The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-06-22
DIR. T'alm1age's Sermon.
BY REV. FRANK DE WITT rALMAeE, D. D.

or a crop of potatoes from muskmelon
seeds. Any sinner who Is trying to ar
que himself into a different spiritual be-
lief is not only hooking God, but max
ing himself ridiculous.
Elon Foster tells us that one day a
sinful Roman master told his Christian
slave to go into a certain field and SOW
a crop of barley. When the time of har-
vest came, the master returned to that
field and found there a harvest of oats
'ready to be garnered In Indignation he
called his slave and asked: did / not
command you to SOW here field OF bar
ley? Whey, then, have We sown oats?'
The Christian slave answered: Mas
ter, I sowed oat seed in the hope that
they would grow up into barley" His
master grufny said: What foolishness
is this?' Has ever any one heard that
oat seeds will produce harvest of bar
ley?" "Ah, master" replied the Chris
tian slave, you. yourself are certainly
sowing in the world the seed Of evil
and yet you expect to reap in the resur-
rection day the fruits OF virtue. There
fore I thought also that might get bar
ley by sowing oats" And the sinful
master was abashed and could not an
swer a word.
"A Few Wild Oats"
Go where you win you will ind that
the sower to the flesh always reaps
harvest of corruption. Sit with the
Judge upon the bench. and he will tell
you that the young man standing be-
fore him for sentence did not think that
the seeds OF sin which he planted In Sc
cret would ever take root and begin to
sprout. He did not think that his SOW
ing few wild oats would ever cause
his downfall Yet God was watching
him SOW these seeds. His employers
EN-
business house in the great cities has
spies detailed to follow the tracks Of it's
employees. So when the money disap-
peared from the safe the detectives ma
turally hunted up the young man who
spent his Sundays at the races. the one
whose companions were not what they
ought to have been. They naturally
came to that young man and put the
hands Of the law upon his shoulders. say
ing; Come, young man. The convict's
cell awaits you. Gomez
Charles Stewart Parnell was one OF the
keenest shrewdest, most farseeing par
liamentarians Ireland ever produced.
For years. alone anu single handed. he
fought the British parliament. But
Charles Stewart Parnell. genius though
he might have been. was not able to de-
stroy the harvest OF his secret sin. How.
then, can the ordinary young man who
has sown the evil seeds hope to be de-
clared guiltless when Charles Stewart
Parnell had to reap from the flesh
harvest Of corruptionf
The physician In the sick room will
teach you that the sower of the flesh
always reaps the corruption OF nesh.
Upon the bed Of suffering lies an inva-
lid. He may pray. he may groan. he may
promise to do right in the future, but the
physician says: mo. my friend; good
intentions do not eradicate the physical
wrongs Of the past. You must reap the
seeds Of giuttony. the seeds which once
sparkled In the wine cup. the seeds of
late hours. the seeds Of the defiance of
moral laws. Dying man. you must reap
| the harvest OF the sins Of the flesh winch
you have sown.'
Stand with the minister in his pulpit
and he will teach you the same lesson.
He will teach you that though a man may
repent OF his sins he must up to the
graves edge suffer from his past mis-
deeds. God may forgive the sinner and
all the results Of the past evil may cease
when the sinner robes himself in the
white garments of the redeemed, but all
through the remainder Of the sinners
earthly career he must suffer for the
evil which he has done The minister
will tell you that one of the saddest
sights of Christian work is to see an Odd