The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-01
REMEMBER GOD IN FULLNESS AND PLENTY Dr. J. W. Stagg Takes Text from Deuteronomy GREAT WORDS OF MOSES Cold and Silver Worth Only What They Can Buy In Souls of Men
 for the Kingdom of
 God.
GREAT WORDS OF MOSES

mon yesterday morning at the FtsSt Presbyterian church was a strong plea for the remembrance of the Lord dur ing the times of fulness and plenty. his text being taken from DeuterorTmy viii.11-14 reading: Beware lest thou forget hovah thy God. lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy heards and thy fiocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thy head be lifted up, and thou forget Jehovah thy God"
 His sermon was as follows:
 (Which occurs in the farewell of Moses All the speeches of time have been compared with this one of the great lawgiver and poet of Israel from which the text is taken, and it stands solitary and alone among the sayings of men, with out likeness or rival. This Is the first water of oratory-the e epitome of speech. There is a likeness between the ages, for the reason that
  gree and not in kind. Material and spiritual fit today's life because they fitted life thousand of years ago. Here Is the old battle ground of the soul. Moses was advising his kinsmen against the likely balance of the earthly against the heavenly and exhorted for strong pull for heaven in the time of fullness and plenty. Monotony makes children fret and grown folk muse, as they engage h the fight of life. Line on line, precept on precept rule on rule, tells the tale. Therefore Moses Is about as modern as the lates- teacher in the sch ools, when he talks of fundamentals. He was speaking in the text to the Jews, but why should the message not belong to us, since it mentions just those things we are thinking the most about?
 All of which make the United States of America the most interesting spot on the map of the world. The Jew has taught the peoples of all climes about God. He made 9Th eism a term for books. He did not, and has not, taught the sons of men how to use the stuff of the earth, so as to build the king dom of God universal which the fol- lowers of Moses thought rounded out in the hill country of Palestine, and which only now is being thought pos sible attainment. This using of goodly houses, and herds and fiocks, and sil- yer and gold for giving God dominion over mems hearts has been kept toe much in the background and pietism has too long taken the seat of piety. Good for nothing have had the places of authority, on the ground that a man thrifty enough to build good home raise a large herd of cattle or get together some few dollars, was too smooth to be good Christian He would do for the old Jews who made corner on doves offered in sacrifice at the temple services. but not for the man who made a corner on piety in look and walk. Sacred and non- sacred are terms far apart when God IS speaking. They are close together when man is the governor of condtct. With God the harvest and the treas ures of industry are convertable into means of saving men and betterins the world. With men, so much is said about the kingdom above that nothing particular is done by them for bringing the kingdom on earth.
 There are more goodly homes, more herds of cattle, more silver and gold in the United States of America than anywhere else on earth. There IS more chance for men and more liberty for the individual than anywhere on the globe. What use shall these re- sources be put to? Shall they breed glutting over other peoples. or shall thev become part of Moses pro- gramme and be consecrated to the making of the Kingdom of God? I tel you. my hearers, the church herself has too long distinguish ed between the sacred and the unsacred. Man must be made to understand that all that goes on in the earth is under the eye of God. and that money. righ tly made is as holy and as helpful as the altar upon which it is offered
 It seems to me that here is the in fuence of America on the nations of the world. She has been mad for money. Everything has been sacrificed V home and lifes sacred ties have been set aside and the mad rush has gone on until now America, with the fullest pockets of all the nations of the earth is asking the question, asked the first time in the history of the race, How can money be invested so as to bring the largest returns for the enlarge ment and enrich ment of life?'
 From the same page others read different story from the one I read. They say we are selfish and mean and are trying to get better houses to live in, more cattle more silver and gold. abuse no one who differs from me, but not so seem the times as I mingle with men. Disease is being hunted down, the death rate is being lowered, better living is be- ing provided more education Is being given more time for play is being al lowed and more money is used, per capita, than since Adam began begetting children To balance the world in the matter of people soc, 100000 Asiatics keep the see-saw of the rient in the air. What will these yellow folk do if they should wake up, is and has been the question? The answer is the use of the possessions not, will turn all the. east, which is the one advocate who was sensible and that one was the Nazarene, who said Love your neighbor as yourself" There Is not enough iron in the hills of the world to build battleships or to make guns enough to conquer the wild people of the earth, but there is enough power in the