The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1905-11-30
Caln1age
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talnaee. DID.


TO this progressive age, as well as for
the many spiritual blessings of our day,
the preacher in this sermon gives ex-
preston to the nations thankfulness.
The text is Ecclesiastes vii, 20, ''They
have sought out many inventions"
A new star has arisen in the artistic
armament. Meteorlike a new star has
flashed it's light over the western hori-
zon. A new star has come to lead us
down to the manager of Bethlehem of
Judaea, What General Lew Wallace
has done with the noyelist's pen young
Byam Shaw is doing with the painters
brush. The Indiana author and the
young English artist, the latter born
in Madras and educated in European
studios. have both been bold, strong,
powerful and independent interpreters
of religious themes. Lew Wallace's
-Hur," 1.-THE Prince of India" and
1.-The Boyhood of Christ teach lessons
similar to those of Byam Shaw's ''The
Comforter" "The Outcast" and ''Nei-
Their Hath He Power In the Day Of
Death" With the touch of true mas
tiers the inspired novelist and the in
spired artist both teach that the only
true comforter in times of earthly trou
BILE is that Saviour whom we lovingly
call "Jesus, the Prince of Peace"
But, though Byam Shaw has painted
many pictures, there is one, based upon
the book of Ecclesiastes, which has
specially impressed me. 1t is one IL
Illustrating the theme of my text. The
young artist in his original way seems
to open for us one of the rooms of the
British museum In the foreground of
his picture he places a Londoner,
British aristocrat, dressed in the height
of fashion of the time of Disraeli.
Then he seems to surround this man,
clothed in kid gloves, silk hat and i'm
maculate linen, with the mighty Brit
ish library of over 100000 volumes,
in which are recorded the scientific and
social triumphs Of past ages. AS you
gaze on that picture, In imagination
you seem to hear the whistle of fac
tory, the click of trowel, the signal of
the railroad engine, and the hoarse
voice of the great Cunarder's fog horn
sending her warning call among the
mists Of Newfoundland, and the ring
ing of the telephone bell, and we seem
to see the fash of the electric spark.
Then, under this powerful picture with
its up to date Bible application, the
young English artist has written the
words of my text, 80 this only have
found that God hath made men up
right, but they have sought out many
Inventions Never did these Solomon
ic words burn themselves into my mind
and heart more deeply than when | saw
them in the brilliant colors of Byam
Shaw's strange and yet powerful and
startling picture.
Modern Inventions.
But when studying that picture /
asked myself these questions: DO all
modern inventions truly make men
wretched and miserable, as King Solo
mon implies? Did King Solomon him
self mean that all modern inventions
were bad? OF course the greater OPP
portunities of life, which come through
the revolving wheels of machinery and
the concentration of capital, do nat
uraIly offer greater opportunities for
wicked men to do evil, but are all
great inventions agents of eyil!' mo"
I answered. ''As greater opportunities
of life offer greater evils for wicked
men, so greater opportunities OF ma
chinery and inventions afford greater
opportunities of good for good men"
Thus on this Sabbath preceding our
national Thanksgiving day l will cata-
logue some of the blessings which, in
a good sense, come to good men from
the sewing machine, the railroad, the
factory, the telephone, the typewriter
the printing press and from all the
other inventions that have made the
past century the most remarkable, in
scientific sense, of all the ages.
Most blessed Of inventions, in the
first place, those that deal with health,
among which we class the sewerage
pipes, by which a great city is kept
pure and clean, and the great aque-
ducts through which it is supplied with
life giving water to drink. What Vip-
sanius Agrippa tried to do when he
built the famous aqueduct of Mines,
which brought the water of the Foun-
tain D'Eure, twenty miles away, to the
baths of Diana; what the Emperor
Claud1us did when he carried the water
from thesAlban hills down to the cap
ital of the Caesars, which aqueduct
still bears his name; what King Solo
mon did when he built his three ia
NOUS pools, from which reservoirs he
carried the water by subterranean pas
sages to the city Of Jerusalem; what
Tarquinius Priscus did 600 years be-
fore Christ when he built the famous
canal Cloaca Maxima, the Oldest and
the most famous drainage canal in the
world and which is still used to carry
the refuse out of the city of Rome to
the IiDer, The great engineers on an
enlarged scale are doing for our own
cities. These engineers may not have
the title IN. d." affixed to their names,
but they are the greatest Of all prevent
ers OF disease Truly they have done
their work well.
Underground Works.
If you do not realize how well they
have succeeded, then study under
yrot,nd Nayv York or Chicago OF Phil