The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-13
DR. WHARTON TAKES
 A VERY FAMILIAR TEXT
Who Is on the Lords Side 2-Preacher Addresses Large Congrega-
 ton at Night

Dr. Wharton delivered the third address
 of the day at the First Baptist church last night. Every available seat in the church was occupied. and a number Of
 persons were unable to get seats. pr. Wharton took his text from Exodus 32 verse 26: 'Who Is on the Lords side! Let him come unto mei'
 Moses came down from the side of the mountain" said the speaker, and
 found the people kneeling before images Lifting his hand he uttered the words oi the text. Suppose there should be fight in progress when we go out of this build ing tonight and on one side we should
 find a long line of persons following Jesus Christ and another long line following the
 devil, which line would you join? The fight Is on. There are only two classes of
 people here tonight-those who are with the Lord and those who are against Him.
 Dr. Wharton then told of the bad in- fluence unconsciously wielded by any good man who did not come out openly
 and let the people know which side he
 was on. He said that such man would
 be pointed to by many young men as ar
 example of what a man could be with
 out belonging to the church. The com munity is always ready, said the preacher to pick out such man or the worst ex-
 ample in the church when presenting an
 excuse for not giving more attention to their salvation.
 An illustration.
 ''There is no half way ground" de- clared the speaker. l know of no bet ter illustration of what I mean than an old man who lived near my home in Gull pepper, Va, during the war. From what could be learned he was a union man.
 but when the soldiers who wore the gray h ny,a pd fn ct ct h tC
 always an enthusiastic Confederate. Men
 on both sides learned of his tactics, and one day when they wanted to meet and trade certain articles they decided to go to the old mans house They began to question him about which side he was on and he did not know what to say
 Representatives of the blue and gray were there and there was no chance to back down. Finally he said: To tell you the
 truth aint nothing, and I aint much of that.
 w nat do you mean when you say you
 are on the Lords side? It means that you trust in Him and do His will. No
 matter what He tells you to do you will do It without one murmur. and there will
 never be day when you will think you have done your full duty.
 What is the advantage of being on the Lords side?' may be asked. Why not
 ask, Whats the advantage of being on the devils side?" I have never heard 6i any. It is true that you can drink and curse and gamble, but I have never heard
 of there being any advantage in these things.
 Dr. Wharton then took up the many
 advantages to be gained by being good
 christian. Many of his points were illus
 trated with telling stories. In speaking
 of boy who had been to college and
 thought he knew 1t all, the boy came
 home and found his father reading the
 Bible The boy told the father that the
 book was out of date and that the people of modern times were reading Darwin and other such writers. Closing the Bible and placing it over his heart" said the speaker, ''the old man looked at his boy and said: My son. this book was the guide of my youth, the strength of my