The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-27
MUST NOT TRIPLE
 WITH CONSCIENCE Rev, Sterling A. Foster Breaches
 a Practical Sermon. INSIGHT INTO THE HEART 5alaam's Familiar Words, "Let Me Die the Death of the Righteous
 That My Last End May
 Be Like His"
INSIGHT INTO THE HEART

sermon at once eloquent and practical at the South Highland Presbyterian church yesterday morning on "A Wish that Proved Futile, and Why" He took his text from Numbers 2S:10, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.' Mir. Poster said in part:
 To those who imagine or believe that human nature is evolving itself into something essentially different, or. by processes of civilization Is becoming re- newed, 1t Is sufficient answer to point them to those who lived in the early dawn of history. Balaam, who spoke the words of the text lived at least four thousand years ago. and surely during that long period there ought to have been some slight variation, some small differentiation, in some essential par ticular.
 But this does not seem to be the case On the other hand he seems. save in the accidents of time and circumstances to have been identlcally such a man as we might meet on the street today, and the slight sketch which we find of him here, in all that is essential to a man. might have appeared in the paper of yesterday or the day before. He was swayed by the same motives, moved by the same impulse, governed by the same desires that we find in active operation today.
 Had Keen Intellect.
 He was man, evidently, of keen in telect, for he reasons and speaks well he was prominent for the king turns ~ 4-t.- I,Iv self in difficulties and he was animated by a noble desire Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his" Yet he died "unwept, un- honored, and unsung" and had for his epitaph He loved the wages of un- righteousness"
 All of this sounds strangely familiar and we can detect nothing in it that was peculiar to that age or to any other. Our late President. MT. Mckinley, was man of singularly pure life and won the ad- miration and esteem of even his politi- cal foes, and the news of his assassina- tion sent a shock throughout the whole land anxiously the nation awaited bull etlns from his bedside, and when the news came that he was sinking there was universal expression of grief and sorrow. and the manner of his death touched he heart of the nation pro- foundly.
 When it was announced to him that the end drew near he asked those around him to sing Rock of Ages Cleft for Me-" and then said: Goodbye, good bye, all; it is Gods way; His will be done," and then slipped calmly and peacefully behind the curtain that hides the seen from the unseen. How many millions read or had recounted to them that last scene in this good mans life? And of all those millions how many echoed the words of the text, Let me, too, die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his?"
 And yet, how many have long since forgotten the wish, and in how many lives the wish has proven futile? This desire is practically universal; even the goddess and profane have sometimes echoed it, and there are few, if any who would not prefer to go out of life in so noble a fashion. Why, then, do such multitudes die death so unlike the righteous and have their last end so un- like theirs?
 All who will may read the answer in the life of Balaam.
 With intellect unmpaired, position as- sured. desires noble and conscience clear he was qualified to attain his wish. But see him as he begins to trifle with his conscience. Here we find the weak spot and the all-snfficient cause that wrought his undoing. When the emissaries of the king approach him he immediately takes counsel of God. and the answer is clear and distinct. 'Thou shalt not go" So does the voice of conscience ever speak. In terms absolute and there should be the end of controversy
 But not so in the life of this weak man, for when he is approached again, by messengers more honorable and with of- fers of larger rewards in wealth and preferment, he is not satisfied and must needs make further inquiry. How brave ly does he speak: "If the king would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more" And so the sad farce goes on and he yields and goes, after all
 May be Dilletanti.
 One may be diletanti in art, In science, in politics, in law, in medicine, in phy- losophy and possibly in theology, and no very great harm be the result. but one becomes a dilletanti in morals, in the realm of conscience at the peril of his own soul. It is too sensitive to be trified with. and it's functions too important to be lightly esteemed. Says a late writer, Dr. Vance, Tt may be like the great Cunarder that found itself on Nantucket shoals. when sextant and compass show ed that it must be two hundred miles distant. nall driven by the ships car penter too close to the needle had swerv- ed it just a little from its course until it carried the great vessel astray.'
 The needle is the conscience and the nail in the case of Balaam was the high CT position and the greater wealth of fered him. It is conscience that gives dignity to man and lifts him above the