The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-31
'c.c'c'c.o"c. DIR. TAI MAGE'S SERMON ]
  FRANK. CE WITT TALMAeE. D. D.


 the crown of thorns with which Jesus purchased your salvation" The cross-oh, the empty cross of the first Easter morn. Who would want to pull it down from Golgotha on the morn Jesus was resur- rected? Who would want to obliterate all the memory of the suffering of the atone ment with which Christ obliterated our sins? The cross-oh, the cross, the empty cross of Jesus Christ, changed into great beams of gold by the Easter sun! Oh, let it stand in the center of every pie ture which symbolizes the joy and the gospel triumph of Easter mornl
 The Empty Cross.
 But this empty cross of Jesus Christ teaches us another Easter lesson. It is reminder of the glorious fact that. though for a little while the scepter or sin may seem to have the world for US kingdom, yet in the end eternal right shall surely triumph. It implies the prom ise that, though for a little while Christ may be put upon the cross and hidden away in the tomb, yet there Will surely come a day when He shall step out ol HIS tomb and all His enemies shall be scat tered. even as the Easter morn chases away the darkness of the midnight.
 It is not the power making the greatest noise which always has the most endur- ing strength Neither Is it the day Of eyel which has the longest twilight. what are you making such a russ apout! asked a bittery January wind some years ago among the Michigan hills. "Oh, an~ swered the wind, "l am going 10 bring down a blizzard from the far north. Then l am going to pile these fields up with great snowdrifts. Then l am going to freeze the lakes so thick with ice that the lumbermen can drive thelr sleds loaded down with heavy logs over them: Then I am going to freeze up the ground so tight that it will be as hard IS rock. Then I am going to stop all the traffic unon the railroad tracks. Then l am going to starve the snowbirds and the rabbits and freeze to death the deer in the forest ravines Yes, am going to make all liV- ing creatures tremble in terror before my scepter of ice" And well did the January wind keep it's word. It blew until the blizzard came. It blew until the fences disappeared under the falling snow. It blew until it seemed as though man must flee those Michigan hills for his life. But after that north wind mad exhausted all it's fury and piled up the great snow banks everywhere and hung myriads Of icy stalactites from every tree branch quietly and gently the warm sun came out. Then the bright sunbeams kept kiss ing this snowflake and kissing that snow flake and changing this blade of ice into a bar of gold and that blade of ice into another bar of gold and borrowing here and burwrowing there until after awhile that same sun brushed away every snow bank and began to woo the buds out of the trees and the grass out of the ground and the sap began to flow, and the birds began to build their nests, and spring and summer took the place of the biizzards and the frosts of winter. As no, 1t is not the power making the greatest noise which always has the most enduring strength.
 An Old Legend.
 Many centuries ago there was a great assemblage of the forces of nature, and they said: Let us build a tower of Babel Let us erect a huge fortress of rock, which shall be forever a monument to our strength" So the earthquakes said: "We will writhe and twist this old earth all out of shape. We will throw the rocks aslant, and we will pile them one upon the other" Then the fervent heat said 'I will strike this old earth and make it shrivel up like dried orange. Then the volcanoes said: "Out of the center of the earth we will vomit up great noun tans of lava. We will build huge noun tain range of rocks that the fires can- not burn and the eternties cannot level' So these forces of nature went to work. Iney piled up huge mountain ranges which seemed to be impregnable and in- accessible fortresses for all time. But after these rough forces or nature nau finished their work a collection of white fleecy clouds began to sail across the heavens. They they came to the great mountains and said, Let us undo the work of the earthquakes, the volcanoes and the fervent heat" So these white fleecy clouds went over to the sea. and they dropped their golGen buckets into the deep and filled up their reservoirs. Then with their white wings they flew away to the mountains and began to let that water fall upon the mountain side. Then that water gradually and yet surely be- gan to wash away the dirt and the rocks of those mountains. It washed those mountains down into the valleys. and it kept on washing them down until after awhile the little drops of water were able tc level the unscalable fortresses which the volcanoes and the earthquake had piled up into great mountain ranges, seemingly strong enough to defy the eter mites themselves. It Is not the power