The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-18

with my wife and children: yet l dare not and cannot renounce the truth" Would you and l, if necessary, rather than re- nounce the truth be brave enough. like a Muller, a Huss a Paul, a John the Baptist, to have out bleeding bodies laid as sacrifice upon truths altar?
 Great in Death.
 But, though John the Baptist was great in life, he was also great in death. Like the pioneer who enters the American forests and cuts away the trees and pulls up the stumps and builds the home and plants the corn, in order that his children may reap the harvest after the father Is gone, so John the Baptist, not for him. self, but for those who should come after him. lived his life and at last laid it down. a martyr. His death was the be- ginning of a series of martyrdoms as the ambassadors death in Picking in the up- rising of 1900 was the first signal to the foreigners that they must battle for their lives. Johns death was as benefcent in it's results as that mothers death might be which would bring together the war ring factions of her family and reunite them beside the altar of her casket
 If you follow the teachings of the Bible very carefully you will find there was a war, a rivalry, a jealousy between the followers of Jesus Christ and the follow CTS of John There was no war between John and Christ. No sooner did Jesus ap- pear than John bent the knee and ren- dered unto him full and complete obedi- ence. But this obedience was not true in reference to the Johannian school. In the fourth chapter of John we find that In order to still this rivalry Christ with his followers left the southern regions of Judea and traVeled north and went through Samaria. But no sooner was John the Baptist dead than his disciples took the headless trunk of his body and buried it and went and told Jesus" An, yes, by Johns death all these factions were healed. The Johannian school be- came in toto the school of the Nazar- enc" Is 1t not a blessed thought that If we live for Christ this side of the grave we may still continue to live in Influence for Christ after we are dead? John the Baptist great before his sacrfcel John the Baptist. great after he was martyredl
 Posthumous Influence.
 That posthumous influence is mighty for good or evil we all know. We have felt it. In the village where my grandfather lived there labored for many years a gos- pei minister. He never seemed to see any great results from his ministry. Every body loved him, yet few confessed Christ under his preaching while he was alive. But no sooner was that good man dead than a mighty revival of religion sprang up. My father said that at one eommun- ion 300 people confessed Christ In the lit- tle village church. And the remarkable fact about that revival was that every one of those new converts traced his conver- sion directly to the teachings and influ- ence of the dead pastor Posthumous in- fluence, mighty influences! Gustavus Adolphus dead at Lutzen more powerful in influence than Gustavus Adolphus when alive. John Wycliffs ashes by the
 
 Severn and by the Severn into the sea, so by the stream of death the good mans influence lives on by being mingled in the great 'sea of humanity" Oh, yes, after death we shall live on. A good ln- fiuence, like that of John the Baptist, shall never, never die.
 But though I honor and exto1 the noble characteristics of this great man, there Is still another lesson we must learn from the verse of my text. Christ said, There hath not risen greater than John the Baptist" Oh, yes, that was true as far as it went True, if you speak in reference to those men and women who lived before Jesus was born. But there is one part of the verse you must well bear in mind. It is the last part and goes thus: "Yet, notwithstanding this. he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" What does that mean? Simply this: If you and l become part of Jesus Christ, if we accept his atonement and are cleansed by his blood. we become in q sense greater. aye, far greater. than the greatest man who ever lived who has not been sanctfied by the Saviour's sacri- flee.
 A Thought Illustrated.
 Perhaps I can illustrate the Bible thought in a simple way A great wall or fortress has to be built, The work mus be pushed. One group of workmen ascend the scaffolding and lay on one layer of stone and then go to their rest. Another group lay another layer of stone upon the preceding layer and then go to their rest. And so the work upon the wall grows higher and higher, each group of workmen standing upon loftier scaffold-