The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-02


system worth their sacrifices OF human
life? What was the intrinsic value Of
few thousand or even a few million lives
in comparison to the freedom OF the home
and sanetity of our loved ones and the
independence of a mans life, whereby he
could put his arm about his daughter and
say to a petty king who claimed to be
his master: Hands off. She Is my child.
She is miner" Were not all the sacrifices
for religious freedom well made? Would
you put out the fires which burned to
death the mortal life of Ridley, Latimer.
Huss, Savonarola, If in order to do 1t we
had to go back and grope about amid the
superstitions and the tyrannies of the
dark ages? It is said when Gustavus
Adolphus, the great king of Sweden, was
fighting his last battle at Lutzen that
amid the roar and crash of carnage a lit
tie frightened bird knew not where to go,
so he alighted upon the shoulder Of the
mighty warrior. Gustavus reached up and
took the little fluttering heart in his hand.
Then he spoke a few soothing words to
the bird and hid it away for protection in
side of HIS own armor. After Gustavus
was slain and the loving soldier reverent-
ly gathered about the bleeding corpse 1t is
said that the little bird flew out of the
cloak of the dead warrior, and no sooner
did he start to fly away than he began to
sing.
Burnt Up by Fire.
Have there been no blessings born of
that awful period of fire and blood in our
|own nations history? That was a fire
that desolated homes, north and south,
that destroyed property, bereft families,
broke many hearts. But was 1t all loss?
Is it nothing that the curse of slavery
as burnt up in that fire? Has not the
brotherhood that now binds north and
u. -. IA
not made civil war henceforth a thing
hateful and impossible in our borders?
Now, God has never ending war against
sin. He makes no compromise with sin.
He is going to fight sin to the death. The
saloon must go. The brothel must go. Sin
must go. God will not yield one inch to
evil. With him 1t is an exterminating
war. This war Is to become fiercer and
more decisive, more uneompromising each
year. God says: "Sin must go. Sin must
and shall be annihilated" Thus, as the
two great armies, the army in blue and
the army in gray used to camp upon tho
oppostes sides of the Potomac and you
could see their long lines of different
camptires, so there are two lines of camp
fires to day. They are not the campflres
of brothers who will yet be at peace, but
of eternal uncompromisng foes The two
lines are distinct and separate. These two
against
BY which campfire are you and 1?
But, lastly 1 learn from the words Of
my text that Gods fires are to be the fires
of triumph The same soldiers who plod
YEARLY along upon their forced marches
and tramp through the long hours of the
night doing sentinel duty; the same sol
dlers who, week after week and month
after month and year after year, suffer
exile from home and loved ones; the same
-
tive, with the flames leaping out of the
cannons' mouths and with the tongues OF
fire splitting bullets from rifle barrels, are
the soldiers who will most joyfully build
the campfres of triumph after glorious
peace has been declared. 1t is said that
when the peace agreement was signed at
Appomattox every company piled on the
wood in its company streets Then, as tho
flames leaped higher and higher, the SOL
diers, like a lot of schoolboys, Joined
hands and danced about these fires. They
kept singing: mo more war; no more
war. Peace has been declaredl We are all
going home to our loved ones No more
war! Thank God, no more war;
Not only were the fires In celebration OF
peace built in the armies, but these fires
were also built In the streets of our north
ern cities, and every hillside and every
fertile valley was aflame with them In
and bitter struggle had ended. It had not
ended as the south hoped, but at least
there was an end of the slaughter, an end
of sacrifice and Of parting. Mothers as
well gray haired fathers, and wives and
sisters and daughters as well as sweet
hearts, wept about these fires. They wept
tears of joy. They embraced and kissed
each other, for now the war was over.
And the soldiers were to come home The
/ n rrai n IN ba
more war!'' was the cry everywhere.
blessed peace-blessed triumphant
peaceP' Thus shall it be when our Divine
Leader shall be triumphant over sin Then
the camphres of war shall be changed into
the leaping flames of triumph. Sin shall
be forever done away. Dear ones shall
then be reunited. Oh, the glorious tri-
umphant fires of earth and heaven when
God shall conquer all his enemies and
everlasting peace and everlasting reunions
shall be ours.
Can heaven be a truly happy place for
our loved ones If we are not there to sing
with them the song of redemption and OF
Moses and the Lamb? One of the saddest
sights / ever witnessed was when the Sec,
ond Illinois regiment was about to leave
for the Spanish-Amerlcan war. I was its
chaplain. Just before we left the armory
the cry was taken up, Does any one
know a man by the name of So-and-so?"
What is the matter?" | asked. One of
the majors turned to me and said: "A
young boy ran away from home to enlist.
His mother is here and she thinks he en-
listed in our regiment She wants to bid
him goodbye and give him her blessing"
No sooner did the major speak thus than
saw this little old mother in faded dress
among the soldiers. l followed her. She
looked from face to face and as she
looked she kept saying; do you know
where my boy is? DO you know my boy"
Not a soldier laughed. Hardly an eye was
dry Why? They were watching a moth
er's breaking heart hunting for lost
child. Can 1t be that such scene as this
shall be repeated In heaven on account Of
our absence? Can it be that in the most
momentous hour of all time, when Christ
shall build his fires of triumph, our moth
ers and fathers and our wives and dear
ones and our Christ shall be looking in
vain for our faces among the rejoicing
| hosts of heaven? Shall 1t be? Shall some
| of us never be seen by the campfircs of
heaven which shall leap and blaze when
the flaming torches of sin shall be forever
snuffed out?
(Copyrikht, 1906, by Louis Klopsch.)
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