Milford chronicle., 1904-09-02
CalmaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. D. D.

season WuGu uhlure Is ulSpldFluG ueI
glOries In greatest abundance the
preacher chooses as a theme for his
sermon the beauty of things audible
and visible and contrasts it with the
higher beauty which comes to those
whose lives are in harmony with the
Divine life. The text is Ecclesiastes
fiji, II, HE hath made everything
beautiful in his time
The SolomOnic writings are often
epigrammatic in style Like priceless
Jewels cut and polished by the lapi-
daries and collected in caskets, ire
spective Of size or color, his verses as
verbal gems are clustered into chap
ters, with but little attempt at con-
secutive arrangement. Indeed, King
Solomon for the most part seems to
me to be like a writer Of notebooks.
In the kings judgment hall or on the
street or out upon the hHlsides under
the blue dome OF the sky, when a great
thought is diyinely inspired within his
brain. be jOts that thought down in
memorandum. Then at the end Of the
day or the week or the month or the
year he collects these different
thoughts, irrespective of their logical
sequence, into a chapter or a book
and has the court stenographer write
them out again in fall. In other words,
King Solomon's verses for the most
part are like freight cars that can be
sidetracked or uncoupled from one
car and attached to other cars. Each
verse stands out as a distinct entity.
An average verse is as appropriate in
the sixth chapter of Proverbs as in
the twentieth chapter. The verse is
the car The chapter is the freight
train. They are often as unconnected
as the definitions of Webster's Die
tionary. They change their subjects
very often. They are like nuggets of
gold sometimes found by the Austria
lian miners in the dust by the road
sides or in the river beds, entirely sep
arated from any gold veins. They are
like great round powders Of rock i'm
bedded in the sands. These bowlder
verses in a glacial age have been car
ried by the ice from afar and have
found a resting place amid entirely diff
ferent elements from those among
which they were created.
The modern critics tell us that King
Solomon did not write the book of Ec-
cleiastes; that its style and diction be-
long to later date. 1t appears to me,
however, that its tone and its depress-
ing refrain are characteristic Of man
who led such life of ease and self in
diligence as Solomon led, and that at
the end Of it, satiated with pleasure
and study. as he must have been, 1t
was precisely the kind Of book that
would come from his pen, and the con-
elusions uttered in that book just such
as would be likely to be reached by a
man who, having strayed from God,
was disappointed and dissatisfied with
his life. In the absence, therefore, OF
definite knowledge shall assume that
the first verse Of the book indicates
him as the author, "The son Of David,
king in Jerusalem"
The Law of Sequence.
But though King Solomon was not'
as a rule, a connected writer, yet in the
ton to his usual custom. In this third
chapter, for example, there is clear
sequence. No man can interpret my
text Alright unless he uses the words,
HE hath made everything beautiful
lp his time" as a glorious climax to
the ten verses which precede them.
Solomon is here enunciating the mighty
law of sequence. He is marshaling the
events Of a humans life as an army.
Each event smust have its right posi-
tion. In the language Of the chapter,
he says, There is a time to be born
and time TO die" There is a time for
a cradle and time when the wood Of
that cradle should be changed into a
coffin lid. There is a time to plant
and a slime to reap that which is plant
ed" The plow and the sickle cannot
have the rust rubbed off their faces at
the same time There is a time to
weep and a time to laugh" That means
that a joke or a cachinnation at a
funeral is a discOrd. A tear and a sob
at a coronation are also out of place.
A wedding march is never played in
minor key: neither is the Battle Hymn
Of the Republic" Sung to the accompa-
niment Of the Dead March" from
SAUL" nor is a Christmas carol i'm
prisoned behind the musical bars Of
MLozart's requiem, There is a time to
love and a time to hate" There is
time when the ''angeI of mercy" should
extend the open palm of forgiveness rs
we'll as a time when the clinched fist
of justice must defend the weak and
fight mortal combat over the pros
trate forms OF innocence and rectitude.
Then, after the author OF my text has
sung the changes of the Gospel Har-
monies of Sequence"-the meadow
lands and upon the mountain top, in sea
and ON land by cradles and by open
ed graves, during the times when the
dove Of peace is lowering over man.
and during the time when the black
raven OF war Is tapping his wings
above bloody battlehelds-King Solo
mon generalizes all his statements in
one great conclusion. He practically
says, "All the different heart beats Of
N.