East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-10-16
PRESBYTERIAN
SUNDAY SERMON
F.. ]. Mines. Pastor. 1909 e. Court
Street. Tel. 544.

f. ]. Mines. Pastor, 1909 e. Court
Street. Tel. 544
Theme: Personal Responsibility.
Text: EVERY man shall bear his
own burden" Gal. 6:4-5.
The burden" referred to Is that
of a personal responsibility. This
rests upon every man for his every
talent and power to serve. Every
man is held strictly accountable for
the use he makes of his time talent,
money and influence. l was told by
one of the managers of great jewell
ry store in Chicago that trained and
expert eye was upon every customer
who came into the store from the
time he entered until he went out;
that the jewels which the clerks threw
out upon the counters in apparent
carelessnesS before the prospective
purchasers were likewise watched. so
the er-watchful eye of God Is up
on our every opportunity and every
jewel of talent or ability to serve and
we are held responsible for what we
do with them. Our wealth is not our
own 1t belongs to the society which
gave it birth. Our very lives are
merely granted to us by way of
compact of sacred trust. And only
as we realize our responsibility for
the proper use of all that we have
we are true citizens of the state and
children of God Let us consider
some things which tend to destroy
our sense of responsibility, and the
serious consequences of such de-
struction.
First, the philosophy of fatalsm
tends to- relieve the individual of this
sense Much of our modern science,
so-called. teaches that we are the
victims of necessity. one writer says:
"The first and perhaps the great les
son of heredity is that the individ-
ual is much less the arbiter of his
own destines than his pride would
have him believe" And a popular
novelist, after describing the crime Of
an atrocious villain. adds this fatal
sophistry: "Thc blind leading that is
seen here of passion by accident is
seen everywhere jhat great tragedies
are done. It is not the evil in mans
heart so much as the deep perfdy
crime" Passion by accident"
"Perfidy of circumstancew These are
to explain the commission of crimes
and bear the weight Of guilt, The
teachings of this philosophy are fatal
to manhood and character and dan
gerous to OUT country and TO our civ
ilization. 1t has sapped the grandeur
of the Far East and just now Is
threatening to undermine that per-
sonal sense of accountability which
has made the western peoples the SUI
perior races of mankind Wherever
the doctrines Of fatalsm has obtain
ed, there moral fiber character and
manhood has declined. Yet this vi
cious teaching OF paganism Is quite
the fashion is our modern theater.
That play which can depict set of
circumstances wherein virtue must
be sacrificed in order to save life or
avoid some other calamity of terrible
proper .ions-these abnormal and dis
torted situations of the imagination
ara destructive to the sense of per-
sonal accountability as they are a
vicious menace to the moral charac-
| ter of our youth. This is not con-
| demning the theater per sc but the
devilish doctrine of fatalism.
Second. the Catholic religion is not
| free from this tendency to relieve the
| individual of responsibility. a states
man of our time has recently called
our attention to the fact that every
where that the Catholic religion ha;
held complete sway, there Is a de
caying civilization" 1t is so in Eu
rope and it is so in South America
This is simply a reference to histor.
as an illustration of our theme ant
not a hostile criticism of the Catholic
religion. For the Catholic religion
has many things commendable am
some features Of superiority to ou
own professionalism. But the explain
, alton of the above historical fact lie
in the one fatal weakness embodie,
by catholicism. The church doe
, your thinking for you, announce
excathedra just what you must be
lieve, assumes the burden of you
SHIN a word, the priest shoulder
your personal responsibility. Thi