The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-02
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DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON
BY The REV. FRANK DE WIN TALMAoE, D. D.

those seeds into the white blossoms of the
springtime. The more I study Christs life
the more l am impressed with the fact
that Christ continually has to make us
over and purify us, even as the nuggets
of gold must be burned in the smelling
furnaces to separate the alloy from the
true gold. What" you say ''ar?" Yes,
all. There is no exception to the rule. We
have all erred and strayed like lost sheep.
We have all followed too much the de-
vices and the desires of our own hearts
There is none that doeth good-no, not
one
Atmosphere Not Antiseptic.
We have all been contaminated by sin
from the very atmosphere which we have
breathed. To a certain extent it is possi-
BILE in an operating room to keep the pa
TENTS wound free from poisonous infec-
ton. IN the first place, the patient before
being operated upon has his body thor
oughly cleansed. Then he is etherized and
carried to the operating table. There every
instrument and every piece of furniture
and cloth has been made antiseptc to re-
ceive the patient There the nurses and
doctors are all dressed in pure, clean, an
tiseptic linen. They even wash their
hands, their faces and their hair in car
bolic solution. The very atmosphere Is
gauze. Thus is the sick patient cared for
in the operating room. The attendants are
thus careful that no external dust or i'm
purity touch their patient. But the at
mosphere we breathe In life is not made
antiseptic from sin. The hands that touch
us upon the streets are not always puro
hands. The lips which speak to us are
not always pure lips. Behold, we were
born In sin; We have grown up amid the
10 % 81. ~.
have again and again bowed at the mercy
seat and made the publicans prayer, God
be merciful to me, a sinner" yet today
we find that we have just as great a need
of Christ the Purifier as we ever had of
Christ the Creator of our souls and ply
steal bodies.
Now. how does Christ purify our lives?
1t Is done by the hot fires of trouble. A fire
is always the best of all purifiers. 1 stand
at one of the great kiln doors OF an East
Liverpool pottery I say to the potter:
What are you doing? Why are you maxi
ing those fires so hot?" ITO bake the
clay" he answers. why do you bake the
clay?" I ask. ITO get the impurities out
of IT. he answers. Then l stand and
hear the roaring noise Of those seething
flames. They leap, they hiss, they try to
burn asunder the heavy, massive brick
walls which are combining them. AS peer
through the little hole seem to hear the
clay calling: Let me outl Oh, let me
out! They are burning me to DEATH"
mo-" answers the potter; I'VE are not
destroying you; we are merely taking the
impurities out of you" Not only do they
burn some of the clay once, but twice and
even thrice. Each time the furnaces ara
made hotter Then the clay comes forth
as the beautiful vase, perhaps with Its
sides painted into flower garden by a
master artist or into the exquisite features
of a beautiful maiden, to be among the
treasured wedding gifts Of a kings bride.
step across the bending, twisting,
winding Ohio river. filled with its great
freight boats and lined with It's mighty
railroads, and I enter the black, smoking
heart of great city and stand in one of
the huge foundrles that have made Pitts
burg so famous around the world. 1 see
the stalwart workment moving about the
fires In their weirdness they look like
the moving spirits of Dantes Inferno"
Then | see the men tossing the iron ore
into the huge receptacle In which 1t be-
comes molten as a river of fire. Then l
see the river of fire rolled out into huge
bars and tempered and allowed to cool.
What are you doing workmen?" / ask.
Making steel" "Whatl Making steel
out of that filthy, base iron ore?' Yes;
steel Is nothing more or less than crude
iron purified by fire and tempered Alright.
That iron ore shall yet be changed into
steel rails, over which the huge locomo-
tives will run. and into steel beams to hold
up the bridges that will span the rivers.
and into steel columns which will make it
possible for the twenty story office build
ings to lift themselves in our large cities.
Iron ore could never do this unless 1t had
it's alloys or baser metals taken out of IT.
What is true of the pottery industry and
the steel industry Is also true of the hot
fires which are built about the sands and
the sodas and the lines and salts of the
glass industries. These fires not only make
these substances molten, but they also
burn all of the impurities out of them.
Thus Christ purifies us by the hot fires
of trouble. He burns us and keeps on
burning us that we may be like unto HIM
self. So / begin to see that when Christ
says, II am come to send fire upon the
EARTH" he may mean a fire that shall
purge and purify us and make us fit for
his companionship in heaven.
The San Francisco Fire.
have already mentioned the San Fran
cisco fire. l was in that city while it was
burning 1 saw some of the buildings in
flames and heard there some of the tot
tering walls being dynamited. But the
most impressive place to me in all San
Francisco was where I stood amid the
smoldering walls OF its UNANIMOUSLY famed
Chinatown. A prominent San Francisco
minister was with me at the time. We
had not spoken for some time when he
said: rs it not awful? And yet, awful
as 1t is, you must bear in mind one fact
this is the first time for fifty years man
has ever been able to look upon China
town and call 1t morally pure and Clean
Friend, you have been having a dard time
of late Your troubles have been coming
thick and fast. My. how quickly your
money went. Your baby! It seemed she
left you In the twinkling of an eye. You
are still pale and weak from that last
dangerous Illness. You are like China
town. The walls may seem to be broken
and blackened, but they are clean walls.
God has been purifying you by his hot
fires of trouble. He has been smelling the
dross of sin out of your sinful heart. In
the hot. Kissing seething furnaces of
trouble he has been making you like unto
himself and is encompassing you by his
arms of love Hear we not his sentence.
II am come to send fire upon the earth?"
But Gods fires do not allude only to
the flames of creation and Of publication.
Without doubt they allude to the fires of
battle and carnage as we'll If a human
being will not be purified by the hot fur