The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-14

 - -. - ------------ training this world is specially adapted.s As another has said: Tt is a good grind ing world it is good sharpening world, 1t Is a good stimulatory world. but it is not restful world altogether" It wakes men up, stlrs all their latent forces. and by ten thousand necessities on every side compels them to think far ahead. to be patient and to forbear and to deny them- selves; to restrain needless self indul- gence, to consider others as well as them selves; to combine thoughts and methods and to systematize them. It is a world where the highest forms of eductaion ara going on, schooling them into practical philosophy and economy. There is no ed- ucation higher than that and this should be the goal earnestly and persistently sought.
 This world being the training school. men are held to it. It Is right that men should live and that life should be dear to them since here and only here God Is preparing them for higher conditions. And to this instinct and desire to live are added the chords that bind men to life.
  relations which these sustain in our cont plex human existence When men arc standing in groups, as parents and chil- dren, or brothers and sisters, or compan- ions or partners in life, 1t Is not strange that over and above the instinct of life there should be a strong desire to live for the sake of love and all the ineffable re- lations that have been born of love.
 Again, our pursuits, our plans, our cher ished designs. our several callings in which we have developed personal apti- tude add to this desire. When men arc actively engaged they want to live. not because they are afraid to die but be- cause they love their professions. or have become so identified with great enterprises that they desire to help carry them on to successful completion and thus enjoy te some extent the fruit of their iabors Nothing is more fascinating or honorable h life than such an ambition.
 Ties That Bind.
 And once more, there are the achieve ments, the attainments, the successes in life which bind us to 1t. When men, t.L honest, intelligent labor, have surrounded | things that please ther senses and charm the mind and enrich the soul-when they have the testimony of a good conscience that they are wisely employing all the bounties of Providence which they have been instrumental in procuring -wher they are conscious that they are admins tering them nobly and generously-that they are protectors to the weak, eyes to the blind. a right hand of power to those that need counselors and defenders-thaf their thought powers and their motive powers their wealth and their rich men, tai endowment, are used for promoting the happiness of others-then 1t is right and proper that they should stand with pride in the midst of their resources and be glad of Gods goodness to them, and wish to continue still to live in the land which the Lord has given them. l Hence the notable wisdom of the Holy Scriptures which so disclose the nte to come as not to depress or to discourage but to inspire activity in goodness upon 1 earth and to give stimulus and courage under difficulties and perilous adventures. For though we know only in part. though we may not know what is the sum of all inc joys which are involved in living be- yond the grave: though much may be hidden from us because the King in His beauty" may well afford to conceal from US much of the glory of His presence though certainly the familiar flow of events there has not been revealed to us, there is none the less stimulating sense that the other life is the remuneration for this: that 1t fills up the de1ciences of this and opens the door of an abiding hope that if we are patient and diligent and valiant here and endure to the end we shall not only live again but shall see in the old form, only touched with an immortal brightness, somewhere in the palace of the great King, the dear ones whose faces now have vanished out of sight. We have no abiding city here. but are seeking one to come. We walt to inherit eternal life. How blessed is the man who lives and tolls with this great hope and this changeless assurance in his heart!
 | It is better far. dear friends, for a man 1 to live on q contented trust in God. be- 1 lief in the revelation of his true life in the world to come, than to be millionaire many times, with everything that can 1 charm or gratify the senses. Who are the
 successful men in life? Not those who
 have prospered only in their outward cir cumstances Never was there a greater falacy No, no, but the man who has been a success outwardly and inwardIy. Now and then we find such a man. and how he towers above the mere money gatherer-a man of great probity. of great generosity, of great goodness of in- ward nature. who yet is clothed with such physical and outward power that he is able to control the forces of external greatness and he stands pre-eminent among his fellowmen and everybody re- joices in him and his good fortune. A Noble Type.
 What a noble type of such a man was he who sleeps "cabbIned and coffined' be- fore us today. Can we point to another Tn our midst so complete, so rounded, so poised. and therefore so universally re- spected and beloved? He was among us only a few days ago. apparently so strong, i so active (and what splendid physique he had. the fitting organ and vestment of | a mind so robust and a spirit so pure), | but already the monition had come moi | only to him but to his more intimate | friends that the tried lawyer must rest fconfinued on Seventh Paae)