The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23

pleas and turn deaf ears to our mes sages is no reason why they cannot De brought to Christ if we only appeal to them in the right way. The Rev. pr Justin Evans tells us that some years ago some workmen were making an eXcaVa- ton in Victoria park, London. sud denly the walls caved in and the work men were imprisoned in the ditch and threatened with suffocaton. Among tne crowds of curiosity seekers which gath cred around there was one man who stood looking on as lstlsesly as most Of the men who were standing about. Suddenly a woman called him by name and cried,
 Man, why don't you get to work? DO you not know your brother is down there in that ditch?" With that the man threw off his coat and went frantically to work to save his brother. Family affection stirred him. Thus every man and woman can be drawn to work for Christ if we only know upon what chord of love to play, as that man was aroused from leth- argic curiosity Into an intense energy by the call of a brothers name.
 I wonder what appeal of love Paul made when he was pleading for Jesus Christ before Felix and Drusilla. I won der if this beautiful woman ever had golden-haired little girl or boy by her first husband? l wonder if she had ever pill lowed her darlings head upon her breast
 
 evening hour. 1 wonder if, after she had been wooed into the land of sin by Felix, she had turned her back upon her babies and left them behind when she left her first husband. I wonder if in the midnight hour sometimes she heard those babies calling to her when she awoke with a start. Then I wonder if off in the distance she saw their white baby hands beckonng and she heard tho little voices calling: Mother, mother, Are you not coming back to me, mother? l am your baby. will you not come back to me?" Yes, have sometimes won dered If when Paul preached Jesus Christ to Drusilla He did not turn and say, Mother, wilt thou not give thy heart to Jesus for the babies sake?'
 But I cannot close this sermon without asking myself just one more question. I wonder if Paurs martyrdom in Rome had anything to do with this refusal of Felix to let Paul go free? l wonder If, when Paul was carried to Rome. Caesar never examined into his case at all? But when the Caesar was asked, Shall Paul be beheaded?' he merely said, well, if Governor Felix would not let him go free he must be guilty. Let him die" And l sometimes wonder, if we refuse Christ today, If there will not be some Caesar living thousands of miles away from us who will be led to reject our Christ mere ly because we are rejecting him now.
 It is an awful thing to think about what is going to happen after we are dead. There Is a beautiful story told by Cap tain Mcnamara of the Ninth Massach- setts infantry that after the first days battle of Gettysburg the soldiers, with empty haversacks. had to lie down to sleep with nothing to eat While the great army was resting for the next days carnage one of the boys of his company, more hungry than the rest and unable to sleep, rose and went out to seek food among the dead He knelt by the side of one of his dead comrades, opened his haversack and found there four rolls. one by one he put them into his own haver- sack and arose to seek his own place among the living.
 After he had gone few paces he sud denly stopped Then he retraced his steps. He put those rolls back into the dead mans haversack. He gently drew the cloak over the dead mans face and by his actions seemed to say, "I will not, l cannot. rob the dead" But, though you and l would not want to rob the dead, did you ever stop to think that when We are dead in the flesh our spiritual influ ences will still be living on? Then we shall be influencing men and women to- ward Christ away from Christ, even as Felix, the governor of Judaea, fnfiu- enced the actions of Caesar in reference to Paul Tar away rom Caesarea fales- tina after his official throne had been handed over to his successor, Governor Festus.
 l think 1t was what Paul said of the judgment to come that stirred Felix and made him tremble Felix was familiar with the Jewish Scriptures and knew what that judgment meant. He knew the danger he was mourning. He knew that he must stand before God and answer for the deeds done in the body. No won- der he trembled. But he took refuge, as so many do today, In procrastination. He meant to repent at some future time when he had "a convenient season. My brother. do not put off that time as Felix did. It may never come. Now is the &C., cepted time; now Is the day of salvation.
 Copyright, 1907, by Louis Klopsch.)
 Rinpleader FIour is the best.