Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-01-29
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID.
Pastor of jefferson PARK Presby-
terrain Church. Chicago

now given 10 the world as sacred
llial duty, the preacher shows the i'm
portance of action as the criterion of a
true and practical Christian life The
text is Proverbs vi, 13, He winketh
with kis eyes, he speaketh with his
feet. he teacheth with his fingers.''
This is the last text and the last SER
monte caption my father ever wrote.
When 1 was summoned to Washington
during his mortal illness 1 found upon
his study desk plain sheet OF paper,
placed there with these nineteen words
upon it just as he always wrote down
his theme and text before he started
his sermon. That brief memorandum
proved to me that had he not been
quickly summoned away by the mes
senger OF death the next sermon he
purposed TO have written would have
been upon "the language OF action"
There We're no indications OF the man
ner in which he intended TO treat the
topic, but 1 know that the subject had
been much in his mind and that he had
been impressed by the mischief that is
often done by gestures and actions
without the utterance of a word. I
H.
for the warnings he would have uttered
need to be spoken. have therefore
thought 1t alial duty to fulfill, as far
as 1 am able, the intention my father
was prevented carrying out
All language Is not spoken by the lip.
A few months ago had this truth en-
phasized in a striking way. 1 was Wis
iting In the east. The first night while
there my. friend came to me and said.
Il want you TO 20 and hear what 1
consider the finest orchestral playing
In the United States" ''Oh, no." an
swered, Il cannot go. 1 am tagged
out from travel and work. Besides, I
am going TO have a hard day OF preach
Ing tomorrow, and 1 must stay home
and rest up for it, But you must
CO." said my friend. ST not only want
you to hear the sweetest OF music, but I
want you TO sit In front OF Mr.. So-and-
80. the leader, and watch the express
tveDess OF his actions while leading his
orchestra. II your ear was as deaf as
that OF a Ludwig Beethoven, who
could not hear the loudest note sound
ed In his 'Kreutzer Sonata or in his
Rattle Symphony yet you could tell
what the musicians were playing by
watching their leaders gestures"
Language OF Action.
What my friend said was true. 1
went 70 the concert that night and en-
joyed II as much in what 1 saw as in
what / heard. The movements of that
leaders hands and wrists, the gentle
fluctuations of his baton, the quick
shake Of his head and tossing hair, the
fitting expressions upon his face, the
bending Of his shoulders, the nervous
movement Of his feet, the quick lifting
OF both arms, told me whether the or
chestra was softly signing a lullaby
or whispering a love song or sounding
forth battle call or playing a waltz
or wedding march or moaning a re-
Quiem or sounding forth the defiance
OF the warning elements or singing the
song OF n harvest home or making all
the voices of the woods blend in one
sweet chorus. In those swift, sharp or
slow movements of that impresario
could see the ever changing spirit OF
that musical night.
This orchestral leaders movements
Interpreted, IN musical sense. what
every mans language OF action" ac-
compiishes in a moral and spiritual
6 way A bad mans tongue may be pal
Hed. but he can still speak as do the
oeaf mutes in the sign language. All
me evil spirits that are within him can
md their outward expression before an
observnnt world in what he does as
well rs In what he says. bis lifting
arms speak. His moving head speaks.
MIS- GnQarSncr
ful eyebrows speak. would supple
ment my text with the warning words
which King Solomon wrote along the
same line: LET thine eyes look right
on and let thine eyelids look straight
before thee Ponder the path OF thy
feet, and let all thy ways be establish
Cd Turn not TO the right nor to the
left Remove thy foot from evil"
A wicked mans evil actions are
manifested, In the first place, by the
conspicuous absence from all pure and
noble associates. He does not count
among his daily companions the good,
the pure. the true. He would never
q feel so proud OF his Christian friends
as to order, by way OF tribute TO one
OF them, such an epitaph chiseled for
his own tombstone as Lord Brooks had
cut upon his-"Here lies Sir Philip
sidney's. friend" He would not do.
as did Sir Thomas Abney, who was de-
lighted 10 welcome to his home such a
guest as the gentle, consecrated, Christ
Ike brother, Isaac Watts. That Eng
Ian nobleman asked the great hym-
nologist to visit him for a week at his
ancestral manor, and then on account
Of Isaac Watts Christian gentleness
he persuaded him to prolong his visit
Tor over quarter OF q century. But
as birds Of q feather flock together and
buExards nest with buzzards and doves
with doves. the wicked man eschews
the company OF the good. he feels Just
as uncomfortable associating with the
pure, the true. the noble, as the good
man feels uncomfortable when in the
cempanionship OF the bad. The morn
Ing cloud is either gilded by the rising
sun or backened by the scowl Of the
storm. A mans good or bad compan-
ionsAips interpret the character of the
inner man IN the golden letters of light
or In the black letters OF death.
A mans true life can nearly always
5e Judged by his surroundings. If I
enter your home and find upon your
parlor table well used Bible, IL I
nee upon the wallis pure and elevating
pictures and especially in conspicuous
places such religious pictures as Rapha-
els "Sisdne Madonna" and Rubens'
Descent From the Cross and Muril-
los Abraham and the Angels or
Correggio's "Penitent Magdalen" II I
see upon your library shelves among
the well thumbed books such works as
Thomas Kempis' limitation" and
Farrar's Life OF Christ and the BIZ
ographies OF Livingstone and Brainerd
and Gordon and a set of Parker's "Peo-
PIES Bible;" II see your music rack
niled with the masterpieces of the
great religious compositions, such as
HandePs Messiah" and Wagner's
"Parsifal" and Flotow's Martha" and
Mendelssohn's elijah" or paul" IL I
see standing In the corners OF the H.