Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-01
SARAH d. LOWRLE,S
SSA7URDAY EVENING TALK
Lost Child in the City Was Like Bmdened Soul
&NN Cropping for Freedom.

said - show up people for nil they are
worth.
I remember once riding In n street
car with n man whose business it was
to be learned in the matter Of phre.
no'csy and rhvsirgnomy and their re-
lation to the traits Of mind. One BY
one he called of the characters OF
the persons opposite in whispered de-
$riptive words mean, cross, gen.
erous, obstinate, hendlong. cunning.
quick on the uptakc, methcdicnl, per.
verted. Maternal And once seeing
what he saw I could see nothing else.
Yet the curious thing about him
was that he was the least given to
r>h Judgments of the action, Il other
persons Of any man l have known be-
fore or since. The fact that he could
recognize almost at glance their pat
terms seemed not to be so disilusion-
ing nS ii was explanatory to him.
discovered that he believed they must
always keep their patterns. but that
they could modify the general effect
OF their dispositions by acquired traits
4 DOCTOR told me once that he be-
" 'ieved from his very wide evce"iencc
that people went insane according to
their individual patterns, so that one
had to consider that in diagnosing a
case. He said there were also race
patterns in insanity. OF course. there
were marked variations from Il general
pattern, but the reason the history
of mental cases was SO valuable to the
physician lay just there, he said, in
the idea of--pattcrr.
n witty friend of mine once remarked
thAt he never minded other fuik : hand.
y.,n Ipt To-, 1,a - I,.A -,
coats and shirts and even hats, but
it did seem hard to have to masquerade
as yourself in your grandfather's tenn
per. and your mothers tipidity of
animals. and your fathers refusal to
change his mind.
In other words he evidently did not
mind oatlr II. but was restive in a
patchwork quilt!
7 WAS reading the journal Of a very
'cSpairing "erson who had tried to
commit suicide. not long since. and
one idea required again and again:
THE sins of the fathers unto the
third and fourth generations---with
that natural aw there muss be fail
ure. Failure is a necessity since
we are doomed before birth! Or
Failure is part of the law Of lifc."
That sort Of fntnlism belongs 70
every religion but Christianity, and It
seems easy for certain doubling minds
among the followers of Christ to fall
back into it.
But the thing Christ lived and died
to prove was the freedom of man to
choose and to pursue perfection and
to achieve it. notwithstanding his hand
ica"s. Inherited and acquired.
The wOrds-'forgivenesS of SINS
on His lips mean just that great pos
sibility of laying aside the weights that
hold us back and down and under, and
standing freed, to run our race.
THAT great saying of His to the men
l. If His race:
'If you accept my word then are
ye truly my disciples. and ye shall
know the truth. and the truth shall
make you free. Every one
that committeth sin is the bontlsrrvant
Of sin. and bondservant doth not
nbide forever in a house. but n son of
the house abides there forever: if there
fore the son Of the house makes you
saying will bear searching by all de-
spairing souls heavy with their own
imperfections. What He offered to His
race and to all mankind was freedom
from themselves. lie had the right to
offer it, the same right son of the
house would have to offer the freedom
of the house to a bondServant in his
day and generation and civilization
His metaphor was perfectly under
stood BY His countrymen. but What
neither they nor we can completely
understand is-the freedom. Not until
We experience it-and then!
THE little bewildered baby, lost for
l. an hour. could not be happier or
lighter. hearted back in her mother
lap than the soul freed of it's bewil
dered heavincss Of wrong and hurt, at
one with the God and Father of us all
Thank God though we nre born afar
off, we can arise and go to our Father.
and even when we nre still a great way
OFF. He sees us and has compassion.
SAR4H D. LOWRIE.