The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-07-06

especial grace given to them. It is diffl- cult to be true to God when the mighty .fortresses have been builded at the mouth of every harbor to keep out the foreign foe and when the rattle of the factory and the whistle of the steam engine and the blow of the hammer and the rasp of the saw are all playing an accompani- mont to the tune of a national financial success.
 Reeonsecrate the Nation.
 As the American nation is govern ment for the people and by the people. I would have every one of us this Fourth of July season reeonsecrate our nation to God by reconsecrating our own per- sonal lives to his divine service. When the Ambassador from Germany appears at the White House and presents his or tfcial documents, he does not come as the representative of the German nation, but as the personal representative of Em- peror William. The ambassador of Eng land represents King Edward. The repre- sentative of Italy represents King Victor EmaNIel. But when Americas s embassa- dor goes abroad he does not represent the president or the secretary of state, but he represnts the people-the common people of America. And as part of the common people of America we can here and now begin to reconsecrate our gov erDment to the Lord in it's days of pros perity by reconsecrating ourselves. O Lord, our God, can anyone have a great CT work to do in the evangelization of tho world than we Americans if we will only consecrate our lives 10 thy service?
 I selected this text, 'The field is the world for two reasons-f1rst, because the five words spoken by Jesus Christ to his disciples exactly convey the idea of the worldwide sweep of Americas future influence in the evangelization of the two hemispheres. A Christian nation has no more right to close its doors and live for itself and let the rest of the people of the world suffer and die than an individ- ual has the right to lock and bar the doors of his own home and let his neigh bors be murdered in cold blood.
 But the second reason why I selected this text Is because 1t always has had an intense personal interest to me. This was the first next which my father as a the ological student ever preached upon. When my father was a young man at New Brunswick Seminary, he went to visit my uncle who was then a pastor at Easthampton, N. Y. He went to visit In the same old parsonage where the great Lyman Beecher, the father of Henry Ward Beecher, used to live, and where many of the famous brothers and sisters of Henry Ward Beecher were born. And while my father was visiting his broth- er-in-law the Rev stephen Mershon, the village minister, asked him to preach. So he preached in the schol house there in the village of Easthampton his first ser he preached in the school house there In a barbershop. It is not larger than the ordinary sized parlor of an average city house. In that little school hose the un- known theological student took for his text, The field is the world" He little realized then that there would ever come a time when his gospel field would liter ally be the world.
 So may the Fourth of July ever be to all Americans a sacred day. May it be time when by retrospection we learn what pure and noble and consecrated an- cestral blood is flowing in our veins. May it be a tune when the American people bow their heads to make an earnest. in- tense plea that the present generation shall be as true as gospel trust as our forerathers were true to theirs. Then after we have knelt in prayer, may we go forth inspired by the Holy Spirit to do the work which has been given us to do. Then the brightest pages of Amer ican history will be written at the millen- nial dawn when the United States gov ernments future mission, by the grace of God shall be goriously and raptuonsly a,,te