The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-24
The Price Too High.


 It must be an awful sensation for man who has sacrificed his Christian in- tegrity to feel that he always has to live in the "City of Dishonesty" upon the Boulevard of Deceit" It must be an awful thing to feel that every person who comes in touch with you is prompt ed to seek your friendship with sinis- ter desire. I once read of a heartrendng scene. During the bombardment of Charleston, s. C., young girl in one of the principal mansions of that fair city of the south was standing with hei soldier lover before the marriage altar. Just as the chaplain was about to pro nounce the twain one, there sounded ringing of shell. It burst into the room, and the young bride dropped dead at the feet of her lover. Oh, that death was horrible terrific! That was a tragedy. But the scene of horror which met the young bridegroom's eyes that night is not so horrible to me as must be the tauntingly agonizing feelings of bad man who thinks that every marriage all tar Is built upon the hard rock of selfish ness, that all friendly greetings are merely the fawning words uttered by hypocrisy, that every one with whom we walk Is trying to overreach us as we are trying to overreach him. God pity the man who has lost his Christian in- tegrity, God pity the man who feels that
 
 Love" and to associate entirely with neighbors who belong to the great family of Hard Hearts,"
 But temporal success is again bought at too high a price when the desire for one earthly goal oblterates all the tenn poral and spiritual blessings with which we are surrounded. It is bought at too high a price when man. to gain that end. is willing to sacrifice everything else he has on earth. and in the end may lose the prize for which he has strug- ged
 can imagine how Jepthah brooded over the evil chapter of his fathers and mothers life which gave him birth. l can imagine how he wanted to wipe out that stain, especially to wipe 1t out among a people that kept the records of family births generation after genera ton and century after century. l can imagine this mighty man of war impul- sively and hastily saying, 70 God, if l only may be honored among my people I will give to thee as burnt offering the first person that comes out of my house to welcome me" But when his beautiful daughter robbed in white. was being bound to a stake, and when the lighted torch was flung among the fagots piled around her beautiful limbs, and when the tresses of her hair floating In the winds were eaten up by the not hlssins flames and when her dying Snflek was heard above the wailings of the multi tudes that surrounded her funeral pyre, do you believe the death of his only child could In any way make Jephthah happier because the disgrace Of his birth was forever wiped out? Instead of Jeph- thah being the head of his family now by the death of his only child. he was the last of his race. I can imagine how a man reared in poverty and one who knew the gnawings of hunger might long for unlimited wealth-aye. and be ready to make almost any sacrifice to achieve wealth-but when wealth must be pur- chased at the price of his own life's blood is that wealth worth the struggle and the death?
 The Divine Sacrifice.
 That is a magnificent business block" I say to you. That property must be worth a great deal of money" Yes" YOU answer "a fine property. That property was built with flesh and blood. The man who owned 1t is now dead from oyerwork" Yes, that is the sad com mentary upon the methods by which scores and scores of our great fortunes were gathered. The men who made them were the men who were not allowed to live long enough to enjoy them. Oh. my brother. like Jephthah' are you so anxious to achieve a temporal success that you are willing to sacrifice your hearts life in order to win 1t?
 But though 'it is common custom to regard Jephthah as one of the widest characters of the Bible,-as Dr. Blakie once said-"a rough. needless man. alike rash in vowing and heartless In fulfill ing, vet by the burning pyre built by this mans sin we see in the dying girls