The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-02-27
HATH IS WON BY
 CONFLICT STUDY
"PoSt- -Mortem Reflections" Is Theme of Notable Sermon
 by Dr. MacSporran

Before large congregation yes terday morning, Dr. J. A. MacSpor- ran, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, preached a notable sermon. having as his theme Post -Mortem Reflections"
 pr. MacSporran said in part:
 When man begins to think he finds a question confronting him worthy of his best powers. But he only thinks when he is hit and hit hard. Armchair musings are not real thought. When something terrifying and crushing happens and we are sifted and tested through and through, then we find out the diff ference. Then it is that We sit amid the ruins and reflect.
 Real thought is always born of a painful experience. A faith won through conflict and study and ef- fort is rare, but it is worth having. For so few people are willing to study, fight and labor for spiritua faith of their own. They do not eX- pect other things without labor, yet in the matter of religion, the truth which sums up, unites and interprats all truth; the beauty, wisdom and ex- perience that crowns all. they expect to get without any serious thought and study.
 Many educated people are mere babes in religion, merely Keeping what they got in primary and junior departments of Sunday school intact and ungrown Or they have given that up as being all there is to re- ligion. These are religious illiterate They don't know how to think religi- ously.
 No. only the facts of life we have experienced, the weight and burden and sorrow of human existence make man really think. Then he will come out against the big question in life. l want to tell you how to meet and find that question.
 Spend day in the hospitals of our city. Get close to the agony of your fellow mortafs. Get so close you feel that you cannot stand it. Then think of yourself in such position. Go to the police courts and prisons. discover there the leaven that is working in society. I don't say be sentimental and soft-hearted and soft-headed. l ask you 10 look. I,ooIS at the defectives and the weak. the ignorant and those without capacity 10 resist temptation. There they are. They must be dealt with. It is so like nell on earth, a prison. But is the criminal altogether to blame? Go back to the real cause. Who is re- sponsible?
 Co into our orphanages and de- tention and maternity homes. our industrial schools and juvenile courts. Who mas sinned? These. or all of us as a city? Who is responsible?
 Follow two men home and see what you learn. One steps brislxly out to his limousine and his chauf- teur Whfsks him to a home of luxurv
 fairyland. The other walks slow ly and sullenly in the opposite direc- tlon. He is a good man who knows nothing and asks nothing of life but work, the chance to earn. He is out Of work, through no fault of his. He does not understand economic laws. lie only knows he isisuffering and in need. And his family thinks he Is a failure because he can't make, good This is that terrible thing. inability 10 get work. Get the contrast. Who is to blame?
 am not asking you for an an swer. l only want you to feel the pressure of the demand for an an swer. You see the challenge. who is responsible? In the last analysis. is God to blame? That is tue question. The answer we get make$ every dif- terence to us all. Those who are grown up have come to sec that tbe freedom of man is real thing-tbe way God works only through the hands and tongues and hearts of men. only thus can He make Himself Known. Man only sees this in post : mortem reflections. Because wa have ignored God, only when hurt is q way opened for the love and truth of God 10 reach our hearts,"