The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-15
-o'oo"c'c'o'c"c 5 DIR. TAIL MAGE'S SERMON 
 DEWITT D. D.
Los ANGELES, Cal, September S-

l In this sermon the preacher incul-
 cates the lesson that God rules all
 things and can turn the apparent trivaii-
 ties of life into events of the mightest l importance and highest bereficence. The
 text is 1 Kings xxi, 34. And a certain l man drew a bow at a venture and smote | the king of Israel between the joints of
 the harness
 l once held in my hand a little Bible
 that had been carried by a soldier al!
 through the civil war It had been | siven to him when he was a yodns re- l eruit He always kept it in his bI east | pocket, just over his heart. In one of l the great battles a Confederate bullet | plowed its way through three-fourths of
 that book and knocked the man senseless, l but that Bible stopped the bullet on it's
 journey And said the old soldier,
 God saved my life by that book on ae-
 count of my mothers prayers" Do I
 believe that? Most certainly. Paul tells Us in the episte to the Ephesians tina t
 the shield of faith is able to quench all l the fiery darts of the wicked, so in times of battle God can direct the course of every bullet and every missile. He can 1 protect his children in times of danger as well as save them from destruction after
 they have become helpless.
 During the late civil war the two armies | were DeliS concentrated near HAWK $ | Nest Bluff. in West Virginia. One day ,n l Ohio regiment was seen to emerge from l the woods Some sharpshooters were
 watching it. afnong whom was William 1 Philips, afterward General Phillips. No
 sooner did the Union soldiers appear than young Phillips borrowed a long range rifle ana took steady aim at the colonel
 riding at the head of his troops, but the i sharpshooter's rifle was aimed just a | .s..I, -1,g 70.
 into the brain, the bullet took off one
 of the plumes of the coloners hat. Thr-
 teen years after the war was ended Gen l eral Phillips was visiting the White House 1 in Washington. In the presence of Ruth 1 erford B. Hayes he was telling of this 1 incident. President Hayes remarked :. 1 Yes l remember that shot. I was that 1 Ohio colonel you shot at" God had a l bigger work for Rutherford B. Hayes
 than to let him be slain in sldrmish. He | wanted him to live to become the chief | executive of our nation. God never lets a 1 man die before his lifes work is fln- | ished. He can protect his children in 1 times of danger well rescue them | after they have been overthrown by mis- 1 fortune and become helpless.
 Gods Omnipotent Power.
 | But, though God can protect a man | when he wishes. he can also destroy a i man when he wills. He can direct tn @ 1 stone from the sling of David to the 1 forehead of Goliath and cause him to de He can foretell the death of Jeze- bel by the walls of JeZreel. and, no
 matter what the recreant queen may do or where she may go, she can not escape. And God could also foretell l the fate of King Ahab. When Elijah pointed the finger of condemnation at the murderer of Naboth and said, "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood. even thine" he was the messenger of God foretelling how Ahab was to die, and when three years later King Ahab was in battle and an unknown soldier put an arrow to his bow and pulled | it up to the tip and let 1t fly God di- rected the course of that arrow, and | it smote the king in the joints of his armor, and he died, and thus was the prophecy fulfilled.
 | Now, the whole point of my sermon l is this-the soldier who shot that arrow did not know where it was going, but
 God directed it's course. And today l
 want you to be very careful about tn @
 random arrows you let fly. It is never
 safe for a man to shoot off a gun un- | less he knows where he is shooting or
 else he might hurt somebody. There are other injuries, too, that we may do. | A needless word or an inconsistent act
 may do another an irreparable injury.
 We may have no malice against him, 1 but casually, inadvertently, we may cause a wound that will never heal. And certain man drew bow at a
 venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of his harness"
 A Lesson from a Legend.
 If this fact be true. then. my brother | To. raf1I1 l,RFx NFs.tI
 deal with your fellow men in reference to faith in Jesus Christ. I start on the premise that you are a Christian. You
 may be very poor Christian; l grant that You may be leaving undone those things which you ought to do and may be doing those things which you ought
 not to do. But if I should ask you today what is your hope of immortal ity you would emphatically answer, My only hope of a hereafter is my firm
 belief in the pardoning and saving pow
 CT of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ" You are like St. Veronica as described by the legend of old. According to tradition. St. Veronica was pious woman of Jerusalem. When Jesus was being led forth to his crucifixion, stag gering under the weight of his cross, the blood and the precipitation were rolling from his face and body. Christ | ! Taking pity on him. St. Veronica took her head cloth to wipe his face and cleanse his brow. When Jesus gave Ve- ronica back her cloth the lineaments of his face had been imprinted upon 1t, and the old legend tells us 1t was from this imprint that the present idea of Tesus, features have been copied. Has if not been so with the children of god lv parents? The Christian mother has so loved Jesus hat his spiritual image has been impressed on her very gar
 ments and on the wrappings that she
 nuts around her child. We have seen
 his face in the garments or our chlIu- hood We see today his face in the n,ant1es of manhood and womanhood, and we shall also see his divine face in inc shrouds which shall yet clothe our daod bodies Yet if I sh ould come to some of you today and say, Are you follower of Jesus Christ? Do you stand before all the world and say, He is my Savior and my LordE some or you would have to answer NO. hou believe in Christ in your heart, but you are not willing to profess him With your lips. Now comes the pertinent question: "Why do you not make thls public confession? Why not say: Christ is my all in all. He is my only sup port on this side and my only nope TOT inc other side of the grave. l ask ,,ou again. Why do you not do thus?
 The Worthiest Christian.
 Well" you answer, what is the good of my doing it? In the first place. ] m
 not wealthy. If l make public profess sion of Christianity and join the church, I cannot afford to give much money. and the church does not want me un-