The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-17

eth my soul after thee, God
 In a Circle.
 There are two other facts to which I still want to call your attention. The first Is that the water brooks not only saved the hunted deer by throwing the dogs off the trail, but also by making It possible for the deer to run in a straight nne away from the dogs. I was very much surprised to find out that these water brooks are to the deer what the compass is to a hunter in the woods-it keeps the deer from travelling in a circle.
 The pursued deer unless drawn by the scent of water always runs in circle
 No sooner has a deer been shot at and the dogs been turned loose than at once the deer unless he has the guiding scent of water seems to lose his reasoning fac
 ulties. He will run like the wind He will run on and on-five, ten, fifteen or even twenty miles-but unless he can scent
 the water brooks from afar he will all
 ways travel in a circle and come back to the very place where the hunter first
 shot at him-back to the place where he will be shot again. This circlng flight of the deer is universally recognized Some of the different state legislatures have enacted game laws which make 1t fel- ony for any man to hunt the deer by the means of hounds. Why? If they did not
 make such a law the deer of those states
 would soon be eXterminated. The circl- ing flight of the deer makes 1t very sim ple matter for a few hunters to stand in one place and shoot at the running game again and again until the deer have been entirely slaughtered
 An my friends, as I thought of the poor deer travelling in a circle how quick ly my mind thought of man as human |, 1f,,u in Cir Nxrfthn1lt of the divine water brook! We think at times that by our own strength we can overcome our sins. Do we? Alas we seem to travel in a circle. Is not that old taste of liquor coming back? Is not that old desire of sin continually gathering strength and assaulting us harder and bitterer every time? If we have not the aid of the divine water brooks are we
 not continually travelling In circle?
 There is only one sure way for you to escape sin, and that Is to plunge into the divine water brooks. But moro than that there is only one way for you to keep free from sin in the future. and that Is to scent Gods water brooks from afar, for if you do not as sure as you live you will circle around. The circle may be large or small, but 1t Is certain to be a
 circle. and you will come back to that very sin which nearly destroyed you some weeks some months or some years ago
 The Hidden Fawns.
 But If it is impossible for the deer to
 save his, own life from the pursuing hounds it is even less possible for him to save the life of his young by his own strength The deer knows he cannot do
 this, and so his chief duty towards his
 young is to conceal them during their years helplessness. 1nen as soon as the young are strong enough, he leads them to the water brooks and teaches them how they can there escape the hounds.
 First they conceal the young Did you ever see the birth chamber of little
 fawn? The guides tell you it Is ''ery hard to get into the royal palaces of Europe to see the private rooms where the prime es and princesses of the royal houses of
 England and Germany and Italy and Rus
 sia were born, but it Is not more difficult
 than to find the birth chambers of the | lawns When the 4oes are about to be-
 come mothers they hide themselves far
 far away from the eyes of beast or man. l There. in the darkest jungles. the little | ones come into the world. So carefully | are the helpless lawns hidden away from | the merciless eyes of the hunter that Job | speaks of these secret birth chambers by | asking the difficult question. "Canst thou mark where the minds calve?" But as soon
 as the young lawns are strong enough
 the hind leads her young to the water
 brooks She seems to say. daughter.
 I cannot protect thee. Only the water
 brooks can protect thee. This is the way
 to escape the dogs and the wolves Are
 we not like the minds, leading our little i ones to the water brooks? Are we say | ing: "Come child I cannot ~uide thee. | I cannot save t--ee Only God can care
 for thee Come. let me lead thee to him" | Oh. the helplessness of hind or a hart
 caring for her young.
 | I once heard of a hunter who was in
 ambush, A doe with two lawns were
 passing that way and were chased by 1 the dogs. The hunter raised his rife and | shot one of the lawns. The mother had 1 disappeared in the woods, but as soon as | she turned and saw her little one on the l ground she returned and bent over the ! dying fawn and began to lick the baby S 1 wounds until the cruel hunter made her l tumble a corpse over the body of her | child. You say that was sad. You say
 that was pathetic. But sad and pathetic | as 1t was. I do not think it nearly as sad | sad as the sights we see everywhere | around us. Here we can see human minds l and harts not only refusing to lead their
 young to the divine water brooks. but | absolutely leading them into danger. 1 These human minds and harts after their
 young are morally and physically and l spiritually destroyed come out, like old 1 David, and. bending over their destroyed | young. they vail: "Oh. Absalom, my son. | my son, Would God had died for thee"' | Are you as parental minds and harts, not | only going for your own safety to the | divine water brooks, but are you also leading there your children?
 Spiritual Water Brooks.
 Thus. my friends, you find two symbols in these words of my text. In the first you find the poor hunted sinner seeking the spiritual water brooks and there finding safety: in the second we find the sinner bounded and persecuted by sin. refusing to seek the divine water brooks and consequently being destroy ed.
 There is beautiful legend that many centuries ago Diana was chased by a hunter Diana when she turned and saw
 him said "Begone. thou human stag and
 die the death of a hunted beast.' Im- mediately horns began to grow from the young mans forehead; his fair skin be- came covered with a reddish hair; his
 foot changed into the eleven hoof of a deer. Then through the woods the doom- cd man heard the cries of his late com panions, who were out hunting. He heard the yelping of his own dogs. Though Ac- taeon turned and ran for his life. those dogs overlook him and tore him limb from limb. Oh. my friends. are we. like Actaeon. straying into forbidden paths. p1irsuing vain pleasures? Is 1t possible that we like Actaeon, are being hunted
 by trials and temptations. Then in our