Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-01-02
TALMAGI
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE- WITT TALmAGE. DID,.
Pastor OF Jefferson Par!1 Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago


mage shows in how many characters
tics the Biblical comparison OF life TO
the creations of the novellst's genius is
justified. The text Is Psalm &c, 8,
I'VE spend, our years as n tale that is
told"
How the years are flying away Hen
~ Clay once stood upon the top of the
Allegheny mountains in an attitude of
listening. When some one asked him
to what he was listening. the great Ken
lucky statesman in his deep, powerful,
resonant, oratorical voice answered, 81
am listening 10 the mighty tramp of the
coming generationsr' Today we may
not have an imaginative ear keen
enough to hear the thunderous echoes
of the moving feet which shall walk
this earth two centuries or a thousand
years hence, but we can now hear the
pattering feet of the multitudeS Of
school children We may hear, too, the
rumbling OF the hearses, which shall
sooner or later carry out our dead bod
les to the newly dug graves. We hear
the inexorable warning that in a few
years or perhaps even In the coming
ing sun for the last time. Then our
bedrooms, where we have often slept
and laughed and cried, shall be called
the chambers OF death. Dear old year
or 1901 1t seemed only yesterday that
we welcomed thee into the world. In n
few days, with thy snow white hair
and shriveled form and pallid cheek
and trembling limb, we shall have to
carry thee out and lay thee away until
we meet thy condemning or approving
face at the judgment seat of heaven.
The inspired psalmist, considering
the passing Of an earthly life, uses a
beautiful simile. Moses, to whom the
psalm Is escribed, was not only q great
legislator and a powerful leader but a
poet. He not only opened path
across the Red sea with his rod. but he
cut sure path into the gratitude and
anection or all good men and women
by the sharp point OF his pen. Thus
the ancient author, who was a pioneer
IN the making OF books, compared the
earthly existence of every human life
ito n tale that is told" The seconds
are the letters. The minutes are the
= words. The hours are the sentences.
The days are the paragraphs. The
weeks are the pages. The months are
tho chapters. The years are the books.
The whole number of different books
or the human story of life, like the five
different books of Victor Hugo's great
novel. Lies Miserables," are bound to-
gether in one big volume, with a slat
from the cradle TO serve for one cover
and tombstone used for the other
cover. May God help me on this last
Sabbath OF the dying year 10 interpret
Alright how Eve spend our years as
tale that is told"
The beginning OF the Tale.
Every tale, whether fictitious or no.
has bright or u sad beginning In al
most the first words which the narrator
speaks he introduces his listeners TO the
hero or the heroine. Sometimes he rocks
that hero's cradle down among the
plantations OF Louisiana or Georgia,
sometimes among the SHOWS OF the New
England hills or in a palace OF Europe,
where the prince or princess was born.
But. though many heroes and heroines
OF fictitious tales may have had unhap-
py childhood influences, do not be-
Eevc IL was thus with us. The bright
est passages OF the tale OF l'fe" when
applied TO our own biographies are to
be found for the most part In those first
days which we spent In the old home
stead We never had those huge mon-
STEERS. the sons OF Tartarus and Terra,
to storm our nurseries; we never had a
murderous guardian, a King Richard,
20 incarcerate us in n dungeon or a
nendish Martha OF Goethes Faust
for nurse. Our infantile playground
was more like the Detachable mountains
or Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress"
Therefore. as most OF our lives have
started amid such purified surround
tngs. it is no more than right to expect
that our stories OF life should be pure
and true and noble tales.
But, alas, no sooner were we born
and grown into young manhood and
womanhood than the current of our
lives led us away from the purities of
our youthful home circle. They led
us into the haunts OF sin and into the
cold, damp, dark caverns OF selfishness.
You know there are books numbered
among the masterpieces OF literature
which you, as a wise parent, would
not allow In your home. You say to
your wifei "'Childe Harold may be
the most wonderful portraiture Lord
Byron ever wrote, but II is q character
or sin and infamy. 1t is a character
glowing with poetic Imagination, but
character with the worm that never
dies sucking at its heart. Our chill
rren should not be allowed to read It's
pages" There are stories which are
not fitted for public ears. Our biogra-
phies cannot be told to the world at
large. The beautiful ancient ballad OF
THE Marriage OF Sir Gawain" de-
scribes how the cavalier OF old took
10 himself in marriage a hideous wom-
an called the ''loathly lady" merely be-
cause no one else would marry her.
AS soon as the ''loathly lady" was we'd
oed she Immediately changed into q
bride OF the most winsome loneliness.
because-so goes the story-that mar
riage ring was able to enchain malIg-
nant enchanter who had been cursing
her life heretofore. Alas, ''The Mar
riage or Sir Gawain" has been reversed
Ii many OF our lives. Most OF us came
forth fair and beautiful from a Chris.
uan mothers nursery. Fair and beau
fiful though we once were, we accept
ed for our guide the proffered hand of
sin. Then in the sight of God and all
heaven we became, like the "loathIy
lady," accursed by the evil past in
which we had lived. No matter how
pure and bright our nativity may have
been, we have all sinned In the sight
or God. ''There is none that doeth
good, no, not one, not one" The
brightness of a gospel sunrise has been
darkened by the stormy clouds of q
sinful midnoon.
The Lives OF Others.
The hero of each tale, whether ficti-
tious or no, has his life intwined in the
existence of many other lives. We find
this thought best illustrated perhaps in
Wilkie Collins Dead Secret" or mo
Name" or The Woman In White" or
OF Anna Katharine Green's "I.eayen-