The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-06

but in 'the still small voice." Men may be wooed back to God, but they are seldom driven And why should we not deal gently with Gods wayward chll- dren? Do you for one instant think those people who spiritually ana mofalig have gone astray are having sooo time DO you for one moment suppose that the man who, like Laocoon, knows that he and his family are struggling amid the crushing coils ot deadly ser pents on account of his sins, would not gladly be rescued from those enYeloplng coils if we could only go to him anu gently in Christs name and offer 10 nm the peace and the pardon and the nope and the eternal life of the gospel! Ah' yes my brother, he would, he wouid.
 No man enjoys drinking the pllter drees of remorse No man for mere measure would allow Satan to keep on Having him alive, as Satan is doing on his victims all around us. Sometimes at first looks are deeeiving in reference to this From the opened door of the saloon to tow haunts of vice we near the songs and the guffaws of laugh ter. Then we say, "Oh, what hlgn carnival is sinI' But stop. Is that all :. Do you see that young man who now comes toward us in seedy attlre his step is staggering. He Is blear eyed and maudlin in drink He turns down a side street and staggers to his lodgings in the upper rooms of a poor tenement where lives his wife and Tour or HFe half-naked and half-starved children That young man only ten years ago was | dressed as well as you or l. lie hau then A finer business than you nave To- l day He once had just as happy nome Tel, me that man Is happy? Is that man whose wife so proudly stepped to the altar to give herself to him in marriage Ia that the young man her friends con- | graduated her upon marrying
 Wages of Sin.
 Call that fun? Fun to be kicked out or 1 vour home? Fun to have the sherin sell l vaur store over your head? Fun to have | all vo,ir friends turn their back upon you | as an outcast? Through the midnight | darkness 1 hear the echoing Of the song or ten years ago now singing "The wages of sin is death" Oh, no, my brother; that young man is not happy. The worst | taskmaker on earth is the devil. No mar so much wants to crush the power oi sinful temptations as that man who has been compelled to drink the bitter dreg: | of despair Do not despise him; pity him and with gentle words try to win hin | back to honor and to Christ. He deserye
 your commiseration. Therefore, if yoi and I are ready to go to Gods outcasts l if we are ready to go to the sinners Il Chrlst's name and say gently, Brother ] Jesus is ready to save you, Jesus want me to be your friend and help you" ther
 would be no difficulty in most case
 about the spiritual reseues. But the trou ble with this old hateful and hatini
 world Is, as Josh Billings quaintly pu | it, When a man starts downmH | | seems as though everything was srease' for the occasion" And when man onc' strikes the bottom of the hill but Vers few people are ready to fling him lht gospel rope and haul him up out or tht W | mud o man, can you not hear Chfis' speaking to you in behalf of Gods way l ward children as David. the broken
 hearted father, once said to Generai Joab about his wayward boy Deal gent lw for my sake with the young man. even | with Absalom."
 Oh how many sinners could be brought to Christ If we would only practice the
 gospel of gentle lifei It is said that
 one of the hardest criminals or an east ern penitentiary was converted by the gentleness of a little child This lituf child and her father were being showS