The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-12

inent lawyers, ministers, doctors and mer- l chants in a large city was once compiled
 Eighty per cent were found to come from
 the country. Thus. ye farmers and
 farmers wives, do not mourn whenever
 your stout limbed boys and beloved girls
 leave you for the great cities. Remember
 that you are giving them to the service
 of Jesus Christ Remember that your | prayers and Christian training are now To
 bring forth their gospel results in tfe | place where they are most needed.
 When my father, then a young country
 minister, was called to a large city
 church, my grandfather, David Ialmage' | protested against his going. He said:
 De Witt, you are doing well now in your i little country church. Why do you go l into that large city where your influence l will be swallowed up and no one ever
 hear from you again2" But De Wit Tal-
 mage answered: Father, l must go. It
 Is my duty to go. l believe God is calling
 me to that field. And if I goin His name l He will bless me" God did bless him. | And so, farmers and farmers wives, tod
 will also bless and Is blessing the Chris
 tian work of your Christian children in | the same way if He has called them to | live In great city.
 Palm Sunday emphasizes the fact that
 the easiest way to capture city for | God is to go after the masses. Who are | the masses? They are the most of folks. | They are the common people who for the
 most part fill our churches. And yet they
 are the common people who today, if they are only reused with holy enthusiasm,
 can conquer this old world for Christ. | They can do 1t as easily as the common | people who came out to greet Jesus on
 Palm Sunday made the Pharisees and the
 high priests hirelings at that time afraid fa fEa4- -t,,er fAp ff lf
 Jesus any harm. Today that religious
 organization which Is most spiritually in- | fuential for Jesus Is the church which
 appeals to the empoye as we'll as to the | employer, to the poor mans hut as well
 as to the rich mans palace, to the artisan
 and the mechanic and the laborer as well
 as to the merchant prince. the capitalist l or the man dressed In broadcloth.
 Power of the Common People.
 Oh, the infinite influence of the cor,
 mon pepole If we could only by the
 power of the Holy Spirit enlist the com
 mon people to fight for Jesus Christ,
 under the standard of the cross there | would be no doubt as to the ultimate
 condition of our nation. When Robert ] G.. Ingersoll was a candidate for the l gubernatorial chair of Illinois, he was de-
 feated for the nomination. Why? Be-
 cause if he had been nominated every
 church pulpit would have become a politi- | cal rostrum. Every little meeting house | and prayer meeting room would have | been filled with Christian workers, who
 would have worked and voted against l him. Thus, if we could only inspire the 1 great mass of the church members, made 1 up or the common people, with a holy | enthusiasm for Christ it would mean our 1 political salvation It would mean the | extinction of the saloon. Then no Chris | tian would vote for a candidate unless 1 he emphatically stated he would do all in 1 his power to drive out the destroying | demijohn. It would mean the purification of the home and of the church. The heart | or the common people rings true when | 1t is not misled. No wonder that it was
 among them that Jesus passed the most | of His earthly ministry. They were the 1 flrst to recognize Him. From them came | the first members of His church, and it is with feelings of gratitude to them that
 we remember that 1t was they who gave 1 to our Lord the only public welcome and | exclamation that He ever received.
 But Palm Sunday also throws into our raptured eyes the sunrise of Easter dawn l as well as it overshadows our heavens
 with the dark clouds of the blackest of all Black Fridays" Palm Sunday practically says to us; You may have to carry your cross and bear your burdens and suffer your death as Jesus Christ had to suffer and die, but you may also. like Chr.st have your emancipation and resurrection and ultimate triumph. This was the req sen why the ancient Christians chiselcd
 the palm leaf upon their tombstones | This was the reason why they also had 1 the palm as the symbol of martyrdom
 It meant vietory-Victory in the name of
 the Lord Jesus, victory over this world
 victory over sin. It meant the kind of victory that St. John described in Revela- tion when he cried out After this l be- held, and. 10, great multitude which no man could number stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands Cicero described an athlete who had won
 a great number of prizes as "a man of many palms" So today as we see the palm branches thrown under the feet of Shrlst We know that they may be future symbols They may remind us of the palms of many heavenly rewards.
 The Triumph of the Palms.
 What happy day that will be when Christ greets his loved ones in heavenly lands and gives to them their victorious palms-the palms of reward for all their past sufferings and trials and sacrifices which were undergone for Him! When Agr.ppa, the grandson of Herod the Great expressed d wish that Caliguia might some day sit upon the Roman throne
 Emperor Tiberius was angered. He threw Agrippa into a loathsome dungeon There he languished week after week and month after month but when the easing time uid place Caligula upon the throne then the new emperor went in person and opened the prisoners gates. He robed Agrlppa in royal purple: he gave him
 palace in which to live; he took the heavy chains which had once manacled the prisoners feet and weighed them, ana Tor every heavy link of iron he gave him
 heaVy link of gold. Our Divine Master on that happy day of the rewardings jn
 heaven will give to each one of His suffer. ing children greater compensation than ever Emperor Caligula gave to the ragged prisoner Agrippa. Jesus will clothe us in white, not only the symbol of victory. but Of purity. He will make the jewels of our crown out of the crystalized tears y;e have shed in His service. and in each one or our hands Christ will place a palm the palm of victory. the palm of never
 ending joy Oh, Christian brother do not worry because you have to suffer for oesus' IL means a palma waving tri-
 umphant palm.
 | The palm Is such suggestive symbol
 or victory that today I would that We
 might have had this pulpit decorated
 With palm branches as an object lesson.
 men, atter the service is over I would
 nave you, mem bers of this toneregatio, 2,
 eaeh take palm leaf home. as the priests allow the worshpers to do this lav m
 Cathohc churches. Then. after you had