The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-01-29
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
BY The Rev. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. D G.

magnificent frame His son Jonathan
may have been able to wear 1t. There
is no reason why If a man is fitted by
n;.ure and mental power to follow in
his fathers footsteps he should not enter
the procession his father adorned and
fight in his fathers armor. There are
men who have made a greater success
than their father in the same field.
When We study history we find that men
who were great ministers, lawyers doc
tors, artists, authors and merchants,
have hat sons who became even greater
ministers, lawyers DOCTORS artists, auth
ors and merchants. Hamilcar was
| great Carthaginian general He was the
Parent o. Hannibal who was a greater
general than his noble sire. There were
two great Seipios, father and son.
Which was the greater is impossible to
tell.
Samuel D. Gross and II. L. Pancoast
AMI Lewis A. Sayre were the great Amer
lean surgeons of their times. They all
had sons who became just as great as
tLey were. Lyman Beeehers fame is no
greater than that of his son, Henry
Ward Beeeher. Thomas Moran belongs to
family of artists who are ell masters of
the brush. Charles Wesley, the hymn
ologist, had son who, for years, was the
most eminent organist of all Europe
Walter Damrosch and Frank Damrosch
are treading in the footsteps of their
gifted father. Dr. Leopold Damrosch.
Aecause a father is a great musical gen.
ius that does not prove that his son or
sons may not become as great musical
masters as their sires. Lord Chatham
was premier of England. His son, Will
liam Pitt, was premier also. But, though
genius IN one line of work may pass from
father to son and be inherited that does
no. prove that all sons are fitted by brain
| 49,
their fathers armor or to achieve with
the same sword victories such as their
fathers won
Great in Different Field.
The son of a great genius may be
great man as his father but in a diff
ferent sphere. He cannot wear his IA
Tiers armor, but he can wear armor of
another kind In which he may win VIC
tories in a different field. Oliver Wendell
Holmes was one of the most beloved writ
ers in American history. His son is a
great man, but he is not great writer
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is a member
of the highest judicial bench of the world
He Is an honored associate justice of the
supreme court of the United States. Judge
Joseph Story had one of the greatest legal
minds this nation ever produced. In his
class room at Harvard many who after
ward became great lawyers sat at his feet
IIdmalel.
Story had son who became one of the
greatest of Americas sculptors-William
Wetmore Story. Here we find the laws of
heredity changed A great lawyer has a
poet and sculptor for son, while in
Oliver Wendell Holmes case we find a
poet who has great lawyer for a son.
What is true in reference to law and
poetry is also true in reference to the
ministry. Great ministers have had sons
who became great ministers, but that
does not imply that all boys born In par
sonage should follow the profession of
their fathers. John Mitchell Mason was
the greatest pulpit orator of New York
city in his day. He died December rs,
1929. A contemporary gives this powerful
description of this king of pulpiteers who
swayed his audiences for Christ: Taken
altogether no American preacher has
combined more impressive qualities His
aspect was on a scale OF grandeur cor
responding to the majesty of the mind
within. Tall robust, with head modelled
after neither Grecian nor Roman stand
ard, yet symmetrical combining. the dig
nifty of the one and the grace of the other,
with an eye that shot fire, especially
when under the excitement of earnest
preaching, yet tender and fearful when
the pathetic chord was touched, with a
forehead bread and high and with a
mouth and a chin expressive of firmness
the prince of American pulpit orators"
But, though John Mitchell Mason was all
that, his father, Rev. John Mason, was
just as great. John Mitchell Mason with
out doubt inherited the pulpit genius of
his father. But as | read history where
find one minister's son who became a
great minister l also find dozen min
listers sons who won their fame In other
walks of life than in the ministry. But
the ministerial talent is not necessarily a
transmittabl talent. Agassiz. Hallam,
Cowper. '+ceridge. Tennyson, Lowell,
Emerson, Matthew Arnold. Macaulay,
Thackeray, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir
Joshua Reynolds, Sterne, Hazlitt, Peter
Stuyvesant, Samuel p. Morse and hun
dreds of others of lesser fame were all
ministers sons who won their success IN
life outside of the ministry.
Holmes Son Not a Poet.
In all probability had Oliver Wendell
Holmes tried to make his son a poet,
oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., would have
made out of life just as great failure
as have some men who entered the minis
try merely because their fathers were
ministers. There are many physicians
sons who have signs nailed to their front
doors whom God never intended to be
physicians. These men entered the med
ical profession not because they were
adapted to the work, but because their
fathers were doctors, and they expected
their fathers names and influence to push
them to success. God meant these doc
tors sons to be merchants or soldiers
or mechanics or sailors. Young man,
care not whose son you may be, find out
what God intended you to be. Ii makes
but little difference what your father
wants you to be- What has God fitted
you to be? Do not be a man made law
yer. doctor, minister, merchant or me-
chanic. Be a God made David with his
sling. Do not try to fight the battle of
life in your fathers armor. Gather your
own ammunition down by the ripping
brook of Gods inspiration.
But the errors with which young men
choose their line of work are no more
reprehensible than the means some of us
use after our professions and career in
life have been selected. We then show
No mora cnuarnnu sense in nlIr choice of