Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-10-07
Calnase
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talrnase, d. ID.

dations OF faith and TO revolutionize
thes Christian Sabbath. this sermon
makes vivid contrast of ''the old time
religion and the new. The text is
Psalm XII, 8, IF the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do?'
Enasculating, depressing and be-
nunbing is the maxim propagated by
some lazy, nonprogressive people as
the. rule of thought and life; that
what was good enough for our IA
theirs should be good enough for u.s."
1 would yield to no man in my rever-
ence for the memory of the sainted
dead whose sacred dust lies in our
cemeteries. No flowers are there too
fragrant for the family plots, no cpl
taphs too eloquent or too reverent to
recount their virtues, nor, when the
family finances are adequate, any
mausoleum too imposing to enshrine
their remains. / have always found
out when investigating that If son
does not respect the memory of dead
mother he will not respect the living
wife, who becomes the mother of his
children.
We should hold sacred the dust of
our dead. That is true, but we should
never build the hillock OF the grave so
high that it will dam back the onward
How OF the waters, of knowledge
md change the river OF progress"
into the ''stagnant pool of ignorance
and sloth." When the past genera
lions did their work they did it we'll
for the time and the conditions in
which they lived. but the dead gen.
erations would not do as they did in
the past If they were living now. We
would not cry "halt'' to the forward
march" OF scientific investigation:
neither would we compel the church
OF the Lord Jesus Christ to mark
time" by the grave of a Justin
Martyr, a Calvin, n Wesley, n Luther.
a Knox, or bivouac with eternal SOM
Violence in the chambers of West
minister abbey, where the honored &C.
clesiastical fathers gathered July 1,
1913. and composed the Presbyterian
Confession Of Faith and our Longer
and Shorter CGtechisms.
But, though we would not consider
our ancestors infallible in their opin-
ions nor absolutely wise In their ways
of living yet, on tho other hand, we
must grant that our ancestors knew q
great deal more than some of us are
willing to give them credit for. Though
our forefathers' lightning expresses"
were only canal boats and stagecoaches
and sailing boats, i'm which most of us
would be afraid TO cross Long Island
sound, let alone the Atlantic ocean. that
is no reason why they did not know
how to develop Christian men and wo-
men as successfully as do we. Though
our ancestors for the most part had no
books save that OF n Bible, n "Pil-
grim's Progress" or a Doddridge's
''Rlse and Progress of Religion In the
Soul" that Is no proof that they did
not know as much OF God and hold the
truth In its purity as thoroughly as do
we who have access to such vast mod
ern libraries, and yet today we find n
spirit of DISCRIMINATING iconoclasm"
abroad. Mans profane hands are dig
ging up the old foundations and de-
stroying the old affairs and ridiculing
the old ways merely because they are
old. 1 would not have you bend the
knee before the hlllock of an ancestral
grave as though IL were q shrine, but
i would have you respect and not de-
stroy il and use that hillocS of grave
as the stepping stone to higher
throne. The living may in some things
be right where their Christian ances-
tors were wrong, yet we have only to
look around Mt the modern innovations
and observe the effect they have on the
community to be convinced that in
some things our Christian ancestors
were right and the modern innovators
ueplorably wrong.
Undermining the Foundations.
In the first place, / protest against
the iconoclasm which is undermining
the foundation stones OF our ancestral
sabbath. Its decorators have been
going up and down the length and
breadth Of the land asserting that re-
ligious worship can become as much
form OF dissipation as drink or over
eating or oyerexercising can lie. They
make wrong application OF our
Lords words that the Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath" They affirm that it is abb
surd for business man who has been
Mt hard work for ut least six days of
the week from o'clock in the morn
ing sometimes until 10 or IL or IL
lo'clock at night TO be compelled to get
mp on Sunday in time for an early
Sunday school, then to attend two
long church preaching services, and
then perhaps to attend Christian En-
deavor society besides.
They contend that Sunday should be
day Of rest and that what a man
needs upon the Sabbath day is relaxa-
lion. He should so to bed Saturday
night after hot bath with his mind |
perfectly Mt case. AS he crawls into |
bed he should be able TO say to him. |
self: Now, i can lie here just as long |
as please. If awake at O'Clock, all |
right. If can sleep to -, better still. |
Then after l awake i will have a cup
OF coffee and n roll brought to INV
bedside, and / will eat little and then |
stay in bed for another hour. reading
the newspaper. Then after dinner !
will take my children out to one OF the
public parks or down by the seaside
and get a sun bath and n view of
Gods trees and valleys and hillsides.
or 1 will go to one of our great art
galleries and look at the pictures. 1t
Is impossible for me to go and see the
painters and the sculptors' master
pieces on any other day. Therefore the
city art galleries should be opened on
Sunday. Then in the evening hour 1 I
will go to church If / feel like it. If
do not desire to do so 1 will go to bed
again and rest, rest-yes, just rest. BY
such system of rest 1 shall be in
vigorated and shall return to my work
the next Monday strong In body, clear
tn mind, more loving TO my family, the
human race at large, and to God him
self. That" says our iconoclast. lis
my idea Of the Sabbath day. / do not
think Woodworking man has a right
TO make his Sunday a day of hard
work In churchgoing, so that he works
harder on the Sabbath than he does on
any other day of the week"
The Old Fashioned Sunday.
Sabbath iconoclasts, is that the way