The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-24
Dr. Talrmage's Sermon.
nx rHE REv. FRANK Dg wIrr rALMAeE. D. 9.


 church members who are no more hypo- critics than your Christian father and mother, who are also members Of a Chris tian church, were pypocrites.
 To demonstrate how much yon really respect the Christian church, though you may not know it, l would like to ask you a question. If you were stranded as young woman in a distant city, without money or friends to whom would you go for help2 To the saloon-keeper? To the rich brewer? No, no! Without doubt you would go straight to some Christian minister's home You would go to him. just as many young men and women have come to me, and you would say, My father and mother are members of pr. So-and-sos church, in such and sueh a town. l have no money. l want to set home Will you help me2' To have you realize how much you respect the church of the Lord Jesus Christ l would picture you stranded as a shp-wreeked sailor mon A strange coast. What would you most prefer to see-a fortress, a king 8 palace. an army encampment or the stee- ple of a Christian church? You know as well as avery intelligent man or woman knows that the community which lives under the shadow of the church spire is a God-fearing community. The commun- ity which does not protect the Christian church is an unsafe community in which to dwelll, and there is no exception to the rule.
 What the Church Is For.
 When you criticise the sincerity of cer- tain church members, you should not for get that the church of Christ was insti- tuted for the imperfect as well as the perfect. for the moral cripples as well as for those who are spiritually whole. In the church there are to be found mem bers like a man whom a friend of mine was one evening defending. Howard Crosby came to this gentleman and said: Doctor, how can you like such a man? You know he is not what he ought to be- My friend turned and said "Dr. Crosby. if you had little child who had lost an eye or was deaf or who was born lame would you despise him on account of his inhrmity? Well, my friend is a moral cripple I do like him because he has lost one eys and one leg and one arm but I do love him because, by the grace of God, he Is trying to struggle against his daily temptations and his spiritual deformities." So you will find In the church of God today moral cripples. They are struggling every day of their lives against sinful temptations; they keep on struggling; keep on praying; keep on reaching up to God; keep on staying in the church because they know that Christ did not come to institute a church for Serfeet men. He came to heal the sick and not the well. The church of God is the. great earthly hospital, where Christ, as the surgeon, loves to set the crooked limbs; where Christ. as the spiritual op- thalmologist, loves to open the eyes that are blinded of sin.
 Well" observes another nearer, "the reason I do not join the church is be- cause believe a 1lan can be just as good Christian outside the church as inside % Now, 1 would not assert that all men who are non-churchgoers are unchristian men. John Newton used to say: When l get to heaven I shall have three great surprises. One great surprise will be to find so many people there I did not ex- pect to see The next surprise will be to find so many people absent whom I ex- pected to see, and the third great surprise will be to find that I got to heaven my self" Like John Newton, when most of us reach heaven-I pray we may all be there-l believe we shall be very much surprised to find there some people who never entered the church door and never publicly confessed their faith at the church altar MT. Beecher once beauti- fully and poetically said: T am glad that some gospel seeds have been blown over the church wall, and that fruit trees and
 
 springing up outside the church garden as well as inside. and, though l wish they were within the inclosure, where the boars out of the woods could not waste them and the wild beasts of the field devour them, yet l love them and am glad to see them growing there"
 The Spiritual Household.
 But, though there may be Christian men and women living outside of the church fellowship l for one do not be- lleYe l could be Christian and not be a protesting member of the church of Christ do not believe that I could turn my back upon my church and still love my Christ as l love him today, and, my brother and sister, neither do I believe you can turn your back upon the church or God and yet give to Christ your true ana ferYent love, because l believe that. as Christians, we should look upon the church as collection of Gods children therefore we should accept and love it's members as our spiritual brothers and sisters children of God, and we ourselves shoulo long To be of the spiritual house. hold.
 An old Boston merchant loved voung man from Kentucky, who was the friend or hls dead boy. This old Boston mer chants only son IIad enlisted for inc CIVIL war. Down at the front in 1864 be was shot. Wounded unto death. he wac carried into the home of a southern ladv and nursed there until he died But i1st before his death he looked up into the sweet face of the southern lady and said :. l am the only son of rich Boston mer- chant. My father will be heartbrol,en when he hears of my death. After tha war Is over, and as your money is all swept away, l want your son to go to Boston and see my father. I want him 10 tell my father that you have nursed me TOT weeks and months. Then my Iather Will love your son for my sake And the dying boy with trembling fingers wrote upon slip of paper: Dear father T am dying. This young man is the son or the dear lady who has taken vour place and mothers. Take her son to your heart for my sake" Time passed on. and the awful carnage came to an end. The nome or the southern lady was swept away. One day the young man. armed with the dead sons letter, started for Boston. When he was ushered into inc office of the old merchant, at first tbe latter would not even speak to him. The old merchant kept on at his desk writ Ing. But when the young man placed the message of the dead boy upon the mer- ohants desk the broken-h hearted fatl,er arose ana put his arms about the young man neck and sobbed: T will love vou TOT my boys sake-yes. for my dead boys sake Now, I do not believe if is possible for us to love Christ nniess 10 also love his church for his sake do. not believe 1t is possible for us to loS,o the church unless for Christ's salxa WIG also love Christ's children, who are mem Ders of that church. nor do 1 believe if possible for a Christian man to ho =