Sermon #19 Exerpt, AES Sermon Contest 1926, #2 (2)

780. [page number] -5- [end page number] the institute for the feeble-minded at Vineland, N. J. But that is not all the story. Later in life Martin Kallikak married a young Quakeress of honorable religious ancestry. From this marriage came descendants who, a certain writer says, were "colonial governors, signers of the declaration of independence, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, judges, educators, and men and women prominent in every phase of social life." It may be objected that this emphasis upon the power of heredity to shape character is fatalistic, and gives no opportunity for the operation of Divine grace or the benefit derived from environment. To many it will seem akin to the "predestination" and "foreordination" doctrines of old-fashioned theology. We have long been taught the freedom of the human will; and there is quite a general belief in the philosophy of Henley, "I am the Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul." Of course the power of the will on the part of normal man to affect both soul and body cannot be denied. Even certain methods of bodily healing are based upon the mental action of the individual, and medical science admits the value of mental states in the treatment of disease. But behind the action of the will, in the bringing of material or spiritual good to the individual, has been the force of some noble impulse. More recently we have learned that the emotions are a potent force, especially in moral decisions. Prof. Ladd, of Yale University, said, "It is probably the feelings, far more and often than the strict logical conclusiveness, which settles for the time being what the truth must be held to be." Wm. James, of Harvard, said, "I believe that feeling is the deeper source of religion, and that philosophic and theological formulas are secondary products, like translations of a text into another tongue."