The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-19

l ing, nothing" for he dare not tell her
 the truth. Then he feels himself gradu- ally growing weaker and weaker.
 One day he fants dead away When
 the servants undress him to put him to l bed, they find out his true condition.
 He is @ leper, a doomed leper. Then they drive him out from the home. They l drive him out from the habitations of
 man. They drive him out to live and to l die among the lepers Thus you can see
 how grateful that leper ought to have
 been when Jesus brushed away the fatal
 scales of leprosy from off his breast and
 arms and neck and forehead Do you
 wonder that that 1eper returned to thank
 God for his physical health?
 Thanks for Health.
 Ought not scores and hundreds of us l 10 thank God for our restored physical l health? Some of us well remember the 1 day when we never expected to be strong l and we'll as we are now. Perhaps your l physical history has been that of many.
 Perhaps we came up to twenty or twen- | ty-five years of age and never knew what it was to have an ache or pain. l Then disease, like a creeping paralysis, l got hold of us. Then our health came
 back to us almost as mraculously as did l the restored health of the ancient leper. l We felt as one snatched from the tomb. Like the leper of old, are you grateful l IO dOQ TOT tnaI restored plySlcdi nedlll4 ] Remember there was q day when you would gladly have given every dollar you
 owned to be physically well as you are 1 today Now, are you glorifying God, like 1 the leper of old. for your restored phy- l scal health? Oh, the inestlmable bless ], ings of a sound physical bodyl Who
 would dare to keep silent lips when God l has thus blessed him with 8 sound phy- 1 sical frame?
 But next 10 the blessings of physical
 health, for what do you suppose that
 leper of old thanked Jesus? Do you
 suppose that cleansed leper kept kneel- l ing at Jesus feet, saying: Master, Mas ter, I can never thank thee enough! l ! will never leave thee! l will always stay
 by the side if thou wilt only let me?" l No. 1 do not believe that leper did any
 such thing. I do not believe he stayed
 with Christ very long. l think he ran to l Christ to give him his thanks. Then he ] said: Master, 1 want to run home and l see my wife and children and father and
 mother, and all my dear ones Oh, I want
 to tell them what you have done for me. l want to take them in my arms and kiss l them, Just as l used to do before these fatal scales came upon my breast" Then l think Jesus said: "Go, my son, go! 1 Go and tell your dear ones the glad news. l have given them to you to love just as l have given you your physical health. Now see that cleansed leper running to- ward his old home. I hear him say as he goes: Jesus has given me back my father and mother and brothers and sis ters and wife and little children. Thank God for my restored home! Thank Godr' As you thank God today for your physical health, are you also thanking Him for the sanctity and the purity and the love of your domestic circle?
 Thanks for Relatives.
 Do you thank him for your babies cribs? Do you thank him for your wifes tender, gentle companionsnip? Do you thank God because your old mother is yet alive and that she Is ever thinking and planning and praying for her boy, no matter where she is? Do you thank God because your dear ones joys are your joys and because your sorrows of life are lessened by their willingness to help you share them? Have you ever thanked God for the infinite joy he has given to you of living and working for the treasured members of the home circle? An, yes, we appreciate our dear ones when God takes one of them away from us Why do we not and why can we not appreciate our loved ones when they are by our side? If any of them should have gone beyond we should think of death simply as a transition, @ going from one group of loved ones to another group of loved ones. Can you not thank God for the wlIe, ,ne mother, the father, the sister, the brother, the child of the family circle? Can you not like the leper of old, thank God for the purity and the love of the domestic fireslde?
 But not sooner did this cleansed leper reach his home and clasp his dear wife and children and loved ones in his arms than at once the news began to spread. It flew like a white winged messenger of joy from housetop to housetop. Have you heard the news?" asked one neigh bor of another. "Why, our long lost friend has been cleansed of his leprosy. Come, let us go up and give our hand of love and join this happy family circle. Oh, the good news; the good newsi Come, let us go up and tell how we have mourned for him and how we glory in his wonderful cure" Then I tnInk the neighbors spoke to each other. Now l see them hastening to the home. Some knock and others rush ring in. These neighbors squeeze his hand; they pat his cheek; they laugh and weep for joy Can you, O man, thank God for your many friends who are living under the shadow of your home today?
 When we were sick did not our friends come in to nurse us and to bring the deli cacies? When we lost child and the undertaken hung the black crape upon our door, have not our loving, sympa- thizing friends come in to stand by our side at the casket? When we were In financial trouble, If we were honest and true, have they not always been willing to come to our assistance? Have they not always been true to us in times of sorrow as well as In times of joy? 1 once read of an old Danish captain who gave battle to an English frigate. Alter the battle had been raging for some time a flag of truce was raised, and the old captain in a rowboat pulled over to the English frigate and made this strange request. He said: My powder has run out. Will you please furnish me some of your powder, and we will continue to fight?" Well, no one ever heard of a man going to enemy Tor help, but we have heard of his going to his friends. An, yes, our friends In the past have helped us again and again and again! Thank God for your friends! Thank God for noble, true hearted. brave, self sac- rificing friends!
 The Altar of God.
 Again, this cleansed leper must have been thankful that the doors of the tenn pie were once more opened to give him times leprosy was looked upon as the symbol of heinous sin. Thus the poor leper not only felt that he was barred from fellowship with man. but also from communion with God. MetninKs can see these lepers some Sabbath day gather ing upon one of the hillsides near to Jeru- INDIAN sALvE WORKS WONDERS. Piles and Blood Poison speedily and permanently cured by INDIAN sALVE,