The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-17
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.
nY LIE REv FRANk pE VIII rALMAee. Q. D.


Chicago, May 1o.-In this sermon the
preacher takes an optimistic view of the
spiritual outlook and sees In the growing
predominance Of the Anglo-Saxon race
an augury that foreshadpws the spread
of the gospel throughout the world The
text is Exodus xiv, Is, Speak unto the
children of Israel that they go forward. "
Napoleon Bonaparte, in some respects
the greatest warrior of modern times,
once declared, There sometimes comes
a crisis IN a battle or a campaign when
victory, as a bird will hover over the
standards of that great general who has
brains and grit enough to give the COM
mand Forward, march," This was
the way the French commander defeated
the two great wings of the Austrian
army at Montenotte and Ceva This was
the way he won his battles at Arcola and
Marengo and Wagram This was the
way he tried to win Waterloo, when he
commanded Marshal Ney to lead the Old
Guard against the solid squares of the
British infantry. And this was the way
Moses, the great law giver and soldier,
over the sands and on through the Red
sea, and freed them from the onrushing
charge of the pursuing Egyptians.
But the divine command given to the
children of Israel that they go forward
is applicable to the children of God at the
present time. l believe we are at crisis
in the worlds history. In 1890 my father
preached sermon entitled Last Decade
of le Century" BY 1t he tried to show
sill fbo he Of N
Christ within ten years if every Christian
would annually bring only one soul to
Christ and these new converts in turn
would also individually bring one soul to
Christ every following year. But
today l want to show that the
world can be brought to Christ
even in less time than that If the
christ even in less time tn. \ that If the
Christian church will only realize its full
opportunity and grasp it. l want to
show this because l believe all the great
preliminary battles have been fought and
won which are necessary for this final
triumph. AS Concord and Lexington and
Bunker Hill and Princeton and Saratoga
had to preceIe the Yorktown surrender
so 1 would trace the great onward move
ments of the human race to show how
we are fast approaching he golden mile
stone where the world can be redeemed
from SIN. linen L WOuiu Try " snoW ioW
the Anglo-Saxon race, as human agen-
cy, can take the chief part in this glad
some and worldwide triumph if we will
only move forward in Gods name.
The Worlds Redemption.
The first great battle for the worlds
redemption was fought and won when
every mans fireside became his city of
refuge" or his impregnable castle, from
which no feudal lord or arbitrary chief
tain could dsodge him. 1t was won
when a husband and father could walk
into his home and shut the coor and defy
the great wide world as he said:
THESE goods mine. This wife Is
mine. These children are mine, and no
man dare touch them" 1t was won
when an honest man, no matter how
humble he might be- had right in fee
simple to the property which his energy
had earned, to the woman he had led to
the marriage altar and to the children
who were born to them.
The right of man to own his own
home and to have an exclusive claim
over his wife and children is recognized
In every civilized land. We have all
read the story of 1.-The Miller and the
Emperor" Frederick the Great wanted
to enlarge his palace grounds. miller
owned little patch of land near the
royal domain. The king offered to buy it,
The miller would not sell. The king Of
fered three, four, five times the value of
the property. The miller still refused. |
That land was to him above the value of
money. 1t represented to him the home
of his childhood and the home of his
ancestors. Then" said the king, II
will conhscate your land and take 1t fore
IDLY from you" "Then," said the miller
to the king, II will go to law and COM
pei you to give me back my property"
The king was helpless. He knew that in
Prussia the king might sit upon a
throne, but there was a power greater
than the king. That one was the law
protecting the man intrenched behind the
impregnable walls of his own home.
But this condition of individual rights
of a man and of family did not always
exist in the human race. There was a
time when the names husband and wife
did not mean what they do today. "There
was a time wrote Sir John Lubbock in
his book entitled THE Origin of Civiliza-
tion," when in many tribes the children
took the name of the mother instead of
the father because the name of the faith
er was never known" There was a time
when, by the old feudal system. the cor
nerstone of society was not In the home
of the laborer, but in the castled walls
of the near by ruling lord The feud-
al lord not only owned his peoples cattle
and sheep and horses, but If he wished
he could do what he would with his serf's
wife and children. There was a time
when every woman became by law the
wife of every male member of her tribe
and every man the husband of every fe-
male member. Thus the communism of
the brute prevailed. Thus the human
being was an animal. beast pure and
simple. Even down to Bible times we
find that Abraham was not the only hus-
band of Sarah, but also the father of
1shmael by his handmaiden Hagar. Da-
vid and Solomon were the husbands of
many wives. But now the condition of
society is all changed. The marital stat
us has gone back to the ideal condition
God first ordained, when the psalmist
described when he wrote, God setteth
the solitary in families" Such being the
social condition among the civilized races
l believe we are one and all ready to
grant that no class of men are more
willing to recognize their responsibility
to God than those who conscientiously
try to fulfill their responsibilities in
family life.
Intolerance Overthrown.
The next great battle for the worlds
redemption was fought and won when
the frowning walls of religious intoler-
ance were battered down and the torture
dungeons of the dark ages were forever
opened to the purifying light. All, the
battle for religious liberty was a long
and a bitter STRUGGLED 1t was not won
in a day, a decade. a generation or a cen
fury. 1t fought it's way through the fly
ing stones and the bloody swords and
hA ri M