Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-09-01
CalnaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talnaec, q. n.

season when nature is displaying her
glories in greatest abundance the
preacher chooses as theme for his
sermon the beauty of things audible
and visible and contrasts it with the
higher beauty which comes to those
whose lives arc in harmony with the
Divine life. The text is Ecclcsiastes
fiji. II. "Ic hath madc everything
beautiful in his time"
The Soloinonc writings are often
cpigrammatic in style. Like priceless
Jewels cut and polished by the lapi-
DIARIES and collected in Baskets. ire
spcctive Of size or color. his verses ms
verbal gems are clustered into chap
tiers. with but little attempt Mt con
secutivc advancement Indeed. King
Solomon for the most part seems to
mo to be like n writer Of notebooks.
In the kings Judgment hall or on the
street or out upon the hillsidcs under
the blue dome of the sky, when n great
thought IS divlnely inspired within his
braiu. he 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 book
and has the court stenoGrapher write
them ont again in fun In other words,
King SolomOns verses for the most
part are like freight cars that can be
eideuacitcd or uncoupled from one
car and attached to other cars. Each
verse stands ont rs n distinct entity.
An average verso IS MS appropriate in
the sixth chapter of Proverbs as in
the twentieth chapter. The verse is
the car The chapter IS the freight
traiu. They are often rs unconnccted
as the definitions of WcbStrTs Die
tionsrry They change their subjects
very often. They are Ike nuggets Of
gold sometimes found by the Austria
linn miners IN the dust by tho road
sides or in the river beds, entirely sep
aratc1 from any gold veins They are
like great round powders Of rock i'm
bedded in the sands. These bowider
verses in n glacial age have been car
ried 10y the ice from afar and have
found resting place amid entirely diff
which they We're 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 a later date 1t appears to me
however. that It's tone and its dcpress-
ing refrain are characteristic Of a man
who led such aklife of ease and self in
~ 81 lpI nd NJ
The end of IT. satiatcd with pleasure
and study. us ne must have been. it
was precisely the Kind OF book that
would come from his pen. and the CON
illusions uttered in that book just such
as would be likely TO he reached hv Il
man who. having Strdycd from COD,
was disappointed ANA dissatisfied with
his life la III" absence. therefore. of
definite knowledge | shall assume that
the first verse OF the book indicates
him as the author. "rhc son of David,
King in Jerusalem"
The LAW of Sequence.
But, though King solomon was not,
rs r1lle. connected writer yet in the
book of EccloSiates he makes an cXCep-
zion to his usual custom In this third
chapter. for example. there IS clear
sequence. No man can interpret my
text aright unh-iS he uses the words,
-IIo hath made everything beautiful
tn his time" as glorious climax to
the ten verses which precedc them.
Solomon Is here cnuncating he mighty
law of sequence. He is marshaling the
orartc of . b,1rnan lifo eG an army