The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1903-09-25
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE, DID,.
Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby.
terrain Church, Chicago

II
and universities, many of them for
the first time, this sermon is peculiarly
and widely appropriate. The text is
Matthew XII, 20, Learn of me-"
The school-house is the great reser-
yoir in which are collected the streams
of knowledge which have flowed down
from the ages. 1t is the place where
scholars can climb upon the broad
shoulders Of the intellectual giants of
the past and the present and see as
far as they have seen, because those
shoulders are lifting those students
heads toward the stars. 1t is the
place in which man is taught how to
harness the winds and lasso the cleo
tricity and tap the oil wells and con-
tribute to the common wealth and de-
velopment of his brother man, so that
all working together may cause the
desert to blossom as the rose" What
is the cause of all those fine farms, big
barns and immense granaries? Why
this thrift and prosperity every
whereof l once asked a Pennsylvania
farmer when bicycling through Ian
caster county. 1.-THE school-house," he
replied. "You cannot go anywhere
in this part of the state without find
ing the public school-house at almost
every crossroads and the small college
in almost every town of any size"
"'What is the cause of your dilapidated
farms and the slothfulness and filth
see everywhere around me-? | asked
another farmer that same spring in
region a few hundred miles from the
one the prosperity of which prompted
my first question. ITO the absence Of
the school-house," was the answer.
"Most of our people are ignorant and
uneducated What is more, most of
our people do not want to learn;
neither do they wish their children to
learn" Against such a wall of oppo-
sition as that it is almost impossible
for intellectual progress to make any
true Roadway.
Representative Term.
We would eulogize that compound
word of eleven letters called the
''school-house" But, after ALL the
''school-house" is merely a representa-
tive term. It's true value is not in the
intrinsic worth of the bricks and
stones and wood which compose its
buildings; it is in the spiritual and in
tellectual worth of the men and the
women who stand behind its teachers
desks Students from far and near
came to sit at the feet of Hillel and
his famous grandson Gamaliel, al
though for the most part those teachers
had no buildings of any worth. Plato
was the disciple of Socrates and the
teacher of Aristotle, who is the founder
of the academic school famous the
world round, yet for the most part
these men had the street corners for
their classrooms and the hillsides for
their laboratories. They were poor in
pocket, though rich in brains The
name of Thomas Arnold has given
Rugby it's greatest fame. The name of
Eliphalet Mott is the most priceless
heritage Union college at Schenectady
ever received. The name of Mark
Hopkins is of more value to Williams
college than an endowment of $1,000
900 could ever be. With my own eyes,
as student, l saw that great educator,
then eighty-four years of age, leaving
our college town to attend the Harvard
centennial Seated upon the rostrum
at Harvard on that great occasion
were the president of the United States
and senators and governors and leaders
in the various walks of life. But when
Mark Hopkins old Williams pride,
slowly assembled the platform the whole
audience rose en- masse and bowed.
That homage was tribute to the fact
that the skilled workman is greater
than his factory; that the teacher is of
more Importance than the school-house
In which he stands.
The Divine Teacher is our theme. If
we have not yet learned the value of
Jesus Christ as an instructor, then let
US learn it now in the command of my
text. Jesus in these three words re-
corded in Matthew emphasizes the
great fact that from him, and him
alone, we can learn the gospel lessons
we ought to learn. Thus today l would
grasp the ropes of the village school
house and the city church bells as the
college sexton holds his bell rope, and
IS / pull and the church bells swing
backward and forward and the silver
notes of these bells go echoing dawn
The valleys until they plunge up against
The sounding boards of the hills l would
Try as a gospel minister: Come to
school! Come to school! All ye who
would learn of Jesus, come to school,
come to schoolp Is not this the mean
ng of my text, Learn of me"
The Gospel Classroom.
The gospel classroom, in the first
,lace, has in Christ an authoritative
eacher. l invite you with confidence
b sit at his feet because he has a right
b teach. He speaks not only because
Is a human being he has learned what
We ought to learn, but he comes cloth
ID with divine authority. His creden-
ials are higher than those of any hui
nan teacher. They proceed from God
himself. He is the Son and the CO.
iqual of God the Father. He comes
% us as a conqueror clothed in white
Testure, "and on his thigh name
written, King of kings and Lord of
ords" "For he taught them as one
having authority and not as the
icribes."
In this age of intellectual progress it
absolutely essential for every true
eacher. whether of the higher or the
over grades, to have his or her Gre
denuaIs. For instance, II l wish 10 CO.
ucate one of my little girls to be pub
lie school teacher l say to her: Now,
daughter, your future life occupation
depends entirely upon yourself and
your work. l am going TO send you