Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-11
DANGERS BESET
DRUMMER PATH
MINISTER TELLS OF MANY
TEMPTATIONS
Rev. Frank Dewitt Talmase, at First
Presbyterian Church, breaches
Eloquent Sermon on Knights
OF the Grip

There was communion service at the
First Presbyterian church Sunday
morning. Some fifty new members
were received. The church was deco
rated with flowers and special music
was sung.
Sunday night. Rev. Frank De witt
Talmage preached to the commercial
travellers. His subject was THE
knights Of the Grip" His text was
Nehemiah, 1920: so the merchants
and sellers of all kinds Of ware lodged
without Jerusalem once or twice."
In the scene of my text" said the
preacher, can be found almost an
exact duplication of the invasion of the
newly settled regions of Oklahoma by
the knights of the grip. No sooner did
Nehemiah, the governor, return from
his Babylonish exile and rebuild the
walls OF Jerusalem and make 1t a safe
place in which to live, than the COM
mercial travellers of that day began to
flock toward the Davidic capitnl to
dispose of their goods. But there was
one habit about many Of these ancient
commercial travellers which Nehemiah
did not like
Locked Outside City Gates
Some of them would persist in ar
irving at the city walls on the Sabbath
day, and trying to turn Gods day of
u.
The governor, in order to stop the sin
of Sabbath desecration ordered that
the city gates should be closed on the
night before the Sabbath. and not to
he opened again until the morning after
The Sabbath, no matter how much these
ancient commercial travellers might
want to get in and escape the dangers
OF being murdered by the robbers who
nightly infested the surrounding hills.
bo ,F
with clear Interpretation, so the
sellers Of all kind of ware lodged with
out jerusalem once or twice
AS we walk in and out among the
sellers of Nehcmiah's time. barred with
out the city walls. and examine their
piled up bales and hear the muttered
curses of the men disappearing be-
cause they could not enter the Jerusa-
lem gates and watch the preparations
they are making to resist the attacks
OF the robbers, | am reminded of the
dangers to which our modern knights
of the grip are cXposel. They, too,
have lurking enemies who would de-
spoil them. and because those enemies
are more trCaCherous. more inSidious
and more ruthless than the Bedouin
hordes who menaCed the ancient COM
mercial travellers of Nehemiah's time.
! am anxious to point them out and
=
Queen Noticed Tendency
"Thc evil dangers threaten a COM
mercial travellers life when he is away
IRON home. They try 10 ambush the
seller OF all kinds of ware when he is
on the march. They strike at his heart
in time aad in u place when he is
apt to think he can sin with impunity
because, 20 one will be the!wiscr, q $ he
can cover up his tracks. They come
TO the knights of the grip in the in
slnuating and dangerous ways that evil
temptations sometimes overthrow
Christian people when they arc travel
ing abroad.
ut is a we'll known fact that the
| average European travellers will COM
init sins in Paris or Vienna or Rome
or Monte Carlo or Peking or Calcutta
that they would never dream of doing
il they We're at home among their own
friends and neighbors.
THE young Dutch queen Wilhelmina
| illustrated this common tendency of
the human race to be worse away
from home than they are by their own
firesides, In the quaint and pointed
answer which she gave to the prince
of Wales, when visiting Queen Victoria
| some years ago. The then heir ap-
parent to the English throne asked
her what she was most impressed by
| III Englanu. 1t Is to find that the
English people are so refined and gen
tie and kind and religiously devout in
their own homes, she replied. One
would never have guessed it from the
specimens l have seen travelling in
| Holland
"An average man can commit a:
a rule twenty sins away from home
when he is travelling alone, in II rail
road train or stopping alone in a hotel
or living alone with strangers, far more
easily with less risk Of injury to his
position and reputation than one sir
when he is being watched by his en-
ployer's eyes or when he is in daily
companionship with a Christian mother
wife or child.
II would plead with each one OF
you to Consecrate yourself to the
divine masters service so that YOU may
overcome the besetting sins of life
away from home. You are not al
heart bad man. You have many
tender ties which ought to bind you
to life of purity and truth"