The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-18

upon the face of the EARTH Such is the
simple story Of how God saved the poor
widow and her son during the Zarephath
famine. because she was willing to do
what Gods prophet commanded.
The zarephath famine. in the first
place. teaches that the good and the In
nocent must cojointly suffer from the
evil results of the deeds of the bad Sir
Walter SCOTS business partners did
wong. The innocent Sir Walter Scott
| had to suffer The owner of Abbotsford
had to shoulder Seoa00O debt. The son-in-
law of Francois Grevy proved to be d
| soonndrel Innocent Francois Grevy had
to resign the presidential chair of France
because his son-in-law, Wilson, was con-
| victed of selling the decorations and the
| offices of the government for cash The
April shower falls upon the just and UNI
! Just, upon the wheat and the tares alike.
| The evil deeds Of a husband curse not
only himself but his wife and his chill
dren also. When the wayward Hebrew
prince was hung. David the broken
hearted father, went to his chamber
over the gate and wept and as he went
thus he said: 20 my son Absalom, my
sen. my son, my son Absalom! Would
God [ had died for thee, o Absalom my
son, my SOM
The prodigal in his rags and In dis
| grace in the far country tending the herd
and chewing the husks thrown to the
four-footed unclean, filthy beasts is not
more pathetic than the mourning parent.
waiting and watching for his youngest
| boy to come back home. Yes. yes; sin
brings the famines which affllcts the good
and the bad, the innocent and the guilty
alike. The evil deeds of an Ahab and a
Jezebel caused the poor widow of Ia
rephath and her only son to starve.
Cannot you find any direct connection
| between the sins of Ahab's palace and
the hunger gnawing at this poor widows
| vitals? We ascend the beautiful hills of
Samaria. We find there heather temple.
! We find there the kings palace palace
| os RIGHTEOUSNESS and immoral filth and
| drunken carousals. Then we hear the
prophet say: "Ahab and Jezebe on ac-
count of your sins l will send a drought
| upon the land. For three long years not
q drop of rain shall fall" Aha" laughed
| the sinful monarch. 'I am not afraid!
Such beautiful country and such rich
farm land as ours will never be turned
into desert. Threatening prophet
| defy thee!e But day after Gay the hot
| sun burned Day after day, week after
week. month after month, no rain or
| dew. Two long years of drought had
| passed over the land The vineyards were
! gone. The harvests were gone. The
| orchards were gone. God was starving
| Ahab and Jezebe1. But while he was
starving the king and queen the poor
widow and her only son were also suf-
! ferng in The Zarephath hut The sins
! OF the fathers are visited upon the chill
dren even unto the third and fourth gem
| erations. The good and the innocent suf-
| fer for the evil deeds of the corruut and
| the befouled. o man, be not an Ababl o
woman. do not become a Jezebel. Avoid
the sin which will bring a curse and
nlght on the hearts of the innocent ones
! by your side as well as on your own
| lives.
Lesson of the Famine.
This eastern famine teaches us another
lesson. God always honors the men and
the women who honor his messengers.
He honored this poor starving widow of
Zarephath. Why? She was ready TO care
for and house his ambassador, Elijah the
Tishbte. He honored Rahab the harlot.
| She secreted the spies that Joshua sent
to Jericho. He honored Abraham. Abra-
ham welcomed to his table the three an
gels who came to his tent on the plains
! OF Mamre He honored Naaman Naaman
| was ready to obey the commands of
Elisha. He honored David. David went
| before Nathan. He honored Hezekiah.
| Hezekith honored Isaiah. All through
the Bible you can. find this mighty and
+
| ed whereby God blesses those who honor
his representatives and denounces those
| who despise or turn their backs upon his
ambassadors.
The teachings of the Old and New Tes-
lament in this respect are one. In the
Psalms we read: Touch not mine
anonted and do my phophets no harm"
Then, as an endorsement we find the fol-
lowing in Matthew in reference to Christ's
missionaries, spoken by Jesus himself:
And whosoever shall not receive you.
nor hear your words, when We depart out
Of that house you shall shake off the
dust OF your feet. Verify. I say unto
you, 1t shall be more terrible for the land
Of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of
judgment than for that city" But
though God bids us honor his representa-
tives, as the Zarephath woman honored
and cared for Elijah yet today there
seems to be tendency abroad to criti-
else and denounce Gods ministers and to
patronlzingly ridicule them a great deal
more than you would any other class
of men. The result is that scores and
hundreds of young men who ought to
be preaching in the pulpit have been
turned aside because of the way some
congregations treat their ministers.
What They Wanted.
In the first place, many churches are
SIMPLY starving their preachers to death
while they themselves demand all the
excelencies of earth and heaven In their
pastors. Rev DIR. Haven some time ago
told about letter which Virginia parisb
sent to Professor Rice requesting a min
lister. 1.-THE people" this letter declared
want man of first class endownments -
They wanted a, literary preacher. FOR
some of the young people were literary.
They wanted a minister who would visit
a good deal, for their former pastor had
neglected to do as much of that as thew
could have wished. They wanted a man
OF winsome and fascinating social person.
ality, for the people thought a good deal
OK that. They wanted a good organizer
as well as fine orator After they had
gone on describing the kind of perfect
minister they wished, they ended the lat
ter In this wise: We have been ma wing
our last minister $3.50 a year. but n vo,,
could send us just the kind of a man we
want we think we can raise his salary
$50 more and give to him 500 a year"
With that, DIR. Rice sat down and wrote
the following ironical letter to this exact
ing congregation:
Dear Friends-Your letter received and
contents carefully noted, / know lust the
minister you need. If you can get him.
Make out a call to DIR. Timothy Dwight
late president of Yale college. who is now
in heaven. He is the only being I know
who can meet all your requirements. And
. In mi N