The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-26
 DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
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 FRANK DEWITT TALMAGE. D. D.

DEWITT TALMAGE. ID. D.
 1 is the evening meal ended than he says:
 .@This 1s stupid. No need of sitting around
 here. Let us go to the theatre Or he 1 saws. "Come let us go to Mrs So-and- 1 So's card party" Or: "I must do some l thing. Let us go to the club and have
 a game of billiards" Or when summer 1 comes he hies away to the fashionable
 hotel where he can turn night into day and day Into night. And he is never happy unless he is intoxicated with some kind Of i excitement To such man I would say: l My brother what you need is change of heart What you need is to have so i much divine grace that you will think it sufficient amusement when you can play 1 childhood game with your 5-year-old | daughter, and when you can enjoy an 1 entertainment of a magic lantern show made out of an old sheet hung up in your i parlor, with the magic lantern slides being run by your little boy. q never pick a lily out of the garden" said a poor l dressmaker in my home some time ago,
 but 1t says to me, Sec how happy l am l on account of God S goodness to me. 1 Why? Because, like Enoch, she was 1 walking with God. And so, my brother and sister, if you once set your hearts right with Chlist. the smallest and the | most insignificant things of life, like the prattle of l child, the slght of two little kittens tumbling upon the floor the mer- rymakings of a lot of boys playing base
 ball in the back lots. will offer to you an endless variety of amusement. Oh. that 1 you and I could be like Phillips Brooks | and never outgrow our love of simple, in- nocent pleasure. The ways of heavenly | wisdom "are ways of pleasantness, and | all her paths are peace"
 Ways of PIeasantries.
 l The Christians ways are pleasant also I because they are full of peace. As he treads the path of life he has that won l derful peace which passeth all under | standing, and he says: There is a dl- | vine power guiding me and mine. Wher-
 ever l go and whatever I do his hand l Is leading me and his arm is defending | me. My path of life may appear check | cred, but God will never let me or mine get beyond the reach of his protect | ing love. All things work together for good to those that love God" Oh, my
 brother can you not feel what glorious peace comes over the wayfarer in the | Journey of life when he fully realizes that God is leading him and protecting him? He is on the highway of wisdom i and all '"her ways are ways of pleas antness, and all her paths are peace." Some of us have been travellers, and
 We know only too well the disquletude and the anxiety which come over us when we realize that we have strayed from the right path. And, oh, the joy that wells up in the heart when we rec l ognize some familiar place from which
 we can find our way back home! Some time ago l was camping in the wild regions of Humboldt county, California.
 We left the beaten paths and struck into 1 side road and went to the end of the road, and there we pitched camp for deer hunting.
 One morning about o'clock we arose and started after game. After awhile 1t began to rain in torrents, but still we kept on. Then, after we had hunted for some six or eight hours we decided to make a short cut over the mountains and get back to camp We climbed the noun tain and pushed our way on for an hour | or two. Then the whole topography of l the country seemed to change. We were 1 losti With no food and no means to build campfire. with dripping clothes and empty stomachs. the situation was anything but inviting. How to get back to camp we did not know unless we re- tracted our steps to the place when we started for the short cut. So back we went. Yet as we tramped along every | thing was so strange. At last, after a | long pull and tug, we cried, TSafe at lastn' for we had sighted some familiar
 landmarks. And though we had still
 miles upon miles to travel and though the l rain was filling in torrent we cared not.
 For we knew each step we were taking
 was leading us nearer home. It Is happy feeling, after one has been lost for hours in the woods, to find the familiar path
 that leads him back to fire and food and | blessed sleep.
 Christ as Guide.
 Well, the same feeling I had when lost among the mountains of Humboldt county and then striking the trail for home IS the feeling the Christian has when Christ becomes his guide. He is lost on the mountain of sin. Every step he takes is a step in the dark and seems l to be leading him farther and farther away from his Fathers house. As he tramps along in the lonely mountains of l sin the fierce eyed monsters of trouble leap out of the thickets and assai him and the loved ones he carries in his arms, and it is dark and growing darker every minute. But suddenly out of the | darkness there comes the figure of a man. He has a beautiful face. It is the face of a man, and yet it has on 1t the signs of divinity. He reaches out his hand to the lost traveller and says: What Lost? Lost in the mountains of sin? Follow me- and I will lead thee back to thy Fathers house!" And as soon as that gentle Christ takes our hands to guide l US our duAltly ulSdppcdiS lHcH pcllcSi peace throbs in the heart, and trouble and despair give place to hope and tri- umph. Her ways are ways of pleasant ness, and all her paths are peace.'
 But there is another fact I want you i to notice about these paths of gospel | peace They are the most healthful of all paths to travel They will give clearness to the eye. They will give breadth to the chest They will give strength to the nerves and the muscles. They will give wonderful resiliency to | the brain. And they will make men drink out of the fountain of perpetual youth. The simple fact Is a great many people are sick not because they need medicine, but because they need the grace of God in their hearts to make them tread the paths of peace. Then | -
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