The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-27
CITY OF GOD WAS
THEME OF SERMON
The Rev. Dr.. J. W. Stage Pre-
sents His Ideal
CITIZENSHIP is IMPORTANT
Because the City of God Is In Some
Respects an Unrealzed Ideal,
Is No Argument Against
Its Existence.
CITIZENSHIP is IMPORTANT

yesterday morning. DR.. Stage preached
on "The city of Cod" taking his text
from the third verse of the eighty
seventh Psalm:
"Glorlous things are spoken of thee.
City of God"
He spoke in part as follows:
Whenever we succeed In clearing life
OF tho fragmentary and put some of to-
morrow In what we are doing today, we
have done much to hearten men and in
fixing a purpose in life, 1t is tendency
that gives meaning to events. Nothing
standing by itself ever looks SO fine as
when 1t is seen related to other things,
1t is hard to make men live at their
best until they are convinced that all
the separate beings, and things In the
universe are akin and related. Men must
be assured that they are in their Fa-
TIERS house and In their Fathers hands.
The soul longs to and God and to be-
lieve that 1t has not fallen into life head
long. God must not be thrust into the
past so remote as to make Him doubt
full or where He will not have any real,
loving present interest In us. It Is not
Cypress and distress us, but burdens and
distresses that lpring from nothing and
lead to nothing We break down when
/ we view them the blind raging of a
storm. Life must end somewhere.
Old Form of Argument.
The text fixes 1t In one of the Oldest
forms of argument, VIZ; that of de-
sign, on the part of God. Possibly the
Bible makes the argument at it's best,
but Socrates talked to his friends OF 1t
and Cicero meditated on It and wrote
much about 1t. Since then 1t has found
its place in books, changing in it's form
but always keeping true to its nature.
Butler and Paileg, Argyle and Dunn
mond, have all taken q hand at 1t and
science has made 1t larger in the earth's
strata, and In showing the correspond
ence between life and the things neces-
sary for keeping life. The heroic is seen
when men try to outrun natures ways.
When the explorer throws his glass far
away over fields of ice In order to slim
ulate to endurance that knowledge may
increase 9 in the earth, the daring In
risking life away from its supplies, Is
1 Whit Appeals 10 US. lit supply anu tHO
need generally correspond, and so man
comes to know that he is not In a chance
1 world, hence he writes his reasons for
believing In God because he sees what
has been done for his wants every day
that he lives.
An Ideal.
The figure of the text is an ideal, set
out under the name of city. We shall
come by the meaning, If we remember
that cities do not give their Identity in
the mere space of ground they cover or
in walls and buildings. The works and
the shipping, the people that crowd it's
streets, the intellectual and commercial
activity, rather define it. A city finds
expression in something spiritual. His
tory, traditions, the continuity of life
make a city.
Every free man in Attica was a citizen
| of Athens. The Acropolls represented
Athens. All the powers of a freeman be-
longed to that idea. 1t was the thing
| glorious. Roman citizenship was as ex-
tended as the Roman empire and the
Roman conception of a state governed
every one in 1t. The city and the idea
were one. Under the old dlspensation ev-
! cry spiritual minded Jew might claim
citizenship In the city of God. The idea
is now spiritualzed and the city has be-
come transformed and extended, so that
now we do not have to think of walls
and temples. streets and gates nor lions
hill. The city is as extensive as the hui
man race and enrolls Its citizens from
all zones and knows no bounds of race
and cline and tongue and color. 1t Is
universal spiritual society.
God Sees in Long Lines.
! Looking on dead level every obstacle
| In the way of motion is observed while