The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-10

educated can do but little or no good for
the Master?" No, no. 1 am not assert
ing that. But | am asserting that there
is at least one door of your intellect
like the fir tree doors of the inner sane
tuary of the Solomnic temple which is
capable of the most wonderful carvings.
That one door leads into a music room,
or into a teachers room. or into an art
gallery, or into a writer's study. / do
not know what that one talent of your
mind is, but / know that you have one
great talent. Develop it for Jesus Christ.
Develop it to the very best of your abil-
ity. Make its sounds the sweetest. Make
its colors the brightest. Make its par
ables the most convincing. Make its ora
lions the most powerful. Say, by the
help OF God / viii take this talent of
mind and develop it intellectually that I
may truly serve my Master In an aes-
thetic as well as in a spiritual way"
When / was a student our honored the
illogical professor Dr. Thomas S. Hast
ings, was lecturing to the boys and CIV
ing us a long list of books which he
wanted us to study. These books. if I re-
member Alright, covered all the fields of
literature. poetic, scientific. historical. as
WI as Biblical He was not only telling
us how to study the Bible by commen-
taries, but also how to enrich our SER
mons by gathering our illustrations from
all sources. You ALI know what it means
in plain English. If you would serve God
Alright, serve Him with the best devel-
oped brain that you can produce. Go to
the best music schools and train your
songs for Christ. Go to the best of all
colleges and train your brain for Christ.
Gather for Jesus all the best products of
the scientific as well as the artistic and
the historical and political life Make
your intellect the fir tree doors of the
inner sanctuary carved with cherubim
-. a., l., =
The best that we have or can have in
the Intellectual life should all be con-
secrated to the Masters service.
If K is important for us as individuals
to develop our intellects along the lines
of the beautiful. how much more impor-
tant is 1t for US to have homes every
door of which is engraved with cherubim
and palm trees and blossoming flowers!
If it IL important to adorn our own in
dividual lives, how much more impor-
tant is 1t by the direct or Indirect ex-
amples in the home to adorn those lives
which are living close to us!
Staggering Thought.
1t is staggering thought to me that l
individually can do just about what l
like with each one of my children for
nearly twenty years, or for nearly one
half or one-third of their lives | can tell
them what time they are to go to bed
am what time they are to get up. l
can tell them what kind of food they
are to eat and what they are not to eat.
| can pick out all their clothes and
limit them in the books they are to study
and to read. l can tell them what pic
lures they are to look at and what they
are to do in my house. In other words,
for fifteen or sixteen years of my chill
drens lives / can absolutely do as |
viii in forming their characters when
they are living within the four walls of
my house. OF course, | mean I can do
as l please If their mother agrees. On
the other hand | sometimes. think the
wife can do as she pleases with the
children. whether the husband agrees or
no. Now, my friends if we as parents
have such marvellous influence upon
the lives of our children do you not
feel that we should do everything in
our power to develop their minds in an
intellectual way for Jesus Christ? Do you
not believe that every door of our homes
should be engraved with cherubim and
palai trees and flowers in blossom?
TO speak literally, do YOU not believe
we should have flowers in the home? 1t
does not take much work to plant a
few flowers in your backyard or even to
plant a few geraniums or petunas in
box of soil and have them catch the
sunlight as it comes streaming through
your windows of winters day Can
YOU not place in the middle of your din
ing table a fernery? No child ever
yearned to love flowers. but through flow
ers it was easier for him to love Christ.
Can you not hang copies of the old re-
ligious masters upon your walls? 1t does
no. cost much to get a copy of Rubens'
Descent From the Cross or Christ at
the Last Supper or an easter Resur-
rection' or Mllet's "Angelus' or a
Ruth Cleaning After the Reapers." You
ha1 oh oh 10
good pictures, for, mark me, If you do
not teach them to love good pictures when
they are young they may learn to love
bad pictures when they are beyond your
control. Can you not buy for your chill
dren some musical instrument, if it is
only photograph, and have that phono-
graph play some of the worlds best
classical music or some of the beautiful
hymns which have come singing down
through the centuries?
1t is important to have q beautiful
home IT. which our children shall live. Is
it not also important to have a beau
tiful temple and a beautiful church SER
vice with which we shall worship God
Alright on the Sabbath day? Shall not
the door of our earthly sanctuaries be
engraved with cherubim and PLAN trees
AM blossoming flowers? Shall not the
songs sing from the choir lofts be
sung ty the most beautiful voices? Shall
not the sermon winch is preached be
something more than an old-fashoned
camp meeting exhortation? Shall not our
organs be deep throated organs and our
churcn windows whenever possible have
in stained glass pictures Of Jesus a
good shepherd caring for a little lamb.
or Jesus as a tired. WORKOUT traveller
talking by the well of Samaria with a
social outcast or Jesus as an ascending
Lord disappearing among the clouds
while His disciples are PROSTATE at His
feet? Cannot all these beautiful sounds