The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-26

are strewn with the bleaching bones of
 ships which were allowed to rot in the
 sun when their keels were beached.
 Would you send for the brilliant laced
 staff officer of Indias yiceroy? Nay,
 You would send for the old. grlzzled,
 white haired pilot who for years and
 years had been running up and down that dangerous stream. He knows by expe-
 rience where the currents run and where
 are the dangerous sand bars. He may be cranky. He may be gruff and fault | finding but he is imperious and per- emptory because he knows the dan gers and knows how many lives and valuable cargoes have been lost in that winding stream. Now. my friends whose advice should the minister most willingly follow--the young men who know but little about Christ and who have only been church members for a few months the younger men who have not risen to the high plane where they can drop their selfish ambitions, or the | old men who know that their lives are nearly run and whose object Is to serve their church during the few years that are left? want to tell all ministers and all church members that any minister or any church which gets out of the habit of honoring and following the advice of
 the old folks is heading toward almost | certain shpwreck The older members of
 church intuitively know when any pro- posed course is right and they intuitive- ly know when it is wrong. Better rather heed the advice of the old Christians than
 any other class of laymen.
 Love of Old for Young.
 But" says some young minister or Christian Endeayorer. 'the difficulty with the old folks is that they are out of sym pathy with the young folks. What are we to do when they do not sympathze
 with us?" My young friend. you are mis- taken. The old church members are not
 out of sympathy with the young folks when they are acting wisely. It Is only
 when they are rash and impruden Fur
 thermore, of all admirers and helpers
 whom the young minister has in his con- gregation no class Is more loyal to him than the white haired elders and their
 wives. As a rule when men and women
 grow old they do not want to go to old
 peoples homes and associate with old peo-
 pie, but they want to associate with the
 young Especially to they love to have
 a young man for their pastor. When my
 father, very young man. was called to
 Syracuse, N. Y., the most prominent man
 in that part of the state was a member
 of his congregation. He was at that time
 over so years of age. In legislative halls
 he had sat the contemporary and the com
 peer of Clay and Webster, and he him
 SCH WAS DIE Ol iut HldUtS Ol lnt DdI.
 My father was at that time undeveloped
 and immature. Yet every Sunday this big
 brained, silver tongued orator sat at his
 feet as William E. Gladstone sat at the
 feet of his own son in the little church of Hawarden. One day a friend came to
 him and said Well, senator, how do
 you like the young preacher" With that the old man answered: 1T am very old man I have seen and heard much. But I ha1I ha la truly Irving tn serve his Master. Therefore I shall do all I can to help him. Besides. my friend, the older man grows the more he likes young men and young mems preaching! Oh, ye young men in the gospel pulpit, hear it! The best friends a young minister has are the old folks. Beware when the voices of the aged are not needed in your church councils When young minister gets out of touch with the older members of his congregation he is always out of touch vita the best interests of his church and out of touch with the real teachings of Jesus Christ.
 | But the next class of minister's best | friends to whom I wish to call your at | tention are the prayer meeting people. 1 allude to those whom, week in and week out, month in and month out year in and year out every Wednesday night as far as they are able always wend their way to the week night service as regular ly and as conscientiously as they go to the breakfast table in the morning and come home after their business at night. These prayer meeting folks do not all ways belong to the wealthy classes. Their wardrobes are not always filled with silks and broadcloths. Some of them dur ing the day may have had on the over
 alls of a carpenter or a mason, or they
 may have held in their hands the order
 book of a grocery clerk. But these prayer
 meeting people, whether they be rich or poor. are the most valuable people of the church-that Is. of course, excepting some of the older folks. who, on account
 of their physical infirmities, are unable to be out It is not by running after silver and gold and social position that the
 minister is to build up his church. It IS by finding his cabinet and his church leaders among the men and women or spiritual power. who improve every oppor- tunity to aequaint themselves with the word of God and gain the nnction of the Spirit of the altar of prayer
 Living the Christ Life.
 This was the way Dr. Charles II. Hall. the great Episcopalan rector of Trinity church, Brooklyn, built up his parishes When he was young man he went forth, l believe, as missionary to the negroes of the Bermudas. Far away from home among these black men ana women who could neither read nor write. he felt he had but little use for his books of classic lore. So he left them all behind and took along with him his Bible. He devoted himself to the study of the gos- pels and the teachings of Jesus He not only read and reread those gospels, but
 he tried to live that life among his ignor- nant congregation. The result was that
 when he came back to America and some
 of the great pulpits of the country called
 him he knew nothing but Jesus He
 nreaohed Christ He lived Christ So ab-
 sorbed was he in the life of Christ that
 he leaned entirely upon those who knew
 Christ and were trying to live his ire
 And the result was Charles H. Halls
 churches. wherever he went, speedily took
 on new life The rich and the poor crowd
 ad his churches together, not because no
 caught the rich or those of social position
 hut because he tried to lead all men to tho followers of the Nazarene. An, yes, when we place the men and the wom- men of the prayer meeting In the prpmi- nent positions of our churches, then our churches grow mighty in spite or the sin and the temptations of the world,
 put how prone the young minister IS
 +o follow after those who are rich or so-
 cially strong in community and yet
 ,ot noted for their Christian consecra-
 aoni How common 1t Is for the rich
 marohant to be the president Of the board
 of trustees, even though he be not a
 ohurch member How easy it Is for the
 youna minister to yield to the worldly
 clements of his congregation who want
 ana music in the choir loft even though
 that music has to be rendered by men