Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-10-30
Caln1ase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, ID. d.

Los ADseies, Cdlt Ocl. -J.-IDdL our
lives here are a process of develop
ment and that the divine care and pro-
lection surround all who trust in God
Is the theme of the preacher in this SER
mon. The text is Psalm xl, II, 1.-THE
Lord thinketh upon me-"
Spiritualistic mediums perpetrate
many frauds. But the greatest of their
absurdities is not found in the rappings
and groanings by which they apparent
~ summon the dead to their dark pan
eled rooms and compel them to speak
to their insane victims. 1t is found in
the ridiculous photography in which
the dupes of spiritualistic mediums
have their pictures taken, surrounded,
as they are led to believe, by the spirit
faces of their loved ones who are near
to yet not of this earth. Have you
ever seen any of these fictitious pic
lures? Within few blocks of my old
eastern home was a little stationery
store which had its show windows fill
ed with them. Raphael painted his
"Sistine Madonna" surrounded by
clouds of angel faces. Those de-
ceitful photographs that 1 saw in that
window showed believers In spiritual
ism surrounded by the faces of their
departed kindred and dear ones and
friends. There they were in those pic
lures, the living with the dead, side by
side Could any fraud be more bold,
more cruel and more corrupt than that
which declares that such pictures are
genuine? And yet as 1 would stop and
study these pictures on my way home
during the winter afternoons I often
said to myself, Absurd those pictures
are in reality, but how true they are
fguratively" A man Is never a true
man unless he always has many faces
about him. You may think he is alone,
but he Ia not alone. These faces, these
many unseen faces, hover over him in
benediction. They smile at him when
he smiles. They go with him to places
Of evil resort and rebuke him while he
Is there. They Joke with him. They
plead with him. They pray with him.
They come and sit by his bed when he
Is about to fall asleep. They greet him
the moment when he awakens In the
morning. Some Of these faces are old.
Some are young. Some are just bud
ding into young womanhood. Some
are middle aged. But these faces are
always about US. They are about you.
They are about me.
They are about us when we are at
home; they are about US when we are
away from home. We may be travel
ing in a railroad train thousand miles
away from our own firesides 1t is
the evening hour. We are tired of
reading the book We throw it down
and rest our heads upon our hands
and look out of the window and begin
to see many faces. YES" we say to
ourselves, this is the evening hour.
Our wives are putting the babies to
bed" People may say we are alone in
railroad train, but we are not. We
are home. 1 tell you we are home.
We feel the baby boy climb up into
our lap and beg us to tell him a story
we see our little girls sitting by the
table studying their lessons. After the
prayers have been said and the bed
room lights turned out and the last
Journey to the crib has been taken,
with its drinking water and the good
night kiss, we see our wife go and
get the darning bag filed with lot Of
the children's stockings. She sits down
by our side. Then she looks up with q
sweet smile and says, my dear, let US
have a good talk" AS we talk she
sews the big holes the boys have made
In their stockings when they slid down
the cellar door, which Is their favorite
toboggan. There she sits in the rail-
road train conversing. While we are
thinking Of our absent dear ones, by
the telepathy Of love we know they are
thinking Of us. They are constantly
by our side. It Is because they are
ever present with us in thought that
we try to be just as good and pure and
true as If we could kiss their lips and
talk to them in the flesh as we'll as in
the spirit.
But are the faces of a father, moth
er, wife, a child, the only ones that
are ever present with us, because they
are always thinking of US as we are OF
them? Oh, no. David, the sweet singer
of Israel, says there is another face
which we must place over and above
the human faces lowering about us
That is the face of God. He is think
ing about US. He is planning for US
He is pleading with u.s. l want to i'm
press on your minds the fact that the
Lords face is ever present with US
and that he is continually thinking
about us.
The Fathers Care.
God plans for US as a developing
TREND He is like a true parent who
has child given into his care by the
birth angel The true father does no
look into the face of a child and say
~ Now have child / will shield
him. l will always keep him by m,
side as helpless child" Oh, no. Tha
is not the true fathers way. No soon
er is the little child born into the HON
than at once the parent begins to plal
ahead for that child. He plans 70