Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1905-07-15
Caln1ase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. d. ID.

Los Angeles, Cal, July 3.-ih tnlh
sermon the preacher gives wholesome
warning against foolhardy risks and
evil companonships and shows that
real courage does not rashly court dan.
ger. either moral or physical, but rath-
Of avoids 1t. The text is "Ecclesiastes
xii. 8. "They shall be afraid or that
which is high"
What is the Biblical picture OF my
text? Mere physical decadence ana
mental decrepitude? DO we find here,
as n dear friend of mine some time ago
tried to prove to me, simply a balf
blind, deaf, toothless. stiff Jointed,
rheumatic. palsied, helpless old man,
being wheeled around in an invalid
chair or hobblng about on crutch or
grunting and groaning on Ded OF
chronic invalidism? Is he nervous
wreck. a white haired, timorous OLD
patriarch, afraid Of his own SHADOW!
Is he a cowardly person, who, realizing
his own physical infirmities with DIS
eased mind, is conjuring up a lot OF
imaginative dangers II there are no
real dangers at hand? / think not. L
believe that the writer is here plctur-
ing old age, but it is the noble, brave
and self reliant old age which your
father and mine had when they drew
near the end Of their earthly career.
II is not the pitlable old age OF senile
cowardliness. 1t is the farsighted, IN
spirlng old age of caretaking cautious-
ness which generally comes from the
bitter experience Of misfortunes. 10
be cautious is not necessarily TO be
cowardly. TO be reckless Is not nee
essarily TO be brave. The reason some
Young folks are reckless Is because
they do not realize the dangers at
hand. against which as sensible men
and women they should carefully pro-
tect themselves.
Let me illustrate. Yeu call me up on
the telephone; say: Hello! Is that you
VIII you take a drive this afternoon
All right. l will be up with the car
riage in twenty minutes" When you
drive up with the carriage l see that
Won have a beautiful, high stepping,
mettlesome thoroughbred. When L en-
ter the runabout l see you hoid the
reins tight You speak gently ana
soothingly to your horse. BY the tone
Of YOUR voice and by the way you han
die the lines l know you are good
driver. and | feel perfectly safe. But
supposing enter your carriage ana
see you jerk the lines. Then you let
them lie loose; then you halloo at the
horse or cut him with the whip. What
4 do do? Why, simply get out OF tnat
carriage and walk home, not because
am a coward. but because l know that
Won do not know how to drive a mettle'
some horse. | know what that means
I once rode behind a fractions colt,
with lust such an inexperienced driver
as YOU are. and l was nearly killed
I have more respect for my neck and
nv life than to trust them in such
incompetent hands again. When
was a young man l did not care what
kind of a horse rode behind or what
kind Of driver had hold Of the lines
but from bitter experience now l know
about such dangers and give them q
very wide berth Such, l think, Is the
distinction of my text. We see the
old man not cowardly, but cautious
we see him afraid Of that which is higl
because past experience has written
over such places Beware" This Is
danger sign, Beware"