Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-05-06
Calnnase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. D. d.

sermon the preacher draws from the
old story powerful lesson on the sins
of modern society and shows the way
of escape from such sins and their con-
sequences. The text is Luke xvii, 80,
Remember Lots wife,"
Truth is truth at all times. But truth
is never more powerfully driven home
to the consciences of men than when
illustrated by parable or symbollzed by
biography or exemplified by anecdote.
Christ always symbolizes truth In a
very simple way. Today he appears to
US. as well as to the Pharisees of old,
and says: MEN. you know the history
of Lots wife. With great opportunity
Of usefulness. yet she became false to
her trust. Do not make the sinful mis-
takes she made. Do not have her doom
your doom. BY yonder pillar Of salt
learn that the wages of sin is always
death. Repent of your sins while there
Is yet time. Repent as John the Bap-
fist exhorted you to repent. Come and
bow at Gods mercy seat, and bow
now" May God teach us one and all
TO linger only long enough in the plains
of SOdom and Gomorrah to learn the
mighty gospel lesson that there is no
safety anywhere for sinful man out
side the protecting and forgiving love
of Jesus Christ.
Like Lots wife, the most of us!
Why? We are freed from the bitter
temptations which. as a pack Of hun
CRY wolves. follow in the wake of
merciless poverty. We have never
known what it is to arise in the morn
ing and have nothing to eat. We have
never known what Ii is to shiver in
cold because we could not afford a
warm garment for our backs. We
never knew what It was to stagger
about great city after the hours of
midnight in a snowstorm because we
did not know where to lay our heads
and then had to apply to the police
station and sleep with lot of filthy,
dirty tramps upon the stone floors.
with our ragged shoes under our heads
for a pillow. We may not have been
able to count our sheep by the thou
sands and our herds Of horses and
cattle by the hundreds, as Lots wife
did. We may not have servants ga
lore and messengers to do our slightest
bidding. But like Lots wife when
she and her husband separated from
the Abrahamic household, we have al
ways had enough food to eat, enough
clothing to wear and a comfortable
place I'm which to slumber. We have
never been i'm a position where hunger
was gnawing at our vitals and where
temptation came snarling and snap
ping at our heels in our desperate
struggle for a physical existence. We
never knew what 1t was to long to
earn our bread by the sweat of our
brow and never be able to crunch a
crumb.
Deserves Pity.
Even murder, the worst of crimes.
has degrees OF turpitude. God pity the
man who is placed in the awful posi-
ton of one who realizes that he has to
slay his brother or die himself. God
pity the starving shipwrecked sailor
who crouches upon the edge OF n raft
in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
watching his companion Mt the other
side of the raft. who is hunger mad
like himself. God pity him as he leaps
forward as tiger might leap upon the
back of a trembling fawn and buries
his teeth In the jugular vein of his
friend and drinks the flowing blood in
fiendish glee as mountain loness
would bury her teeth in the soft fur
you, my friends. God has different
standards OF judgment for sin. 1t
makes a great deal of difference how
he condemns us for sin IL, ON the one
hand. we. like Lots wife. have finan-
cial plenty and II. on the other hand,
we are poor. hungry outcasts. with no
work and no means OF earning any
kind of an honest livelihood. To sin for
pleasure and to sin because you do not
know which way to turn for food are
two entirely different propositions in
Gods economy.
Oh. the temptations that come to
some men on account Of their struggles
for n physical existence! I was never
more impressed with the awfulness of
such temptations than when reading
this tragic story: Some years after the
overthrow of Napoleon a banquet was
being given in London TO the British
officers who had fought under yelling
ton ut Waterloo. During their dinner
the old commander. then the most hon
ored man In England. took out of his
pocket beautifully jeweled snuffbox
which had been presented TO him by
his sovereign. In order that his COM
panions in arms might see it he passed
1t down the table. A short time after
Wellington asked where It was. and no
one could find it, The jeweled snuffbox
had disappeared. OF course all the Off
GERS present felt that there was a thief
among them. Some one proposed that
the doors be locked and every one
searched. Much to the surprise OF the
company. an honored ex-colonel of n
line regiment refused to he searched.
Evidence. Of course. pointed to him as
the guilty man, but on account of old
associations sake Wellington let him go.