Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-10-08
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMACE. DID,,
Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby.
terrain Church. Chicago


preacher teaches n timely lesson on
the wisdom of exercising tolerance and
forbearance between man and man
and reminds us that the faults and
weaknesses which we condemn in 9th
ers may find parallel in ourselves.
The text is Philippians ". 8, Let your
moderation be known unto all men"
What does the Pauline word mod
Grafton" mean? 81 know" says one.
at means: DO not be an extremist DO
not ride hobby to death. DO not focus
your eyes upon one truth so long that
you become blinded to the relative i'm
portance of other truths nor upon one
error until you lose sight Of the evil
effects of all other errors. Virtue is
road which has hedge and ditch
on both Sides, once wrote n famous
writer. A man may be moderate in one
thing and not in another. A man may
be an ascetic as far as eating and drink
ing are concerned, and yet he may be
licentious. A man who has no ambition
may be avaricious." It Is not enough
to be right in one matter If you are
careless on other matters equally i'm
portant.
LET your moderation be known unto
all men" means: Do not he n fanatic
n one sided monstrosity, like n dove
with one wing cropped, Tapping about
in the barnyard and yet unable to rise
ten feet into Gods great heaven Of
blue. Do not eXpend all your ener-
gies preaching against the evils of in
toxication and at the same time be q
glutton. DO not preach against gam
bling with cards when you gamble with
railroad stocks. DO not berate the thief
who steals a loaf of bread and honor
the thief who cheats his neighbor in Il
real estate deal. DO not advocate phys
ical culture to such an extent that you
ride 100 miles day on Il bicycle or be
such fresh air fiend' that your open
window in the railroad train will be
blowing a dangerous draft upon the
passengers who sit in your rear. BE a
well rounded man. BE Ike plant
with leaves and pistils and stamens
and sepals and petals growing upon a
supple stem, able to bend every whith-
or yet with roots anchored in the solid
earth, and not like balloon filed with
Il noxious gas tossed about in the air,
the plaything of every stray wind
wisdom of Moderation.
That the Pauline idea? No, my
friend, you are wrong. When Paul
said, Let your moderation he known
al ho i.h
Nilliers once expressed it, "alluding to
the qualification of our desires general
ly. but especially temperance or self
restraint In our relation to others, In
our abstinence from anger and harsh
ness and vengeance" He is saying,
rs the revised version translates the
sentence. Let your forbearance or
gentlencss be known unto all men"
Today instead of preaching upon what
you should eat and drink and where
with you be clothed and how much
exercise you should take | shall preach
upon how you should smile and talk
and shake hands and forgive and love
This sermonic theme is not how we
should live but how we should be will
ing to let others live
BE patient, in the first place, even
with the irritating idiosyncrasies and
the offensive mannerisms that are
found in almost every one with whom
we come In contact. BE patient with
their peculiarties especially If they
are nonessentials in reference to the
honesty and noble chara cteris tics OF a
man. BE patient especially because
wrong types of marked individuality,
If harnesscd in the right way, will Of
ten mean great success for us and for
those whom it is our privilege to in
fuence.
\ strange law DEGREES that insanity
is sometimes the handmade of genius.
The inspired eye, which afar off can
discover a star, is often so nearslght-
ed that it cannot see diamond gilt
tering close at hand. Samuel Johnson
once said in reference TO the blind poet
of England, Milton, madam, was a
genius who could cut colossus from
a rock, but could not carve heads upon
cherry stones" Joseph Cook was the
intellectual and the mental and spir-
itual Hercules who stood year after
year in old Boston forging Scriptural
thunderbolts and damming back the
pernicious and dangerous teachings of
the leaders of an1-Christian doctrines.
Yet Joseph Cook great as he was,
would have been utterly untitled for
an ordinary pastorate. His last days
were passed In sanitarium, In Il place
consecrated to the work OF caring for
mental incompetentS. Joseph Cooks
brain was magnificent piece of men
tai machinery. that, like other delicate
machinery, was easily thrown out Of
gear. Thus we find that the greatest
poets and musicians and artists and
sculptors, statesmen, dramatists, law
yers, physicians and ministers have
sometimes been men of startling weak
ness as well as of startling strength.
Like Atlas, their shoulders were big
and strong enough to carry a world
upon their backs. Like Alfred the
Great, their fingers were too clumsy
and fOrgetfu to care for fire which
the wife had detailed them to watch
while she was looking after the other
household cares. Geniuses are often
most exasperatng | always had n
great deal of sympathy for Xantppe,
who has been branded as the female
arch scoh of the ages. Perhaps she
had right to scold. She was married
to Socrates. the greatest genius of all
Greece
The startling characteristics, good or
"A L.. LIZ. N,