Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-10-20
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago


tion Of a mother for her child is used
by Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage as
symbol of the divine love for the hui
man race in this sermon on the text
Isaiah Xvi, IL, "As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will l comfort
you"
Washington Irving has APPLY been
called the father of American litera-
ture, but among all the writings of the
wizard of Sunnyside there is not a
chapter more trenchantly powerful
than that on THE Art of Bookmak-
Ing" In it the author pictures him.
self asleep and dreaming in the
library of the British museum.
His bead is pillowed upon pile
OF musty tones. While he dreams
he sees the different authors of the
present day porting over the manu-
scripts of the ancient libraries and
making ample notes and verbatim cop
les of the same and, indeed, going so
far as to cut entire leaves from the
books of a Beaumont, q Fletcher, a
Pollock and u Ben Jonson. Then the
FASTING together the verbatim excerpts
and the stolen leaves into new vol
umes and printing their own names
upon the title pages. These literary
piracies continue until at last the cry
of Thieves, Tnievesv' is raised. Then
there is great hubbub and scurrying
among the modern authors because the
ancient writer's whose faces and bodies
are pictured within the quaint, old
fashioned frames hanging upon the
walls Of the British museum are
changed into flesh and blood. ready to
snatch the new books out of the hands
OF the kidnapers and to claim them as
the offsprings of their own brain. some
of them born centuries upon centuries
ago. ft
The obvious moral of the imaginative
tale Is that there Is nothing new under
the sun. No man, woman or child, no
matter how intelligent, can ever lsy
claim to true originality. We are all,
physically and mentally, as well as
spiritually. reproductions of other
lives. We are all combinations of other
peoples thoughts and desires and ac-
tions, even as the walls of an ancient
palace are often huge mosaics of many
different stones cut from many diff
ferent quarries. While many have
contributed to make us what we are,
the largest contribution is the maternal
one. How much of all that is good and
pure in our nature do we owe to our
mothers! How much of all the peace
and comfort we have enjoyed do we
owe to their wise and loving ministry!
1t Is this fact, which we all recognize,
that the prophet uses 10 impress OH us
the love ard kindness of God. No
smile could he have used so effective
as that in my text, "As one whom his
mother comforteth."
The Christian Mother.
The words OF my text have for many
OF us very tender and reverent appli-
cation. The greatest lessons of a sac.
rificing and forgiving love have been
learned By most of us from the now 81.
lent lips of our Christian mothers
Though your mother may have been
dead for ten or twenty years. yet you
remember MS though it were yesterday
how tenderly she cared for you whel
you were Et.le child. You remember
how she nursed you through that lons
at Of sickness when you were abou
fifteen, and every time she left thu
room you would call: Mother. mother
Where is mother?' You well remem
Der how she placed her hand upol
your shoulder and looked long ant
earnestly into your eyes the day yol
left for the great city or college, a
though she were trying to make up he
mind whether she could trust yo1
away from home. You also remembe
bow, when n man grown, you had tina
great trouble in life, and your chic
desire was to get back to the old home
stead and tell mother. And, alas, yo
well remember the dark day when yo
carried her out to gently let her bod
down into the open grave. when 20
laid her away to sleep among th
spring flowers or when you cOvere
her up under the soft quilt of spotles
snow. the purest, gentlest. mobiles
most forgiving and helpful of huma
companions was forever taken frol
your side. Remembering all this Low
and devotion. we realize the force {
the metaphor which Isaiah. the propl
ct. uses when, seeking to show ho'
tenderly God loves and cares for h
children. he takes the gentle. matern;
influence which has done so much
develop cur physical and mental an
spiritual life and says. LAS one whol
his mother comsorteth, so will con
fort YOU
The Divine Being shows the love
mother In wanting to be the cor
Porter OF all the young folks who al
preparing for the great struggle
life. The mother wants to be the i
spring friend of her boys and cir
during the long years of immaturit
when the world at large is sneering
them and laughing ut their ambition
as though they were the mere OF
he Of Foolish ond o x-icionu,