The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-01

never be destroyed by a foreign foe. Thank God for the waters that create our national prosperities. Thank God also for the waters which defend us from foreign foes.
 Water In the Deserts.
 Lastly I thank God not only for what he has done for this country by the pow CT of water but also for what he Is going to do by the same power. If you have ever travelled across our continent, you have gone days and days through what are called our deserts. Those are not deserts of sand like the Sahara. They are deserts that will prove to be tho finest and richest of soil ifVwe only irri- gate them and bring water to them. Let a rain fall upon Arizona soil and within a few days that land is covered With grass and wild flowers as far as the eye can see. No conservatory is as won drous as that which God plants In the Arizona deserts when the rain falls. All these deserts are soon to be redeemed. They are to form some of the richest gardens and farms of the world.
 I was never more impressed with this fact than when reading lately an article by William George showing how Aus tralia is being redeemed by system ot artesian wells. Some of those wells have to be sunk more than POGO feet But 1T they are sunk deep enough they always strike water. The vast inland Australian deserts have a deep sea of fresh water |, under them The possibilities of those artesan wells may yet make the Geserts as rich as our Dakota wheat fields. Talk about the romance of engineering, wrote William George, 'here are hundreds or thousands of square miles, formerly the despair and terror of government and tt..tal alr ne rod struck the rock, and forthwith turned into smiling fields of grain and far stretching stock farms Truly the dead heart of Australia Is being slowly quick ened into life by the water wizards der rick and his long sections of boring pipe a wonderful victory of mind over mdl- ter such as enables the commonwealth of Australia to produce wool worth nearly sso,OOo,O0O a year. So it is to be with our western arid lands
 The Birds Thanksgiving.
 By the conserving and the building up of our forests, by irrigation and artesian wells, by pipes and reservoirs, by the storing up of the rainfall, our deserts are yet to blossom as the rose. Theodore Roosevelt we'll said in one of his public addresses, "The forest and water prob lems are perhaps the most vital internal questions of the United States These questions are daily being solved. More and more the American people are being enabled to conquer the soil which has heretofore been supposed to be useless and forever dead to the magic touch of the cultivator.
 While was writing this sermon I had the strangest of companions to help me. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why : I was so thankful when writing it. My study is on an open porch which over looks my California garden. Directly across this garden stretches a telephone wire. There, day after day, little mock ing bird comes and sits and sings. No sooner do I commence to write than he flies to this wire and perches there. Then he seems to say At your Thanksgiving sermon again? Well. l. will help you to sing your praises of water" Then he lifts up his pretty head. and the most beautiful notes come forth from that lit tie throat, and he turns and says: "ls not that song pretty? We'll I will sing you another" Then off he starts to sing another musical masterpiece.
 On this last day of my labors there comes up big ranstorm. The rain falls fin torrents. Every one runs to cover, but not my little friend. There he sits in the storm and keeps singing. He seems to say to me: "Yes. am thanking God for this rain. This water means much to mo. See how 1t Is cleansing my plumaSe. See how it 1t is refreshing my garden. See how it is making the grass grow for me- But" I say. ''old fellow. that is not your garden: that Is my garden. I planted those flowers and am caring for them" "Oh, mo-" rejoins the little warbler, Tit is not your garden. It is mine. l feed there every day of my life. This water blesses me and my life just as it blesses the life of all mankind" Yes, my little singing friend is right. That water not only blesses me, but the fields and the birds of the air 1t blesses the flowers and the crops It comes as q shower of blessing to this country and to all coun- tries alike
 Thus. while others may recount long list of our national prosperties on this Thanksgiving day. I tune my national anthem of praise to the one keynote of water The more I sing its praises the more am impressed with it's potent and far-reaching influence Yet how few of us, if we did not have our attention called to it, would consider glass of water as among the greatest blessings of our Thanksgiving table! Cannot we. as in the Pauline epistle of old, thank God for what we drink as well as for what we eat?
 Copyright. 1907, by Louis Klopsch)