The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-30

shall become straight. Being spiritually dead we shall become spiritually resur- rected. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" Oh, the miraculous change which comes into mans sinful nature as soon as the sinner comes into touch with Christs love in Gods secret place of thunder
 Harmony With Man.
 But in the secret place of thunder man is not only brought into right harmony with God, but also into right harmony with man. There we are taught to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind. But we are also taught there to love our neghbor as ourselves
 And in no place on earth does man try more to help his neighbor than when he is in the mountains. The valleys are the places where man too often lives for him. self The wild mountains are the places where man lives for others. If you are in trouble in the high hills, you can al- ways go to the first man you meet and he will help you out of that trouble if 1t is possible for him so to do There every body is honest. There everybody tries to help others. We had our goods carried up into the hills by a teamster. Where did he leave them? By the public road Slue. I0bTe they lay HOui eiAlNi nun NiA- locked Scores and hundreds of people passed them, and no one touched them. They have four-legged thieves in the mountains. The wild cattle will come and steal your grain, but there are no two legged thieves in the mountains called men. There every one is honest. ''If you want anything from town Just give the money to the first man you find going there" said a gentleman to me. Frell hot and he will get if for you and bring you back the right change" I tested thls honesty of the mountaineer again and again, and never found 1t to fail Then the kindnesses of the people! Oh, how kind they arel If you have a sick horse as had, they will hitch up their horse and bring you your goods If you are hungry, you can find food at their tables. If they have only one loaf of bread they are always willing to give you half. Kindness, kindness, kindness, brotlTerly and sisterly kindness es are to be found everywhere in the mountains. Oh, why do we not learn to help each other in the valleys and low lands, as the. mountaineer is always will ing to help his neighbor among the hills ? Yes, in the secret place of thunder man not only learns to love the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and mind, but he also learns to love and to help his neighbor as he would his own child.
 But there Is still another fact about these mountains that 1 would have you bear well in mind. Gods secret place of thunder is not creumscribed There are many secret places of thunder. Just as mountains seem to overtop mountains, so l for man there shoLSd always be higher secret places of thunder, to which he should always be striving to go This fact also Is most beautifully Illustrated among the hills While was on my way tramp | ing looked up and saw where a storm was raging in Little Bear Valley "Oh" I said to myself, If could only climb up there and sit by the cradle of that storm r' Time passed on. and was able to climb | up to where the storm was born. "We | had an awful electric storm here a few days ago" said lady to me after I had | climbed into Pioneer camp. Did you see 1t in the valley below?" Yes" I an- swered Eve saw it." Then I was in a secret place of thunder Then I went to Observation Point, at Skyland, and look ed off upon the valley. How far below me that valley appearedl Far far below I could see the trees laid out in rows. I could see the ranch houses dottng the horizon here and there. I could see the cities and villages through which we had | passed. Then, from watching the earth | under my feet. began to look up. I saw | the greater mountain peaks rising just as | high above me as the valley was below
 There were mighty Grayback and San Jacinto peak and old Cucamonga. There they lifted their snow-capped heights thousands upon thousands of feet higher than I was. Then I said, as I saw the | valleys below and the mountain heights above. "There are secret places of thun- der where God talks to us near to the valleys" But the Christian who stays in one secret place of thunder must surely die in a spiritual sense. Higher than his present spiritual life he must see visions
 God keeps saying to him always this one sentence: Child, climb; keep climbing higher and higher into the spiritual realms. Way of among the cloudlands of the mountains have for thee other se- cret places of thunder where thou canst commune with Me. Thou must climb and keep on climbing until at last thou shalt