The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-17
SERVICES FOR THE
 CHILDREN TODAY
DIR. BROWN LAST NIGHT AN SEVERED SOME OF THE EXCUSES MEN MAKE FOR NOT BECOMING CHRISTIANS.

This morning at 10 o'clock a special children's rally will be held at the First Methodist church and all the children under 15 years of age will sit on the first floor of the church. Adults will be ad- mitted to the galleries. rally service, for everybody, will be held tonight at 7:45.
 One of the features of the opening serv- ice last night was the singing of the Ninety and Nine'' by the solist, C. P. Curry The singing of gospel songs for some 20 or 30 minutes before the serv- ices adds charm and inspiration to the meetings.
 MT. Brown last night took as a text Luke 14:1S, And they all with one con- sent began to make excuse"
 Jesus sent out his disciples to invite men to become members of his king dom," said the evangelist, land to en- joy the banquet feast which he had pre- pared for them, which invitation, if ac- cepted would mean the highest and best things for them in this world and the highest blessings in the world to come.
 'I believe that excuse-making is one
 
 tury, and 99 out of 100 excuses are made for the occasion and men make excuses as varied as those of the three parties portrayed in the gospel story.
 "One who was invited said he had bought five yoke of oxen, another said he had bought a piece of ground and a third had married wife, and all of these sighted the invitation and added insult to injury by these fimsy excuses"
 Some popular excuses were mentioned by MT. Brown. First, some say there are too many hypocrites in the church. But he said no man has fully kept the vows of the fraternal lodges to which he be- longs.
 q have 1900 times more regard for the man who has tried to be a Christian and failed, than I have for the man who will stand off and make light of some poor unfortunate and make this excuse some thing to get behind" he said. The second excuse mentioned was that men say they don't feet like becoming Christian"
 '"The Bible says very little about feel ing, and this Is excuse for men to hide behind and make a reason for not accepting Jesus, and becoming a Chris tian,'' said the preacher.
 '"rhe third excuse is men say they are afraid they will not hold out. It may be better for us to make a greater ef- fort to hold on rather than not to try to hold on.
 "We may have tried to be Christian and failed, but 1t Is manly to fail and to our feet and try again. Jesus can keep us with the same power with which he saves us. Another excuse made by men is that turned a seeking heart away. And the parable of the lost sheep tells the story of Jesus love and solicitude for erring men and women. Men and women can't get too bad for Christ.
 Still another excuse men make is that it is so hard to live a Christian life. That is one of the blackest lies that ever slipped out of the pit and leaving eter- nifty out of the question, the Christian life is the happy life.
 Jesus Christ can never save a man until he outweighs and outdraws ev-. erything else. And when we accept Jesus, all other work and duties are easy, and our reward is certain in this world and more glorious in the world to come"
 A large number came forward for pray