The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-10-09
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
sx THE REV. FRANK De WITT TALMAeE. o. o.

Los Angeles. Cal, October AT this
time, when renewed attempts are being
made by the enemies of religion TO under
mine the old established foundation of
talth and to revolutionize the Christian
sabbath this sermon makes a vivid con-
trast of 'the old time religion and the
new The text is Psalm xi. 3, IF the
foundations be destroyed. what can the
righteous do?"
Emasculating, depressing and benumb-
Ing is the maxim propagated by some
lazy, nonprogressive people as the rule of
thought and life; that what was good
enough for our fathers should be good
enough for u.s." 1 would yield to no man
in my reverence 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 epitaphs
to 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 IL a son does not respect the men,
DRY 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 flow of the
waters of knowledge" and change the
river of progress" into the "stagnant
pool of ignorance and sloth." When the
past generations did their work they did
| OR ba
which they lived, but the dead genera
lions would not do as they did in the
past II 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
Justin Martyr, a Calvin, a Wesley, a
Luther, Knox, or bivouac with eternal
somnolence in the chambers of West
minister abbey, where the honored eccle-
siastical fathers gathered July l, 1913, and
composed the Presbyterian Confession of
Faith and our Longer and Shorter Cate
chisms.
But though we would not consider our
ancestors infallible In their opinions 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 to give
lightning expresses were only canal
boats and stagecoaches and sailing boats.
In which most of us would be afraid to
cross Long Island sound. let alone the
Atlantic ocean, that is no reason that they
did not know how to develop Christian
men and women as successfully as do we.
| Though our ancestors for the most part
had no books save that of Bible, a
Pilgrims Progress or a Doddridges
''Rise and Progress of Religion In the
Soul" that Is no proof that they did not
know much of God and hold the truth
In Its purity as thoroughly as do we
who have access to such vast modern
libraries, and yet today we find a spirit
of DISCRIMINATING iconoclasm' abroad.
Mans profane hands are digging up the
old foundations and destroying the old
affairs and ridiculing the old ways mere
ly because they are old. would not have
you bend the knee before the hillock of
an ancestral grave as though 1t were
shrine but I would have you respect and
not destroy 1t and use that hillock of a
grave as the stepping stone to a higher
throne. The living may in some things
be right where their Christian ancestors
were wrong, yet we have only to look
around at the modern innovations and
observe the effect they have on the COM
munity to be convinced that In some
things our Christian ancestors were right
and the modern innovators deplorably
wrong.
Unde trimming the Foundations.
In the first place l protest against the
the iconoclasm which is undermining the
foundation stones of our ancestral Sab
bath. Its decorators have been going up
and down the length and breadth of the
land asserting that religious worship can
become as much form of dissipation as
drink or over-eating or over-exercising
can be. They make a wrong application
of our Lords words that the Sabbath
was made for man. and not man for the
Sabbath They affirm that 1t is alb
surd for a business man who has been
at hard work for at least six days of
the week from O'clock in the morning
sometimes until 10 or IL or u O'clock at
night to be compelled to get up on Sun
day in time for an early Sunday school,
then to attend two long church preaching
services. and then perhaps to attend a
Christian Endeavor society besides.
They contend that Sunday should be a
day of rest and that what a man needs
upon the Sabbath day is relaxation. He
should go to bed Saturday night after a
hot bath with his mind perfectly at
ease AS he crawls into bed he should be
able to say to himself: Now, I can lie
here just as long as I please. If l awake
at O'CLOCK, all right. III / can sleep to
~. better still. Then after 1 awake l will
have a cup of coffee and a roll brought to
my bedside, and I will eat a. little and
then stay in bed for another hour, read
ing the newspaper. Then after dinner
will take my children out to one of the
public parks or down by the seaside and
get sun bath and a view of Gods trees
and valleys and hillsides. or I 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 scup-
tors masterpieces on any other day.
Therefore the city art galleries should
be opened on Sunday. Then in the even
ing hour 1 will go to church II I feel
like 1t. If do not desire to do so I will
go to bed again and rest. rest-yes, just
rest. BY such system of rest / shall be
invigorated and shall return to my work
the next Monday strong In body clear
In mind. more loving to my family. the
human race at large. and to God himself.
That" says our iconoclast rs my idea
of the Sabbath day. / do not think a
hard working man has right to make
his Sunday day of hard work in church.
going so that he works harder on the
Sababth than he does on any other day
of the week"
Old Fashioned Sunday.
Sabbath iconoclasts, is that the way
YOU would have man spend his Sabbaths?
Well. already your modern teaching in
reference to the Sabbath too we'll has
lion root Your PREMISES are wrong for