The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-19

polling the heat, this sermon comes
with its suggestion of atmospheric rejuye-
nation. The text is Hosea vi, 4, Your
goodness is as a morning cloud"
A sanity old preacher said in his latter
years: IF I had my life to live over
again I would preach most of my sermons
from familiar scenes of the Bible, like
Christ feeding the multitudes with the
| loaves and the fishes. I believe Bible
truths can best be driven home to the
hearts of men by ringing the changes
upon the old familiar texts" That is
true in one sense. But 1 believe also that
an easy way to illustrate our sermonie
themes is from Bible SMILES drawn from
nature If any man is lover of nature
and will read the Bible intellgently, ne
will find the leaves Of the sacred book
literally filled with descriptions of natural
phenomena. Furthermore, If you study
church history, almost without exception
you will find that the most popular
preachers and the greatest winners OIL
souls for Christ have been men like Henry
Ward Beeeher and John Mason anu
Thomas Guthrie and Rowland Hill ahd
Thomas Chalmers, who loved the flowers
and the stars and the birds and the snow
fakes. the same as did David, the psalm
list and Hosea and Amos, the prophets
and Jesus Christ, many of whose paraoies
have the aroma of the woods and the
open field
Take. for instance, the life Of Charles
Kingsley. Do you wonder he grlppeu 'ne
hearts of his hearers and readers as ne
did when you realize the nature lover tna INA,
he was2 One night, after he had reelteu
to his guests the story of a CORNISH snlp
wreck, he led his friends out into tae
open yard, where he stood under the pelu
ing rain and looked up at superb nun,
derstorn as he cried: what hlen'.
Lookl Is 1t not splendid This is nisne
when young men cannot talk or lhi,lN
too much poetry" 1t was SAD tha' ~
knew every nook and corner OF ms pc
loved country, in the center OF which Wa
his parsonage One day when out Walh-
inc his son asked him If he thought ne
would ever lose his love for the country.
Charles Kingsley answered: Nay II my
friends ever ask you that, tell them ina.
| am now looking at the most pea ~ -
scene I ever saw" Does notathls sentence
reveal the inner workings OF d haeu.
loving heart? Did not Charles hlhssies
get many of his mightiest gospel lessons oa
by catching the echoes OF them III az .,,o
falling waters as they tumbled down .i9
cascade near TO his own home? lndeeo'
have always felt that minister was not
n fully developed teacher OF Goa unless
he can often find his text simultaneously
from the book of nature and from the
book of the Bible.
Natures Lessons.
Now Hosea. the prophet draws from
nature a most beautiful sermomc SIM.
lie He seems to be standing by nlshe
upon one of the hillsides oVerloohine
the city of Jerusalem. That great oap
ital of the east is crowded Win n ,
wickedness and apostasy All nlshe io,is
he stands there, with the roof Oh shy
Co.. bis covering. He thinks of how they
have been punished and then repensea
and then slnned again. Their Sins loi
lowed each other as soldiers In me
of march tread in each others Footsteps
Thus the great prophet OF the east
views the history of his beloved peop,o'
| And as he weeps and mourns over l1o
| sins of the Hebrew race the stars paie
\ and GO ont Then the sunlight rims the
| eastern hills and turns the early morn
ing clouds into curtains of gold. Iheh ne
sees the dewdrops glitterlng upon eFeig
| leaf. Then as the sun climbs hlgher anu
higher in the heavens and he feels t,le
! day grow hotter Hosea sees those eaiis
morning clouds evaporte ana the Wv
droDs disappear Then, like ndsh
snrings from his lips the smile OF the
vaporv repentances of the Hebrew race
30 Ephraim, what shall do with tnee
| q Judah. what shall l do unto theef for
| YOUR goodness is as the morning elouu,
| and as the early dew 1t goeth away
LET ms in Gods name try to compare the
vapory repentances Of our lives TO TINS
| beautiful figure of the morning clouos.
| a
oeist and say: "Oh, student Of the CLOUD
land. tell us how these morning clouds
! are formed In the great family or CLOUDS
have they any individualties or peculiar
charact eristics?' The prose poet OF Eng
| land, John Ruslin, scans the hlllsldes oi
| the heavens and lauds the beauty OF all
the clouds when he writes: Mature mas
a Thousand WAYS of rising above herself,
hut the noblest manifestations of her ca
inability of colors are in the sunset among
| the clouds. There is no limit to the null
| ttudes and no check to the Intensity OF
| the hues assumed The whole sky from
| zenith to horizon, becomes one molten,
| mantling sea of color and ire Every
| black bar turns to MASSEY gold, every
| .ipple and wave into unsulied crimson
| and purple and scarlet and colors for
which there are no words in the language
| and no ideas in the mind-things when
| can be conceived only while they are
| visible. the intense hollow blue of the
| INNER sky melting through 1t all, showing
here deep and pure, there modulated by
| the dimsy. formless body of the transpar-
| ent vapor until it is lost, imperceptibe
in its crimson and gold" But Hosea, the
prophet, is not abiding to all clouds of
| the heavens when he mentions the morn
| ing clouds, as did John Ruslln. scanning
| the whole heavens covered with gold. lie
| is abiding to one particular kind of
| clouds.
Families of Clouds.
The meteorological again says: 1.-THE
morning clouds are scientifically known
as the 'cumulus' clouds. Sometimes they
are popularly called the day clouds, or
the summer Clouds They are not the
cirrus clouds, the ~shte, feathery masses
of condensed vapor that can be seen far
| up In the heavens four or five miles away
| from the earth. at times seeming to De
higher than the stars. They are not the
nimbus clouds or the clouds of the
| storm with darker forehead than the
| black skin of the royal representative of
| Ouaenn Candace's palace, who once jour
neved TO Jerusalem. The nimbus clouds
often carry with them the unsheathed
swords of fire and speak in the voice of
MANY thunders They are not the stratus
| clouds. whose lower layers sometimes
| form the fog banks lining the seashores
and covering the fields which are some
| times called the clouds of the night But
| they are the clouds near to earth which
are produced only in fair weather.
"Thus when bright, warm, beautiful
spring morning is about to dawn and the
4 10,