The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-04
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.
BY THE REV FRANK DE WITT TALMAog, D. D.

Chicago, September 27.-Amid the dis fractions and temptations of modern life this sermon utters a warning cry, a time ly call for a return to the simple ways and upright, honorable Christian lives. The text Is Jeremiah vi 16 Ask for the old paths"
 Most simple Is the texts figure. Its simplicity gives It a homely beauty. It has in 1t the aroma of the woods. It is one of those simple similes of country life that brings back to the weary city dwell Ter, whose feet have been long accus- toned to the hard paving stones of the city sidewalks, the memory of the foot paths over turf-covered hills and the mar row lanes between the banks bejeweled with sweet wild flowers that he used to walk in his childhood days. The old paths-we can never forget them. It will do us good if we think of them this morn ing and see if there are any moral les sons we can learn from them. Sometimes the commonest incidents of everyday life have a voice for those who will hear. Jean Francois Millet is everywhere ranked among the most famous artists. He taught, however, his greatest lesson by painting two ordinary everyday French peasants bending over their hoes in the center of a country field in an at titude of prayer The "Angelus," immor- talized by Millet, was rung from village church spire. His worshipers were those who once lived in a humble poor mans home
 Robert Burns was the sweetest bard old Scotland ever cradled among the wild flowers of Ayr and lullabied to sleep by the murmuring waters of the Bonnie Doon." Yet, with the hand of a master, he played upon the silver chords of the grand old instrument of human love by singing one of his sweetest songs about a mouses nest. In the death of four legged dumb brute Burns loosened the silent tongues of many a songster and songstress who have blended their voices in chorus of praise at the sacred altars of domestic happiness. Jeremiah, among the greatest of the prophets lamenting that his countrymen had deserted their God and disobeyed his laws, pleads with them to avert the impending punishment by returning to him, and he employs this simple figure to portray their condition. He describes them as travellers lost upon the mountains oi sin, hunting for path which will lead them out of their morat difficulties. He represents God as telling them to ''ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls But they said, we will not walk therein" Jere- miah points the right path leading to the throne of God by using the homely sim He of the ordinary country paths or rough roadways in common use at the time, over which the eastern caravans have travelled and the cows have come home for the evening milking and over which have passed tired men and women when, with daily tasks we'll done, they have sought the home fresides for phy- sical refreshment and for blessed sleep.
 The Pathway to the Cross. Like Jeremiah, I would today carry your thoughts back to the repiniscences of the country and from the sweet fresh | flowers of the village hedgerows pluck blossoms which will remind you of old time associations and resolves. The great est of horticulturists is not tue gardener who fashions his beds in the many colors' of a Josephs coat or a grand mothers crazy quilt. It is he who makes his floral designs simple-very simple. One bed looks as though 1t were bit of Alpine lake flung among the crowded reg iments of flowers. It is painted entirely with violets. It looks as simple and vet as beautiful as the June heavens colored in blue. Another bed looks like a great collection of leaping flames. It is plant cd only in roses. It Is very simple. It is as simple in colors as a cardinals robe It is as simple in colors as the setting sun. Another bed has the jaundced look of Malay's skin. It is only planted in golden glows. Another will be an azalea bed, another dahla, another planted in white lilies, another in geraniums. The horticulturistic genius thrives best in the simplicity of colors. From this sermonic bed l would pluck only the sweet for | getmenots of tender memories Like Jere- miah the prophet 1 would try to lead you over some of the old paths which your feet have trodden in the past, and in the leading l would lead you to the foot of the cross.
 The old path which wound it's way to- ward the old homestead is the first one l would bid you to seek That path by the side of which was once builded your fathers and mothers nursery is today in all probability covered with underbrush Here it is blocked by the rotting trunk of a tree which has fallen sideways There | it has been scooped out by a freshet and wonder covered up with a landslide. 1t looks a great deal like one of those old ueSeTleu lOB TOduS Wnlcn once wound thelr way through the woods toward the town. After the new highway or pike was opened the farmers and the farmers wives always went the other way to market. The result is that the small bushes and the weeds have begun to grow over that path which led to your moth- CTS nursery. It has long been untrodden by any human foot. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty. thirty years What? What? Have your mother and father been dead as long as that? My. my. ho wtme does go No wonder you have forgotten a great deal about your mother and her ways.
 Clear Away the Rubbish.
 But, come, let us take our axes today and clear away some of that rubbish. Let us explore the old path which once led up to the old homestead When the
 first settlers entered the Michigan woods they used to blaze" the trees. That means that with their axes they would chop a notch out of this tree and that and the other tree as they went along. Thus, if they could not finu the right path to settle in one direction, they would retrace their steps by these notches and start out in the woods from another di rection Well, these old paths which once | led up to the homes of our childhood | may not have been used for quarter of century, but they can be easily fol- lowed Our parents "blazed' them all the way along.
 As follow these ''blazlngs" find they were morally straight paths. They were a oc ct oh ac T dfa