Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-22
Eirst presbvterian Church.

". IA.
 preached at the First Presbyterian
 church yesterday both morning ana
 evening. Notwithstanding the threaten ing weather last night, he had large
 audience to hear him. His text was:
 Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.'' Exodus, xiv. 15. The passage of the lsraellteS through
 the Red sea in their journey from Egypt
 into the land of Canaan was the subject of Dr. Walkers discourse. He said the crossing of the Red sea by the lsraelltes occupied.the same place in the Old Testa- ment that the shipwreck of Paul did Tn the New. He said 600000 people passed through the Red sea without getting their feet wet. This was equal to a line sixty-six miles long, and extended from the Red sea to the Egyptian capital The question with a military man would be how to manage this large body of men. They were divided into five battalions by Moses Moses, In his management, com
 mitted colossal errors according to the tactics of military men, but God was with him.
 Dr. Walker said that in his investga- tion of this great miracle he had noted | several facts. among them being the fol- lowing:
 l. Every season the strong winds fill up the waves in the north end of Red sea. The Bible says a strong east wind had
 blown all the preceding night and rolled up waves 30 feet high. God took this cy- clonic east wind to pile up the waves in the north end and thus left a dry cross ing for Moses and the Israelites. 3. The mummihed bodies of forty Pharoahs have been found in
 Egypt, but the body of the Pharoah of Exodus has never been discovered. The sea never gives up it's dead.
 The Israelites complained to Moses and Moses found it almost impossible to carry out His command to lead them into the land of promise. But God told him to go on. So with Christians, said Dr. Wal ker; they must not only go out, but go on There are only two ways for them to go, said he, and that Is to follow the Master and meet temptations and trials. or go back into the bondage of sin. Min istGrs, he said, had to spend too much time doctoring saints instead of helping sinners He said the Israelites wanted to go back to their flesh pots in Egypt, and | so with Christians today, They are too prone to go back into the pleasures of | the world He said Moses wanted to go | back into Egypt, and so with Christians now; they want to go back into sin. but | he urged them to go do their duty as Christians, to attend the church services and to go marching on for God and the l promised land.
 | South Highlands Presbyterian Church The Rev. John Barbour preached from l Acts, xvi 22-23: Subject, "Agnosti- l cism.''
 He said: There recently died in Eng land the man, Professor Huxley. credited l with originating this term. Agnostics l are those who say there may be God. | but we do not know it; at all events, we know nothing practical about Him" It lis in some respects very dang erous 1 phase of infdelity. With an air of can | dor 1t succeeds in putting aside practical l religion as having no basis in reason, and l all in the guise of a scientific humility. l But in the main it marks advance, and, l I believe, victory in the battle of the 1 Christian evidences. The rejecters of l Christianity have changed front again, l as they have done in every age. Instead l of the prosecutions of early ages and the l blasphemies of Voltaire, we have the l negative and patronizing attitude of the l agnostics
 How I wish you to notice how wonder l fully science has come to recognize the | very foundations of the Christian sys-
 tenn. over decade ago Herbert Spencer l thus wrote But amid the mysteries, ] which become the more mysterious the l more they are thought about, there will | remain the one absolute certainty that | man is ever in the presence of an infinite | and eternal energy, from which all
 things proceed.'
 l And so science at last announces what | has been the postulate of theology from | the beginning. The simple question now | between the two is, what are the attri-
 butes of this universal force? Mir Hux- | ley takes refuge in agnosticism, saying | we know there is something beneath all | phenomena, but what it is and what our | relations are to it we do not know and | cannot know. An. my friends. they have | made a fatal admission. They are hoist by their own petard," for we can only know of the existence of anything as we | know its qualities. The assumed ignor- | ance of the agnostic is surcharged with the knowledge of God. John Fisk of Har- l vard the American expounder of this | creed. acknowledges that the concession l of Herbert Spencer involves the elements | of the Christian system. For what is the infinite and eternal energy but God him
 self. a conclusion which the modern deri-
 vation of all force from will force pow erfully confirms. Now follow the mex | orable logic of the religious mind:
 l. The universal force must be living | because the universe is teeming with life. else something can come out of noth- ing.
 ?. It is not only alive. but intelligent
 for 1t is the origin of all design and in ] telligence.
 B. But more. If intelligent if is 2 per
 son. You can only affirm intelligence of | a person We must say "he."
 1 A. He is benevolent person. for there
 is goodness and kindness all about us