Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-04-22
Talmage
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De cOfff
ToIm age. d. ID.

ana Soclol position, Wnen mulUtuueS
are absorbed I'm the struggle for world
~ successes, this sermon comes as a
wholesome and timely warning that II
is possible TO pay too high price for
fortunes favors and that fame may
be too dearly bought. The text is
Judges xi, 50, "Alas. my daughter
An old trite saying declares, What
is worth getting is worth paying for"
But the payment demanded for what
we want is often more than mere sill
yer and gold. 1t may cost the pound
OF flesh near the heart of an Antonio,
and 1t may mean silver or gold, GRIM
soned by having been dipped and
rusted and dyed in human blood.
Yes, will own that land. / will
yet be master of Daylesford manor
house" These were the words uttered
by a young pauper, then being edu-
Gated In the charity school of the little
hamlet of Churchill. in Oxfordshire,
England. That Daylesford manor house
had once been the property of Warren
Hastings great-grandfather. Warren
Hastings, for that was the pauper's
name, was then a motherleSs lad. and
the son Of good for nothing. shiftless
father, who had fed to England to
find his grave ultimately in the faroff
West Indies. Aye, Warren Hastings as
man fulfilled the pledge he made as
boy, but he paid dearly for what
he was after. He paid for Daylesford
manor house with money purchased
by years of exile, years of toll. years
of persecution. What was worth hav-
Ing was worth paying for, but the
price for the Hastings ancestral home
came very high.
Jephthab's Ambition.
Well, today we find General Jephthah
having a great ambition. He was not
only seeking a noble and Legitimate
goal. but be was rashly and recklessly
ready to pay any price to reach that
goal Jephthah had two objects In
reaching this goal of his ambition. The
first was to wipe out the stigma on the
record Of his birth. Like Alexandra
Dumas, he could never mention the
name OF his mother without bringing
u blush OF shame to his cheek. Second
iy, Jephthah wanted to drive out the In
threatening to destroy his people. So
the night before the great battle open
cd General Jephthah in his military
tent made n pledge something like this:
20 God, II tomorrow thou wilt only
give me success, II thou wilt allow me
TO atone for the awful record of my
birth by being n deliverer OF my people
from these invading herds OF cut
threats, promise thee that whatsoever
TO meet me when I return in peace
from the children OF Ammon shall
surely be the Lords, and l will offer it
mp for a burnt Offering"
Hardly had the roar and din of battle
ceased when the messengers on swift
est OF horses sped everywhere. They
rode as fast as Paul Revere galloped
toward Lexington and Concord to
arouse the minutemen to rise and
resist the invasion of the British So
diers. as fast as Nathan Mayer Roths
child rode to reach London the night
after Wellington's triumph at Water
loo. Everywhere the hard riding cou-
riers shouted the news to an exulting
people: THE land is free. The land is
free! The land is free. Jephthah has
wont Jephthah has WON'T
A Foolish Pledge.
When the Roman generals came
back from their conQuests, they were
given triumphant entry into the
capital OF the seven hills" No more
enthusiastic ovation was ever awarded
to the military chieftains OF the Gaze
sars than that which now welcomed
the Hberator OF the Israelitish people.
The maidens came forth to dance be-
fore him, and 10 strew flowers in his
way, and TO sing their sweetest songs,
as the school children welcomed I,afa-
yette on his last journey through our
own land. Such music and songs and
nowers as afterward welcomed King
Saul after the destruction OF the Phil
istines were surging over General
Jephthah in great tidal waves of har-
monious sound or surrounding him
with huge floral rainbows, dyed In the
richest or colors, with this one excep-
uon-General Jephthah had no taunt-
Ing name OF shepherd boy to imbit-
ter him with jealousy. But as the
israelitish iberator comes nearer to
MS mousse we see great commotion.
Suddenly this mighty leader stops and
staggers. like drunken man, for
there. coming out OF his house, Jeph-
thah sees his beautiful daughter. his
only child. stepping forth to greet him
and by the terms Of his VOW she must
be the sacrifice for his great conquest.
luis pledge which Jephthah made to
God was a very foolish one. God did
not want General Jephthah TO slay his
daughter; neither does he want us To
make the foolish sacrifices some OF us
are willing to make in order to win
temporal success in life. Therefore Il
shall try in this sermon to catalogue
some OF the foolish sacrifices some of
US make upon the altar OF fortune
and to protest against them.
The Parents Duty.
First, God would never have us. like
Sephthah, destroy the spiritual and
physical and temporal lives of om
children. He would never have us Sc
engrossed IN our work that we would
neglect our own "fesh and blood" and
care not how our boys and girls Nigh,
turn out. He would not have the min
lister or the lawyer or the merchant n,
the inventor say: II nave no Time 10
look after the nursery. 1 must work
and work and work. / must work and
work even though my own boys and
girls have to suffer-" He would not let
Abraham offer his boy Isaac upon his
altar, neither will he ever require ia
10 sacrifice the spiritual and temporal
lives OF OUT children upon the affairs of
fame.
And yet, today, see how many men
neglect their own children for the DUP
suit OF silver and gold--men who In one
sense try to Justify themselves for this
aeslect Some time ago was walking
along one OF the eastern streets. and !
saw a sweet faced old man leading by
ne hand little girl and a boy. This
little girl was shaking her finger at the |
I'D man and telling him n long story |
II some sort, and the old man was
smiling and noddlng and saying: Eyes.
ny darling. that must be so IL you saw |
Is so. OF course, OF course, it must