The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-01


 to be s<eptical about the divine protec- ton and support"
 Uses of an Enemy.
 | But bitter though the attacks Of your enemies may be, l want you fully to req l lize that an enemy has his good uses Tor the development of a man just as friend l has his good uses. An enemy is great | restraining and developing influence in our | lives He is like a moral brake. Did you
 ever bend down and examine the huge l brakes of a railroad engine? When we
 approach the engine, inevitably we marvei l at the mammoth boilers and the heavy
 driving wheels. We say This is the ! way the steam is connected with that
 wheel This immense steel rod makes the
 wheels work together" But though it IS 1 important to have our human boilers, 1t 1 Is just as important to have our human | brakes The engineer must be able 10 | start the engine but he must also be able l to stop it. Now, the enemies Of man
 put him on his guard. They keep nm 1 from running into needless dangers. They' l like the wild beasts of the forests, make 1 him keep his eyes open and his ears alert. | Though enemies mix for us the bitter waters of Marah, thank God that these
 waters can become sweet when we re- | alize that on account of their bitterness l we are able to do more valiant serVlce
 for our fellow men and for Jesus Christ. But there are still other bitter Marah
 waters which many of us are compelled
 to drink, ones financial inability to pro-
 vide for the wants of our loved ones. You
 say: Personally, l could not stand pow
 erty. II does not affect me much. My
 personal wants are very few, and easily i satisfied. But it is so hard not to be l able to give my dear ones the neces-
 sities and a few of the luxures." Then
 you look up at me with a sad smile as you say: You must not think that | I have always lived as we are living
 now. Like many people of this city for
 whom the wheels of fortune has turned
 I can say that I have seen better days
 My brother 1 know it. There was day l in your life when you did not have to
 consider whether it was best Tor you to 1 ride in a street car because or the eX-
 travagance in spending a five cent piece
 And that fact makes your condition
 doubly hard.
 Like a Thunderbot.
 Then, again, from talking with mem l Der of your family, l have found out
 that your financial catastrophe came like 1 a tornado out of clear sky. It came l as quickly as the late San Francisco | tragedy came to thousands of families
 and left them penniless by the Golden 1 Gate. Only the night before that awful
 earthauake young student of the Hop | kins Art Institute was writing home. This
 letter left the city at 5 o'clock a. m.. l or just thirteen minutes before that great 1 city was wrecked. This is what she said:
 'lt is beautiful night. The breezs | from the ocean is so pure and fresh, and l the air is heavy with perfume from the l hosts of flowers that are blooming. The l heavens are full of bright stars. God 1 seems to be everywhere, and the whole
 earth seems glad"
 | But hardly was the ink dry upon the l paper and the letter sealed when the horrible upheavel took place, the con flagration broke loose and the Hopkins Institute of Art, like thousands of other l buildings, was a mass of charred and
 hissing ruins. That is the way your for tune went. In a flash, with the speed 1 of bullet-aye with the velocity of the | whirlwind-your money took wings and | flew away Now your sick wife has to l do the housework and your two daughters are compelled to go out and earn their l daily bread Bitter, bitter are the Marah waters of financial inability out of which | you are compelled to drink daily. And | yet my friends, I do not feel so sorry | for you as you think I ought want l to tell you that there will yet come a day when you shall thank God on your knees | that you have had to drink from this bit | ter spring. Then the Marah spring shall become the living fountain of sweet love | The best way for me to press home the 1 truth which would convey is to tell you l the simple story of family In one Of my eastern churches They were society people when I first knew them and lived Af was no object with them. The father was l a street car magnate. Suddenly their | money, like a swift red-breasted orioe, | flew away fin a night. Then the father, in- stead of being a money lender became | a money borrower. His mind gave way, and he moved as a living corpse His | lungs and heart were alive, but his mind was dead Then the mother discharged all | her servants and left the handsome home l and went into a little four-room cot | tage where she became her own cook. | and dressmaker. The two oldest girls
 went to teaching. The third daughter | could do nothing. for she was an invalid. | The boy was too small to work and he was kent at school "Too bad!" every
 one said "Too bad!' Think of what that l family had and now what they have come | to-"
 The Blessing of Affliction. But time passed on. The invalid daugh- l ter died. The other two daughters grew | stronger and stronger. Instead of being useless social "butterfies' they became | noble, self-reliant women. The boy grew up and went to Princeton. and is now l strong brainy man. The family have moved into a larger house and now the l aged mother is again able to take life l easier. Other hands do the family cook | ing. And what was the great moral and | spiritual results of that family having to | drink the Marah waters? Some time ago l that mother said to me: ''It was awfully