The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-25
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

The line between liberty ana respon' sibility Is dificult for untrained vision to discern. Children and immature adults wonder why they cannot do as they please. T will do as please. says the headstrong person; yes. he may. If he lives alone on . desert isl. and. But once let 6 neighbor draw nigh and he can no longer please him self Relationships create responsioil' Ities. It Is impossible to dwell in hu. man society without some saerifce Of individuality. There must be mutual concessions and adaptation wnere men live together. One mans riEhta must terminate where snother'a begin. Most of the talk that we hear now concern. Ing personal liberty" is needless oi this basic principle, Personal liberty must ever be subordinate to community welfare
 That truth Is recgnised in PataEouia and on the Congo. as well as In the most highly organized civilization in the world. There ia even a higher law than this. however. Social welfare ah rogates many personal liberties but there Is a loftier plane erected by the apostle Paul In this lesson. Let no man seek his own. but his neighbor's good" Instead of Joking out for num- Der one he looks out for number two This means 6 tremendous stride away from selfish indivtdualism. Whan men seek the welfare of their neighbors above that of themselves. thav are creating something wondrnusly lik" unto Utopia or the Kingdom of Hea. ven. Yet nothing less than this fuldlis the higher law of Christ.
 An Ancient Problem.
 Over in China Christian converts are very much concerned about the so- called worship of ancestors. They hal Y.nPA and him alone. yet veneration for their ancestors is deeply inwrought in their consciousness. They can see clearly that the issue is drawn between Budd- hist and Taoist idois and Christian worship; but the question of ancestors lead them Into fog. Some missionaries advocate that the veneration of ances- tors be not regarded as worship. but that 1t he accepted as sntirelya proper in a Christian.
 Somewhat similar to this present t-aay Chinese perplexity was that which be- set the Christians of Corinth. to whom Paul wrote this letter. We have to put ourselves back very far from our present Christian civilization to ap- preciate their difficult positioH& These Christians lived in heather cofnmuni- ties. The wofship of idols was bound up with all the social life and customs of their time. The meat that was of. fered for sale in the market place had In most cases been first presented to an idol This taint of idoIatry dis turbed some sensitive conscience. They did not want to make even that much compromise with heathendom. It seem. ed to them. in their religious fasttd- lousness, that there should be taid down a code of regulations to govern all these practices.
 Man-Made Sins.
 This type of man, which seeks Q re- ligion of rules and regulations. Is very common. We have 1t today. The ten dency to tag little man-made sins Is q prevalent one. It has its root in the | same self-cOnsciousness and weakness of conscience which appealed iron | Corinth to Paul to make a ruling on | the question of food that had been of- fered to idols.
 With his wide vision. Paul saw that this would be burde nsoms. He even went beyond the instructions of the other apostles at Jerusalem. His larg CT experiences and deeper discernmen, | of Christ'S teachings showed him thai 1t would be laying upon tue converts burdens too grievous 70 be borne to rA | quire them to accept an intricate scheme of peccadilloes. Other religion: | nave not escaped this snare. Buddhist | for instance, is an elaborate system 1f requirements which It Is impossible for any person to fulfill and still retaiT the normal relationships of' society s'aul did not believe In that asceti' | type of religion which would witndra a men from their kind. He did not wan to see a class of Christian Pharisees developed, like unto those who hat
 terited the scorn of Jesus. Christian tty is not a code of conduct; 1t iS | Jig. all-embracing principle Of life which may be adapted to any eondi l dons.
 The Law of Liberty
 Fearlessly. and In the face of apoS
 olic instructions as well as of all tra
 lition, Paul snuncIated the truth O
 Christian liberty. For freedom dit
 'hrist set men free. Their obligation
 him alone and their liberty 60 sarv'
 i'm in the ways that he would mak'
 ain to them individually was supreme
 iongside of this no lther mans scrD
 es could stand for a minute. rh'
 inciple of Christian liberty Is greRta .han any detail of practice. Upop thi