Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-07
MUST A YOUNG MAN
 SOW WILD OATS? Central Baptist Pastor Answered the Question at Sunday Evening Service.

At the Sunday evening service at the Central Baptist church the pastor, Rev. Joel B. Slocum, D. D., preached the final in the series of four special sermons on topics of everyday interest. The attendance at the service was large. Rev. Dr. Slocum took for his text Gal. 6: I, Whatsoer a man soweth, the sermon was Must a Young Man Sow Wild Oats? In part, Rev. Dr. SEocum spoke as follows:
 It is astonishing how many people there are living in the world that still think that he must And one of the discouraging things about it is that that old moss-grown notion is not confined to the young men themselves who SOW the wild oats. There are a lot of other people who also think he must.
 Before attempting to answer this question, let US look for a moment at the statement made by Paul in his letter to the Galatians-the statement have chosen for our text: "Wflatso ever man soweth, that also shall he reap"
 There is laid down in that sentence law of life so inf1exible and so uni- verSal that even God Himself could not change it without changing the whole order of His physical, moral and spiritual government in the world and in the universe.
 There is room for variation in the quality of the ilarvests that come from the sowings, but absolutely no room for a difference of kinds. The kernel of wheat will reproduce its kind for a million of years and then for another million; and though there will un- doubtedly be some difference sts to the abundance of the yield and as to the quality of the harvest, due to soil or season or human care, still it will be forever and ever until the end of time wheat kernel that will be repro duced. Not even God Himself could make a kernel of wheat over into a kernel of corn simply by the ordinary process of planting and reproduction. He does not perform that kind of mir acles with kernels of wheat. Jesus raised the question: Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistIes 9 It was a rhetorical question. Every body knew when they heard Him ask it that for the sake Of emphasis he had asked what could be answered in only one way. Certainly men gather figs from figs and thistles from this- ties. It is the simple statement of a universal law.
 in the physical realm. It is equally true that whatsoever man sowS in the moral and spiritual life will produce a harvest in kind-the exact kind that he sows.
 Coming back now to the question of the evening. let me ask again in the light of that which we have just been talking about: Must young man SOW wilG oats?" Well, if he must, he must expect to reap wild oats. Wild oats will not produce anything else than wild oats. They certainly will not be tame oats.
 It resolves itself, then. to a ques- tion as to whether he is willing to meet the consequences of his sowing.
 And that is precisely where the trouble comes. There are so many people who do not worry at all about consequences; who laugh at the very idea of consequences, and who say: Do not talk to us about conse- quences; time enough when we get to them There is q very widespread impression that. somehow a person will time arrives. They know that other people frequently are called upon to suffer, but as for them, they will es- cape. But the apostle is memorable in the principle Whatsoever a man
 sows;" that is infaIlable; and he might just as well have said whosoever does the sowing. The law as to the person is just as absolute as the law as to the thing. But the question of meeting the consequence Is not the only question There is also the question of putting marks on the soul. >~
 When a man starts out in the wild oats business he puts himself in line with the forces that work for the un- doing of his soul. It is a well known fact that if the cultivated species o1 things are left to themselves they will revert to the wild species. The beau- | tiful American Beauty if neglected would come to a mere wild rose of the ordinary sort. When a man begins to SOW wild oats he automatically stops cultivating the better, the best things Luther Burbank took Q spineless cactus of Central America and grafted it into a spine cactus that grows in New Mexico and produced a cactus 1 that is not only spineless but useful l for food. In that case the good was 1 strong enough to supplant the pa6 and to assume control When youne man sows wild oats he commits him self to the program of the worst that 1 is in him and it will not be long un- less he changes his program before the evil will have the ascendency. Someone has said: Hell is simply sin gone to seed" And it is equally true that heaven is righteousness brought to its elimination It is sim. l ply a question as to which direction Lone wishes to travel. I presume there are places in the 1 Niagara river above. the falls @where boating would be cOYT1Tara lively safe