The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-11-20
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
BY THE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. 0. D.

Los Angeles. Cal, November ITO
that class of nominal Christians who are
hearers. but not doors, and who pin their
faith upon their religious ancestry or
their favorite environment instead Of
getting right with Cod personally, this
sermon will come as an arising call. The
text is Matthew XIV, 8. Give us of your
oil. for our lamps are gone out"
All men may be broadly divided into
two classes. There are some on the
border line, belonging not altogether to
the class OF the other, having character
| istics of each, but the great mass may be
separated into two groups-workers and
the idlers-the one class includes the toll
ers the pullers the diggers, the grinders
the climbers They are striving to sue
coed in a noble honest way. They do not
mean to be social pharastes. They want
share of the good things of life, but
! they do not expect to receive them as
gift but to pay for them by honest work.
They hope for promotion, and they strive
to merit it by seeking to make themselv-
es worthy of it. They study and toll to
develop themselves. so that when the OPP
portunity comes they win be ready to
take advantage of it. Though they may
be in obscure positions they do their
work we'll, and when the call comes to
go higher they are prepared by long
years of hard work to perform the duties
of the higher position
"Why do you study so hard?' a Yale
elassmate asked one day of John c.
Calhoun. the South Carolina student,
who was his roommate You are now
the leading student In the college. No
man can successfully compete with you
in any student" ooh" answered the
young man. 81 am not working for lead
ership in a college town. l am working
to be a leader in the nation" "What,
| Calhoun-do you expect to be a great
statesman in Washington" IF l did
not expect to go to congress within six
years. answered Calhoun Il would pack
up my boks at once and leave Yale to-
morrow. / feel SO sure of going to con-
gress that | begrudge every wasted min
ute. must prepare myself by unceasng
labor to meet the nations leaders in the
arena of debate" John c. Calhoun want
ed to win success. He did more than
that He wanted to prepare himself by
hard work for the time when that sue
cess should come, as come it did and as
1t nearly always will come to those who
are conscientious in preparatory work.
No Short Road to Success.
The second class is comprised of men
who want to win success by a minimum
of labor. They hate drudgery; they hope
to succeed by some lucky scheme These
are the men who, going on a foreign tour
expect to learn French or German in five
weeks; they hope to Smarry rich wife
and have an easy time living ON the saw
| ings of their wife's father; they prepare
to conduct the bushes of their fathers
not by beginning as he did. at the lowest
rung of the ladder, but by taking six
months course in a business college or
by becoming the their fathers nominal
private secretaries. During their easy
apprenticeship they would spend three
days out of every week playing golf and
at least five nights out of seven in ball
rooms, at theatre party or in club dis
sipations. The little time they play at
business is when they are not working at
play. These people represent failure. For
as an old writer once said, people who
lever do any more work than they get
paid for. never get paid for any more
work than they do" These people al
ways want to succeed with minimum of
work.
Yes, the two kinds of people on earth
mean
Are the people who lift and the people
who lean.
Wherever you go you will find the
worlds masses
Are always divided in Just these two
classes.
And, oddly enough, you will find. too,
ween.
There is only one litter to twenty who
Drones there are in the busy bee-hives
of temporal life. Drones there are in the
busy bee-hives of spiritual life. we know
them we'll They have existed in every
age-men who hope to enter heaven, but
a.
to resist temptation, nor to strive to
enter through the straight gate 1t was
to warn the people of the fatility Of
such lives that Christ spoke the parable
Of the ten virgins. Five of them he said
were foolish, self iEdulgent and needless
Of the obligations of the spiritual life.
he is not here denouncing criminals or
vicious people. These virgins we're NOM
inally Christians, not the murderers and
robbers who infested the lonely roads Of
Palestine, ready to waylay the traveller;
not the openly immoral, like the Magda-
lene or the woman of Samaria, but the
people who as an old commentator has
said, make a profession of the gospel
and act In such manner as to give real
Christians a favorable impression of
them and so gain admittance into their
midst" He is abiding to Christians in
name only, who outwardly appear all
right and yet have not the rue inward
NpnEecTallOn Ol nedTL anu WHO expect,
therefore, to go to heaven upon borrow
ed spiritual capital
Spiritual Mendicants.
These spiritual medicants of my text
are, In the first place, the men and wom-
en- Indifferent to the commandments of
Jesus Christ who expect to ultimately
reach heaven on account of the conse-
Grafton of Christian ancestry. They are
not bad men as the world looks upon
bad men. They have been rocked in
Christian cradles. They have been reared
in Christian nurseries and Christian Sun
day schools. During their boyhood days
they have knelt at Christian affairs and
sat in Christian pews. But as far as
their own lives have been concerned they
never openly confessed Jesus Christ
as their Savior. They have never done
anything to show their devotion to God
as consecrated disciples of Christ And
yet If you should ask these men today IL
they expected to reach heaven they
would instantly answer: "Of course. Of
course, of course! The home of my youth
was a Christian home. l am a child Of
the covenant. My father was. good
Christian man. My mother prayed over
me from the time I was born until she
died. Why should l not go where they
are?"
Oh, yes my friend you would certainly
go TO heaven upon the borrowed capital
Of your fathers and mothers lifelong
| conservation If they had any power to
| +ol,a 1ro,, thara Ruf tho dffdcuIfv that