Milford chronicle., 1904-03-04
TALNAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE, DID,.
= Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby-
tcriOn Church. Chicago

IN all the relations Of life The text is
John iv, 4, And he must needs 60
through Samaria"
No mans education is complete un.
less he has Travelled. There is a higher
diploma than that of Yale. Harvard,
Princeton, oxford. Cambridge, Heidel-
berg or the University of Paris. The
rough diamond must be cut and pol
ished before it can sparkle and gilt
ter and flash. The scholars ragged
metal edges should be smoothed off by
personal contact with those peoples
whose histories he has been studying
as a recluse and as a deliver in musty
tones.
The word ''Venice" has for the most
Of us a poetic significance. but the
name never has its full charm for any
but those who have loated in a gondola
under the moonlight along the canals
of that queenly city and have listened
to the lover wOOing his mistress in mu-
Bic so soft and sweet that its echoes
blend with the dip of the oars and
gradually melt into silence The most
realistic picture ever photographed is
seen with the naked eye when. with
the mountains underfOOt, we sweep the
horizon and have cities for landmarks
and pyramids for statuary and conti-
nents for gardens where the mighty
rivers off in the distance look like sill
yer threads webbed together and
where the fleecy clouds drifting over
the hills look like great flocks Of white
woolly sheep pasturing upon the heav-
enly hillsides of blue.
No man ever caught the full inspira-
ton of Gray's elcgy unless he has been
able to dream his dreams within tue
little hedged in burying ground of
Stoke Pogis and under the ey-ning /
shadow of the village church spire (
has seen the poets urn" and his sol /
dier's grave" and the last resting place I
of his youth unknown to fame" and /
has heard at sunset the lowing herds [
wandering back for the evening milk
ing. So to fully realize this scene in
" AANL Jul A%JAAl = AAlAGL ' ltN Win Tie
woman took place one must needs go
through Samaria." l remember well
that hill once crowned with the capital
of Samaria at the foot of which still
grow the descendants of those far
famed olive groves, and whose path
ways are still resonant with the per
sOnal histories of an Omri, an Ahab, a
Ahaziah, a Jehu, a Jehoahaz, a Joash.
a HerOd Antipas a Herodias a John !
the Baptist and the evangelist Philip. !
l cannot portray that scene so grand .
and majestic in its lonely beauty. but :
l would have you realize some of the ,
which gave special sig ,
niticance to that mOmentous Journey
of our Lord and present some of the =,
reasons why he must needs 60 ;
through Samaria."
Jesus Journey Through samnria. :
One reason, l think, was that Jesus I
wished to reproye racial antipathy. The 7
colonists were interlopers. :,
They were not Indigenous to the soil. a
after the Shalmaneserian conquest the
AsSyrim king carried away ten out of p,
he twelve Hebrew tribes into captiv- a,
ty Then, the eastern conQueror hay VI
ng depopulated the best part of the n
and flowing with milk and honey" "
e repeopled it with his own followers. | p
n other words, the Assyrian king gave 10
his own followers a right to settle a,
pom and cultivate and own that land. III
lst as King James 1. gave a charter q
William Penn for the American tract W
land now called Pennsylvania and q,
harles l. gave a charter to Lord Bal m
more to take possession of the present in
ate of Maryland, to be settled by him ",
I'd his Catholic friends. After the ba
sws had returned from the BabyIo- To
sh captivity and had rebuilt the Jeru- 5i
lem walls and temple they wanted NO
drive out these foreign colonists co,
ON the garden spot Of Palestine. But Je-
ey could not. Year after year. decade mis-
ter decade and century after century do
Samaritans held on to the region lea
nc directly between JudRa, or north no,
I Galilee, and the Jerusalem capital. cor
ere they dwelt, ready to slay any En
y or collection of Jews who attempt or
TO molest them. There they contin- ola
to dwell. Each year the hatred for
ween the two races grew more bit Jey
and mortal. visi
housh the Samaritan and the Jew
centuries had lived side by side. A
they hated each other only as a mn,
could hate a Roman. a ! +ba'
~ ~ Iouiu L"4N r'''e d Cas'i'iah' urk pre-.
&c could hate Spaniard. These ! COS,
peoples hated each other unto no.
th, yet when Jesus. with the object oe =
setting at rest the invidious com ond
ITS of the Pharisees on his rivalry +bot
Ohm the Baptist, left Judea for his soo
le in Gaiilee he decided to pass IIy,,
ugh Samaria. He did so. though vbi
was fully aware Of the fact that ,,oo(
y man, woman and child in Sa- inno
ia hated the Jew as every Jew sin !
d the Samaritlns. vos
All Alike so the Saviour. Russ
: that Journey Jesus said to all Of s