The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26


 It. they would stagger back as though stunned. Then they would look around the street as though they were thieves about to rob house. Then at those lewd l pictures in the windows they would look again, with glassy eye and flushed face. But afterward those same boys who al i hrst were ashamed to look, would become bold faced and vile tongued. They would stand around that corner, smoking hlthy cigarettes and insulting young girls as they would pass by. Within the walls of ] my own church l have seen this paralyz= ing of the moral sensibilities NY sin. l have seen a man who once led noble woman to the marriage altar not only sacrifice himself, but sell his own child into sin. for the qualification of quench- ing a drunkards thirst My brother and sister, with such examples before you of the metamorphosing power of sin, can you afford to run the risk of scoffng at sin? Are you not afraid that, as in Circe's palace you may be changed into the form of a human brute? Are you not afraid that by the touch of sin your conscience may become so hardened that you shall have no moral sensibilities leftY
 Evil temptations should not be derided. The depths of human misery into which they can fling their victims this side of 1 the grave are unfathomable. It is upon the dark side of the results of sin l would ! speak. The trouble with many of our so called Christian teachers is that we put halo over sin. We picture temp tation as a creature of beauty seated upon a silver cloud lined with gold. She holds in one hand a pack of cards and in l the other a goblet of wine The color of | her cheek, the flowers caught in the folds l of her garment, clinging about her 1.-the form, make her look so innocent one can not help loving her even though she may be bad But I would tear away the beau tiful robe, and under the rim of that cloud l would show you crouching de- mon whose only music is the agonizing cry of those whom he has got in his clutches. whose only joy is in tantalizing those whom he is destroying and whose frightened, pleading eyes have no more effect upon his stony heart than the cry of the helpless fawn upon the boa con strictor who is wrapping it's coils about the trembling body for the fatal hug.
 First Steps to Destruction.
 The first steps to moral destruction may wind through a garden, but that floral pathway soon changes into the hily road covered with jagged rocks and running by the side of yawning precipices. The bracelets of gold are soon changed into the handcuffs of steel. The merrymakers will soon hear the echoes of their laughter in the shrieks of the doomed and the lost. There is no per manent happiness in sin. Mark that my brother-no real happiness in sin!
 Tell me, O drunkard, that you are happy? Mo- mo- Any one who has heard John B. Cough describe the miseries of his past life knows that no drunkard is happy. Tell me that the libertine is hap py when by his crimes he lost the re- speet of all good men and women? When he sat at the gaming table he not only lost his honor, but his home his business, his all. He cannot even buy a pair of shoes for his feet or a coat for his back. Thomas Guthrie once described the cup of sin as a beautiful chalice filled with wine, but at the bottom of the cup lay coiled serpent And so after we have 1 slipped for a little while the cup of pleas ure tden the evil serpent will appear and sting us and bite us as we put the chalice to our lips. Let no man consent to be a mocl1ing fool by supposing that an evil life ever brings happiness this side of the grave.
 But how much more awful must be the evil results of sin on the other side of the grave. Can a tiger change his striped fur? Can a wolf have his hair bleached into the white wool of a lamb? Can a man born in sin reared in sin and living In sin and dying in sin be emanci- pated from sin merely because his body sleeps for little while in the tomb? Oh mol The soul that sinneth is the soul that must suffer the results of its sins unless Christ forgives those ns and washes them clean in the blood of the | Lamb. And whenever there Is sin, whether in this world or the next there is agony 1 do not care whethe4 you call the place of eternal punishment a lake of fire and birthstone" a great, heaving. molten sea of burning lava. a | afr ory. The sinner dying unrepentant must suffer and suffer and suffer forever The Bible declares it. We must believe it.
 Suicidal Folly of the Sinner.
 The suicidal folly of the sinner who year Ly year adds to the long record of his sins was vividly and impressively compared by MT Sturgeon to a black smith, who at the command of an ori- ental tyrant forged for him long chain. l The blacksmith at his forg worked week in and week out, month in and month out; then he brought the chain to the flend and said, Here is the chain which thou didst order" Make the chain longer" said the tyrant; "longer, make it longer" When at last the blacksmith answered, q cannot make the chain any longer, for I have used up all my material" the tyrant said to his slaves, 'Take it and bind the blacksmith with his own chain and cast him into a furnace of fire" So Satan as a demon by the power of sin and by a mans own acts will not only destroy mans own life for this world, but also for the next
 My brothers and sisters, who have heretofore been mocking at sin as have been painting for you a picture. with the dark background of warning, will you not let me paint in the bright foreground a sweet divine love? Will yol not let me describe for you the Christ who is ready to stand between you and all fu- ture temptation, the Christ who will not only forgive the past, by His power will keep you in the future? Who is He? The unchangng Rock The Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star, the One who is altogether lovely, the One who is now standing by your side. Will you receive Him? Will you not let | Christ come into your heart?
 Ye mockers at sin, l would plead with you also. Come to the fountain of which if one drink he shall never thirst again. 1 would plead as I have never pleaded before. Why? Because 1 know that un- der your sneers and laughter you have a breaking heart. l know that you are at heart weary of your sin and dread it's punishment Come. then, and let Christ save you. You are invited and Christ assures you that none that come to Him shall be cast out I tell you this invita- ton is for all. Yes, it is for all It is for you just as it was for that poor drum ken loafer who crawled up to the altar in Pittsburg many years ago. ''What is | the good of trying to save him?" some men said to Francis Murphy. 'No good,' answered Murphy, flor me to try to save