[Illustration: REV. CARTER HELM JONES, D.D. The late Pastor Broadway Baptist Church Louisville, Ky.] This younger son thought he was wiser than his father and wanted to manage his own affairs. So it is with men who think they can manage their own affairs without God. -------- He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.--Ps. 91:11. -------- A case in hand: An acquaintance of mine in Louisville, a young man of handsome face and fine physique, with all the advantages wealth, education and social position could give him, started out at the age of twenty-one with unfaltering prospects of a prosperous, useful and happy life, but, like the young man in our lesson, thought he could manage his own affairs without God; in other words, he refused to give his heart and life to Jesus Christ, and not having Christ to protect, shield, restrain, and assist him, in a time of temptation he was led along little by little, almost without knowing it, until he was ready to commit any crime. One day in a house of ill repute he shot and killed a young man; for this crime he was arrested, tried and convicted, but the wealth and influence of his family secured him a pardon. Even this bitter experience failed to teach him that he had made a mistake in thinking he could manage his own affairs, for, after regaining his liberty, he plunged deeper and deeper into sin, ending in himself being murdered. As the prodigal in the parable wanted to get as far from his father's presence as possible, "into a far country," so the man when he determines to give himself up to others. He does not want to hear about God or even think about him. Reader, was not this so with you? The father did not compel the son to stay at home; he allowed him to choose what he preferred. So it is with God; he does not compel us to obedience. For my part I wish he did. "He wasted his substance in riotous living;" and so it is with the sinner, in the service of sin; he wastes and destroys his property, his health, his reputation, his intellect, his conscience. -------- Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.--Is. 43:1. -------- [Illustration: THE LATE REV. E. A. FERGUSON One of the Author's best friends]