The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-02
os ANGELES, Cal. August 2s-In
this sermon the preacher gives al

T oS ANGELES, Cal, August 26-In
this sermon the preacher gives al
- together new Interpretation to
passage which teaches US that Gods
mercies and blessings sometimes come
to US In strange DISCUSSES. The text Is
Luke xii, 10. II am come to send fire
upon the earth"
To the casual Bible reader these nine
words may seem to convey meaning
which is hard to reconcile with other
passages. You cannot understand how
Christ can be called the Prince of
Peace" and yet how he could send fire
upon the arth. Fire" you say-"why,"
fire Is the agent of death. not the fore
runner of life. It is the most ruthless
destroyer known to man." Go today
through any of our great forests, and
what do you see printed by the road
sides? It is a warning to the campers
and the travellers to beware of starting
a forest fire. Why do the governmental
officials in Yellowstone park and Yose-
mite and In many of the mountain re-
serves refuse to allow the camper to
carry a shotgun? Is it for fear that he
will kill game out of season2 Perhaps
that is one reason, but the chief reason
is that the forest rangers are afraid
that the shotguns might set fire to the
woods Have you never attended
country college and witnessed the dead
ly forest fires burn for weeks and weeks
upon the mountain side? What was
the only danger the western cowboy
feared worse than the Indians war
hoop? 1t was the prairie fire, which
fofr fBa rr.a faster
than horse could run or deer could sour
ry away Have you ever read of the
unsheathed sword of fire which RACED
Moscow to the ground? These flames
were able to devour the indomitable am
billions of the Little Corsican."
VIII our people ever forget the
CHASTITY tragedy that destroyed Ameri-
cas- western metropolis, which over
looked the Golden Gate of San Fran
cisco bay? One of the first lessons we
teach our children Is to. leave matches
alone and fear the danger Of fire. Yet
the socalled prince of Peace" says,
II am come to send fire upon the earth.
How can you explain this anomaly? l
can only suggest some of the effects OF
fire, which may give us a hint of our
Lords meaning, for, though he may look
upon fire as an agency of death, we
cannot forget that it may become In
Gods hands an agency of eternal life
and of the purest and the best of all
earthly lives. May God help us as we
try to understand these holy words.
Symbol of Heat.
Fire in the first place. is the symbol
of heat Heat is the symbol of life.
Therefore we find that all true life
comes from God, even as all heat OF
the earth primarily comes from the
fires Of the sun In every bird that
flies, In every bee that huns, in every
squirrel that chatters, in every flower
that grows, in every tree that rustles
and in every human being that walks
we see the great divine fact illustrated
that the God who sent fire upon earth
is the great God who was and Is the
creator OF all. Now, the fact that all
animal and vegetable life is dependent
upon fire and heat for creation and de-
velopment is well understood.
I am sitting upon the farmers kitchen
porch, and hear a cackling noise. The
old speckled Plymoth Rock hen Is call
ing: "I have laid an eggl 1 have laid
an eggl am going to hatch out alittle
chicken, for l have laid an egg!' But
the farmers wife has another use for
the egg. Each morning she goes and
takes that egg away from the hen. She
is absolutely merciless in this respect
She cooks for her summer boarders the
best food for breakfast-namely, a
fresh laid egg. When you break It open,
there 1t lies cut in half, with its center
of gold covered over with its wrappings
of purest white. The snow could not be
whittier than the albumen of new laid
egg. At last the old hen grows tired of
having her eggs eaten, so she, In turn,
finds a secret nest. She flies away to
the top Of the hay loft. or she goes off
to the other side of the grain field and
crawls under an old board near the fence
and there she makes her nest. Day
after day the white beauties grow in
number. The old feathered fowl keeps
very still about her secret. When you
go out and say, "Biddie, where is your
nest?" she looks as innocent as an old
owl. Then after twelve or thirteen of
those eggs have been laid side by side
Biddie suddenly disappears. She comes
around once day for food, but that Is
all. Then after three weeks you hear
a great commotion, and up to the
kitchen door marches the proud mother,
leading q large brood of fuzzy little
creatures which are her children. Now.
how were the contents of those eggs
turned into little living creatures? Sim
ply by the agency of heat Day after
day and week after week that old hen
sat upon those eggs. She sat so long
that the feathers were worn Off her
breast She sat so long that her breast
ucCdHle ike Hre. Inc warmth OF ner
body went into the eggs. and that
warmth developed there the little germs
Of life which grew until they were able
to burst asunder the shells and walk
forth as perfect chickens
Why do you not plant your flowers
and vines on this side of the house?"
l asked wealthy gentleman at whose
country home l was stopping "These
archways would form a perfect trellls
where the vines could cling. Then, the
first view the visitor has of the house is
from this driveway. Instead of planting
most of your flowers toward the east side
of the house I would plant them on the
west" "Ah," said my friend nothing I
would like better than that, but my flow
ers will not grow here. You must remem-
Der that'the sun rises in the east and that
means that during the morning hours the
west side of my house Is shut out from
the light of the sun. That means the
ground here is always cold. See1s and
flowers must have heat In which TO grow"
Heat means life for the vegetable world,
and cold always means death. So you see
that fire is not always destructive but is
the symbol Of life. Now when hear
Christ say, II am come in order to put
children into the cradles of the nurseries
and to weigh down the orchard branches
with fruits and to cover up the harvest
fields with golden headed grain and to fill
the gardens with busy bees and to hatch
out the salmon eggs which have lain in
the shadows of the rivers" Oh, the won
ders of nature as revealed in the rnracu-