first use he made of his freedom was to
disobey. God says to him: Man. you
are free agent. You can do as you
will / have made the ruler over tho
beasts Of the fields and over the birds of
the air and the fish of the sea, and also
over your own actions. You are made
after my image You are an Independent
being in your own domain or sphere. You
are independent as long as you live on
earth, but do not forget that there Is n
day of judgment"
A Free Agent.
oh, It is an awful fact for a man to
be q free agent. 1t is an awful respon-
sibility for man to be able to do as he
would and that the higher power does
not interfere to stop him from doing
wrong. The other day 1 was talking to
one OF the ministers of the west. Dur
ing our conversation he told me that
years ago he had broken down with ner-
vous prostraton. For nearly five years
he had suffered the tortures of an in
ferno. All night long he would have
strange apparitions come to him. And
one evening"" he said, II was going home.
1t was winter. The ricer, along the banks
OF which l was walking, was full of
ice And / remember how | looked at
those flowing waters and said There Is
peace in that water; there Is peace from
these troubling Dreams" Then he said:
mo sooner did ! say this than my very
hair stood up in horror. My God
said, Am 1 going to be untrue to my
better self? Am | going to drown my
self in yonder river and leave my wife
and children to battle with the world
aloneY / knew that only one step more
and / would have been helpless amid
yonder merciless ice and flowing wa
ters" As that man had the power to
throw himself into that river, so we
have the uower to destroy ourselves NOR
ally, physically and spiritually, IL we
will. God made us all free agents. In
our own domain we are kings. We can
leap off the precipice Of sin II we will.
God has made us in his own image. We
are born free agents and can do as we
choose but for what We do we must
give account to God.
Not Without Guidance.
But, though God has made us free
agents. he has not left US without guild
ance. He has put within each one OF us
a moral and spiritual compass This
moral and spiritual compass is called con-
science 1t tells US what we ought to do.
1t distinguishes for US the difference
between wrong and right. And, like
every other compass, 1t would keep us
off the rocks of evil and guide us into
channels of Justice and purity and truth.
God puts within each one of US a moral
and spiritual compass which shows US
when we do wrong, for we are made
after Gods image. Therefore God has
given to us the means to be just and
true and good. as he is just and pure
and true and good.
But, alas, alas. Instead of following the
Ieadings OF our conscience we have wan
dered off into the paths Of sin. we have