The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-07
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


how calmly, how unselhshly the great soldier bore his suffering and, sustained by God s grace, went unfalteringly to the grave. "The world may know him as n great general as 8 successful politician but l know him." wrote his family phy- sician, Dr. Douglass, as a patient gen tie. quiet, uncomplaining sufferer, look ing death calmly in the face and count ing almost the hours he had to live and those hours were studied by him that he might contribute something of benefit to some other fellow sufferer. If he was great in life he was even greater in his death!'
 The Grace of God.
 If the Lord God could give sufficient grace to Ulysses S. Grant to serve him amid such narrowing surroundings will not God give you enough grace in the darkest hours of your Christian life to be a good Christian soldier so that you shall love your fellow church member as your self? 1 say fin the darkest hours of your life" because l firmly believe that some so-called Christians are passing through religious crisis. You are now about to decide your whole eternal destiny. You are to decide If not by how you profess to love God, but how you are willing to
 
 you ready, here and now, as Christian soldiers to "be kindly affeetioned to one another. with brotherly love in honor preferring one another?" Do not tell me that it is impossible for you to live in Christian sympathy with those who belong to your same church family. By the grace of God it Is possible. And if you are not willing to let that divine love have full control of your life, then instead of staying in a church and dis putting and finding fault continually with the other members it is far better for you to leave that church and go back to the world and thereby play the gospel coward, as did the 22O00 men who de- serted Gideons standard at the first op- portunity the Hebrew commander gave them to skulk home.
 The church should be a harmonlouslv organized army. It Is not only possible thereby to hurl solid front against the Satanic foe. but also by preponderance of numbers, concentrated in one move. to make as the Bible says, little one "become thousand and small one a strong nation" Concentration in military parlance means not only in conquest. but generally the complete mystification of an opposing foe. If by a sure mathematical calculation the military chieftan can drive as a battering ram ten offensive men against one man on the defensive, the successful outcome of the conflict be- comes an assured fact.
 Power of the Prayer Meeting. It was by the successful concentration of forces against his enemies and by the lightning rapidity of his movements that Napoleon Bonaparte won his great vic tories. During all the military career of the Little Corscan" his armies were outnumbered by those O. his opponents. But one day we find the brilliant military genius attacking one wing of the Aus trian army. The next day we find him attacking another wing of the Austrian army. One day he is falling upon the defenseless Italian fields by bodily seal ing the Alps. Another day we see him concentrating his artillery fires upon separated part of the German army. Napoleon with his forces would have been wiped off the face of the earth ten years before he met his fate at Waterloo had he attempted to battle his enemies in bulk He beat Austria and Italy and Germany and Spain by defeating his foes by detail--piecemeal. He did it by the power of military concentration. This was the way Frederick the Great carried on his wars of many years. This was the way Washington and Nathanael Greene won their victories. and it was in this way that "Stonewalp' Jackson, with small force at his back, became the ter TOT of every northern commander cam paigning upon Virginia soil So, my friends, as Gideon marshaled his three hundred, the church soldiers should be a united band. They must be able to hurl all their spiritual strength against the Satnanic foe in one place and at one time.
 How can this great forward movement of q single church against sin be con- centrated and conserved? First, by all the church members every seven days answering church roll at the mid-w week prayer meeting Wednesday night prayer meeting is even more important than the Lords day worship. It is by the com mingling of prayers that the spiritual forces of church become inflamed with the holy zeal and all conquering gospel enthusiasm. 1t Is to that roll call that the members of the church must give diligent heed. Concentrated church mem- bership at the mid-week prayer meeting is of overwhelming importance I know of what l speak. During my life I have observed the ways of two kinds of churches. In fhe one I have seen a mighty gospel conquest going on month in and month out. Why? The people at- tended the mid-week prayer meeting. In the other kind of church spiritual results were never assured. Why? The people, no matter how the pastor begged and pleaded failed to attend the mid week prayer meeting. church with full prayer meeting means a spiritually con uuering church; a church with an empty prayer meeting means a spiritually dead church. Hear it, ye pews Hear it! The spiritual success of every church is to be decided by whether it's members will regularly assemble as did the first church in the upper chamber of Jerusa-