The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-26
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.
nY THE REv. ERANk DE wlTr TALMAeE. D 9.

come 10 nlIns ana cIHInDeT up AAAAo HIS lap and nestle as little lambs against the warm, loving heart Of the Good shepherd Christ today longs to be the divine friend of the boy swinging the bat. and of the girl dressing the doll, as well as the divine friend of the young men and women in the school and college. Do you realize. oh, mother that God loves your children with a love more intense than that which fills your heart? If you have not made your children understand this if you have never sought to impart to them the sweet fellowship and holy joy which can bind their hearts to him, you have been derelict in your duty, you have not really consecrated them to Chrisrs service Teach them how tenderly God loves them. and they win learn to love, honor and trust him as they love. honor and trust you.
 Comforter of the Sinner. .
 The Divine Being Is like a mother. too in wanting to be the forgiving comforter of all who have gone astray. When a man does wrong and persists in doing wrong. nearly all the world will turn against him. First as a rule. the sin ners retribution Is found in his employ CTS anger, when he is dismissed from the store When man has sinned once, or even twice his employer may forgive him. But when he appears at the store intoxicated the third or fourth time then comes the peremptory order that he must go at once to the cashiers office and re- ceive what Is owing him and forever leave the establishment. Then his friends are apt to turn against him. Then his brothers and sisters and children and father and even wife do the same. But though nearly all the human race will , turn against a sinner, as rule, there IS one being, if she is alive, who will never hot person, as you know before I speak her name, is the sinners mother. The young nl4n nay sin not only seven times, but seventy times seven; he may be so worth less in the eyes of the world that all his old friends may come to that mother ana say her son is not worth being. saved, he may be so useless that even the father may order the son out of the home and disown and disinherit him. but the moth CT will cling and continue to cling to her boy. If she thought that thereby she could give her son one more chance for repentance, she would sell the clothes out of her wardrobe if necessary, she would move out of her fine home and go to work. she would sell her jewelry and even her wedding ring She would go to the extent of giving up her life if she could only save her boy.
 In imagination we can picture a scene the like of which Is nightly happening in thousands of homes. It is about two or three o'clock in the morning All the rooms are darkened in the home except one. There the light is steadily burning in the bedroom. Every little while a woman prematurely gray and feeble on account of mental suffering comes to the window and raises the curtain and places an anxious face against the pane. Then she goes back to a chair and wrings her hands. Then she kneels by her sofa and offers orfa begins to put on her hat and cloak. The man sleeping in the bed is aroused by the opening of the closet door, and he says: Mother, why don't you come to bed? It is useless for you to fret and cry away your life over that worthless boy" "Oh, husband" she answers, ''I cannot give him up. He was so handsome and good to me before the evil compan- ions got hold of him. It IS not my baby boy, Harry, that is so bad to his mother It is sin, awful sin. And if, by the help of God, I can get sin out of his heart he will be the same loving child that he used to be. l am going out into the storm to try to hunt him up."
 The Mothers Pardoning Love.
 Just then there is a quick ring at the bell. The mother rushes down stairs and throws open the window. With that two young men drag the intoxicated son into
 
 into the darkness. There Is a deep gash over the young mans forehead His face is covered with blood. The terror-strick- en woman throws herself down by the prostrate form and begins to wipe away the blood as she cries: "Oh, my boy, my boyl My sinful, sinful boyl" When the young man begins to regain conscious ness from his drunken stupor, he turns and sees her fearful face bending over htr,a his sin and how he is breaking her heart, he says Mother, why do you love me? Why do you not turn your back upon me as every one else is doing?" Because my son" she answers, T know that it is not yourself that is breaking my heart and killing me. It is sim And I also know that if can only bring you to know my Savior he will give you strength Co overcome your sim and you will be the same loving boy you used to be. No, Har- ry, I will never leave you or turn my back upon you, no matter how you make me suffer, until l can bring you to Christ" Like a divine mother God never turns his back upon his erring children who have gone astray. The farther we have wandered the more the Divine Com forter Is willing to go after us. He is ready to do even more for our salvation and eternal rescue than our own earthly mothers are willing to do. In the psalm ist's own words we read: ''When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up," or, as the revised version more beautifully ex- presses 1t, Then the Lord will gather me up." Ye wayward, sinful children, can ye not look upon the face of your God and see there face illumined with the tender, forgiving and pardoning love of comforting mother?
 itra ha ixriy,o no1 4. be the comforter of all those who have made temporal failure of life-of those whose early ambitions have been as com petely shattered and wrecked as were the ships in Apia harbor when the Sa- moan tornado drove them upon the rocks. He wants to be the comforter of those who have had to face bankrupt cy court or who have had the dearest de- sires of their hearts annihilated. He wants to be the comforter of practically the whole human race for temporal troubles that sooner or later come to about everybody.
 Treasures of Heaven.
 Thus all the troubled and sorely dis appointed of earth should take great comfort out of the thought that Gods love for them is like that of a divine mother. They should be able to look at all worldly things, whether good or i'll, as did the Maori chief, who, though born in a New Zealand mud hut, could turn to the Duke of Devonshire when he was being shown one of the most beau tiful palaces of the world and say, This palace is not as beautiful as the mansion which my heavenly Father has builded