The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

l don't see how you Withstood those troubles and temptations. Why father, if that temptation had come to me sure ly would have fallen" So you would if you had to meet those temptations as you are. But you would not fall if you had the divine strength which was given to him. When yu think of your father now, you cannot remember one mo-
 ment when he did not impress you with the fact that he had d supernat- ural strength given to him with which to meet the temptations of life. My brother, you have the same temptations to meet as he had. Do you not crave the same divine strength wifh which to
 fight those moral and spiritual dan
 gers? If your dear father was to rise from his grave, would ne not be speaking to you as I am doing now? It Is not too late to go back to Jerusalem and at the altar of Calvary supply your spir- itual deficiencies. Remember you are still at your first spiritual camping place. It is not too late to take Christ along with you on your journey of life.
 The Destination.
 But there is another fact we must settle before we start upon the journey of life, and that is our destination. If you were to go to one of the old from tier towns of 1850, you would find many people assembling there from all the different parts of the United States. Some of those trains of prairie schoon- ers'' would be planning to go to Oregon and Washington territories. Some would be seeking the gold fields of California. Some would be seeking western farms. Beach of tho\ emigrants was planning to go to some definite region, and he would lay his plans and map out his course before he started It is of vital inn portance for a man to know in what di- rection he is to travel before he leaves rif ha a1-p ing on day after day it Is almost inn possible for us to turn back and start out with another party of emigrants. If you were to enter the camp tonight In which Joseph and Mary were travelling you would find there no doubt in their minds in which direction they were going to travel. Let us ask Joseph and have him tell us how he came to join this caravan.
 Here he is now by the campfire Mary and he are worrying about their absent
 boy. Hello, Joseph, is that you? You
 say you left Jesus behind? How could any loving father and mother do as you have done?" "Well,' answers Joseph, 'I will tell you. We went down to Jerusalem
 to attend the Passover feast. After the national festivity was over l began to
 look around to find out when the first party of travellers was going north to my home town of Nazareth Every day the people were leaving. but they were all going in directions we did not wish to travel. Last night I heard that party of men would start for the Zebulon hills.
 Of course. both Mary and myself had 10 do lot of preparation in order to get off at such quick notice. In the excitement of getting our things together we did not look as carefully after our boy as We ought. This is the only party of travel CTS who are going to Nazareth for two weeks. We had to join this party or not go at all. This is the reason why Jesus was forgotten in the rush of getting off
 Yes. it would have been very silly for Joseph and Mary to travel toward Maeh- pelah in the hope of somehow getting around to Nazareth. It is very foolish move for some of us to start the journey of life when we do not know or care to what destination we are heading. on, man, are you travelling toward heaven? Are you journeying toward the cross!
 But there is still another warning which I want you to heed well in your journey of life-that is the moral and the spiritual character of the men and the women with whom you are bound 10 be brought in daily association. This
 warning is no joke in reference to those with whom we go forth into the woods
 upon some summer vacation. IT you do not heed well the kind of people with
 whom you go camping in the summer your whole spiritual life may be wrecked. No man, 1 care not how strong ne
 may be- is strong enough to resist the pernicious influence of sinful companions. There is an old saying that If you put one decayed apple in barrel hlled Wltn red apples which have just been gathered from the orchard, that rotten apple in time will contaminate all the other ap- ples in the barrel Therefore, if you put one good apple among a dish of decayed apples it will not be long before that good apple will become decayed And yet some people profess to believe that good man can be placed side by side With a lot of morally diseased men and be as good if not better than when he began to associate with his evil companions. That belief is against all the laws of com mon sense.
 But there is one fact above all others which our text teaches-that is, when we start out on our journey of life we should take all our dear ones along. A man may have unutterable longing for the woods. His overtaxed brain and nerves may be calling to him day by day. Rest, rest! l must have resi-! He may be in great glee as he packs away his camping outfit and puts his trout flies carefully away in his pocketbook and straps his gun cases. He may feel his blood coursing through his veins with renewed strength as he leaves civilization behind and climbs the mountain untrod den save by the woodsman with his axes. But when night begins to fall and time for going to sleep in his camping bag comes around or when Sunday comes when he does not fish or hunt or travel, the one thought which is uppermost in his mind and heart Is this: q wonder how the folks are getting along at home? l wonder if the babies are well? I won der if I will ever see them again? Oh I wish they were all here!' Friend, have you ever been weeks and weeks away from home? Have you ever had this unut- terable longing come over you which some people call old fashioned homesickness? Then, if you so miss your dear ones when you are away from home for a few weeks how do you suppose you would feel if you were never to meet them again?
 Mary and Joseph. why are you so anx- ious about Jesus? He is nothing but a boy. small boy F years of age. Why 1 do you want to go clear back to Jerusa- lem to find him? Why" says Mary. | If we do not take Jesus along now | something may happen to him. He will find out that We have left him. and | then he may try to follow ss and be killed | by the robbers or the wild beast or per | haps sold into slavery. Oh, no, we must |