The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-07-20
DIR. Talnlage's Sermon.
BY The REV. FRANK De WITT TALmAoK, o. D.


martvre and great sufferers IN the cause
IF christ REV. Frank De witt Taimage
draws lessons Of encouragement and fef~
iltuae for afflicted members Of christ's
church, text. PHILIPPIANS lv 2, "All the
saints salute you. chiefly they are of
Caesars household
pity for the condemned, since they were
audience to some foreigners. Turning to
a gentleman present, he asked. How
long have you been In our city7" Three
days" was the answer Then said the
Pope you have been here long enough
to practically know all about Rome" He
asked another gentleman, How long
have you been In Rome7 "Three months'
was the answer. "Then," said the Pope
you have been here long enough to know
that you have just begun to see Rome"
lie asked third gentleman the same
question, II have been here three long
years." was the answer. 'Then," said
the Pope you have been here long enough
to know that though q man may live in
Rome hundred years. he can never live
long enough to appreciate Rome" The
longer one lives. under the shadow of the
Coliseum the more he realizes how much
Of history, of conquests and defeats, OF
culture and Ignorance, of purity and vice,
Of justice and injustice, clusters about
the seven hills Of the Eternal City
But though the most marvellous
achievements and the most startling hap
4 pehlngs may be panoranaed In that one
word "Rolne" yet without doubt to the
Christian student the most absorbing and
intense of all Roman eras is that which
Includes the history of Nero's reign. Then
the prosecutions against the early Christ
ians became most vlrulent inhuman and
fatal Then the brutality and merciless-
ness Of the fiendish monster, Nero, out
Heroded even bloody Herod. Then the
lowest dungeons OF the Inferno were fill
ed with pandemoniums Of satanic JOY
For then,e wrote the historian, tho
Christians were covered by the skins of
wild beasts and torn to pieces by the
dogs, Then they were crucified. Then
they were -smeared with pitch and COM
bustibie materials and burned In the i'm
perial gardens at night Then at last
from a horror stricken nation there arose
pity for the condemened. since they were
not put to death for the public good, but
to crafty the cruelty of one man." Yet
Paul wrote about this time that, In spite
of all the prosecutions and martyrdoms,
there stilled remained In Rome men and
of the early church there were Christians
faith. In the darkest days of the history
! OF the early cnurcn there were CnTSlldnS
ready to testify for Jesus Christ, though
they wore the uniform Of the Roman
emperor and though, on account of that
testimony they knew they had to die.
A Modren EplstIe.
Now, as Paul sent the salutations of
the saints IN Caesars palace to the mem
bers of the Phillipian church for there
encoura cement l am going to bring the
salutations of the saints who live In Gaze
sar's modern palaces for the encourage
ment of every man, woman and child.
I am going to declare TO the young and
to the old, the rich and the poor, the high
and the low alike, that, though some of
you are having hard time to main
tain your Christian integrity against the
bombardments of seemingly overwhelm-
ing worldly difficulties, yet there are men
and women who are maintaining their
Christian Integrity against troubles in
finitely greater than yours. There are
men and women true to God today who
have shouldered upon their backs whole
mountain ranges of misfortune and sor-
row and pains, while you comparatively
speaking. are going forth into the gospel
fight weighted down only with a little
knapsack. There are Christian men who
figuratively' speaking; have been flung
overheard mid-Atlantic and told to swim
ashore, while you have only shallow
brook to cross There are Christian men
who are ankle deep, knee deep, waist
deep, shoulder deep, chin deep in the
quicksands of difficulties who can yet
look up and see the face of God, while
you comparatively speaking, have only
stony path to climb. If the saints In
Caesars ancient and modern palaces
could be true to their gospel faith, sure
~ their spiritual examples ought to
rouse every one of us to better and truer
and purer and nobler efforts, no matter
what our mental or physical or incidental
difficulties may be.
I would encourage those Christians,
In the first place who are struggling
against the physical depressions of i'll
health. Life even under the brightest of
conditions is an awful struggle Alex
ander Pope once compared the ceaseless
struggle of life to a continuous journey
over the bridge of time. Upon one end
of this bridge the English poet started
the different generations. Then he kept
them moving on, and on and on. never al
lowing the tired and footsore and head
aching and heartaching traveller to stop
for instant. He kept them moving on
and on over the bridge of time until every
boy and girl or young man and young
woman or middle-aged man and middle
aged woman or seagenarian octogena-
rian or tottering centenarian had tumb-
led through the broken planks of that
bridge into the dark waters of the river
of death flowing below
But though life is such an awful strug-
gle for the broad chested and stout limb
ed and the powerfully physiqued, yet,
wonderful to say, some of the highest
Christian heroes and heroines have been
men and women who were physical. weak
lings. Some of the most famous mental
and spiritual giants of the age have been
those whose physical frames were SO frail
that they could have been DESTROYED al
most as easily as a dew drop could be
flung from the surface OF a leaf or a
hummingbird's life could be crushed out
between the thumb and fore finger of a
mans hand. John Summerfields body
was so frail that 1t withered away un-
der the touch of consumption while he
was yet boy. John Summerfield died
when he was but twenty-seven, yet he
lived long enough, with that frail body
to bring the gospe message to the whole
English speaking race OIL his time. Fannie
: Crosby, the inspired hymnologist who
has written over 5000 hymns, by means
of which many thousands of souls have
nestled Safe in the Arms of Jesus
(Which is perhaps her most popular hymn
has such weak, frail little body that
there sc ems to be nothing to her phys-
cally, and in addition to her other physi-
cal infirmities God put out the light of
her two eyes. And there she sits in the
darkness of her own ROOM in order that
with her eyeless sockets she may better
see the face of Jesus Christ Francs e.