The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15
Hluher Than the Hills.

Higher Than the Hills.
 Come with me and look off upon some of the famous mountains of the world. Do you see Mount Shasta looming up there? Do you see Pll1es peak and the Matterhorn? Do you those Alpine heights? Do you see Mount Ararat, where the old ark was stranded? Well, these men of Shinar looked off upon the mighty mountains and said: We will build our tower of Babel higher than any of these hills We will build it up and up until | 1t reaches the skies. We will build 1t up l and up until it touches the throne of | God. We will build up so high and so | strong that we can defy God and defy man and defy everything" An. yes. those l men of Shinar were no pygmies! Their l scheme looked great; 1t seemed feasible. | Those who have gaZed on the pyramids | of Egypt can easily believe that great | tower might have been built, that would | have been a refuge from flood. But | their scheme was to thwart God, to defy | Him. to tell Him to His face that if He sent another flood they were prepared for | Him. They did not realize His resources; ' they had yet to learn how easily He could [ frtistrate their plans. He has infinite re- l sources still. and they who resist Him | will surely fall.
 l Oh, ye men of Shinar, beware how ye 1 sin against God. Oh, ye builders of Babel ] towers. know you not that your sins are
 so far reaching they are seen over the l length and the breadth of the land? It l does not make very much difference when 1 a poor, ignorant. drunken private soldier l tries to do wrong. But when great mill l itary genius like Benedict Arnold be- 1 comes a traitor 1t may mean the betrayal l of West Point. the loss of the strategic | fortress and the utter collapse of the rfaax rnf m
 when an ordinary social outcast who for l years has been trampng the country beg | pine for food, lands in jail But when a | man of genius defies all the laws of do- | mestic purity and right and starts forth | to establish a social colony of licensed | libertinism it may mean the moral spir- | itual and physical destruction of thou 1 sands and tens of thousands. Oh, ye
 merchants with many clerks in your em-
 nlov: oh. we leaders of the bar, the pulpit | and the medical profession; oh ye men Of
 wealth, social position and political pres tiee. beware how you rear your tower or
 Babel, Great men when they sin destroy
 thousands by their open sins. Myriads of feet follow their feet wherever they go.
 Not Always Voice of God.
 But there is another lesson taught by
 this sermonic theme. vox populi must
 never be mistaken for Vox Dei. Some
 st;Dpose that the voice or tne people is
 always the voice of God Sometimes it
 nays in life to be with the minority. That
 minority may be trying to carry out Gods
 will. Could any picture in all the Bible
 prove this better than the one of my text?
 1 And the whole earth was of one Ian
 euaee and one speech. "Unanmity is
 nothing considered strictly in itself" says
 the author already quoted. Men may dc
 wrong things unanimously as well as | things that are right. Twelve directors
 may be of one language and one speech
 but the meaning of this unity may be self-seeking at the expense of unsuspect- ] ing men who have put their little all into
 their keeping and direction. We must in all things put the moral question: What is the unanimity about? Is it moving fir
 the wrong direction? People may say
 Peace when there is no peace. People may say that church Is unanimous and
 at peace. when correct Interpretation
 would be that 1t was the unanfmity oi ] the grave. the peace of death. So hert
 put in a word of caution and explana
 ton. The whole earth was of one lan'
 guage and of one speech. Here is poin
 of unaninity, yet there is a unanimous
 movement in a wrong direction. Tn
 voice of the people is not always tn
 voice of God"
 l Let us enter for little while one o1