Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-09-21
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALmAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby-
tsriNn Church. Chicago

when the great army or teachers take
up their tasks In our schools. colleges
and universities. many of them for
the first time. this sermon is peculiarly
and widely appropriate. The text Is
Matthew xi. 20. Learn OF me-"
The school-house is the great reser-
volr I'm which are collected the streams
of knowledge which have flowed down
from the ages. II 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
whereT' | once asked a Pennsylvania
farmer when bicycling through Ian
caster county "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
tive term. Its true value is not In the
intrinsic worth of the bricks and
stones and wood which compose its
buildings; II is in the spiritual and in
tellectual worth of the men and the
women who stand behind it's 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 its 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
600 could ever be. With my own eyes,
as n student, 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 senator's and governors and headers
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 a tribute to the fac
that the skilled workman is greater
than his factory; that the teacher is Of
more importance than the school-hous,
In which he stands.
The Divine Teacher is our theme. L
we have not yet learned the value o
Jesus Christ as an instructor. then lie
Us learn II now in the command of m!
text. Jesus I'm these three words re
corded I'm Matthew emphasizes tn
great fact that from him. and hin
alone we can learn the gospel lesson
we ought to learn. Thus today l woul
grasp the ropes Of the village school
house and the city church bells as tn
college sexton holds his bell rope. an
rs | pull and the church bells swim
backward and forward and the silve
notes of these bells go echoing dow
the valleys until they plunge up agains
the sounding boards of the hills woul
cry as a gospel minister: Come
school! Come to school! All We VIII
would learn Of Jesus. come to schoo
come TO schoolr' Is not this the meal
ing OF my text. Learn of me"
The Gospel Classroom.
The gospel classroom. In the FIR
place. has in Christ an authoritativ
teacher. invite you with confidenC
TO sit at his feet because he has a rigl
70 teach. He speaks not only becaus
- a human being he has learned whi
we ought TO learn. but he comes clotl
"a with divine authority. His credel
tials are higher than those Of any III
man faorhar Thav rroraad frOm &c