The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-23
Dr. Phillips Censures Fashion as Habit That Makes Man
 a Slave.
WE DON'T CARVE DESTINY
He Who Thinks He Does is Far from the TFuth-But One True
 Master.

He began by speaking of the different states of slavery at Rome One of these was that of voluntary slavery. Dr. Phillips said it is the part of every man to be the voluntary slave of God, just as these men at Rome were slaves to their masters.
 Men are apt to think themselves We hear continually such phrases from men as I am the captain of my own soul I carve my own destiny There are those who pity the poor dis ciples of our Lord as they read of them in the Book, because they are said to have been slaves to Christ. Such people as do this only put an unreasonable strain on other peoples patience.
 People are apt to say that the old power, and that their own experiences are their every day rule of conduct have heard of conceited young man who was most in evidence at his mouth. He went to his pastor and told him candidly that he could not believe that which he could not un- derstand Then" said the pastor. your creed will be the shortest ever man had And he went on to show the young man the great number of things he believed in and which he did not understands, things to which he was but a slave.
 "One of the things we are slaves to is doubt Have you never heard of the insanity of doubt? What business man is there but has locked his safe and left his office but to be overcome later with a compelling doubt as to whether that safe was locked or not, such that it would not be set at rest until the business man had gone back to the store and seen for himself
 We are free to choose, yes, but when we choose we become slaves to the habit we choose. And here is the crux of the whole matter What common habits of this nature have we? The first one I might mention is fashion. What woman under mid de life Is there that would care to wear last years hat if the styles have changed at all materially? WlMt man is there who would not take off his comfortable straw hat when the middle of September comes. And why is it? Because fashion dictates that it shall be so.
 "Other habits that man becomes a slave to are fads,' said Dr. Phillips. "Fads come and go One year 1t de- crees bicycles, and all men get them. Another year it decrees automobiles, and men mortgage their homes that they may have them. One would be as we'll as dead as to be out of sym pathy with some of our fads.
 ITO some women their homes are their fads; to some men their busi- ness are their fads, To them these places are not the places where they better themselves, but rather where thy wear themselves out, as creatures of habit, chained down. Ambitions are habits Men bend to them: men are ruled by them. They think of success, money, position, things of the future as being of greater consequence than the things of the present.
 Mans lusts are his habits surely To them he is slave as surely as he Is to anything. There are the lusts that do not make man sensual and gross These include greed for gain, power, possession Then there are the lusts that control men till they lose themselves not only to themselves but to their homes and friends and heav- en as well.
 Do you think you know the power of appetite? Friends, I hate talked with a man who told me that his con trolling master since birth was the de- sire to drink. He never had drank. but he told me that he never passed by a saloon door, where the fumes of the liquor waited out to him that he did not have to quicken his pace: yes, even to run sometimes. so afraid was he that the lifelong desire would get the best of him. Such an appetite is a mans master.
 We blame everyone but ourselves for these forms of slavery We blame circumstances, conditions heredity and environment. But we sell our selves to these things, not looking out destiny in the face and seeing the real value and possibilities of our selves"
 The preacher then drew the inevit- able lesson. He said that the giving in to these habits would mean no per- ceptable difference at first, but the lines of deviation would widen and widen. He told the story of a train engineer who ran over switch which sent him onto a branch track where i he should not be and where he had never been before. The scenes be. came more and more unfamiliar unti finally he stopped at small station and aroused the agent but to find that if he had gone another half mile fllr. ther he would have come to the abrupt end of the branch road where he would have surely brought ahout q wreck"
 Tt is a humiliating thing for a creature made in the image of God to give in to these other unworth, masters. Let Us make no mistake Q Let us read the writing on the wall Let us hear the verdict of history, ot human art and literature. One above is our master and He asks us to he His willing slaves, like the voluntar, slaves of Rome were. He boueb, II, with His blood, but to set us free and we are bound to Him by a debt ot gratitude"