The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-23

old weakness, gave him a glass of
 liquor That one glass revived the old
 passion. He started forth from that
 drug store to the nearest saloon He
 drank until he was drunk. He drank
 himself into the gutter. And in six
 months he drank himself into the grave. Beware, O man, of that old sin.
 When I was a boy I heard John B. Cough talking along the same limo.
 There he stood before me, an old gray haired man. I suppose he had persua . ded more people to sign the temperance pledge than any man who has ever lived. He was not only leader of men, who for forty years had been pleading the temperance cause, said: Man, if you have once been drunk ard, never dare trust yourself with thu sin. It has been nearly half century since the old passion, by the grace of God, lost It's hold on me. But the old passion is still there. It is manacled and kenneled, but t'is there. l would no more touch & glass of liquor than I. would dare take dagger and drive 1t into my heart. I would no more dare touch a piece of branded mince pie than I would dare touch a lighted match to a gunpowder magazine It IS there. The old slumbering passion IS there. The old, ready to be awakened word" And yet some people suppose that because they have been resisting sin ten, twenty, forty, fifty years, the old forces of sin are dead. Beware, o man. The relapse of sin is always more dangerous than the first condi- tion. The passion is still there. It ls there in your sinful heart.
 When We Are Not Afraid.
 nf in that the dangers of sin become four fold. Trevelers tell us that the wolves of Mexico have a strange way of catch : ing the wild horses. These horses have the speed of the wind. It is almost impossible for a single cowboyjto catch one. The cowboys, when they wish to run htem down, have relays of pursu- CTS. First one set of cowboys will chase the horses; then another relay will take up the run; then another and another, until at last the horses are caught by a lasso. But 1t Is only when they are completely tired that they are caught; therefore it would be fmpossi- ] ble for the wolves to catch them unless they used strategy, for the wolves flight is not as swift as the horses.
 i, This is the way the wolves kill the wild horses of the Mexican plains; First a couple of wolves come out of the woods and begin to play together l like two kittens. They gambol about l each other and run backward and for ward Then the herd of horses ift their startled heads and get ready to 1 stampede. But the wolves seem to be ! so playful that the horses, after watch . I ing them awhile, forget their fears and l continue to graze. Then the wolves in | th cir playing come nearer and nearer, 1 while other wolves slowly and stealthi- l ly creep after them. Then suddenly | the enemies surround the herd an mak e l one plunge, and the horses are strug- l glfng with the fangs of the relentless 1 foes gripped in their threats. In a | similar way our old sins cunningly at 1 tack us. They play around us ana keep playing around us, and they LOOK l so harmless and we feel so strong. 1 But suddenly they make plunge. ana 1 the old wounds are reopened, ana we are helpless in the grasp of the mon ] sters of sin. Beware of that relapse l into sin. Behold, thou art made whoie' Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee"
 A Thrilling Incident.
 1 But, though Christ is speaking the ], same thought as Paul spoke in Corin :
 1 thians when he said, ''Wh erefore Tel him that thinketh he standeth take
 !, heed lest he fall" thank God, Christ
 l does not stop there. He warns the man at the foot of Bethesda. but he
 l also teaches the doctrine that he ls
 | the Christ of the backslider. When
 | Christ starts forth to save an immor-
 tai soul, he is no respector Of persons
 He can sare the backslider Ihere 's