The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-07

A sessed all the talents and that pride
 of intellect and unwillingness to learn
 from others frequently lead men to ruin
 is the lesson of this sermon, the text cho.
 sen being Proverbs xii, 14: "In the multi
 tude of counseors there is safety"
 In my time 1 have been much associated
 with many classes of men. As a result of | this association l am struck with two far
 reaching facts. The first is how much the
 average man knows When l say this,
 refer to the so-called common people as
 well as to the wealthier or the more ln-
 nuential social class. Some of the most
 valuable nuggets of gold have been dug
 out of the common dirt Some of the rar-
 est ideas and the most brilliant intellects are found in the skulls of men who wear coarse clothes and live in very humble houses.
 Rev. Dr. William M Lawrence, who TOT many years was the most prominent Bap- tist preacher of Chicago, once told me that he always made 1t practice when 1t was possible 10 ride upon the plat forms of the street cars and talk with the conductors and the motormen and the mechanics and laborers who were re- turning from their daily tol And said he, some of the very best ideas which have preached from my pulpit have been suggested by them.' Because an old well is sometimes covered by moss and creep ing ivy and entangled thickets, that does not prove that there are no pure, spark ling waters among it's rocks Because q gem is found glitterng amid a lot of cobblestones, that does not prove that It is a cobhlestone. Many a great philoso- pher dresses, like Tolstoi, in peasant garb. Many a stonemason can find, Ike Hugh Miller. the Footprints of the Gre ator" in the old red sandstone of Cromar- ty Many political sage is scanning the horizon of statecraft. like Marcus Porcius Cato, with an eagle eye while he is guid- ing his blow across the field of a country farm.
 The traveller who cannot glean informa- ton from all classes of men, no matter where he may go, as gentle Ruth gather ed her golden stalks after the reaperS who were binding the sheaves in the har- vest fields of Boaz, Is a tourist who has ears to hear and will not hear who has eyes to see and will not see, and who has dumb tongue too clumsy to probe Tor treasures of mankind by asking the lead ing questions which will bring forth the desired answers. Said old Robert South: "It takes both flint and steel to make spark. You must pound the one upon the other, or else the fire will never come. You can pound a piece of steel Tor days and weeks upon a wooden log, and the wood will never flash back a flame. You must rub up intelligence against intellt- gence in order to make the intellectual sparks fly. If the traveller has brain of flint he will find that the average man has brain of steel Then the intellectual sparks will follow thick as the stars on the Milky way of the heavens. But if the traveller has a wooden brain, then he will think that most people he meets have brains of wood also"
 Common Weakness.
 The second fact which impresses me about the human race is that, though the average man has much intelligence, yet most people make failures out of life. To use an expression which I once heard used by Dr. Macarthur Of New York, ''They never seem to be able to put their mental goods upon the market They seem to have all the capabilities of sue cess; they are like an 'eXquisitely and per- | fectly constructed rife, but they always | seem to miss fire. You recognize this fact | as l do. What is the matter with Law | yer So-and-so?" l ask. He was an old l college chum of yours. Why has he not | made a greater success? Has he not
 brains and application?" "Oh, yes" you | answer. He was one of the most prom | inent men of my class. He was an honor
 man, and graduated a member of the Phi | Beta Kappa society. He is honest and a hard worker. But somehow he never is able to get ahead
 | That statement is true of most lawyers, | most doctors, most ministers. most mer- chants, most men of all departments of 1 life. Mentally equipped they seem to be. Honest they are also. But failures they | have actually turned out. Now if l were | to put my finger upon the chief weakness | of these lives, l would state that egotism | has been the main cause of their failure. | In the critical moments of their career l they will not take advice. They will not | heed the warnings which their friends are 1 so anxious to give. And, like a fire horse with the blind staggers they needlessly | crash into this obstacle and that danger | until at last they are flung and in one | sense ruined as far as their earthly ca | reers are concerned. King Solomon well l expresses my thought in the words of my l text when he says, Where no counsel is | the people fall but in the multitude of | counselors there is safety"
 | The blind egotist in the first place near l ly always underestimates the difficulties | of the work which he has to do. He is | like a commander of an invading army who seems to despise the strength of his | enemies. He pretends to think that the | opposing forces cannot shoot as well as
 
 l sight of his standards will make his ene- l mics craVen-hearted and run for their | lives. When Edward Braddock the com mander of the British and colonial forces. l led his troops against Fort Duquesne in l 1755, the young colonel, George Washing | ton warned him against the dangers into | which he was running. He said My | general, you are dealing with one of the | bravest and most treacherOus foes. 1 'Poohl pooh,' answered General Brad | dock. We are merely fighting lot of 1 red-skinned savages You may be afraid | of them, but 1 am not. You have never | been trained in one of the great British military schools. l have some of the best
 soldiers of his majesty's army. They can | defeat any body of soldiers ever gathered 1 together in, these western wilds." So he went ahead in his blind folly. On he
 marched with his banners flying and his | drums beating. And what was the re- | suit? At Great Meadows the present site | of the city of Pittsburg. suddenly the
 woods became perfect hailstorm of bull l lets. Fall in, fall in' cried Braddock 1 Aim! Fire! Charge!" were his orders l But where were his troops to aim? At | what body of men were they to charge? l The enemy's fire seemed to come from | everywhere, and yet not an enemy was | in sight. Edward Braddock, with scores and hundreds of his braVest officers and men, fell mortally wounded or were in-
 stantly killed They were ruthlessly slain
 because their commander. with egotistic | folly. deliberately shut his eyes to the strength of his foes.
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