The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-19
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
sv THE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALmAoE. Q. e.

Los Angeles. Cal, February 12.-Under the figure of river the preacher shows in this sermon the benefits that accrue to men who serve and obey God The text is Isaiah xviii, IS, Then had thy peace been as a river"
 What art thou doing. o prophet of Israel? Art thou taunting thy people with the blessing they have missed through forsaklng God and disregarding thy teaching When trouble swoops art thou one of those who say: T told you so? If you had only taken my advice you would not be in the difficulty you are in today. If you will make your bed out of thorns and thistles instead of rose leaves, then upon the thorns and thistles you must lie" Are you like an executioner who upbraids and derides the trembling murderer whose life is soon to strangle with the rope? In drawing your enchant- ing picture of peace flowing like river before a people harassed by powerful foreign enemies and disturbed by internal dissensions are you not merely adding to their distress, as the mirage of the desert aggravates the thirst of the dying traveller? Are you saying to your mis- erable people: Look at those beautiful banks watered by the river, rich in flora and tuneful with singing birds. They would have been all yours if you had not wandered into the desert of sin, but now they are lost to you forever"
 "Ah, mo-" says the prophet Isaiah, Tit is not to aggravate their thirst that l l. ...... l.. 4..trt tlArra to return to the way from which they have wandered; not to exult over their misfortunes, but to warn them of the consequences of sin. l am not here glorying in the suffering of Gods fallen ones. My river is not composed of the black waters of the river Styx, but from the flowing crystal waters of the river of life. l am like a loving father, whose wayward son has disregarded warnings and has sinned and brought himself into trouble, and the father sorrows with him and pleads with him to repent and assures him that if he will forsake his sin his wickedness shall be forgiven and his peace shall be like a river as though he had never sinned." May God help us as we use the banks of the Jordan or the Rhine or the Fiber or the upper Thames or the banks or our own poetic Hudson for a sacred pulpit Such a river bank today may become as sacred pulpit as that in the chancel of Westminster abbey or St. Pauls or Canterbury cathedral, even though bishops hand has not consecrated it or ecclesiastical conyocation dedi- cated it.ss a
 What the River Teaches.
 The pleading river, in the first place, teaches us that the divine peace which comes to man must come as the result f..... sr !. t.ff al not the result of haphazard It is not a, miracle as we in the broad sense term miracle It does not come as a miracu- lous wind which might dig up a seed in some Italian garden and in its teeth lit 1t above Alpine crag and carry It over land and sea and without human aid plant 1t as an exotic upon the banks Of the Ohio or the Monongahela river. But the divine peace comes to man as the result of a rational cause. It has rational source, as river has a natural source; 1t has a natural flow, and it has ra- tional outlet, as the Amazon empties itself into the Atlantic or the Ganges finds a resting place in the huge reservoir of the Bengal gulf
 river cannot disobey natural law. A river cannot become a free lance among rivers. A river cannot do anything that specific gravity says thou shalt not do" This fact is demonstrated everywhere. l climb one of the tall pyramids of the Rocky mountains. There upon the high est peak I find what is called watershed. Then as I stand upon this watershed repeat to myself the beautiful words of the poet:
 God sent his messenger, the rain.
 And said unto the mountain brook,
 "Rise up and from thy caverns look