Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-03-27
Calnase
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, ID. ID.

most every home throughout the land
the topic chosen by the preacher in
this sermon is a more or less familiar
one. The text is Proverbs X, !, "A fool
ish son is the heavlness Of his mother"
Death is an enemy. The Bible dis
tinctly declares IT. I remember some
years ago, when visiting one Of the
New Zealand cities. this thought was
impressed upon me as never before. A
young man, a musical genius, had late
ly come from London and captured that
whole city by his organ playing He
was 10 play that Sunday in the church
where we were worshiping. The night
before, coming home from practicing
upon the keys, he sat down to eat din
ner with his wife and two children.
Suddenly be began to gasp. \ fish
bone had caught In his throat. In q
few minutes he was dead The whole
city was shocked at the awful trag-
edy. The church was draped in black.
The organ was covered with Grape.
Among the sobs of the dead mans
@A%~ANS ANo HNSNSA d tulORY
upon this young mans life from / CO.
rinthians XIV, %, "The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death" AS the
preacher uttered those solemn words
they sank into his hearers consciences,
an automatic truth.
Oh, yes, death Is an enemy. Death
at times seems to be q cruel and q
merciless enemy. 1t breaks asunder
the marital bands. 1t lifts the little
baby out Of the crib and shuts her for
ever from our eyes by the closing of
the coffin lid. 1t strikes down the strong
man who Is proclaiming Gods word in
the pulpit. 1t empties the office of the
physician who is bending over the pa
tlent. 1t sometimes sends the pleading
lawyer to the grave even before the
murderer whom he has defended expi-
ates his crime upon the gallows.
A Living Sorrow.
But when listening to that sermon in
the faroff country of New Zealand l
solilOquized thus: That widow is to-
day having her heart crushed by the
hearse's wheels even as the Indian
juggernaut used to mangle the bodies
Of the Hindoo devotees. But a living
sorrow can be more formidable and a
more awful enemy than a sorrow of
the grave. The fiendish acts of a disso-
Lutte, a debauched a drunken. a cruel
or an uIffaithful husband can weigh
more heavily upon the wife's heart
than the corpse of Il dead husband.
And Hly the same reasoning the evil
deefs of an undutiful or unfaithful
sOffall upon the parental heart with
more crushing weight than the sod
that falls upon the coffin lid of dead
child Thus today. from a parental
standpoint, l would preach upon the
agonizing sufferings Of a father and a
Mother when their children go astray
md do wrong. 1 include here the ia
Tiers sufferings, as well as the moth
er's. The full wording Of the verse of |
my text embraces both parents. "A |
wise son maketh glad father" That |
sentence sihterpreted from the negative |
standpoint, means, "A bad boy maketh |
a Sad 8ther, and foolish son Is the |
ha SIS of his-hother''
Why sad? Why heavy? First be- |
cause the true father and mother can
never separate their joys and sorrows
from the joys and sorrows of their
child. Though n man may live after
his right arm has been amputated, the
hand and the arm cease to live as soon
as the. surgeons knife has cut the ar
teries and the bones which unite them
to the shoulder But here nature
no RI no Of
Though q child may live independent
OF his parent. Il true parent can never
live Independent of his children. From
the parental standpoint the parental
life and the child life are not only
bone of one bone and flesh of one
flesh, but their eXistences are truly
grated upon each other.
Law of Love Is Unequal.
Frodesiies standpoint of a child you
may not believe this. You ask: Is not
the love between parent and child a
mutual love? Why, then. should not
its senaratspn affect the one equally
with the other? Oh, no! The law of
love is unequal The one who makes
sacrifices has a stronger affection than
the one for whom the sacrifices are
made. I go into the sculptor's studio,
and say: "Thorwaldsen, why art
thou bending so lovingly over yonder 4
piece Of cold marble2 Has the stone
hearth" "Oh, no. answers the Dan
ish sculptor. Il do not love this stone
because It has heart l love it be-
cause have put my heart into it in
my effort to bring out the beautiful
figures which there 1 see slumbering
or reckoning TO me from the cold
stone" Why does the artist love his
canvas and the composer his oratorio:
Because their life'S work has gone into
the creations Of those masterpieces Of
art or r music. Why did Christopher
Wren's life seem to be anchored To st
Paurs cathedral and Isaac Newton's
life to his laboratory? Because in
these places those men spent most OF
their earthly existence in order TO