The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-15
|REV. F. B. WEBB ELECTED
 MODERATOR OF THE SYNOD
inner man, to the thing to be expressed was it worth expression!
 Most Important Question.

inner man, to the thing to be expressed i--was it worth expression!
 Most Important Question.
 "This was the question of supremest importance in the apostles mind. and sis the all important question today There are multitudes of lives that were far better left unexpressed. The
 drunkard, as he drinks himself into a stupor the murderer, as he plunges the knife into his victim, the debaucher. az he pursues his course of shame, these are all giving outward and visible ex- pression to their inward and invisible | selves, and the world could well dis pense with the hideous exhibition.
 "The first purpose then of the Apos-
 ties teaching is to have us form some- thing within us worthy of expression the philosophers of old, or the sages ! of the present, and that his teaching has lost none of timeliness or value. | Tn the first place, remark that for | the formation of something worthy within us. he taught the prime neces-
 sity of worthy model He could not | have agreed with the modern school of realism in fiction that the best method for installing into the mind and heart of the young that which is good was to spread before them with law ish brush all the vile and unhealthy imaginings that the mind of man could conceive.
 Issue With Bernard Shaw. Beyond question. he would have taken issue with MT. Bernard Shaw, whose latest drama was suppressed by the police of New York. that such scenes which he depleted could build up within the soul that which was ennobling, and he would have ssutained the Police Commissioner :n his laudable though tardy objections.
 It Is not thus that the painter learns his high art. He does not select the most execrable failure in the world or art as the models, after which he shall form his style. But, rather, does he travel to the centres of art and those with the choicest works of the old mas ters before him, he steepD his soul in the beauties of their wondrous crea- tions and thus forms within himself the beauty and the love of the beauti- full, which he afterwards transfers to the canvas. Why then should we im- agine that in the highest art, the art of living we should reverse all the ap- proved methods of the wisest men of all the ages and feast our eyes and minds on the low and degrading in order to form a beautiful soul with in us.
 Rather does the apostle hang before us the model, the unsurpassed model of all the ages, Jesus the Christ, and with all the power of his mighty intellect and with all the passion of his earnest soul, he beseeches us to look long and lovingly upon him.
 Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth. for I am God and there is none else" This Ia his theme, and this his method through the forty long busy years which he spent after his conversion. Can the ingenuity of man devise a nobler theme. a method more perfect?
 The illustration that recurs most readily to our mind. and which most perfectly illustrates this truth, is that of the Mosaics. found in the ruins of Pompeii.
 saw in the museum at Naples one representing Alexander the great, seat ed upon his war horse, Bucephalus. It was found there amid the ruins of that ancient city and when the accumula- tions of centuries were washed off, 1t was found in perfect preservation The imagination can hardly grasp the infinite labor involved In such a pic- ture. The small particles of stone cut and polished and colored and fitted, all together forming a composite picture, the wonder of ages to, come. s No Comparison Furnished.
 But it is not worthy to be compared to the image of Christ formed on the fieshy tables of the heart, by the small Christ-like acts, which should make up the sum of our daily doings. In the second place. I remark that the apostle was too wise to sit before us a task so infinite and exacting, without ade- quate inspiration. This we find in the second text Christ in you the hope of glory"
 Something follows the labor, some thing that lures the soul on through long and wearing days. Glory is the hope of the soul, but the heart sings of the reward that shall follow. I con tend that outside of the promise of the text, this is a rational hope, and can not be ruled out of court by the sheer Of "other worldliness," Other worldii- ness, It IS true, can develop into a pure selhshness. but this is rather the hope of being prepared soul for prepared place." place in the kingdom or God. With this hope in the soul, with Christ in us the hope of glory" we can live the glad life and die the glad death and sing with Robert Louis stevenson at the conclusion of it aTT: Here Under the deep and azure sky Dig the grave and let me lie;
 Gladly I've lived and gladly die,
 And law me down with a will.
 And this ba the verse that you grave
 for me.
 Here he lies where he longed to he. Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
 hill'" '"S
 Election of Moderator.
 At the close of the sermon, Dr. Pat terson called the Synod of Alabama to order. He wasted no time on prelim- inaries and immediately announced that nominations were in order for Moderator. The names of Rev. B. N. Mclaughlin of Anniston, Rev. Frank B. Webb of Talladega and Rev. l.. S. Handley of Birmingham were sub mitted
 Dr. Mclaughlin asked that his name be withdrawn, but the nomnator was firm and refused to take down his can didate. Dr. Hanley said that he had meen Moderator before and that some other man should be elected.
 On the first ballot Dr. Mclaughlin re- ceived twenty-four votes, Dr. Webb twenty-nine and Dr. Handley fifteen. Dr, Handley's name was withdrawn and on the second ballot pr. Webb was elected, receiving thirty-five votes to pr. McLaughlin's thirty-one
 Dr. Webb has served in the Alabama synod many years. He bears the re- cord of never having missed a meeting or this high church court. He is an eloquent speaker and profound Chris tian. When he was called to the chair by Dr. Patterson, the Montgomery pas- tor simply said he wished that the new Moderator would receive tho same cour- tesies as the retiring Moderator.
 pr. Webb said that he simply wished to express his thanks briefly. The synod he declared, was working body and speeches were not in order. He declared the Synod open for business.