The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-28
q Am Too Old and Have Preached Too Long to Lend Myself to Cheap Sensa-
 tionalism,' Said Minister
EXHIBITS AN EMPTY QUART BOTTLE TO
 ILLUSTRATE SERMON
No Names Called, But Pointed Phrases at Intervals Caused Spec ulation as to Who the
 Preachers Remarks Fit

q am preaching this sermon this morning with no purpose whatever to create any cheap sensationalism. l am too old and have been preaching too long to lend myself to any cheap sensationalism. am the pastor of great downtown church and I have an exceptional opportunity, and if l do not take advantage of it, where will the great God have a voice?" said Dr. George R. Stuart in his pulpit at the First Methodist church yester- day morning as he began his sermon on "Is God or the Devil in This City?"
 q am a shoe manufacturer. I make shoes and you get your fit. If the rock don't hit you there is no use for you to bark. If you are where you ought not to be can't miss you, but If you are where you ought to be can't hit you.
 "If God Is not in this city 1t Is joke for your policemen to walk the streets of the city at night. Solomon said that in the 12oth Psalm that I have just read. There Is no use in them staying up all night if God Is not here. That Psalm simply means this: It doesn't make any difference what you build. it's vain unless you put God into it. Let 1t be home, church or a city; without God in it 1t will go down. The home and the state belong together--you cannot help or hurt either without injuring or aid- ing them respectively; they prosper or so down together.
 BIBLICAL HISTORY TOUCHED
 God gave the laws of the land into the hands of Moses. He took charge of the armies. of the government and he gave them their victories and told them what to do with the spells. Sol omon was pacifist, while David was a conqueror. Solomon kept the peace, while David fought the battles. And there has always been the temptations of the other side. Then came along old Satan and took the Savior up into the mount and promised him all the world IT Tie would Just get uOWH anu worship him. But Jesus told him to get behind him-and he had to get. Then came the Romans, who were put to the test by the Pharasees, and they asked the Savior what they must do: must they support Caesar and his gov ernment, and Christ answered: Rem der unto Caesar that which Is Caesars and they did.
 There is no light anywhere with T IA n. -. and makes light wherever he enters. This church would be Here, but with out that chandelier there would be no light and the same thing with the curch witout God. There would be no light here. It is the same with our government: keep God out of 1t and 1t will rot The government was the church without God. There would be no rotten that 1t fell away. Then the pendulum swung back and the preach ers, deacons and elders would not mix with politics and they kept the church clear of politics on account of the rottenness The politicians were rotten and it was the same thing as putting the bad man in the church or in the home, 1t soon became rot ten. too.
 ROTTEN OFFICIALS
 "Give me a rotten official and I will show you a. rotten government, just as far as he is capable of rotting it. It's the same in this church. in this choir, with the preacher-all of us, unless God Is here with us 1t Is all hoax and piece of blatant hypoc- racy. But I want to say that there is more good men with good stuff and more of it in them in this First Methodist church than have ever found in a city this size, and I have been around some, too. I don't know of any church that will compare with 1t anywhere"
 At this point in his sermon Dr. Stuart drew the picture of a young man elected city commissioner after having been reared in a godly home having attended church and had the school; and then upon his first days in office he Is tempted by some enemy to the government or to the interests of the city He showed how easy 1t was for this man. who had God with him to shun these temptations, and to do the right thing, just as naturally as it would be for the ungodly man to do the wrong thing and yield to the temptation.
 If you elect a clean commission in your city you are going to have clean government. But if you elect unclcan heads of your government you can ex- pect nothing but an unclean government to follow. If you have man as the head of one of the city departments who Is sober. you will have a sober. clean administration and he will stand as a bulwark for the right. All you have to ask is. Is a man Godly.' What the head. of the department says do, the policemen so forth and do. They do just what they are told to do. if they are loy- al to that head. and If they are not. lie ought to have brains enough to find 1t out and get rid of them.
 CAN CLEAN UP. CITY
 T asked policeman the other night why he did not go down to certain house not a block from whore we were
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