The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-04
THE AGE-HERALD MONDAY, DECEMBER 4. 1908.

to guide us safely through the grounds of giant despair, to make a path for us through every slough of despond lie proposes to part every sea that threatens to overwhelm us with it's mighty waves and to overthrow every host that under- takes to thwart us in our endeavors to do his will The command of God to do, is the pledge of God to enable us to perform.
 IT. The principle on which this advance is made; 1t Is faith
 l All progress Is conditioned in falth' III science. art, literature, philosophy, rehs- ion, If we go forward we must do so Ill faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.'' It is the office of the word oi God to teach that faith. It is the lesson the great event before us teaches' the lesson of a great miracle. Telling us iha' God is supreme. He can give power to meet and overcome whatever may op- pose us in the path of duty. All we nave 1 to do is to listen for the order rom l heaven and obey it. Go forward IS the word God has always spoken to man and this principle of faith is the only principle on which this forward step can | be taken.
 First. It is faith strong enough to sur render the old life for the promise or the new. Not for the vision of the new but the promise. If one could see God and heaven. and angels, and saints. u would be easy enough to choose the
 faff 1 good and pursue 1t. But 1t IS faith Ill the word, the promise of ne" ne It is no easy matter to begin new iie' It is very easy to make good resolutions and it is not difficult to put in practice TOT a while; but when it is a resolution 'o serve God in every particular, ana oo ene right under all circumstances, we neeu l great faith. The old life has been hVeu so long that it is a very hard matter to break away from it. Think of attempting to break in one moment the chains we have been forging for quarter of cen l tury, or perhaps even longer than 'iia' Is it not true that a struggle, and very l severe one is necessary? We nave, per ] haps, tried to break one habit, ana iouhu 1 it far stronger than we thought put when we attempt to break the habits or life time how much more difficult ! These habits are entrenched in affection 1 They have been formed under the Tree 1 play of the strongest forces Of our halure' | and we are invited to break them ana | enter upon new life. We are told 10 leave them and go forward, while as yet we see nothing but an angry sea rolling before us Some of us haVe' per | ir, things. l held on to some others were not good. God calls upon us to leave every thing that is unholy and unclean ana follow him. And he grants us no Vislohs' only promises, and tells us to go forward in faith.
 Thought of Old Egypt.
 Israel all through the wilderness wahder- ings was thinking about old Egypt Before they had been out of Egypt three days they asked Moses if he had led them out because there were no graves in Eeypt' There was much irony in the question: The Egyptians paid especial attention 10 the dead, and the city of Thebes, wnich was the city of the dead was not lar from where the children of Israel had lived. They had seen thousands of tomos in Egypt, and they say If we were ofly brought out here to die it would nave been better for us to have stayed where the graves were already prepared. Think of the tombs of Egypt being brought up at this time by this people, and spoken | of as an attraction, for that Is what IL means after all. And yet men In their unwillingness to leave the old nfe' ana in their murmurings after they enter upon the new are very often similar to this: Israel forgot the bondage, forgot the suffering, forgot the galling slaVery' forgot everything save the fact that they now seemed to be in very dangerous sur roundings One little cloud obscures the sun that is thousands of times larger that itself so one trial often causes men to lose sight at least for time or the thousands of blessings they have receiv- ed from the hand of a benetcent doo' bue while the old Is loved, and 1t is hard to leave 1t yet 1t is by no means an im- possibility. Faith in the promise or the new if often strong enough to make men leave the old for 1t. The emigrant leaves the old home for the promise of the new He knows nothing about it save what others have told him, and he forsakes father and mother. and friends and native land, and seeks a country of which he has heard, but of which so far as per sonal experience is concerned he knows nothing. This country Is an example or this truth It has been built up largely by men who have left the old for the promise of the new. They came here by faith They came because of the prom ises, and because of nothing else. They had nothing but promises to go upon. and they were the promises of fallibie human beings, and the promises of hu- man reason We are invited to go into Gods great country by the promises Of God. Those promises have never failed. The man who goes forward at Gods com- mand makes no mistake To the world he may die, but he becomes alive to God. To men he may seem to lose his life but he gains really eternal life. This prin- ciple of faith is not confined to Christi anity merely, but necessarily runs through every thing in life. The only thing is that we have more reason for faith in God than we have for faith in anything