The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-08-13

sharp clawed and their tceth as cruel as
the crooked beak of a hawk. ready to
make its fatal plunge into the heart OF
dove or lamb or fawn.
Now their eyes are eyes of gentleness;
their feet Ire like the great paws of the
noble st. Bernard dogs of st. Gothard
pass which the monks send forth and
, which climb over the Alps to hunt for
! the lost and the dying travellers. These
| men and women, once corrupt, are now
purified. Once wild beasts of passion.
| now gentle as lambs, they follow at the
| feet of the Good Shepherd, and they como
| to us and say, 'If the grace of God
could change us and save us the grace
of God can spiritually change you If you
| will let It," Not from the Jungle of sin
| to the jungle of sin did they go, but from
| the far country of sin they came back
| as redeemed sons and daughters to their
| fathers house. Not from man to beast
but from evil monsters to Gods saint
ship. has been their redemption. trans
| formation. transmigration and spirituali-
| zation.
| II some of us could not feel that God
| saves the vilest and the lowest and the
| chief Of sinners, we could not feel that
| 1.-THE Call of the Good" was for u.s. There
Is natural law that water cannot rise
| higher than its source. I go down into
| the valley Jnd | find the brooks leap
| ing over the rocks. l see the creeks and
| the rivers, with their great serpentne
| coils. bending and winding through the
meadow lands. ! see waters tumbling
over r1iller's wheel and, like circus rider
| from the top of Bushkill or Mnnehaha
| falls, 1eaping through their hoops of gold,
| which the sum- cams in the forms OF rain
| bows have lifted for them to play with.
| I know the water in the valley can do
| oil this l"NrIusc the s".rce Of thai water
Is higher than meadow lands. Those va
| tors come from rtserv. lis of clouds which
| havn empticd tn. necIyes upon yorder
| mountain side. But in our own strength
] we have no highlands. If left to our
selves we are noin RS but bare. bloak
| Sahara desert filed not with life, but
| with death. But II the spiritual waters
| can rush down from the mountain sides
| and cleanse and purify and turn into spir-
itual GASES the bleak. bare. sinful desert
] lives of some of the men and women we
have known. the spiritual waters rush
| ing down from Gods heights can easily
purify and cleanse and change us into
| spiritual cases Yes. our bleak bare, sin
| full lives-bleak and bare as the most re-
/ pulsive of all Sahara deserts-can be
completely changed. Truly THE Call OF
the Good" comes nightly and over
whelming to us from the redeemed lives
| of the Davlds. and the Peters. and the
| Magdalenes. and the Zacchaeuses we see
| about us on every hand.
Call to Sinners.
"The Call of the Coco" In its highest
development means 1.-The Gail to Come to
| Christ" am not now extending this in
| vitation to the saints, but to the sin
ners; not to the angels living In the
white mansions Of the new Jerusalem or
| singing In the celestial choir lofts, but
| to the wild beasts of the human race.
] to those who have wandered farther and
| farther away until they think that even
| Christ himself has ceased to love them
| or to care for them. / offer II not so
! much in the homes of purity as upon the
| wild mountain sides of sin, In the thickets
| of evil and In the cold billiards. Of de-
spair Remember, Christ comes to us not
| so much as a judge. but as a Saviour
/ rescuer. a redeemer. VIII you liste to
| the Divine Call of the Good?' VIII you
\ be purged with hyssop until you are
| clean? VIII you be washed In the atoning
blood until your garments become whittier
| than the driven snow?
| Christ would save even the lowest and
| the vilest. He would save Paul, the chief
| of sinners. even as he would save the
| gentle John. He would do for us In
| spiritual way what that Indian mother
| In a physical sense tried to do for her
| little daughter many years ago upon one
| oft he ice foes of Lake Huron. This
mother was an Indian squaw of Mani
toulin island. of the Ojibway tribe. She
was standing upon the ice near the shore
one evening Suddenly the ice upon which
she stood parted, and the block blew out
into the lake. Next morning the Indians
found her frozen body, with her dead