The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-06
stage BREACHES ON
PARABLE OF WIDOW
EMPHASIZES soFTENINo EFFECT
ON MAN OF PRAYER TO GOD
AND HOW THINGS WILL COME
OUT RIGHT.

The Rev Dr. John w. stagg preached at
the First Presbyterian church last night
on the parable of the unfortunate widow.
the discourse being an assurance that
while God may bear long with them, he
will avense his own elect speedily.
! The preacher read from the eighteenth
chapter of the book of ST. Luke, the read
| Ing covering the first eight verses, which
| tell of the judge in a city who feared
not God, nor. regarded man; and of the
widow who appealed to him to avenge
| her of her adversary. The Judge would
not heed the unfortunate widow for a
while, but afterward because the widow
troubled him he did avenge her in order
that her continual coming might not
weary him.
After interpreting the parable fully Dr.
Stage selected as his text the first verse
of the eighteenth chapter of Luke, Men
ought always to pray, and not to faint"
Speaking of the judge concerned in the
parable Dr. Stage commented that when
you cannot appeal to man through the
word of God the last word has been
reached"
| Courage does not make a man." said
| the preacher, for after all when we
trace the bravery of soldier down to
the finer points and to the source whence
1t comes we find 1t more of a bulldog
| trait than anything else
1.-The man who does not fear God is a
| fool Although the wise men in all times
of the past have had certain misgivings
| nd bax
much more of Him than they did they
were continually searching for God and
| they must have believed Him.
God is considerate of every creature
on earth, even so particular that the
hairs on a mans head are numbered
He remembers the downcast, the poor. He
| speaks to them through his word, and
His is a language like no man has ever
spoken. Men have found sayings in His
word unlike all that has ever been said
II suppose that one of the greatest
drawbacks in the faith of men was the
| Civil war. There were the thousands
| and thousands of soldiers fighting against
the thousands of their enemy And the
men on one side were interceding God
every day to grant the success of a
cause which they loved and thought was
the only right. On the opposite side
! there were the thousands interceding God
oppositely.
Then there came the will of God and
the cause was lost. The many good men
who had fought SO hard and had been
always prayerful were downcast and
many of them did not accept the outcome
as the will of God, and their religion was
staggered and their faith lessened.
! "Those men had received the promise
ask and We shall receive and when their
fervant petitions to God on high were
not answered their religion was greatly
staggered.
| But it matters not what NAV han
pen; no matter how many causes may
fail, the parable has been spoken to the
end that men should pray and not faint
We remember the Jewish household in
the Bible away back yonder and the
man who was so deeply concerned in the
life of a child, and who had many mis-
| givings He felt that the child was not
} going in the right way, and he resorted
to the teaching of Adam as he remem-
bered he could supplicate with God in
making his desires, and he did this But
| we remember, the child died and he was
deeply grieved, and when he was asked
why his supplications with God had not
been heard he answered that he could go
! where the child was, though the child
could not come to him.
THUS it is today. Although our petit
| tons may not come to the best in our
minds, God has said men ought always
| to pray, and not faint So things must
come right.
| Il pass over the various theories of
prayer but praying to God softens a.
| man. God is the Maker and man is His
creature. think in our prayers it would
! be best if we could lay our life down
before God and ask Him If this or that
! could not be done today. We remember
| that Jesus went into the garden of Geth-
| semane and realizing what was coming
| prayed to His Father that if it was pos
| sble to let the bitter cup which He was
about to drink pass from His lips. But
that prayer, that petition, was not
answered; the bitter cup did not pass
| from His lips.
You may lift up your prayer today
| asking God that the bitter cup may pass
| from your lips but you may drink it to-
morrow. Yet it is right.
| But in this matter of prayer there is
| something strange about the effect of the
| times. In times of fitness of life you
| find men become Indifferent, and as long
| as they get along well they are not so
| particular about their church attendance.
| and the Indifferent man flops down be-
| fore the throne of grace with his
| troubles. Why does he ignore this throne
! in the time of the fulness of his ifeo
80 let us remember that it is written
in the parable that men ought always to
pray, and not to faint and though our
petitions, our supplications, may not be
answered we should always be prayerful
and bear in mind that God shall avenge
His own elect speedily"
Bond Making Is Nightmare.
Jackson, Miss, January 5.-(Special.)-
Hon. George r. Edwards, state treasur-
er-elect has not yet succeeded in making
the bond of s25o,OOo as required by law,
and does not believe he is going to be
able to make 1t by the 10Th of the month,
ba 1ou m wi al cto te officials