The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-09
BREACHES ABOUT GOOD MEMORIALS Rev. pr. Dickinson Exhorts to
 Christian Living THOSE WHO LIVE CHRIST The Young Should So Act as to Link Their Lives With the Saviour
 and be Gratefully Re-
 membered.
THOSE WHO LIVE CHRIST

The Rev. Dr. A. J. Dickinson, pastor oi the First Baptist church, preached to 6 large congregation at the morning serv' ice yesterday. taking as his theme "Mary's Memorial" The text and ser. mon follow:
 ''Verily, I say unto you, wheresoevel this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for memorial of her. "-Matthew xxvi1S.
 ITO be remembered gratefully after we have passed from earth's scenes by those we love is dear to every heart. Death would lose much of its bitterness and sting if 1t did not imply that we would be forgotten. Men will trample our dust and forget that it ever heaved with the pulses of our life.
 ITO fortify ourself against this fate men have built the pyramids, reared their mausoleums, erected their monu- ment and tried to link their names with enduring objects and places
 This natural longing is the instinct which has given use to ancestor worship and our habit of giving the family name to our children. We feel that somehow our fathers deserve to be remembered and 1t Is our sacred duty to keep fresh their memory. This makes childlessness bitter in old age. To leave a good name wor- thy of being remembered gratefully and then to have that name cherished is A. worthy ambition.
 .t "Tha roauaot.tr aF @t,o blessed; but the name of the wicked shah rot"
 In Remembrance.
 Our Lord left two ordinances to be kept in remembrance of Himself So in our new church we have permitted me- morlals to be erected to those whose ser vice here have made them worthy to be remebered
 "Our Lord erected a memorial to A Christian woman. An event in her life Is taken to be told whenever the gospel was preached and this narrative was to be her memorial. In a banquet at Beth any, in the house of simon the Ieper when the atmosphere was heavy with portents of His pending death, when His betrayal is already plotted for and de- termined on, after the feast came Mary with her cruse of ointment of Spikewood very precious, and in token of her full sympathy with Him in the hour of His greatest sorrow poured 1t on His head and feet to annoint Him aforehand unto His 1 burial. The disciples did not see thi, deep meaning of the act, but regarded i as an unwarranted waste which might 1 have been given to the poor This senta. mental dealing with the poor has mad, paupers and worthless tramps of man, human beings. There are the profes sional poor which pay their way through the world by just such senseress charity They will live a beggars' life of idleness and of incidence so long as sentimental and senseless charity will pay the freight
 Tt Is a wholesome law especially fo, professional beggars that if any will not work, neither let him eat But the Lord saw and appreciated the fragrance of the costly ointment. It was the ex- pression of sympathy and fellowship with Him in His death for the sins of men, and such deed was worth being told wherever the gospei should be preached in the world. The fragrance of that ointment would be the vehicle of the gospel of His death
 Let us learn several things concern ing this matter of memorials from this our Lord set up for Mary of Bethany.
 A Gospel Truth.
 T. It was the embodyrng of a great gospel truth which made Mary ou this occasion worthy of being honored with memorial. Mary had annointed Him before this and wiped His feet but thai act of hospitality did not embody an ap. preciaton of His death, the gospel ot which should be preached To eat bread and drink wine Is an ordinary comrnon place of life, but when done in remem brance of Christ 1t is a great ordinance Marys heart burned with an apprecia ton of Jesus dying love and from thi, altar sent its incense to heaven. If wS this which made her worth being remem bered. We are only worth being remem bered as we embody some greath truth o, union and sympathy with Him who is tn, truth
 Truth Grows.
 ''2 A memorial should preach the truth should be an expression of the truth which the departed lived and realized in life. Truth, especially religious truth grows in human hearts. These words are spirit; they are life. The gospel Is no creed or covenant embalmed and fixed in terms and formulae. It is life in Peters heart, in Johns, in Mary's, in Origins. Augustines, Luther's Bun vans and those who have lived Christ. These are its best expositions, It's living epistles. So this incident from the life of Mary breaches through the whole world the gospel of sympathy and feI- lowship with Jesus. So she setting forth Christ is worthy of perpetual memorial. The truth that was blessing her will bless others.
 Christianity Illustrated.
 "3. Consider our duty to preserve the exposition of Christianity God gives us in our people who live Him from being lost to coming ages. How Christianity is illustrated, testified to, expounded as power by the lives of Gods saints Each one is an exposition of the mani fold grace of God. Think how poor the gospel would be today if the lives of those who have embodied it In the years agone should be forgotten How poor this church would be without the recollec- tion of those who have here nyed Christ before our eyes Shall we not follow our Lord and by some memorial pre- serve these expositions of His word anc grace Have we done our duty as their descendants and as the transmitters of Christianity to those yet to come unless we shall pass on the word of life as thus