"I
DON’T HAVE TO.".
Aug., 9,1936.
By G.W.S.Ware.
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I, means self; don’t, do not; have, take, or bear; to, according with.
Regardless of grammar, this negative assertion is often heard. Generally, its roots are
entwined around the rock of human contrariness; its trunk tries to grow up straight in its
own estimation; its branches bend with the apples of Sodom, and its leaves are good for
nothing.
It muses on the false proverb, "That he that hath a horne to blow, and bloweth it
not; the horn of the same shall not be blown." Generally, by middle life, he has
blown his horn to pieces with his monotonous whine, "I don’t have to."
When this song becomes chronic with a man, his audience is dwindled down to himself,
and when he feels an impulse, he thinks his fellow man has found out at last, what a great
man he is.
I-don’t-have-to, used often, will spell out, an inferiority complex to the user,
and no one cares whether he has to or not.
No one can use the term often, and tell the truth through it. If a man says, I’m
going to live apart from God, and I don’t have to sin to do it, is committing a sin
to say it.
A man can say, I don’t have to go to heaven, and tell the truth, for it is a
country no one can enter by force. The same man could say, I don’t have to enter
hell, and tell the truth, for he is already in it, spiritually, but if he should mean
bodily, after his resurrection, that would make him a liar, for the wicked shall be driven
into hell; and his "I don’t have to," would turn to a demon, to drive him
in.
Three women united against the edict of God (Heb. 9:29), and swore: "We don’t
have to die." Time went on as usual, and sickness came to one of them, with death in
it; the other two hovered over her, crying out, like prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:26):
"You shall not die, you shall not die," but death prevailed, and took them,
later.
