The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-16
 ! DIR. TAIMACE'S SERMON l  THE REEVE TRAN D. D.

HEWITT VAlMAGEs Os O.
 splendidly. But how about that younger
 brother? "Oh" you answer, John is
 not earning his salt He is no good''
 No good? I think John has the mak-
 ing of just as good man as you. What
 he needs is an education. What he needs
 is a developed and a disciplined brain
 He is only 20 years of age. What would
 you have amounted to if yeu were thrown
 upon your own resources at 20 and allow
 ed to make your own way in the world
 perhaps sent into store as a clerk in-
 stead of being sent to college? You had
 better put your shoulder under that
 brothers load. You had better econo-
 mize and save and give your youngest brother an education. That is what your ather would do if he were alive. That
 Is what he did for you. Is it square and
 right for the older children to have all the
 education of the family and the younger
 children have nothing?
 Another Duty Left.
 But that Is not the only duty left to you by your father and mother. There is moral as well as a financial duty
 for you to perform. There Is the binding
 duty which you have to your brothers and sisters souls as well as to their
 minds and bodies. You know that your
 parents always had a favorite in the family. That favoritism was migratory.
 It would continually change. There was one child that your mother seemed to
 love more than any other. That was the sick child or the wayward child. You re- member years ago when you had typhoid fever? Then you had the bed of honor in the home. You slept for weeks by your mothers side. Then when you were convalescent your sister came down with the croup, and she for a time became the favorite. You were sent into another bed and your sister slept beside your mother. Next your brother had trouble with his ' spine. Your mother was always talking and worrying and thinking about John. Then you became wild and dissipated. Your college life was not uniformly ire proachable. You did things you had no right to do What happened? Don't you remember how she prayed and talked with you? Don't you remember how her love brought you back to your better self?
 There is a story told of young man who was dying He had led a wild, sim full life in his youth but the last few years he had surrendered himself entirely to Christian service. He was dying tri- | umphant Christian death. Just a short l time before he passed away sweet smile | overspread his face, and he threw an arm | about the neck of the broken hearted woman who was bending over him and i said, "Oh, mother, thank God for such g.
 
 goodp' Yes, when you were wayward l and sinful your parents loved you into | being good But that is not what l want l to impress upon your mind. Your mother and father are dead. Who have taken l their positions in your brothers life? | God knows ho is wayward. God knows he l! Is doing what he ought not to do. God | knows he is drifting further and further l away into sin. Who Is loving him into 1 being good and loving him back to the | cross? Is not that an unfinished labor 1 of the old homestead which your father | and mother have left for you to com- | plete?
 Another Unfinished Labor. | But there are other unfinished 1abors for us in the home We have inherited 1 from our ancestors work in political as | well as in domestic life. When we think of the framers of the constitution of the | United States we must not think of men l who were satisfied with what they ac- complished. The constitution, though one of the most wonderful documents ever | written by the pen of man, was far from satisfactory to the men who wrote it. The statements contained therein were the best that could be agreed upon at the | time. It was a constitution of exped- | iency, not of perfection. Many were the 1 laws some men wanted to embody there, l but could not; otherwise the IS colonies l would never have become the United l States.
 l Study the developments or the amend | ments to this constitution. Those amend- ments were the best that at that time | could be framed But those amendments | could and should be improved upon. The l work of a constitutional convention had l its development in the thirteenth, four | teenth and fifteenth amendments. But the work of our ancestors is still unfin- 1 ished. Higher and higher must we climb | higher and yet higher. And as the pa- 1 triots of the past like Moses, devised, our | constitutional form of government, so i we, like Joshua, must continue their la- | bors and complete their unfinished work. l And by the grace of God we are doing l it. Just as certainly as the sun rises 1 in the east and sets in the west, I be- lieve one of the next great amendments | upon the constitution of the United States l is to be a clause prohibiting the sale of l intoxicating posons as beverage. The | southern states have set before us an
 example of what the temperance people l can do. The northern people helped the 1 southern people to free thmselves from 1 the curse of slavery. But today the south- 1 ern people are helping the northern states l to get rid of even greater curse. They l are setting us an example that deserves
 our imitation. They are showing us how l to get TlQ or d curse l1dL IS eil5ldVluB tlc l souls of thousands of our citizens. When l the north sees the south prospering with
 out the saloon, growing in affuence and happiness, 1t, too, will awaken, and one l community after another will declare for abolition of the traffic until we become | a sober as well as free people. There are to come constitutional amendments in ref l erence to our divorce laws and constitu- tional amendments in reference to our in- terstate business. Gradually and yet sure i ly the work of constitutional development 1 is going to continue it has in the past under divine guidance been continued.
 Moses did his difficult work well and faithfully Joshua succeeded him and completed it. Thus God bids to com- plete the work which our ancestors have
 begun in the constitution of the United States as our children and children's chill dren must continue our work after we are gone.
 A Nation Under Protection. Oh, that we would plead as much for the divine protection in the development
 of our government as our ancestors plead ed for that grace before we were bornl We cannot in too many ways honor that divine guidance. Some time ago the Pres