Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1904-10-15
CalnaQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. d.


whether 1t be founded on ancestry, pos
sessions, social position and influence
OF upon personal vanity. The text Is
Proverbs xxx, %, "a mans pride shall
bring. him low"
The Paphlagonian pigeons were said
to have had two hearts. Psychologists
have good reason to doubt that state
ment, but etymologists know that there
are some words that seem to have two
hearts. Uttered in one sense their
meaning is good and pure, but uttered
in another sense their meaning is evil
and corrupt. Like the chameleon, they
are able to change their outer colorings
to suit their environments. In a bad
sense these words have the craven au-
ricles of culprit or bad intentioned
man. Their skins are as black as the
blackness of the eternal night that
they inhabit. In a good sense their
hearts beat steady and true. They are
the pumps which drive only good and
pure blood through their different ar
teries as the purest Of water tumbies
over the miller's wheel because that
water comes from the clearest OF
mountain streams.
The word pride" in this age may
sometimes be used in good sense. In
Bible times it always had a debased
meaning. Searching through a con-
cordance / cannot find one place where
that word pride" was not used as the
symbol Of "sin" and condemned as the
cause of sin. God denounces 1t all
through the Old Testament, God hurls
at 1t his execrations all through the
New. Arrogance and pride compose
the ouicksands which have destroyed
many an immortal soul in the past
They are the insidious means whereby
Satan is tripping up and manacling his
helpless victims at the present time
therefore this sinful pride, which Is
found nesting in many hearts as IA
tai cancer, must be cut out or some OF
us will be forever lost.
Pride Of Lineage.
First. consider the silliest Of all KINDS
of pride. that Of aristocratic lineage
The spoiled infant in its canopied bed
screaming for the attention OF III
nursa, is not more of nuisance thar
are these people who strut through th'
world claiming the homage OF thei
fellows because Of their having beel
born In an aristocratic home. 1t cries
Bow low to me, not because nav
brain or have accomplished anything
not because l am of any earthly use I
anybody, but because my father o
grandfather OF great.grandfather ma
ACCOMPLISHED something to make nj
name famous or because my great
grandmother had in her veins IN
blood Of the European aristocracy.
Listen to the babblings of one wh
would continually shake before ou
eyes a single branch Of his ancestra
tree which happened TO bear fey
fragrant blossoms, while on that sam
genealogical tree are hundreds OF OIL
er branches which have borne nothin
but worm eaten fruit, and whic
branches have been gnarled and twis
ed for generations and for centuries;
Have you ever stopped to considF
how many different ancestors you hav
had2 My parents were two IN numbe
/ had one father and one mother: Bu
stepping back another generation,
ind / had four grandparents and elg'
great grandparents and sixteen grea
great grandparents and thirty-t"
great-great-great- grandparents. And
back and back they go, doubling VII
each generation. A few hundred yea
back ! find my ancestors were n
e counted by the tens, but by the tho
e sands. Now, my friends, what rig
has a man with family pride to folio
up ono branch Of a genealogical tr
that lands him in a kings throne roo
ar in an earl's palace and Ignore 4
I hundreds Of other ancestral lines, al
one Of which would land him In
y peasants hut or perhaps even at z
# end of o hangman's nooseg For thouI
# some of us may not have had ancesto
"a who were hanged, all Of US have h
plenty of them who ought to have pc
hanged II they had been treated
: they deserved, Thus, when we es
mate how many different ancestors
all have had, both good and ba
3 there is a great deal Of broad comm
sense in the answer which Thecee
Roosevelt gave to one Of his boys W
mad boasted in school about his fami
- THE president saidi "There are OF
two classes of boys In this world,
son. Big boys and small boys alike
either good boys or bad boys. 1t az
not make very much difference fr'
y what family you spring, If you are
good boy the world will respect y
and II q bad boy the world Will pun
you and despise you"
His Coat Of Arms.
Then there is another fact that
ways amuses me In reference to
false assumptions of 'smily pride.
most without exception the great ia
|
descent from some one man VINO
his youth was a nobody, the son O
hodcarrier, a stonemason or lao
er in the ditch. Where did the Pre-
Astor family come from2 From
ace2 Oh, no. 1t sprang into pro
nence from a poor German emigr
who had to cross the Atlantic pr
ticaily in the steerase, Where did
famous Vanderbilt family come fro
Four generations back Cornelius '
20 derbilt was q barefoot boy rum
ON about the Staten Island hills. de m
1t his first money as a common ferrym
or rowing passengers over the waters
nd tween his island home and New Yol
we great metropolis, When az Eng
ul, aristocrat Was dining in the pala
he home Of the founder of the great Th
sls nS family Of the western part of Penn
~ ~ vania. he began to boast of his gr