The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-29
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON
Os ANGELES, Cal, April %

/ How to get rid OF the skeieloh
- in the closet" to overcome the
hidden trouble, the unrepented fault, IS
the subject of the sermon today, the text
chosen being Psalm xe, S, "Our secret
sins in the light of thy countenance.'
Most men are born towards. They were
as babies rocked in the cradle of fear
AS boys they always by night disliked
to travel the road which leads to the
! bridge over which Tam o shanter was
chased by the hobgobins of course we
do not believe in ghosts once said
| great English evangelist, but most of US
feel sauemish when alone, we have to
walk past a silent country graveyard IN
the dark hours about midnight And
most of us are afraid of the valley of the
shadow of death when, like the psalmist
| Of old we look at It In the dim vista OF
the future, although, like him. we know
IT is nothing but a black shadow" or
course there may be men born, like Hor-
alto Nelson. who never knew what the
name of fear means. But If such men eX-
list they are very few and far between.
They are almost as scarce as clover tops
growing in January snow bank or as
diamonds imbedded in a vein of copper
| ore.
The members of the human race do
not dwell all the time in tho City OF
Courage They nearly all live for a
little while, at least once year, IN the
City of Timidity. They more often cry
and tremble before the imaginary dan
gers which threaten them than they sur
fer from the wounds inflicted by mortal
foe. The legend is told that one day
traveller met the Black Plague journey
ing to the famous eastern capital of
Bagdad. where are you going?" asked
the eastern pilgrim. ITO Bagdad, was
the answer, ito kill 5000 people few
weeks later, so goes the legend, the same
traveller met the Black Plague ON the
same road, but now returning from Bag
dad and going home. why said the
traveller. did you not do as You said you
intended to do? You said you were going
to Bagdad to kill 5000 people. From the
awful reports l hear coming from that
doomed region you have killed 10000 peo-
pie instead of 5000" All" answered the
Black Plague, with a gleeful. fiendish
grin, al have kept my word. ] Killed
only 5000 people on account of my fatal
touch, but the other 5000 people who al
so died persisted of fear. They killed
themselves had nothing to do with It,
Yes, the old legend is right great
many plaques stalk through this land
destroying their victims everywhere, but
the dead that lie in their tracks are not
all slain by those swinging scythes. More
people die from fear than ever die from
the ravages of disease.
The Fear of Punishment
This assumption is almost a self evil
dent fact or an axiom. Now. as most
of us are towards in more ways than
one, the greatest check for wronsdolng
i'm this world is the fear of future pun
ishment The would be murderer is afraid
to shoot his victim for fear he will be exc
cuted; the young clerk who Is getting In
to the habit OF betting upon the races is
afraid to risk any of his employers
money for fear he win be found out and
sent to Jail: the women or the men who
would like to violate the seventh COM
mandment often are afraid tos-do it for
fear the newspaper reporters will get
upon their track and the whole scandal
| will be published i'm the daily newspapers,
and then they wilf pe ostracized from all
decent associations, but If a man could
sin without being found out or the sinner
not be brought TO judgement then where
! there are two sins there would be twenty
and where men err once now they might
do wrong ten times over. That means, of
course If our sins would never be brought
to trial.
Now, as | was thinking along this line
the Other. day my eyes We're scanning
the Nineteenth Psalm of David. Suddenly
my attention was attracted TO these
words: "Our secret sins in the light of
thy countenance" What l said to my
self--"can it be that there are sins so
secret so completely hidden, that our
most intimate friends do not know of
them sins that God knows and sees and
that our consciences convict us off, |
do not now refer to the open sins. the
faults that the world takes note of, but
are there not others hidden away in the
inmost reeesses of the heart that will
one day be set in the penetrating light of
Gods countenance? Let us examine our
selves this morning as in Gods presence.
Let me, in the first place. speak about
the sin of robbng God of these hours
of sacred devotion ian which should
hold secret communion with him, those
hours of secret prayer and Bible read
ing which are 80 essential for our own
spiritual life. You know that In that
discourse on prayer in which our Lord
describes that exercise he commands
us to pray in secret as we'll as to pray
openly. In Matthew we read, When
thou prayest enter into thy closet, and
when thou hast shut thy door pray to
thy Father who is In secret and thy
Father who is In secret shall reward
thee openly" But though God COM
mands us to have our secret hours OF
holy communion with him and though
the Christian world thinks that we, as
processing Christians have those sacred
hours, yet how often do steal away
| from God these hours which should be de-
voted to him. In other words, we want to
! try to do spiritual work and win spiritual
conquests without first making the nee
essary spiritual preparation for our own
souls.
Want a Short Cut.
We are in exactly the same position in
a spiritual sense as is the young man in
a temporal SENSE who wishes to leave the
well beaten paths of work and take a
short cut up the mountain of fame. Here.
for instance, is the young man. He wishes
to be a lawyer He goes to an old lawyer
and says: Judge, I would like to be a
lawyer. What shall l do?" What do
YOU know, my boy2 is the natural ques-
ton. "Oh." says the young man. 81 have
only been TO school a few years and
studied the common branches Then,
says the old lawyer what | would do Is
to go back to school. Study study, study
Fit yourself for college. Then go through
the law school, Sharpen your weapons
first before you go into battle" "Unnec-
essary," answers the young man. What is
the good of spending the next ten years of
my life In rummagng through musty
tones? l do not care what the Roman
law was. what | wish to know is what
is the law of today" So the young man