The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-18
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.


Los Angeles, Cal, December 11.-In this sermon the preacher treats of an unusual theme and shows the value and far reach- ing importance to society at large of in dlvidual character. and a consistent con scientious, Christian life. The text Is Acts V 15, aThat at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them"
 The struggle of the chronic invalid after health Is woefully, heartrendingly and overwhelmingly pathetic. To see a child born to a life of inevitable physi- cal pain and torture; to see young man in the grip of cancer or with bones and joints twisted out of shape by that fiend of inquisitorial torturers, inhammatory rheumatism; to see a young woman slow ly fading away with consumption, going from place to place for a change of cli- mate, trying first this doctor and that doctor, and then, finally, as a drowning man grasps at straw, going to the sure patent medicine cures and trying the nos trums of quack doctors-ah, these, to me. are among the saddest of all the sad sights of human life.
 Yet we may see these pathetic trage- dies everywhere. T cannot lie here and die without making an effort to be cured" said once great lawyer to me in the city of Brooklyn. There was a time when I had a large income and many friends. But now that I am old and without money and dying with a cancer nearly all my friends have left me alone. The doctors come and say Judge, how q.1- cut me with a knife, saying: The cancer Is growing, judge; the cancer Is growing It must be cut out Then when I say.
 Doctor, If I submit to the knife will get well?' they simply shake their heads and answer. Judge. you must dle It does not seem strange that when a man is fatally i'll he will go anywhere and to anybody who promises to make him we'll"
 Poor Robert Louis Stevensoni The doctors said he had to die. But Steven son said If I can only go to a warmer climate shall get we'll" So he went. He travelled south He traveled west. He lived here and there. He was travelling not for pleasure. but for health. He tried to flee his fatal Illness. but sickness kept on his track. It crossed the seas with him. It dwet with him in boat, in hut. in tent. At last. in far off Samoa, 1t climbed the mountains with him, and among those tropical woods Death said, Come. Robert, come" It was a hem orrhage, a little gasp. and poor Robert Louis Stevenson was no more
 Health Is a Treasure.
 The health--what a treasure it isl When it Is once lost, how men strive to regain itl In every age the medical profession has been honored and it's members held in high esteem. I suppose there was as much disease in Judaea in apostolic times as we have in our day; perhaps more, for diseases which our physicians can cure were then pronounced incurable. We can imagine what a sensation there would be in those times, in every home where there was a lame child or a cripple or a father or mother suffering from disease. when it was told that Peter, who had cured the lame man of the temple gate, was curing all who came to him. No wonder that sick people sought and that those who could not leave their beds begged their friends to carry them to him, for we read that they were healed, every one"
 These crowds of chronic sufferers in- stead of decreasing. kept growing larger all the time. At last the numbers of the sick became so great that they could not get near to or have an audience with the famous apostle. They were too many. Then the friends of the sick said among themselves. If sufferers are cured when Peter lays his hand on them perhaps they may be cured when his shadow passes ever them" So the Bible says these be- levers Drought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them There came also a multitude out of the cities roundabout into Jerusalem bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed. every one.''
 The Bible does not distinctly state whether the sick were healed by Peter's shadow; but, reading between the lines of these to verses. it implies 1t. We know that under the power of the Holy Spirit it would be no greater miracle for Peters shadow to heal the sick thar it would for the handkerchiefs and the clothes which had once touched the living body of Paul to heal the sick. We read about this mir acle in the nineteenth chapter of Acts and of the miracle of Peters shadow in the fifth chapter o the same book. I think that cures must have been wrought in this way. Perhaps Peter himself was unconscious of 1t and did not know what his shadow was the means of doing until he was told of the cures afterward. As he passed through the streets touching this one and that and rejoicing that through his touch healing was given his influence reached farther than he knew. We know 1t is so with our lives. The Christian does not know how far his influ- ence does reach. There are some whom he strives to help, but farther off there may be some with whom he never comes in contact who are effected by his very shadow by the unconscious influence of his Christian life.
 Results of Christian Work.
 Examine first the direct results of a Christians work Every man, if he is a true man, has consecrated his mental and physical and spiritual energies to some great purpose The Christian man, as minister, is trying to build up a church; as a lawyer, to build up a courtroom or an office practice as a physician, to have a large number of families as patients as a merchant, to have big store. That pulpit or office or store is to the man his chief thought. He works for 1t by day; he dreams of it by night If he goes off on a summer vacation his mind and heart are still anchored to that workshop, even as a ship out in harbor tugs at it's chains though 1t is unable to break away from its moorings. But though a Christian man may work night and day for his pro fessional or mercantile purpose in life do you for an instant suppose he is able to see the infinite spiritual results that may come from that life's work? Do you sup pose that physician has any conception of the amount of misery and family trou- ble he saved when he persuaded that young wife and mother to go to warmer climate and saved her physical life, pre-