The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-24

| on little daughter Of a Chicago million
aire. Twice has the great doctor crossed
the seas within few months to visit his
little patient. 1t has been said that for
each trip he was paid $4,000. oh" you
say, let that Chicago father pay 100000,
pay anything If he can only have his
crippled daughter cured" Then, my
brother, do we not owe God a greater
debt than Mr.. Armour owes to DR.. Lo-
REM? Have we no debt to pay because
we were born with two straight legs and
have had for years the blessing of good
health?
A big debt, for food and clothing and
house rent, l find charged against US in
the divine ledger. A noted French statis-
tician has compiled the following sum-
mary of how an average man, fifty years
of age, has spent his past life: He has
slept 5000 days; played 1900 days; was
eating 1.500 days and has been sick 5OO
days. During his 1900 days of feeding,
he has eaten a whole car load of bread
1900 pounds; a whole car load of meat
10000 pounds; 1900 pounds of vegetables,
eggs and fish, and has drunk 1000 gallons
of liquids He has worked only $500 days
out of the is, $50 days which he has lived.
In other words, he has slept nearly as
long as he has worked. Then when you
further estimate all the expense of a
mans clothing and cost of travel during
his life you can to some extent compute
the financial value of the food and clothes
with which God has endowed one of his
children up to the half century milestone.
Friend of infancy.
But though the divine debt for food and
raiment may be very great are you going
to try to cancel 1t by merely estimating,
dollar for dollar, how much the beef
steaks and the chops and the potatoes
and peas and barrels of apples and the
TnAt
would not be right. You, a strong man,
with the earning capacity you now have
owe to God financially more than that
You have a moral debt as well as
financial one. If l should come to you In
a business crisis of your life and help
you, you would never forget 1t. II
should say: .Mr. So-andSo, I hear the
banks are beginning to push you. Never
mind. l will see you through this crisis.
Bring your notes to my office and
will endorse them" what would be the
result? Tears would come into your eyes.
You would perhaps cry like little child.
You would say to me: II can never for
get your kindness. 1t means more to me
than money. If any trouble ever comes
to your home you can always count upon
me as your friend"
Suppose your father and mother died
thirty years ago and left you penniless.
Suppose at that time I should have gone
to a foundlings' home and found you and
brought you into my house and adopted
you and reared you as my son, what
would be the result? Would you estimate
the sacrifices have made for you by the
dollar and cent measure? By how much
l spent for your clothes and board? Oh.
no! You would estimate 1t by the extent
of my love. You would give back to me
more than money. You would feel that
all you are and all you have you owe to my
Maternal kindness = ms
upon you that all your devotion cannot
repay. What, then, are your obligations
to God for all the comforts you have en-
joyed? If you give yourself to Him,
body, mind and SOUL is that more than
your duty? We must remember all the
days he has cared for in infancy.
Think how he has guided and protected
us all through the struggle of life. We
must pay installments on that bill by
caring for Gods helpless children, by
feeding Gods hungry and clothing Gods
naked and bending over Gods sick.
We can never get away from this re-
sponsibility. One day gentleman stood
waiting for friend at the New York
entrance at the Brooklyn bridge. While
standing there he saw a little street ur-
chin go up to an ash barrel and pick out
of the refuse a piece of bread and begin
to eat 1t. The gentleman turned to an
old woman who was tending to an apple
Stdnu near Dy ana SAID, Have those
little boys no one to care for them at
ALP mo one" grimly answered the
old woman. except God, and He does not
always seem to be around" Yes as we
look at the distress unrelieved, at lives
In which there Is no brightness 1t does
seem as If God were not always around
But has that thought no message for us7
Are not these very cases opportunities
placed in our way of repaying some OF
our obligations to Him? We cannot pay
Him. but when as His children we relieve
the destitute or lift the burden from the
weary shoulders we are acting as His
almoners and are doing His work We
should care for others in Christ's name
because God has so long cared for us.
Champion of Human Rights.
A big bill for church privileges 1 find
charged against us all In the divine ledg-
err Why all? Because the church of
Jesus Christ is not, as some people sup
pose small building dedicated for few
weddings and funerals and a place in
which are to be gathered few Sunday
school scholars. 1t is not. as a great
preacher once described It, merely an
ecclesiastical Flying Dutchman," with a
dead minister in the pulpit and dead
hearers In the pew and a dead deacon
passing the collection plate. The church
of Jesus Christ is great gospelizing. VI
ducing institution. 1t is the mightiest
protecting power we have today back of
the President of the United States. Ii
teaches man to live right as well as to
die right.
The church of God is the greatest
champion of human rights of the present
day. Some years ago l sat in Cooper In
stitute at a great mass meeting. Robert
G. lngersoll was one of the speakers
During his address he hurled at the aud
fence this singing sentence: THE reason
despise the church of God is because It
blocks every wheel of progress" After
ward the chairman of the meeting arose
and said: Il admire Robert G. Ingersoll.
believe him to be one of the greatest
orators who have ever lived. But I
defy Mr.. Ingersoll to show where the
Christian church has blocked the wheels
of progress Every great onward move
ment In American history has had its
ablest champions and often It's leaders
and originators In the men who week by
week preach from Christian pulpIts."
That chairman was right The thunder
Gus applause OF the audience approved it.
The church of God is the great intellec-
tualizing force in America. DR. Charles
L. Thompson once declared that the
Presbyterian church was not the church
of great cathedrals, but of small COL
leges." Wherever the gospel ministers
go there you will find the college plan