The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-27

| Oh no. my brother, you are wrong.
Jonah was not angry so much with the
folding up of that great leaf which pro-
tected him as an umbrella he was
angry with himself The gourd was
mere incident. God told him to go to
Nineveh. He would not go to Nineveh.
Then, like every man who does wrong,
he got angry and out of sorts with his
higher and better nature. And when he
got angry with himself he got angry
with all his surroundings. And when
finally he had to go to Nineveh under
compulsion, as a slave is driven to his
task, he grumbled all the way there. He
grumbled while he delivered his prophecy.
He grumbled at the outcome of his
prophecy. He grumbled when he sat
upon the hillside overlooking the city.
He grumbled when the gourd was taken
away. He would have grumbled If the
leafy sunshade had remained open, just
as he grumbled when it wlthered away.
In other words, Jonah was grumbling
with his surroundings, just as some of us
, are grumbling with our surroundings
merely because we are not willing to
obey Gods commandments. When you
and I get out of touch with God, every
flower we see will become a weed, and
every living creature that flies about us
will be hornet thrusting sting, and
every sunbeam will have a blasting heat,
and every wind will be a sirocco Kissing
and moaning over a desert of sand.
Jonah was not angry with the withered
leaf. He was not angry with his own
obstinate, sinful, selfish SELF He was out
of tune with the divine nature, and there
fore he was out of harmony with every
body and everything.
Out of Harmony.
My friend, you know exactly what l
am driving at. You know when you get
out of harmony with God everything that
is about you irritates you. Why, only
last week you had an illustration of this
fact. The supper was ended. You were
in the midst of the children's frolic and
fun. No one was having happier time
than yourself. Suddenly the doorbell
rang. An old friend came in and said:
Harry, have fine financial scheme.
If you will go in with me we can make
$4,000 apiece" But, Charlie" you say,
lis that square?' "Bosh!" answers your
friend. Business is not made up of Sun
day school ideals. If we do not do this,
some other fellow will" WELL" you an
swer, "all right; go ahead. l will stand
by you" Your friend hurries out of the
house saying: "All right. Goodby. l
must clinch the bargain" He is gone in
a flash. You went back to the sitting
room. Everything was now different.
ri
nerves. You took out your watch and
snapped it shut and said sharply: Chill
dren, stop that racket. 1t is time to go
to bed" Your wife said something, and
you answered her Grossly. All night long
you tossed and tumbled. or when you did
sleep it was a troubled sleep.
The next morning when you arose
the sun was shining just as brightly as
ever for others, but not : you. There
was dense fog arou-1 you. The break
fast left a bad taste in your mouth.
When you got into the car you grumbled
because a fat man had the impudence
to sit down beside you and dill not give
you room enough to stretch out your ell
bows. When you entered the store you
began to find fault right and left. Moth
ing seemed to please you. Everything
seemd to rub you the wrong way. oh
the employees whispered, better look out
today. The wind is from the east The
governor is on the warpath,'' And this
condition went ON for days. What was
the matter with you, my brother? Why
was everything wrong at home and on
the street car and in the store? Why
were the blue heavens black for you?
Need | tell you why? You know. God
told you to go to Nineveh and you went
to Tarshish. God showed you a plain,
simple Christian duty, and you refused
to do it.
How to Get Right.
My brother. do you want to see the
sun shine again? Do you want to assoc
ciate with loving. gentle, kind people?
Would you have your pathway stIewn
with flowers and your heaven melodious
with songs? Then get right with God.
Get right with your better and truer self.
Undo at once the wrongs you have done
your neighbors. When the Russian en-
gineers were planning the railroad line
between ST. Petersburg and Moscow, for
personal and selfish reasons they planned
to make the track bend this way and
that. When they brought their plans to
Emperor Nicholas, he looked at them
moment. Then he laid a ruler upon the
map and drew a straight line between