The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-03


 ney on the Lords day. I do not believe
 it necessary to run freight train on
 this day, except occasionally one carryin 8 perishable freight or live stock
 I have travelled through every southern state from Maryland to Texas, and 1 do not believe there Is one that has so many splendid material advantages, or such an energetic, active and prosperous people as Alabama, and yet in the matter of the
 train service on the Sabbath day, we are
 at the tail end of the procession. In the prosperous states of Georgia, North and
 South Carolina, and believe. Tennessee and Mississippi, no freight trains run upon the Sabbath day. They are not necessary there-they are not necessary
 here The reasons alleged for the running of freight trains on this day is the rail-
 way equipage Is not sufficient. This is
 simply a gift to the railways themselves,
 who do not care to provide engines suf-
 hcient to transport the freight.
 That the railroad men desire the run
 ming of freight trains on this day, l do
 not believe. I have had number of them to say to me that they were ex- tremely anxious for the Sabbath day. We are agreed that deeds of mercy should be performed upon this day. Christ performed them. He was phy- sician. He healed many, and so the phy- sician can go about his daily work, and still, as 1 have known in the case of
 many physicians of large practice, find time for both private communion and
 public worship.
 Second. The Sabbath is to be spent in reinforcing the spiritual nature. God has given us this day for a special purpose, that we should gather up and replenish the souls forces. Without doubt we need to do this The wear and tear of this unspiritual world is on us for six days and nights, and the delicate mechanism
 of our spiritual natures will run down. We do this by getting good and doing good. There are two ways of lifting up our souls and strengthening our spiritual natures one of these is by acts of private devotion, by entering into our closets. | and in communion with God, receive | that Strengthening power that God alone | can give. How little time for private devotion we have in these busy days! l We must hurry through our breakfast and down to our place of business, and there in the rush of daily contest with l our fellow men, we find no time to look within, or to look up to God Christ led a busy life, and yet He tells us that He had need to withdraw Himself in private prayer.
 Third The day is to be spent in public worship There is a great development of spiritual nature found by coming into contact with our fellow men, in the house of God. Christ went into the Synagogues. It has seemed to me that the teaching of the synagogues in His day had but little benefit for Him. It consisted of the ut terance of the merest formal platitudes, the going through with the dreariest l ceremonies. The teachers themselves had | little with which to interest the lover of l truth and yet He went! How many | Christians turn away today from the l house of God, because much seems to be | uninterestngl Christ went in spite of the 1 dreary waste of time, because there was a value and a great value even in public worship.
 l We ministers sometimes hear curious things. Some years ago, man said to
 me: "I do not go to the house of God | because you preachers do not preach l advanced views, you are not up-to-date. You forget that you are living in the l last years of the nineteenth century, It | Is almost amusing to hear people say, after a damp Sunday: 'I could not go out yesterday on account or the rain, and yet the largest rain that ever fell does not keep them from going down the
 street to their places of business. Unless . absolutely perilous to health, if we would 1 follow the example of Christ, we must be in the house of God, in the Sabbath | school, in the morning, and if possible, attend the hour of evening worship. | But what about the Sabbath and the l social question? We recognize the fact l that the social is a part of our nature ] that it's demands are righteous and to be 1 needed. We are to care for our social nature God intended us to be happy l upon the Sabbath day, as well as others.
 It ought not to be spent in misery. In ! this matter, we are apt to go to one | of two extremes. A man stopped me on | the street the other day and said: You | preachers do not keep the Sabbath day alright. As for me, do not open my | mouth to speak a word, or to eat a mor- | sel.' l need not tell you that that mans mind is affected. On the other hand, we | spend it in social enjoyments to the | weariness of our bodies and the lassitude | of our souls. How often do we read that | Jesus went to a feast on the Sabbath l dayi Do not take that as an excuse for | giving great dinners, and spending the l day in hilarity. For what purpose did | Christ go to the feast on the Sabbath l day? Was 1t merely to eat the rich viands of some Pharisee? To gratify His ! animal. or esthetic nature? O No It was | to gain an entrance into sinners heart,
 to plant the seed of some moral truth, to
 lift up and save some down cast soul!
 If this is the purpose for which we so i, to great dinner on the Lords day, we
 may be sure that he was right. But let ] us be happy on the Lords dayl Make i it day of brightness and not of gloom. | of joy and not of misery, of peace, and | not of discord. And above all, as we try | to make ourselves better. let us try to | lift up our fallen fellow men,
 l There is a peculiar blessedness in keep | ing this day. The great French philos-
 opher and statesman, Guizot, standing | upon the shores of his beautiful France
 and looking across at the white cliffs or l England, said: "The secret of Englands s 1 abiding greatness lies in the fact that she keeps the Christian Sabbath. and knows Christian home." The two well l go together They are the twin pillars that | uphold the temple of truth God has al- | ways blessed the sane observance of the ! Sabbath: l. We get renewed energy for | our daily duties. One of the most pros | porous farmers that I ever knew was a | man whose lands were rot more fertile l than his fellow farmers. or whose system | of agriculture was somewhat different, l hut man xuhn stnnned his wa oe hands