The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-17

Idiln' anu lHdt tue ulNiiS biSoSiAi6 Aoi lows this union of faith and works. The text is Genesis XXX, S9, And the f1ocks brought forth cattle, ringstraked. speekled and spotted
 Laban. though a man of wealth and influence among the Hebrews of his day, was yet, like many rich men in our time, mean and unprineipled where a bargain was involved In his compact with Jacob the weak points of his character were strikingly revealed. He had two daughters. Leah was tender eyed, but Rachel was very beautiful;' in other words the elder sister was homely and unattractive. She was a maiden lady whom no one cared to marry; her eyes were inflamed, or watery, or "cast;" her disposition was evidently as much askew as her eyes. Jacob was deely in love with the younger sister. but after he had served seven long years for her old Laban cheated him out of his promised bride and palmed off upon the young man the unattractive elder sister. Then, in order to win the younge rsister, Jacob had to serve seven more long years, and as a result he had two wives instead of one,
 Power of the Mind.
 At the end of his fourteen years of service Jacob prepared to leave his fath- er-in-law's employ. He wanted to take his two wives and go off and build a home of his own somewhere. This. however, Laban did not wish him to do. So the crafty Laban made a contract with Jacob that if he would stay and continue in charge of his herds of cattle and flocks of sheep he, Laban, would give the young man as payment for his services all the calves and the lambs and the kids that were born ringstraked or speckled or spotted. Jacob agreed to the bargain. But when he agreed the young man was eraftier than the old man. As the fa- ther-in-law had been unprincipled with Jacob, so Jacob was unprincipled now with Laban. What did Jacob do? Did he allow nature to take it's usual course No. He began to scheme and to cunning ly influence the colors of the calves, the kids and the lambs about to be born. He took some rods of green poplar and hazel and chestnut and laid those rods of white and black in the watering troughs of the herds and the hocks Then, when the cows and the sheep and the goats came to drink out of the wa tering troughs the black and white rods reflected in the water made such a start ling impression upon them that the calves, kids and lambs porn thereafter were influenced by that prenatal shock and most of them were ringstraked and spotted and speckled. Thus Jacob g herds grew larger than Laban's, and the craft of the unscrupulous son-in-law overreached the dishonesty of the father in-law.
 After Jacob placed the rods of green poplar and hazel and chestnut in the watering troughs the startling and far reaching effect produced upon the ami mals is not to be wondered at. If you place a stick in the water, by the laws of reflection. that wood may seem to be- come a creature of life. l remember when a lad once dropping my fishing pole and as 1t lay at the bottom of the brook the ripples made that rod look like a long serpent wriggling up stream. As these cattle stoop to drink l see them start back as though a venermous hiss ing snake was lifting up his fatal fangs to strike. My text presents one of the best instances to be found in literature of the far reaching effect of the mind over the physical body.
 Mental Hallucinations.
 We may grant today the influence oi the mind over the body, but we do not go so far as to assert that all physlca diseases or abnormalities are the direct results of mental hallucinations as the straked, spotted and speckled progeny of the cows, sheep and goats were the result of Jacobs wicked act. We do not advocate the theory that a surgeon knife is only another name for butch CTS ax. that a modern hospital Is only a Santanic incubator, that a medicine bottle is only fools poison and that sick ness is only a synonym for sim but. as there are thousands and tens of thou sands of men and women who honestly believe In faith cure" pure and simple as we term that definition, l have chosen in this sermon to preach on Jesus Christ as the Divine Healer and to show both from a Biblical and common sense standpoint that the surgeons knife and the physicians prescription have a part in the worlds Chrstianization and civil ization as well as the minister's pulpit and the consecrated school teacher s desk
 The Bible teaches us that faith should always go hand in hand with works The same divine laws which apply to men in ordinary walks of life apply also to the patient in the invaid's room or upon the hospital operating table. The Christ who stands by the sick bed is the same Christ who accompanies us when
 
 fight to the great battle of life. Christ wants no drones in the busy human bee hives of the worlds struggle for daily bread He wants no drones in the world struggle for physical health. That strug- gle ought to be Just as commendable ir mans sight as Is the struggle for daily bread. In the final extremity, when all human effort is exhausted, we may look to God alone; but until that point is l I1ntl work ceaselessly, and bravely. and hope fully. and invoke the divine blessing or our labors.
 Works and Faith.
 But, though the whole trend of the Bi- ble teaches that works and faith as twin sisters, should go hand in hand in searcs of the waters of physical health. yet faith curists blind their eyes and stop their ears to these Bible teachings. They get hold on one little passage of scripture and separate 1t from all it's surrounding connections. As a sweet morsel they turn it over and over and over again. They magnify it. They distort 1t and ther they rest their entire belief upon it. These people may be good at heart, pni they treat the scripture somewhat as d famous reformer did in the noted meet ing he had with John Calvin in Munich 1 believe. in about the year 1540 After he had valiantly helped to fight the bat tie of the reformation to glorious and a successful issue he still clung tenac- iously to the doctrine of transsubstantia- tion. That doctrine, in plain language means. that when we drink of the com munion wine ard eat of the communion bread we literally are drinking of Christ's blood and eating of Christs body. The other school of theological thought held that when we assemble at the commun- ion table we only eat of Christ's body and drink of Christ's blood in symbol w.