The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-13
CHRIST MADE SIMPLE THINGS DEATHLESS, SAYS DR. EDMONDS Pastor Independent Church Repeats Sermon of Five
 Years Ago to Capacity
 Congregation

capacity congregation heard Dr.
 H. M. Edmonds of the Independent
 Presbyterian church yesterday morn
 ing at the Temple Emanu-El. when he
 preached sermon on Optimism of
 Faith" a repetition of sermon
 preached some five years ago at the
 South Highlands Presbyterian church
 which had so impressed a number of
 people at that time, that request was
 made for Dr. Edmonds to repeat the
 sermon, as far as possible.
 Taking as his text, Consider tho
 Lilies" Dr. Edmond said in part:
 Jesus took his illustration in the
 main from the out doors. where he
 spent most of his time. He speaks
 of the flight of birds the shifting
 seasons, beasts of the field,' the lilies
 and the growing grain One needs
 to get out under the open sky to
 realize the glory of the bigness of things.
 There is a dangerous tendency" said the speaker. Tor people to get into such rut that they forget skies, and fleeting clouds and growing lilies -rsameness and endless monotony
 
 of business and home endlessly re- peated in the life of the man, and the small, uninteresting domestic duties over and over again for the woman, which, without change or breaks, is apt to make machines of us. We lose sight of the immensty of things in the eternal grind and round sameness, which has left men and women wrecks,
 both mental and physical
 ryVy T, c,ruAnc c,nrAvy Consider the lilies, when we are fretted and worried by thousand things, both real and those we fear; let us get out under the trees and vaulted sky; let the stars speak to your. As Emerson says, Why so hot little man? The calm and quiet of nature brings repose to mind and to tired nerves
 Man, if you are troubled with evil thoughts. grow rose garden and stay ! much in it; the smiling out-of-doors is a sure cure for many cares that be- set the day. He that clothes the lily will certainly care for you" Dr. Edmonds touched upon the lure of the elswhere." We consider our | life and place of activity boring and ! uneventful," he said: that over yon- der lies greatness and adventure, and | life; but the truth is, life is right hefe IN WHdteSeF pidCe you are, small town or great metropolis. Life in the main is the same--love and faith and death. All the great emotions are OK perienced the same the world over In your present place, you may clinn the heights. or sink to the lowest depths--life is in you. not in your surroundings.
 REFLECT GOOD OR EVIL "As you are. so do you reflect good or evil around you; Jesus spoke of the simplest, most ordinary things in life and made them deathless. The great est poems, most popular with the mass | of men, are the simplest-greatest | sentiments are conveyed in simple iaa- suage; words that reach the heart and live Tn the memory, are most often ordinary, and tell of the commonplace, as Tennyson in his Crossing the Bar" and by the grave of the babe long lost. we kissed again, with tears A simple, honest thing, and yet how it plays upon our heartstrings. All treat of the principal, ordinary relationships of life"
 Tn closing. Dr. Edmonds told his hearers that to worry was a lack of faith in the love of God, and cer- tain way in which to defeat the very end toward which we aim. Worry units. makes physically ill and weak and Is sin against God" he con- cluded.
 The entire' downstairs was filled at i the evening services of pr. Edmonds at Loew's Bijou, when he spoke on the subject, Lord, to Whom Shall We | Cor"