Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-01-27

list OF all Europe. Walter Damrosch
and Frank Damrosch are treading In
the footstsrs OF their gifted father, DIR.
LeopoiS I.,-nrosch. Because q father
Is gree. A.. ssicai genius that does not
prove that his son or sons may not be-
come as great usical masters as their
sires. Lord Chatham was premier of
England. His son. William Pitt, was
premier also. But though genius in
one line OF work MAJ pass from father
TO son and be inherited, that does not
prove that ali sons are fitted by brain
and temperament to fight the battle I'm
their fathers armor or to achieve with
the same sword victories such as their
fathers won.
Great In Different Field.
The son OF great genius may be as
great a mau as his father. but In a
different sphere. He cannot wear his
fathers armor, but he can wear armor
OF another kind in which he may win
victories I'm different field. Oliver
Wendell Holmes was one OF the most
beloved writers i'm American history.
His son is a great man, but he Is not
great writer. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Jr., is a member OF the highest judicial
bench OF the world. He Is an bonored
associate justice OF the supreme court
of the United States. Judge Joseph
Story had one OF the greatest legal
minds this nation ever produced. In
his class room at Harvard many who
Of far. ri d.-0v1 nj
his feet TO learn OF this modern CANA
liel. Judge Story had son who be.
came one Of the greatest OF Americas
sculptors-William Wetmore Story.
Here we find the laws OF heredity
changed. A great lawyer has a poet
and sculptor for n son. while In oliver
Wendell Holmes case we find q poet
who has a great lawyer for son
What is true In reference to law and
poetry Is also true In reference to the
ministry. Great ministers have had
sons who became great ministers. but
that does not imply that all boys born
In a parsonage should follow the pro-
fessiop OF their fathers. John Mitchell
Mason was the greatest pulpit orator
OF New York city In his day. He died
Dec. 90. 1929. A contemporary gives
this powerful description OF this king
OF pulpiteers who swayed his audiences
for Christ: Taken altogether no
American preacher has combined more
impressive qualities. His aspect was
on a scale Of grandeur corresponding
to the majesty of the mind within.
Tall. robust. with head modelled after
neither Grecian nor Roman standard,
yet symmetrical, combining the dig
| nifty OF the one and the grace Of the
other with an eye that shot FIRE. es-
pecially when under the excitement OF
earnest preaching. yet tender and tear
full when the pathetic chord was touch
ed, with a forehead broad and high and
with n mouth and a chin expressive OF
hrmness and decision, DIR. Mason stood
before you. the prince OF American pull
pit orators" But though John Mitchell
Mason was all that, his father, Rev.
John Mason, was just as great John
Mitchell Mason without doubt Inherited
the pulpit genius Of his father. But
as 1 read history where 1 find one
minister's son who became a great
minister l also find n dozen minister's
sons who won their fame In other
walks OF life than in the ministry. But
the ministerial talent is not necessarily
transmittable talent. Agassiz, Hal
lam, Cowper, Coleridge. Tennyson,
Lowell, Emerson, Matthew Arnold,
Macaulay, Thackeray, Sir Christopher
Wren. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sterne,
HaZlitt. Peter Stuyvesant, Samuel u.
Morse and hundreds of others Of lesser
fame were all ministers sons who won
their success in life outside OF the min
istry.
Holmes Son Not a Poet.
In all probability, had Oliver Wen
dell Holmes tried TO make his son
poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.. would
have made out or life just as great a
failure as have some men who entered
the ministry merely because their IA
theirs We're ministers. There are many
physicians sons who have signs nailed
TO their front doors whom God never
intended to be physicians. These men
entered the medical profession not be-
cause they were adapted to the work,
but because their fathers Were doc
tors. and they expected their fathers
names and influence TO push them to
success. God meant these doctors sons
10 be merchants or soldiers or mechan-
les or sailors. Young man, 1 care not
whose son you may be. ind out what
God intended you TO be. 1t makes but
little difference what your father wants
you TO be. What has God fitted you
To tei DO not be a man made lawyer.
doctor. minister. merchant or mechan.
ic. Be n God made David with his
sling. Do not try to fight the battle OF
life In your fathers armor. Gather
your own ammunition down by the rip-
pling brook OF Gods inspiration.
But the errors with which young men
choose their line or work are no more
reprehensible than the means some of
us use after our professions and career
In life have been selected. We then
show no more common sense In our
choice OF weapons with which we are
to accomplish TINT work than IL the
explorer Robert Edwin Peary should
try to reach the north pole In n sail
boat fashioned after the hull Of the
Santa Maria, the fiagship OF Christie
pher Columbus, or to fight a modern
war with out Of date weapons like
some OF those antiques to be found in
the British museum
1t would be n mistake for minister's
to say: 1--WE will not talk to the people
in a plain common sense way, as Christ
talked to his audience in parable. We
will not draw our Illustrations from the
incidents of daily life and introduce
those fresh Illustrations into our prac-
teal sermons, as Christ did when he
talked about the thieves on the Jericho
road, or about the woman who lost a
part Of her wedding dowry. Bat we
Will gather our materials from past
ages and from the writer's Of old and