Milford chronicle., 1904-10-28
CalmaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. D. D.

sympathy with the sOrrowing and the
distressed is urged by the preacher in
this sermon. The text is Romans xii,
10, "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
tainment 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 couches and shiver-
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
children playing in the street or to help
carry a heavy pack under which a
poor, tired peasant was staggering on
his way to town; hence the mOnas-
teries and the nunneries and the clOis-
ters and the abbeys and the priOries,
which are only a few of the many
names given to the ancient buildings
ba 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 to BE Alone.
mot good for man to be alone" Yes, |
we know it. We know it 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 a kempis was a good man.
Within the gloomy walls of the Angus
tinian convent of Zwolle, in the dark
recesses of an ascetic's cell, he wrote 4
the wonderful pages of DE ImitatiOne
Christi" But, though his book is a
wonderful guide to Christly life, ThOm-
as a Kempis' cell is a 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 Hempis is not in an as
cetic's 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
MS 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-
jOicing with other people in their true
joys and worshiping with them in their
true SORROWS.
My text teaches the same kind
of a consccrated active existence as
did 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
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
bis talk the superintendent practically
said these words: "Children, who am l
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-
ng friend. when you have done wrong?
Who has for years gone in and out /
among us as a gentle, kind example
)ne who never did wrong, who never !
spoke harshly against any one, who
was always ready to lead us and to
ove us? Tell me, children, who is
le?' With a mighty chorus the little
.hildren began to call: Il know, sir. l
1now. 1t is Mr. Wright. 1t is our old }
pastor. Mr. Wright" That encomium '
If these little Sunday school children
s the best illustration / know Of what
ny text means.
vaIue of Christian Sympathy.
Christian sympathy is a necessary
gospel attribute. in the first place be-
,ause no human power on earth does
10 much to make a good man or even
bad man try to live better as to know Z
hat other lives are wrapped up in his d
ife. sympathy" wrote the lexicog-
apher. "is literally a fellowship with 5
ithers in their various conditions Of =
oy or Of grief" 1t is the power which