The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-28

| that young man. under great eeHlPta'ioii'
| BETRAYED my friend. He tried TO s'ai. d
| rival business and to entiee away ali ms
/ clerks and to steal his employer asen-
| eies. He failed What would you DO IN
| der such conditions? For the one error,
! the one mistake, would you blind your
| ewes to many years of faithful service!
| Let not the sun go down upon your
! wrath" You had a right to De angry
for a little while In one sense you mad
a right TO strike back But do not bear
| that srudge any longer. Forget and FOR
give is the meaning of the Pauline COM
mandment.
Home Rules Waterloo.
But the danger of harboring resent
ment is not limited to the breaking OF
friendships; we may suffer 1t to prejudice
us against good causes. Try as hard as
we will we must or do associate the sue
cess or the failure of the onward move
| ments of great principles and causes with
the personalities of our friends and neigh
( bors When Charles Stewart Parnell was
| dethroned from the respect and anectlens
| of his colleagues the Irish cause OF nome
rule met its Waterloo. Home rule was
| defeated at the time when the palm OF
| victory was about to be grasped by the
/ outreaching hands of its advocates When
Mark Antony loved his sinful Egyptian
enehantress more than he loved Rome,
| then the mightiest war chieftain who ever
trod in the footsteps of Julius Caesar saw
| his followers fee his standards, even as
| the birds of the forests seek the shelter
of their nests before the tempest blasts
| of the onsweeping tornado. When Mira
/ beau hreathed his last and was thought
to be untrue by his henchmen, then the
| royaiists cause was defeated in france,
and the gullotine had to be drenehed
with the blood of a Marie Antoinette and
a Louis XVI Say what you may, every
| man naturally represents a cause or
principle apart from his personality
| When you bear grudges against men you
| hear grudges against causes. When you
| divorce your affections from individuals
you lose your infdelity to the causes
and movements which those men, In more
! than one sense. may tipify.
! Let me illustrate. Why are you pre1u-
diced against the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ? You are not bad You be-
| lieve in Jesus as your Saviour. You were
reared In a Christian home. Some of the
| best and happiest recollectlons OF your
| life are of the Sunday school and of the
church Of which your mother was a
member. II know It." you answer. II
never think of the church of my youth
but with molstened eyes and tremulous
| lips. I would not be the woman I am to-
| day had not had that past church train
| Ing. But about ten years ago we had an
awful church row. They say the worst
| rows on earth are church rows, and be-
/ lieve it. The people of our church d.
! vided themselves into factions. MY hus-
| band was a trustee. They charged him
with dishonesty, and no more honest man
ever lived than he. The minister might
have stopped the difficulty. but he did
not. We left the church. We took our
letters. The result? My husband and I
have never been inside of church since
We are not infdels however We pray
we read the Bible but we simply have no
use for church people" oh. my sister
your words are tragical. What! You
| have no use for the church of Jesus
| Christ merely because you are harhorlng
a bitterness against some church mem
bers who did not do as they ought to do?
Do YOU mean to tell me that YOU today
| have divorced all your interests from the
church Of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
! has done so much for your spiritual life
| and is doing so much for the salvation of
the world merely because you do not like
a few members In It?
Turned Against Church.
When I speak to you thus ] am not
talking at random. There are hundreds
and thousands of just such people YOU
who have turned their backs upon the
church, Gods mightiest agency for doing
| good, merely because they have had an
unfortunate experience with some of its
| members. The other day I was talking
| to noble man. He gives away hundreds
and thousands of dollars each year With
in his large mercantile establishment he
runs a school, that his girl clerks and his
| boy clerks who have to earn a living at
| the time they should be in the school
| room should not be entirely deprived of
an education. He gives hundreds of dol
| lars annually for the temperance couse.
| No man who is trying to do right and is
flung on his back ever appealed to him
| for help In vain. Yet that man, with all
his vast influence has not for years
darkened church doors. Years ago there
| was a church difficulty which revolved
about him and his family. Sad, sad, in
1 finitely sad. that he should refuse to be
one with the church because Of bitter
| grudge he holds against some church
| members who did not treat him right
| For. In spite of all he has done, con-
| fidently assert that the seed he had sown
would have multiplied a thousandfold in
| stead Of, as now, producing only sixty
| fold had he been working inside the
| church of God instead of outside That
| man for Years has held aloof from the
| church because he cherished resentment
| against some of its members. He dis
| obeyed the injunction of my text, Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath"
| Never ask me to be a member Of the
| Humane society again" said the wife of
| one of my elders a short time ago. why
| not?'' about ten yeors ago / went to
| one of their meetings. OF all the back
| biting and censorious criticism ever heard
| theirs were the worst" oh. friend. is
such statement right? Because Judas
| betrayed Christ. is that any reason you
| should refuse TO be a disciple OF Christ?
| Because last year one Of our missionary
| leaders or one Of the trustees of an or
| phan's home proved a rascal and was
! found to be. defaulter. Is that any rea-
| son we should refuse our aid toward those
benefcent institutions? In your hatred
| for man you are binding your eyes to the
I,good you can do to institutions and great
| reformatory movements, You are acting
| as fooshly as the astronomer who would
| refuse to climb the stellar ladder of the
night and walk with God amid the infin-
| tiles Of space merely because n fly speck
| gets upon the lens of his telescope. o.
| man grow bigger Widen your horizon.
| DO not peevishly stop your tramp up the
| heights Of Mount Washington whore yon
! ca n see all New England under your feet,
| merely because a snarling puppy comes
! out of n harnyard and barks at you as
| YOU walk along the country highway. Do
| not stop your llfe's usefulness by Your
| grudges against a few men. Live for
| principles. Live for movements Live for
| institutions. r. some people who are
working bv your side for those causes
| are not what they ought TO be. then do
| not as n coward desert your post on the
picket lines Of the worlds great armies in
| the time Of mortal combat
Drop Your Hatreds.
But there is yet another reason why