The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-19

l, And leap with naked snow white feet 1 From the cool hills into the heart
 Of the broad, arid plain"
 1 But, though the mountain brooks may | leap from the cool hills into the heat of | the broad, arid plain it makes a great I deal of difference into what plain that l falling raindrop shall go. whether 1t fall l one inch to the right or one inch to the l left of the Rocky mountain watershed. | One inch to the right it flows into the | gulf of Mexico; one to the left it flows 1 into the waters of the Pacific. The waters l of a river must obey natural law. Now, I If Gods laws are memorable in regulating the source and the course of a river, are they not equally memorable in reference to the source and the course of his divine peace, which is like a river?
 Conditions of Peace.
 You must obey Gods laws before you l can enjoy Gods peace. To resist them, I to dsobey him, is to set yourself against omnipotent power and infinite wisdom. l It is not necessary that God should pun l ish you for 1t; you bring the punishment on yourself in failure and disappointment and eternal wreck. Your whole nature is | given over to anarchy and lawlessness. Only as you yield to his will do you put yourself in line with the eternal order
 and enter into peace. I do not care how much you may think your way is better than Gods ways, one fact you must un- derstand-you cannot get the divine peace | which is like river, unless you bring yourself into harmony with Gods laws and obey Gods commandments
 Naaman had to learn this lesson be- | fore he could be cured of his leprosy. 1 His way was that the prophet should come out to him and stand and call on the name of the Lord and strike his | hand over the place. Gods way was 1 that he dip seven times in the Jordan 1 When he took Gods way he was cured, but not until he took it. Gods way can cure you. o imncortal, of your sin. Are | you ready to welcome this divine peace. like river, which will come to you through Jesus Christ? The way of the cross is the source of this peace From the mount of calvacy that stream gushes forth, as from Mount Hermon 1 flows the Jordan and from the Ad- i irondacks the mighty Hudson.
 But the pleading river teaches us an- l other lesson sbout the divine peace
 which passeth all understanding. The lorger disciple of Jesus Christ lives a. | Christian life the deeper and wider does
 the river of his peace become. It should deepen and widen and grow more majestic in volume. even as the waters of the Hudson grow deeper and wider as they slip past the highlands and lap the feet of the Palisades and sweep on in their grandeur to the place where they are married to the waters of the mighty deep at the nuptial altar of Governors island. in upper New York l bay. It should go on growing deeper and wider, ever as become the waters of the river Orinoco where they empty themselves into the unfathomabe depths of the sea. When. in 149S Christopher Columbus for the first time touched the mainland of South America and saw this great river, one of his officers congratu- lated him because he had discovered an- other island. The immortal explorer re- piled 'No such river as that flows from an island That mighty torrent drains the waters of a continent" The pleading river of Gods peace grows wider and deeper as we travel along its banks in the journey of life At the beginning of our Christian course 1t may seem a small stream. but as the years pass and our feet come nearer and nearer to the great ocean of eternity the volume of the river increases until it becomes a peace that passeth understanding.
 Is this increasing power true in ref erence to our spiritual peace? As you compare your present life with that of your spiritual life ten, twenty thir- | ty years ago are you conscious that you love God more now than you did then? | Do you read the Bible more now than you did whel you joined the church and prepared for your first commun-
 ion? Is your enjoyment of prayer and | your dependence upon it more intense now than they were at first? Are you 1 striving more earnestly than formerly | to gather the showers of blessing that
 are everywhere falling around you into