Milford chronicle., 1904-10-07
CalnaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. D. D.

~ AAAANA AAAAAAN AAlt O4AA ESA0ullS4ltAl IOuL
dations of faith and to reyolutloniz
the Christian Sabbath. this sermo
makes vivid contrast Of 'thc old tim
religion" and the new. The text /
Psalm Xi, ;, If the foundations b
destroyed. what can the righteous do?
Emasculating, depressing and be
numbing is the maxim propaeated b,
some lazy, nonprogressive people al
the rule of thought and life: tha
what was good enough for our fa
-hers should be good enough for us.
! would yield 10 no man in my reyer
ence for the memory of the sainteC
dead whose sacred dust lies in Oul
cemeteries. No flowers are there toe
fragrant for the family plots, no epi
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. l have always found
out when Investigating that if a son
does not respect the memory of a dead
mother lie 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
flow Of the waters of knowledge"
and change the river of progress"
into the "stagnant pool of ignorance
ana slOth.' When the past genera
tiOns did their work they did it well
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 We're 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 Justin
Martyr. a Calvin, Il Wesley, a Luther,
a Knox, or biyouac with eternal SOM
nOlence in the chambers of Il West
minister abbey, where the hOnored ee-
clesiastical fathers gathered July l,
1913 and composed the Presbyterian
Confession of Faith and our Longer
and shorter CGtechisms.
bnLs AllDAEu We NO4Au AADA NDAASAAANA
our ancestors iufallibe in their Opin-
ions nor absolutely wise in their ways
Of living. yet. ON the other hand, we
must grant that our ancestors knew a |
great deal more than some of us are |
willing 10 give them credit for. Though |
our f0refathers' lightning expresses |
were only canal boats and stagecoaches /
in, Of
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 a Bible, a Pill
grim's Progress" or DOddridge's
Rise 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
spirit of "eXtermiuating icOnOclasm"
abroad. Mans profane hands are dig
ging up tie Old foundations and de
y
the old ways merely because they are
old l would not have you bend the
knee before the hillock Of an ancestral
grave as though it We're a shrine, but
l would have you respect and not de-
stroy it and use that hilloci; Of a 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 nj 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
wrong.
Undermining the Foundations.
In the first place, l protest against
the iconoclasm which is undermining
the foundation stones of our ancestral
Sabbath Its desecrators have been
going up and down the length and
breadth of tie land asserting that re-
ligious worship can become as much !
form of dissipation as drink or over
eating or overeXercising can be. They ;
make WIoHS dppllCdtlOH VI OuL
Lords words that the Sabbath was 1
made for man, and not man for the !
They affirm that it is alb
surd for a business man who has been !
at hard work for at least six days Of 1
the week from I o'clock in the morn :
Ing sometimes until 10 or IL or u
o'clock at night to be compelled to get {
up on Sunday in time for an early
Sunday school, then to attend two
long church preaching services, and
then perhaps to attend a Christian En- {
ieavor society besides.
They contend that Sunday should be {
q day Of rest and that what man
needs up0a the Sabbath day is relaxa- s
ion. He should go to bed Saturday
hight after a hot bath with his mind J
perfectly at ease. As he crawls into {
led he should be able to say to him I
elf: ''Now, | can lie here just as long S
IS please If awake at 9 o'clock, all {
light. If can sleep 10 II, better still. t
rhen after | awake l win have a cup |