In connection with the report from official Japanese sources a few days ago to the effect that special passes would be used t^ former residents of Point Island, the Japanese spokesman yesterday afternoon, in reply to a question by the "North-China Daily News" as to where such passes could be secured, replied:—"The report that permission would be granted is apparently erroneous. There has been no relaxation in the rules regarding Point Island." There are, therefore, no passes to be obtained in connection with Point Island, which is still closed. freely stop falling once we have jumped over a precipice—whereas the moral law respects it. always Supposes it. "Blessed is the man," says Holy Scripture, "who was able to transgress the law and did not, who could have done evil and did not." Elephants are never punished eternally, nor cabbages canonized; they cannot commit sin nor practise virtue, for they have no free will.
Responsibility is a corollary of duty, and is likewise meaningless without free will Typhoons are not held criminally responsible for sinking ships or wrecking towns, but men may be. Fires aren't court-martialled for burning down houses, or guns for shooting people; but the men who lit the fires or shot the people may be. Human justice has always clearly recognized the necessary connection between liberty and responsibility. Its emissaries are not satisfied with merely establishing the material facts, They inquire into all the circumstances, call witnesses, examine carefully the words of the accused and try to get at his real motives. In a word, they analyze all the elements of human liberty, all the mitigating or aggravating circumstances, so as to measure as far as it is humanly possible the exact degree of responsibility. If it is established that the accused was pains will have been wasted. Yet if the world's supply of fatalists Teally acted thus, it would soon be starved out. Scientists can predict eclipses far ahead. The eclipses take place in due time, not because the scientists predicted them, but vice versa. The knowledge of the scientists has not necessitated the events in the slightest. Almighty God can see and know everything. past, present and future, at a glance but He sees as free that which is free, and His foreknowledge in no way determines the events Conclusion: Don't let anyone tell you that you are a hopeless victim of your great-grandparents, your lower instincts, your surroundings o: your destiny. That doctrine is a doctrine of despair. of abject sertitude, and it is a false doctor because it is against the facts daily experience. You aren't fi from the law of gravity once you jump from a skyscraper. but you are free not to jump. You ent. free from the law of arithmetic that two and two make four, nor from theological truths revealed by God. nor from His moral laws. For freedom must not de confounded with license. True freedom comes with obedience to just laws, not neglect of them. License, which is complete disregard for law and is falsely termed freedom by its patrons, in reality puts the most rigid fetters upon them: for experience shows that those who thought they were sublimely free find themselves the most abject slaves to their passions. No! If you would be free you must be in control of your instincts, your associations, your thoughts and desires even. Try to strengthen your God-given free will so that in the hour of crisis you can say Yes or No with decision, and you will then not be a slave, a mere follower of the God-Jess herd, but a master: you will always be gloriously free!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.