Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-10-24
Calmase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase, D. D.


distressed is urged by the preacher in
this sermon. The text is Romans xii,
40, Rejoice with them that do rejoice,
and weep with them that weep
Perpetual segregation, isolation, sep
aration, seclusion, voluntary exile,
were considered by many of the an
clients as necessary adJuncts to the at
itAinment Of the highest earthly de-
velopment Of Christian perfection. Be
cause Christ tasted and prayed in the
wilderness for forty long days many
disciples OF old believed that to be like
Christ they must continually live in a
wilderness, wear sackcloth and ashes
and do nothing but pray and starve
and starve and pray. They tried to
walk with God TO be like Enoch, by
refusing to walk with their fellow
men. They tried to live with Christ by
sleeping on stone touches and SILVER
ing in damp cells and clothing them
selves in coarse woolens, by trampling
through SHOWS with naked feet and by
mumbling daily prayers with sepul-
chral countenances, while they refused
to smile an encouragement to the little
carry a heavy pack under which
poor tired peasant was staggering on
his way to town; hence the monas-
teries and the nunneries and the clois-
tiers and the abbeys and the priories,
which are only a few of the many
names given to the ancient buildings
within which the monks and nuns i'm
INJURED themselves for separation from
sinful men, of whom they did not wish
to be a part. But away back in the
time Of creation God said, 1T is not
good for man TO be alone" And what
God spake to Adam, our first ancestor,
God is speaking to US now.
Not Good 20 BE Alone.
Not good for man to be alone" Yes,
we know It We know 1t in spite of
the fact that the cloister has segregat
ed some good men from contact with
the busy, anxious, sinful world. Thorn
as a Kempis was a hermit, a recluse.
Thomas Kempis was a good man.
Within the gloomy walls Of the Angus
tinian convent of Zwolle, in the dark
recesses of an ascetics cell, he wrote
the wonderful pages of 'De Imitatione
wonderful guide to Christly life, Thorn
as a Kempis' cell is poor place In
which a modern Christian could prac-
tice the gospel truth. BY all odds the
best place to translate the teachings
of Thomas a Kempis is not in an as
cetics cell, but in Gods sweet, pure,
golden sunlight, among just such
rough, horny handed men as the fish
ermen with whom Jesus Christ asso-
ciated.
San Marco convent of Florence is a
poor nursery for spiritual life. There
Fra Angelica has drawn the students
of art to come and study his figures of
Christ which he painted upon the cold
walls nearly 600 years ago. But the
best place to be modern Fra Angelica
and to paint Christ in the hearts of
living men is to do as Paul did on his
missionary tours. 1t is to do as Christ
did when talking to men. 1t is to do
as your mother and father did in the
parental sympathy of a Christian
home. 1t is to do as we ourselves can
do by being Christ's disciples and re-
1oicing with other people in their true
joys and wOrshiping with them in their
true sorrows.
My text teaches the same kind
of d cOnsecrated active existence as
did a brother minister who lived a few
years ago in a great Chicago center
speak thus about him because he is
now far across the seas. working as q
missionary in foreign fields After the
Rev. George William Wright had been
for some months In the Philippines
the superintendent of his old Sabbath
school of Bethlehem church was trying
to draw a verbal picture Of Jesus
Christ. The only being he had in mind
at the time was our Saviour. During
his talk the superintendent practically
said these words Children, who am
now talking about? Who has always
been willing to join with you in your
fun and be happy with you when you
had a right TO be happy? Who has al
ways been a friend, a loving, forgiv-
ing friend, when you have done wrong
Who has for years gone in and out
among us as a gentle, kind example
one who never did wrong, who never
spoke hsrshly against any one, who
was always ready to lead US and to
love us? Tell me, children, who is
her With mighty chorus the little
children began to call: ''I know, sir 1
know. 1t is Mr.. Wright 1t is our old
pastor, Mr. Wright" That encomium
OF these little Sunday school children
is the best illustration know of what
my text means.
Value of Christian Sympathy.
Christian sympathy is a necessary
gospel attribute, in the first place be
cause no human power on earth does
SO much to make a good man or even
bad man try to live better as TO know
that other lives are wrapped up In his
life. sympathy" wrote the lexicog
rapher. lis literally a fellowship with
sthers In their various conditions OF
Joy or Of grief" 1t is the power which