The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-18

Is an importation. It deScendS rom aDONe when the soul ascends from beneath, by faith to receive it.
 It was the influence of God upon Israel that made the beauty and the strength of the Roman code of law. The inheri- tanee that has come to us through all the civilizations that have been builded, came first directly from God Through all the winding paths of history, when it is honestly read, man will eventually be brought to stand in the great open and see the purpose of God written by His own finger and understand that the carrying out of this purpose has made lne | tangled web of the history through which | he has come,
 Mans Accomplishments. | As the generations have taken their place and played their part, man has ap- l peared to work from his own pattern. and draw his own design. He has become conquerer In the midst of great forces. The changer of that which is, into what 1 he would have 1t to be.
 | Society has been changed by him. The | savage loses his old habits and takes up new ones, the barbarian throws away the rough implements of war and comes into the ways of peace. Civilization ad- yanees a piece. Forces in the air and water become subservient to his wishes. l He has taken the schackles from slaves, and made man a diviner something.
 He has driven disease into the wilder ness and made the unfriendly habitat a | inc place to dwell. He fells trees, he nayigates rivers, and digs canals and tunnels mountains, he ignores space and speaks around the world He conquers and subdues much, but the highest of all he never conquers, that is. himself. What makes human history interesting is that it relates the purpose of God to so undue and influence man, that man | shall hapOma iC ma Tn tragedy in the human play. the fall of | proud empires. the crumblng of old civil lizations, the dying of old faiths, God has I been seeking to bring man into life where there is peace and joy forevermore It is not necessary to be over particular in proving that the world is getting better. To affirm that it has pitched backward to any real extent in any age of man, is to deny the real advancement of the king l dom of God.
 | We are apt to give a glory to the past that 1t never had, and attribute virtues l to ancient people that they never pos sessed. Defeats are seen when the scru- 1 tiny is close. and men become smaller l the closer you come to them; but in l truth this age is better and man Is lar 1 ger than those who lived but yesterday.
 To be under the influence of God was l Ezekiel's message to Israel; that men l should possess God was the aim and purpose in the life of Jesus. This is the l realization of both the Old Testament and the New Testament prophets, and 1t has been apprehended by great souls as making the business of life.
 Amie's Journal.
 One of the striking books of the world 1 is Amiels Journal. It's opening sentence is this; There is but one thing need mind relieved life of It's Limitations and gave living space to the soul. for he l says: We dream alone, we suffer alone, we die alone, we inhablt the last | resting Ikace alone. But there Is noth- Ing to prevent us from opening our soli- tude to God And so what was austere monologue becomes dialogue, reluctance l becomes docility. renunciation passes | into peace and the sense of painful de- feat Is lost In the sense of recovered lib- erty.'
 The gospel has modified the world and
 consoled mankind. We may hold aloof from the churches, and yet bow our l selves before Jesus. We may be suspi- cious of the clergy and refuse to have | anything to do with the catechism. and yet love the holy and the just, who came to save and not to curse. Men
 who put faith in such teachings are those
 who have let God into life until all the l hours and the years seem resplendent
 with purpose where men take part In bringing God clearer to his fellow
 man.
 Let us not be carried adrift by liter l ali7ing EzelSiers picture, and thus con- l fning our notions to the Dead Sea. The l Dead Sea remains as salty and as hos | tile to life as ever, but God is more and more believed In by man as a father con- cerned in the welfare of his children
 The deadness in your home. in this
 city, in this country, Is to be overcome by the influence of God. That influence Is to permeate society through the eff | forts of good men and women, In the | office, in the store In the shop in the | home We do not have to be particular about protecting holiness. It is thing, | that if one possesses, will protect the l possessor. It can be taken anywhere, and 1t will change any condition. It in-
 fluences hearts. it changes business. 1t | brings honesty where there was dshon-
 esty
 Sometimes we look at the forces of the | world and think that they are so com bined that the influence for evil can | never be destroyed. This is never true | in fact The grip of evil men does not last forever. Men die and their influence
 fades and the cause of God trumphs.
 A Wrong Conclusion.
 | Men deliberately conclude at times that | when the trend of life becomes corrupt | that it becomes dangerous for eleanness | to oppose uncleanness, and so we have | the saying that political life, in this | country at least means corruption for | all who give themselves thereto.
 Not long since, when man expressed his purpose of devoting his life to politics, | with view of making political life clean | er his friends predicted that his virtues
 would be lost in his efforts to save vir- | tues, and yet the only way to save any | unclean thing Is to make eleanness | shame corruption.
 Men with high purpose and noble cour- | age make the channel through which
 the life of God gets into govJnmept. A godly nation can be builded in no other
 way. When the righteous rule then there | Is peace.
 Men have learned long since that leaven
 changes meal and Christ taught that the | leaven of the gospel hidden in the lives
 of men would change homes and so- ciety and cities and nations.
 Sometimes we prescribe too narrow limits for the growth of the Kingdom of | God. We hedge too much and become | altogether too conventional. What this I world needs and what God intended that | 1t should have. is healthy men and wo- men, with the health of God in their blood and the purpose of God in their | life. Resisting people-resisting evil and overcoming evil with good Men and wo- | men who have faith that the beam will l never finally tilt to the cause of wrong.