The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-11

pig and strong. The second was a little Wiry animal who tugged and pulled all uay long. Yet strange to say, every tune we came to a hill the driver would
 take out his whip and begin to beat the
 llttle horse. At last I protested. l said; l Why do you whip that little horse? Why | do you not hit that big, lazy brute who
 IS always tagging behind and hardly | keeping his traces taut?" "Oh," answered
 the driver, "I know you do not under
 stand much about horses when you ask
 me such question as that. The reason mt the little horse is because he is the | Willing horse. That big horse is the l balky horse. If hit him he would imme- diately He down and begin to kick tnis
 wagon all to pieces. Therefore l whip the
 little willing horse to keep the big baIky horse agoing" Then I soliloqulzed to my
 self, for at that time I was not truly converted man: 'Ah, how true is that ol
 the world. If a man tries to do anything
 for humanity. he is the willing horse lie
 Is kicked and cuffed and cursed ana row-beaten. The balky horses the use less horses, the selfish horses are always the kindly treated horses and the happy horses"
 l But though I made that deduction many years ago I have now entirely
 changed my mind The willing men or the churches are always the happy men. The self-sacrificing men are always the
 rich men spiritually They are not the
 selfish men. They are not those who will grab and keep all that they can. The Dead sea Is bitter and acrid and saline ana repulsive merely because 1t mas no outlet, and only nlets, while the waters or the mountain brook laugh and gurgle
 and sing merely because it lets all its wa terS run away toward the sea. Who do
 you think was happier, Herod, bloody Herod, loathsome in mind and spirit, or
 Paul, who had given up his whole life to
 Jesus? Herod, with jewels on his fingers.
 or the apostolic tent-maker, with his hands greasy with rope-making? Do you think Napoleon was happy? Napoleon who used the map of Europe for a chess l board; Napoleon, who used to capture | Kings and queens without compunction; | Napoleon, on his way to coronation, who | turned and bitterly said In reference to | the cheering French populace: "Bah! | They would curse me to the guilotine as gladly as they would cheer me to the
 throne" Or would you sooner have the happiness of a Dr. Duff pleading for In-
 dia, or David Livingstone pleading for Africa, or Adoniram Judson pleading for
 Burma. or John Patton pleading for the New Hebrides? Who do you think today Is happier, the woman who Is only living for social conquest or the Salvation Army girl, going with a loaf of bread in one hand and a Bible in the other hand to
 carry the gospel of Jesus Christ into the slums? Yes, my repentant friends. the
 ensuing year Is to be a happy year for you. It is to be a year when you shall
 quaff chalice filled with the sweetest nectar. You shall drink hereafter out of
 the golden goblet filled by those whose sorrows you have alleviated and whose
 sobs you have turned Into songs of eter- nal rapture.
 The One Great Condition.
 But all these deductions hinge upon one great condition. The ensuing year is to
 be happy year for you because from
 now on you are to depend entirely upon
 divine strength to triumph over your be- setting temptations. Last Wednesday
 night was not the first New Years eve
 when you started forth with good resolu-
 tions. Again and again you have attend ed solemn and overwhelming watch night
 services. While these meetings were
 progressing in interest you began to feel