The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-04

not always kept walking in that path? Christ walked with you there twenty years ago. Jesus as guide Is ready to lead you back to that path-the path over which you went for the first time to the communion table of the Lord?
 Highway of Blossoms.
 There is still another path which you once trod. This path Is fragrant with blossoms. Like the fabled trees of old. the heavy branches which line it are laden with silver bells. It is the path which once led up to your marriage altar. It is the path over which the fallen rice Is strewn and where the merry laughter of the bridesmaids is trying to drown the joyful salutations of the wedding chimes. The blossoms which line this pathway are orange blossoms. The silver bells are those which once played Mendels- sohn's "Wedding March," Where did that path which ended at the marriage altar first lead you? Oh" you answer, it led me first among the briers and over the stony grounds. My courtship days were not all sunshine. For long time I did not know whether 1 could win the hand of my heart love. In the first place, I was not socially her equal Then was penniless and lad nothing to offer but my two hands and a willing heart. Then my life was not what it ought to have been. But she had faith in me. l prom ised her to reform. I went to church with her. I gave up drinking, and l promised her l would surrender my heart to Christ And, do you know, the night she gave herself to me she made me kneel with her and we both made prayer that God would hear and help me keep my vows" An yes, my brother. l know just how you feel when you think of that old path which led up to your marriage altar! When you took the trem- bling hand of that young girl in yours you truly felt that you wanted to be good .~ You promised God. then and there. for her sake as we'll as your own, to live a good, true, pure, noble. Christian liie Have you kept your VOW? Are you will- to go to church with her now as you did when you were engaged to herr Are you helping her to set the right example before your children--your children and hers? Remember, man. you made promise to her and to God on the night of your wedding. VIII you seek the old path of consecrated love, which wound through the days of your courtship and ended on the night you took your heart love as a bride from her fathers home?
 Keep your Fleo9eS.
 But there is still one more path l want you to seek That is the one which led down by the cradle of your children. When your first child was born, if you had the least spark of manhood in your makeup, you wanted to be a good man for your babys sake. Even the lowest form of human being feels the uplifting power when a child is born to him. In the graveyard of Hennilxer. N. H., can be found a tombstone with the name, Mary, wife of Thomas Wallace" chiseled upon 1t. The history of that name is this: In June, 1720, a ship was sailing across the Atlantic. It was attacked and board ed by pirates. The crew was strapped to the masts, preparatory to being thrown overheard and drowned. Just be- fore the wholesale murder was to take place the captain of the pirates found in q stateroom woman by the name of Mrs. James Wilson, with new born baby lying by her side. He instantly asked her, "Is it a boy or a girl?' "A girl" was the answer. Will you let me name herr" the rough pirate asked. 'lf you will l will unstrap your husbands s crew and let your ship go free" "Yes," was the answer. Them said he, "I name her Mary Mary Wilson grew up to be an old woman and died at the age
  lace and was buried in the little grave yard at Henniker. As that pirate in all probability saved that crew on account of the memory of his own little daughter, so the birth of every frst-born child makes almost every father pledge him self to God to be a better and purer man and a noble Christian. Have you kept the VOW you made when your first baby was born?
 Besides that, my brother, have you also tried to follow out that pledge you made to God in the night when your baby was very sick? You we'll remember the grave faces of the physicians. You well re- member how you knelt by the crib and said: 70 God if you will make my baby well pledge to you my future life You well remember the pledge you made to God on the night your baby died. Near ly every one of us has had child's death in our family. Have you kept that pledgeY Have you kept the pledge you made to God on the old path which once led down to the cradles of your living children and now also leads down to the graves of your dead babies?
 The Way to Happiness.
 But how are you going to find your way back to these old paths? Some of you have been away from these old paths for many years. You are lost, complete ly lost You will never find your way out from the mountains of sin unless you have a divine guide. The importance of a guide to one lost in the mountains Of earth or of sin can never be oyeresti- mated. l remember some years ago, when bicycling through the mountains of West Virginia, we were completely lost. We wandered around and around until the sun sank and the twilight covered up her somber face with a black robe and hid herself in total darkness. We groped our way along shudderlng at the fendlsh eyes that might be those of a prowlng panther. After a while we saw a dim light in the distance. We struggled on until we could knock at that house and be taken In. Then in the morning we were safe, because our host, as guide directed us Today, ye lost and wearied sinners. Christ is ready to be your guide. He will lead you out of the mountains of sin. He will lead you to the old paths which are all converging Into the one Christian path that leads to the foot of the heavenly throne. Will you let him lead you? Will you let Jesus save you?
 May the old paths of Christian love to- day become to you the new paths of Christian service. We have read that in 1892 a party of men were encamped upon the battlefield of Pea Ridge, in northern Kansas. While they were cooking their supper by the campfire they exploded a buried twelve-pound Parrott cannon shell which had been fired there out of a federal gun on June 12 1862, thirty years before Would that this sermon,