The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-21
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.

IS ANGELES. Cal, May l4.-That

the secret Of success and the
- causes of failure, moral and ma
terial lie in the foundations Of character
are shown in this sermon. The text Is
Luke xiv. SO, This man began to build
and was not able to finish
What is the matter with yonder block
of houses?" [ asked one Of my church
officers some time ago when walking
along the Chicago streets. Il came 10
this city at least four years ago. Then
the walls were up. The floors in many
of the houses were laid. The buildings
then seemed almost ready for the plas-
terers Why this vast amount of money
lying idle? 1t must be worth at least
$4,000 year as interest. It would have
been far better to have laid no founda-
tion and erected no walls and allowed
the land to be turned into vegetable
garden than to leave those buildings IN
that state" 81 know it." answred my
friend, but the owner of those buildings
overreached himself. When the buildings
were half completed his money ran out
Then. on account of his debts, all his
properties were thrown by litigation into
the city courts. Now l do not know what
is to be the outcome. Anyway ne cannot
go on unless he gets out Of his present
difficulties. His proptrty must still lie
idle in this incompleted FORM
What Is the purpose of those Two
mammoth sheds ?" l asked naval friend
some years ago while we were walking
through the Brooklyn navy yard. w ny,
said he, those are the sheds erected over
two immense huls of half completed war
II, t..r I1Y.s-f ,,er ho ~
partmont was building as many and as
largs ships as It could, but as soon as the
4 pponiaitox peace agreement was signed
the work was stopped upon these Two
We ssels. The government had at that
time no use for them Now they are
lying there rotting away. Inc Wooa Wlii
be used for nothing but kindling, as the
plans upon which those keels were lald
are already obsolete"
Incomplete beginnings were both the
Chicago houses and the navy yard ships.
We do not have to go clear back TO Biple
times to find illustrations for my text.
We can see them everywhere around US
in our present day and generation.
We have a right to draw new illustra-
tions and up to date applications for this
sermonic theme. Indeed the fresher ana
more modern the applications the better.
The reason why this simile oil my text
made an overwhelming impression upon
neHTtIS WAS lilhl ~ Ne'o 90 ~
jeet lesson near at hand. When CHRIST
was seated in the fishing smack upon the
waters of Lake Galilee and said, Behold,
there went out sower to SOW, ne looked
off upon the hillside overhanglng the lake
and pointed to a farmer scattering MS
seed upon the rich soil OF the east. IN
the same way legend tells that when
Christ spake these words of my text he
pointed to the half constructed walls of
a tower which PLATE. the governor, mad
begun to build, overlooking one OF the
Jerusalem aqueducts, and had left in an
incompleted state. There 1t stood, a pow
erful object lesson, showing that what
one commences in life one should carry
on to its full completion. So today |
would draw my illustrations from every
whittier / would find them in the home.
the store, the factory In the church and
on the street I would find them in your
life as we'll as In mine.
Half Built Towers of Life.
The half built towers of life have a
modern application in the average school
room education. They can be found in
the preparations with which many of us
were sent forth to the struggle of life.
They can especially be found in the smat-
tering of French lessons and painting and
music and aesthetic culture in which some
sisters and daughters are being dipped
for few months year on the princi-
pie that the mere outward color Of the
dye decides whether or no the garment
is closely woven and of good wearing
quality. They are the 'incompleted be-
ginnings' of the schools and colleges
which often send young man or young
woman forth into the world knowing a
little of everything and not any one study
perfectly. They make their students know
little of astronomy, little of chemis-
try, little of Greek little of mathe-
Nf myth Of
architecture. little of mechanics, little
of electricity a little of this, that and
the other thing, and yet not well versed
in any one subject or along any one line
of work. What true education should do
is to teach a man to do at least one thing
as well as ony one else could do 1t and
not to know many things poorly. Jack
of all trades is master of none"
I would illustrate my thought with
reference to a remarkable speech which
Charles Francis Adams delivered some
years ago before the Phi Beta Kappa
society of the Harvard university. The
title of the address was "a College Fet-
ich." In 1t Mr., Adams denounced the alb
surd course of study which many colleges
demand of students in years of work over
Greek and Latin and the classics, utterly
ignoring practical studies for everyday
life. How did Harvard college prepare
me and my ninety-two classmates OF the
year 1890 1OT our WoIh VI llit. ie dShNb-
I'm answering the question 1t is not alto
gether easy to preserve ones gravity The
college fitted us for this active, bustling,
hard biting many tongued world, caring
nothing for authority and little for the
past, but full of its living thoughts and
living issues in dealing with which there
was no man who did not stand in pressing
and constant need<of every possible prep
aration as respects knowledge and ex-
actitude and thoroughness-the poor old
college prepared us to play our parts In
this world by compelling us, directly or
to devote the best part of our
school lives to acquiring a confessedly SUI
perfcfal knowledge of two dead Ian
guages." Such is the testimony of
Charles Francis Adams in reference to
one of the educational fetiches of our
college life. Such, on a broader scale,
are the fetiches in reference to the edu-
cation Of the average young man or wo-
man of today.
Let us take the average young man on
commencement day. College or school
days are over. The foundations of the
educa tional towers have been laid,
young man. what can you do?" asks the
hard headed world. Are you an expert
in any one line? Are you capable min
ing engineer? Are you q first-class adj
vertising agent? Can you sell goods? Are
you an authority as a real estate man?
What can you do?" Nothing" says the
TO Jf.