The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-14

| hope this may be" He does not say:
! Il know this can be and shall be through
the blood of Jesus Christ The divine
statutes declare it When a gospel ora
J tor stands upon the promises of God
/ found in the Bible he speaks with GER
tainty; he speaks with absolute convie-
! ton; above all, he speaks as no other ad-
vocate unsupported can speak. No other
man in pleading for simple justice has
such emphatic divine authority behind
him as is found In the word of God when
pleading for repentance and righteous
| ness.
SeWard"s Great Plea.
The gospel orator is mighty when he
pleads for one whom he would save from
eternal death. lie naturally has all the
fire, all the enthusiasm, all the pent up
passion of a lawyer pleading at the bar
of justice trying to save the neck of a
client who Is being tried for murder in
the first degree. Aye, he has more than
that. He has all the intense earnestness
that was felt by William Seward in 1864
when he pleaded for the life of William
Freeman, an idiotic black pauper who
had Killed the entire Van Nest family
of Auburn, n. Y. 1t was during the agi-
tation of the aboitonist movement The
white men of the north as well as the
south were against him. Yet there Will
liam II. Seward pleaded and kept plead
ing. When at last his client was hung
by the neck until he was dead. by post
mortem examination it was found out
that William Freeman was in truth an
idiot and irresponsible for the crime
which he had committed and that William
II. Seward. the young attorney, was right
in his defense of him.
Cannot you feel the earnestness of a
Seward pleading? I can. ! cannot think
of a lawyer defending client who is
being tried for his life unless that law
yer is in an agony of suspense until the
acquittal comes in the two words mot
guilty" spoken by the foreman of the
jury. do you make your clients inter-
ests your interests?" l once asked a law
yer friend. Yes" he answered. so much
do l make their interests my interests
that If they are being tried for life | am
disturbed In my sleep and dream about
them, Every moment of my waking
thoughts Is with them. 1 often get up in
the middle of the night during a trial
and write, so anxious as l to save
them" ''Ah,n then l said to myself, no
wonder you are great speaker when you
plead for a life in this way. No wonder
your whole soul goes forth in a mighty
plea for your clients when you are as
one pleading for your own life" No WON
DER the gOSpel orator s pea Is Il mighty
plea Every word he utters, every ges-
ture he makes, every thought that is
born in his brain, has the mighty purpose
of saving some man from eternal DEATH
Nightly as a Christian lawyer does he
plead for the salvation of men.
But the Christian orator has a higher
and even a greater inspiration than the
saving of sinful men and women from
eternal death. He stands in a unique
position He is not only pleading for the
salvation of men. but also FOR what is
pleasing to God. And of all inspirations
to "sublimest oratory" there is no inspi-
ration like unto that.
The Christian orator, the advocate of
the divine will and pleasure: Let me IL
lustrate my thoughts by a simple verbal
picture. You are not the only son of
your mother. She has another boy
younger than you. But, whereas you are
In one sense the good boy, he has been
the bad. He drinks; he swears; he lies:
he does everything he ought not to do.
Again and again your mother came to his
rescue. Your father left her a little
money. She has spent it all trying to
save him. One night he came home from
a drunken spree. When she spoke to
him it made him mad. In a rage he
knocked her down and kicked her in the
breast. AS result of that kick a cam
Ger has formed. She is going to die You
are heartsick "Oh, mother motherl'
you say. IF | could only make you well
and happy againi" AS you kneel by her
bedside she runs her fingers through your
hair just as she did when you were
boy and answers: Harry, you can make
me happy. VIII you? Then l want you