Milford chronicle., 1905-04-07
Calnaqe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. D. D.

ress and how these may be overcome
are the theme Of tOday's sermon, the
preacher choosing as his text Mark K
25, Ethan for rich man to enter into
the kingdom Of God"
am thankful that l was so fortu-
nate as to visit Palestine before the
railroad engineers had made their sur
veys and built their bridges and erect
ed their depOts and profaned the sa-
cred hills with the shri0kings Of an
Onrushing locomotive. How can the
Holy Land remain much longer dis
finguished by the habits and customs,
the usages and conventiOnalisms or
Abrahamic and Davldic and SOlomonie
and prophetic and apostolic days when
the iron rails have been run near the
family burying ground OF the Mach
Delah cave, when the freight cars bring
the luggage formerly carried in the
camels' packs and when the drago-
mans strange, weird, thrilling stories
and midnight tales have given place TO
the harsh and metallic voice Of the
conductors who call: Next station is
Bethlehem Change cars for Jericho
and the Dead scar "All aboard for
the Grand Trunk line for Sychar and
Damaseus!' Passengers for Caper-
naum and Magdala take forward cars!
ssTen minutes for refreshments at Jeri-
cho's well!' "All aboard! All aboard!
Almost sacrilegiOus does it seem to
mention a railroad train in connection
with these sacred places. In order to
interpret the literature Of the Bible
Alright YOU must read it by the customs
and the habits and the lives Of the peo-
Dle Of past centuries. You must have
the sandals and the walled in towns
and the robbers upon the hillsides and
the shepherds and the wild beasts. You
must have just such Holy Land as
visited a few years ago and the Holy
Land which 1 hope you may yet be able
to visit before the railroad tracks nave
p honeycOmbed the sacred hills, as they
are now running up and down the
length and breadth Of our own land.
But if you are to see the Holy Land
as 1 saw 1t you must hasten there.
Even now there are railroad trains
running from Joppa to Jerusalem and
from Damascus to Beirut. Soon all
those eastern cities will have their diff
ferent depots and their rival railroad
lines.
We would not use today the railroad
depOt for a pulpit. By the ancient cam
els pack, and not by the modern
freight car, would interpret the words
of my text. see in the evening hour
two merchants coming over the west
ern hills toward Jerusalem. They are
pounding and prOdding and driving
their camels along as fast as they can
make them travel. But the camels are
very heavily laden. The road is steep
The pace is slow. l hear one OF the
drivers turn to the other and say,
''Isaac. 1 doubt If we will get to the
city walls before the gate is shut"
@'Too bad" says the other man. THAT
means we are going to have an awful
struggle making the old camels go
through the needles eye" "Yes," an
swered the first speaker, 'but we must
do it, or else the robbers will steal
from us all we have. There, see, the
gates are shut. We will have a hard
Job ahead Of us"
A Cry to the Watehman.
The two men approach the city wall
with its shut gates. 'Ho, Waterman,
hor they cry. "Open unto us; open
unto u.s." NAY, nay" says the watch
man; that is against the law. But 1
will open for you the needles eye if
YOU wish" "All right" answer the
merchantmen; 1--WE will come in by the
needles eye"
With that the watchman descends
from his lookout tower, and within the
gate he opens a door. This heavy door
is cut into the gate as a panel can be
cut out Of a door It is called the
nee les eye. In the meantime the
can:els are unlOaded Then the own
ers command the big stupid brutes to
lineel, and by coaxings and beatings
aud growlings and cursings the cam
els on their knees are compelled to
DRAG themselves through this small
doos Au the baggage which was pack
ed upon the camels' backs is carried
within the city walks in the arms Of the
merchantmen. Then the door, or the
needles eye, is shut, and the great CITY,
fearless Of outside foes, sleeps on. All,
1t was no easy matter to make a camel
s. through the needles eye. 1t is no
esq maaae.. for a rich man to enter
fnso the kingdom Of God. Christ says
it. In the one case as in the other the
difficulty is almost insurmOuntable.
Why2 Why is it 'easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom Of
God?
The rich man, in the first place, is
loath to bend the knee and come to
Christ as a suppllant pauper. He dis
likes to surrender his gold and silver
nnd railroad bonds and warehouses
sad a big bank account and to unload
al at the mercy seat. He hates to
say, lord. all that am and all that
/ have is thine" And yet that is just
the way the rich man must come. He
must come exactly in the same way
and with the same spirit which Christ