The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-29

:
worth Of their money. Thus they got
this young man up early to lead the Sun
day school and teach Bible class Then
he conducted a morning service; then
after a hurried dinner they drove him
back into the mountains, where he had
another Sunday school TO lead and an
other sermon to preach and a Christian
Endeavor society to address, then they
ran him back to the main church again.
where he had a young peoples society
meeting at which to speak and then an
other sermon to preach In others words
from early morning until 10 o'clock at
night he was speaking or working all the
time ! met him next day and said. well
Howard, how did you get on?' Get on"
he answered why, ! had so much to do
that when | orawled into bed that night
! was completely tagged out / was so
tired that could not even say my pray
/ ers. | just said, o Lord I have been
praying SO much for other people that
am Just too tired to pray for myselfr "
| I laughed. But for years and years that
picture of that tired boy has always been
before me. All, | say to myself how
often we get so tired with meeting the
many engagements of life that we do not
take the needed hours for prayer for BIZ
Bile reading and for communion with God
| fer our own soulsl
But. though you and 7 may have many
SO important that we can afford to neg
lect the sacred hours we ought to take ev-
cry day Of our life for secret communion
with Christ? You know that many and
many literary mans usefulness has been
destroyed because by the fattery or the
success of the world he has been enticed
away from his study. What is true of the
literary man is absolutely true of the
Christian. Many a Christians spiritual
/ usefulness has been absolutely DESTROYED
| because that Christian has been enticed
away from the sacred hours of holy COM
munion with Christ. No matter how early
the march was to take place for the res
cue of Lucknow. General Havelock al
ways arose two hours earlier to read his
| Bible and kneel in prayer. No matter how
| hard the conflict was raging Martin
| Luther always took at least two hours
away from the world each day to pour out
his soul to God In prayer. Tell me.
man, what art thou doing with those sa-
cred hours which Jesus Christ bids Won
give to him alone? The world does not
know what you are doing with those
hours, but Christ knows Are you neglect
ing your proper spiritual preparation for
Christian work? Are you taking the
proper spiritual nourishment for your own
soul? Then, if you are not doing this.
in the sight of God you are committing a
secret sin. You may hide that sin from
the world, but you can never hide IL from
Christ.
The Unpopular Side.
Next to our neglect of secret prayer and
quiet Bible reading believe our greatest
secret sin is our unwillingness to
bravely and firmly go forth TO advo-
cate the causes of right which are on
the unpopular side. We see blatant
sins stalking around everywhere, but be-
cause those sins are well dressed or
the perpetrators of those sins are in
| fluential men and women in the COM
munity in which they live we close our
| mouths and say nothing. We are afraid
to antagonize them and those men and
women who are their powerful support
! ers.
The man who dares to attack sin that
| is strongly entrenched is liable to be as
sailed in character and person His
friends come to him and say; LET ii
alone. You will make enemies who can
ruin you Have you never had such
advice given to you? II you have not you
have been all your life a trimmer"
a hedger, a polite man. You have not
come forth boldly and decisvely attacked
| wrong wherever you have seen it lift it's
hldeois head In other words. you can be
classed among those moral towards whom
| James Russell Lowell excorated when he
| said:
They are slaves who fear to speak
! For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, soothing and abuse
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
Are You Honest7
The world loks upon you as an honest
i 7 ~,
higher sense of the word, are you honest
| with yourself? The city in which you live
! is in a death grapple with the saloon or.
as Is Los Angeles with an Infamous
! gambling corporation. Dare you lift up
your voice in protest? "Oh. no." you
answer III | did those men would boy
colt me- and they are my customers.
They buy lots of goods at my store" In
your silence are You not before God COM
hitting a secret sin? For years and years
! in our northern states there We're hun
dreds upon hundreds OF ministers who
were afraid to speak upon the slavery
question. because If they did they knew
! they would split their congregation in
twain. When my father as a young man
was called to the city of Philadelphia
just before the war the paddock of sill
| ence was upon many ministers lips.
After my father had been there 1t few
weeks The preached an abolition sermon.
That afternoon thirty of his most prom
+ inent families took their hymn books
/ out of their racks and walked out of the
/ church and never came back. Tell me,
/ are you ready like that to attack sin
wherever you see it? Are you ready to
denounce sin In high places or in low?
/ Are You ready to defy the sin of your
/ friends as we'll as the sin of your enc
mics or are you going to be numbered
among the "trimmers," the hedgers, the
polite men, who dare not be I'm the right
with two or three?" If you do thus the
world may say you are honest, but in the
sight of God you are guilty of black
heinous secret sin. You are guilty of the
sin of cowardice the sin of not being an
out and out dcple of Jesus Christ.
But we must not stop here. In this
catalogue of secret sins we must name
the malformed offspring of our minds
called "evil thoughts" BY this name |
do not mean those "evil thoughts which
some of us are willing to voice in public.
| but | do mean those carnal thoughts.
those licentous thoughts, those revenge
full and brutal thoughts, those oebasing
thoughts, which some of us at times, to
greater or less degree. are ready to
foster and let live in our hearts.
Sin of Evil Thought.
When there aRe born into the nursery
of the brain licentious thoughts. re-
vengeful thoughts, brutal and accursed
thoughts. thoughts which come to us
| from reading bad books or going with
| improper companions, or evil thoughts