Connecticut western news., 1905-11-30
Cetrnase Sermon
 By Rev. Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. D.

to this progressive age, as well as for the many spiritual blessings of our day, the preacher In this sermon gives ex- pression to the nations thankfulness. The text Is Ecclesiastes vii, 29, "They have sought out many inventions"
 A new star has arisen in the artistic Armament. Meteorlike a new star has dashed Its light over the western hori- zon. A new star has come to lead us down to the manager of Bethlehem of Judaea. What General Lew Wallace has done with the novelist's pen young Byam Shaw Is doing with the painters brush. The Indiana author and the young English artist, the latter born in Madras and educated In European studios, have both been bold, strong, powerful and independent interpreters of religious themes. Lew Wallace's "Ben-Hur," '"The Prince of India" and ''The Boyhood of Christ" teach lessons similar to those of Byam Shaw's ''The Comforter" "The Outcast" and "Nei- ther Hath He Power In the Day of Death" With the touch of true mas ters the inspired novelist and the in- spired artist both teach that the only true comforter in times of earthly trou- ble is that Saviour whom we lovingly call Jesus, the Prince of Peace"
 But, though Byam Shaw has painted many pictures, there is one, based upon the book of Ecclesiastes, which has specially impressed me. It Is one H. lustrating the theme of my text. The young artist In bis original way seems to open for us one of the rooms of the British museum. In the foreground of his picture he places Londoner, a British aristocrat, dressed in the height of fashion of the time of Disraeli. Then he seems to surround this man, clothed in kid gloves, silk hat and i'm maculate linen, with the mighty Brit ish library of over 100000 volumes, in which are recorded the scientific and social triumphs of past ages. As you gaze on that picture, in imagination you seem to hear the whistle of fac tory, the click of trowel, the signal of the railroad engine, and the hoarse voice of the great Cunarder's fog horn sending her warning call among the mists of Newfoundland, and the ring Ing of the telephone bell, and we seem to see the flash of the electric spark. Then, under this powerful picture with it's up to date Bible application, the young English artist has written the words of my text, ''So this only have found that God hath made men up- right, but they have sought out many inventions" Never did these Solomon ic words burn themselves into my mind and heart more deeply than when saw them in the brilliant colors of Byam Shaw's strange and yet powerful and startling picture.
 Modern Inventions.
 But when studying that picture asked myself these questions: Do all modern inventions truly make men wretched and miserable, as King Solo, mon implies? Did King Solomon him. self mean that all modern inventions were bad? Of course the greater op- portunities of life, which come through the revolving wheels of machinery and the concentration of capital, do nat urally offer greater opportunities for wicked men to do evil, but are all great inventions agents of evilr' ''No," I answered. As greater opportunities of life offer greater evils for wicked men, so greater opportunities of ma chinery and inventions afford greater opportunities of good for good men" Thus on this Sabbath preceding our national Thanksgiving day 1 will cata- logue some of the blessings which, in good sense, come to good men from the sewing machine, the railroad, the factory, the telephone, the typewriter, the printing press and from all the other inventions that have made the past century the most remarkable, in scientific sense, of all the ages.
 Most blessed of inventions, in the first place, those that deal with health, among which we class the sewerage pipes, by which a great city Is kept pure and clean, and the great aque- ducts through which it Is supplied with life giving water to drink. What Vip- sanius Agrippa tried to do when he built the famous aqueduct Of Mines, which brought the water of the Foun- tain D'Eure, twenty miles away, to the baths of Diana; what the Emperor Claudlus did when he carried the water from the Alban hills down to the cap ital of the Caesars, which aqueduct still bears his name; what King Solo mon did when he built his three fa- nous pools. from which reservoirs he carried the water by subterranean pas sages to the city of Jerusalem; what Tarquinius Priscus did 600 years be- fore Christ when he built the famous canal Cloaca Maxima, the oldest and the most famous drainage canal in the world and which Is still used to carry the refuse out of the city of Rome to the Fiber, the great engineers on an enlarged scale are doing for our own cities. These engineers may not have the title M. D." affixed to their names, but they are the greatest of all prevent CTS of disease. Truly they have done their work well.
 Underground Works.
 If you do not realize how we'll they have succeeded, then study under ground New York or Chicago or Phil adelphia or St. Louis or Boston. Mar velous, staggering, wonderful and al- most inconceivable are the sights you there can witness. Some years ago 1t was my privilege to see underground New York being excavated for the great subway railroad. I have seen the noted Chicago drainage canal, built at the expense of many millions of dollars. My favorite walk when student upon the banks of the Hudson was over the noted Croton aqueduct, through which the water was brought from over thirty miles away to quench the thirst of the 100000 inhabitants of the metropolis. But, after all, the excavations for the New York un- derground railroad impressed me more than all the engineering feats I ever saw. AS 1 looked down into those big subways I always felt as though I were in an operating room and seeing the surgeons knife cutting its way. Those excavations were to me a vast