Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1905-08-12
Calnnase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. d. d.

Los Angeles, Cal, Aug 6.-In this
sermon the preacher takes for his
theme the hidden voices that call men
10 evil courses and british indulgence
and those that call US to higher, nobler
and better living. The text is Ecclesi-
astes X, 20, For q bird Of the air shall
carry the voice, and that which hath
wings shall tell the matter"
Ever since my boyhood days, when
John Brown introduced me to 'Rab
and His Friends" animal stories have
had for me complete fascination.
Seton Thompson's Lives Of the Hunt
ed" his wild Animals That + Have
Known" his Biography Of a Grizzly"
and his Trail Of Fanhill Stag" Rud-
yard Kiplings Jungle Tales" Mar
shall Saunders Beautiful Joe" and
Miss Anna Sewell's Black Beauty"
offer the widest range for the imagl-
native writer and the greatest oppor-
tunities for pressing home moral
truths. But, though many books have
been and are being written whose he
roes and heroines are covered with the
shaggy names of the Wild BEASTS or
with the glossy coats of the domestic
animals, by far the most interesting
animal story l have ever read is Jack
London's call of the Wild" Mr.. Lon
don was a very young man when he
wrote his masterpiece, yet that story
has found an almost universal appro-
baton. There are always many voices
calling US down to sin and back TO an
cestral evils.
This sentiment stirred my heart
when l first read the book. l was In
railroad car when The Call Of the
Wild" was placed in my hand. Day
after day we had been travelling across
the western prairles. had finished
all the books in my satchel when a
gentleman crossed the aisle and said;
Here is a little story; read It,"
read II through In a very short time.
But as l traced Jack London's mighty
st. Bernard dog from being pet Of
a &dliAO . hOAht dhAii ~
became a wild beast amid the SHOWS
Of the far north, leading on a pack Of
hungry wolves, 1 asked myself this
other question: "Why Is there not "A
Call Of the Good as we'll as "A Call
Of the Bad? Why do we not hear the
lnnumerable voices which are de-
scribed by Ecclesiastes as everywhere
around us calling us to cease asso-
ciating with human wolves and de-
structive wild beasts as we'll as those
that are calling us to let loose our
lower and viler natures?" AS | sat In
that car, with the Arizona deserts slip
ping away underneath our wheels,
said to myself: YES, there is A Call
of the Good 1t is even better theme
for a story than The Call of the Wild
May God help me to teach the glorious
lesson that there are many voices
about us, which are calling us up to
his love, instead OF calling us down to
Christ's condemnation.
The Call of the Good" in the frst
place. Is spoken by the lips of our an
cestors, who have been fifty years,
seventy-flye, a hundred-aye, perhaps
$50 years dead. 1t comes to us from
forgotten graves, unmarked by tomb
stones, or, II headstones are there,
with epitaphs moss covered or eaten |
away by time, the destroying icono-
clast. 1t comes to us not so much |
from our fathers and our mothers, but |
from great great-grandfathers, whose |
names we have never read unless we |
have ferreted them out In some genoa
logical library when trying to prove |
our descent from the pilgrim fathers |
OF the MayhOwer time or when trying |
to prove hereditary claim to some val
uable property in England or Scotland
or Germany whose late owners, who |
bore our family name, died chlldless |
and without last will and testament.
This ancestral call Of the good"
comes to US In our dispositions, In
our desires, as well as in our physical
makeups and our entailed landed es-
tates.
Eamtly hebem
There is absolutely no doubt in any
intelligent mind that we inherit our
physical qualities from our ancestors.
Ii we could only have family album
which goes back generation after gen.
Grafton, how easy it would be for some
OF US to tell from whence our physique
and appearance came. can see you
now turning over the pages Of that i'm
aginary album and looking at the diff
ferent pictures. "Yes," you say,
brother John certainly looks like my
mother, and my grandmother
certainly looks like her fathers sister,
and my great-great-aunt certainly
looks like her grandfather" And back,
generation after generation, you go,
tracing the physical resemblance Of
and the other members Of
your family. Even with the few fam
lily pictures you have you can trace
wonderful similarlties between your
brothers and sisters and cousins and
uncles and aunts and great-uncles and
great -aunts and grandparents. Fur
thermore, outsiders are able to trace
these likenesses as well as your own
biased eyes.
Some time ago the president OF one
,f our western colleges was calling at
my house. When my wife entered the
Darlor the visitor pointed to an oil por-
trait hanging upon the wall and said:
Il know that is one Of your husbands
relatives; they look so much alike.
Why, your husband looks far more like
that man than he looks like his own
father. Who is hep THAT" answer
ed my wife, "ls Mr.. Talmage's great
uncle. Every one who enters this room
IS struck by the similarity In their
ooks. That Is the picture of Rev.
;ollc and Dlarrhoea-A Remedy that L:
Is Prompt and Pleasant.
The prompt results produced by