Around the Year with Emmet Fox - 11 October 2010
 

FREE WILL OR FATE

The capriciousness of destiny was a favorite subject with the old fashioned novelists. In their three-volume world, people's lives were at the mercy of trifling accidents from day to day. A person's whole life was spoiled because one letter was stolen or went astray. The hero rose from obscurity to wealth and fame through meeting a casual stranger in a railroad car, or through saving someone from drowning at the seashore. One false step ruined an otherwise promising career.

All this is nonsense. We are not at the mercy of accidents for there are no accidents, and trifles have only trivling effects. In the long run your own character makes or breaks you. This is true of the individual, of a nation, of a party, or of any institution.

...thou upholdest me in mine integrity... (Psalm 41:12)