Milford chronicle., 1905-05-19
CalnnaQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaae, DID.


failure, moral and material, lie in th
foundations of character is shown /
this sermon. The text is Luke xiv, 81
This man began to build and was nc
able to finish"
ahat is the matter with yOnde
block Of houses" l asked one of m,
church officers some time ago whel
walking along the Chicago streets. %
came to this city at least four year.
ago. Then the walls were up The
floors in many Of the houses were laid
The buildings then seemed almost
ready for the plasterers. Why this
vast amount Of money lying idle? 1t
must be worth at least $4,000 a year
as interest. 1t would have been far
better to have laid no foundation and
erected no walls and allowed the land
to be turned into a vegetable garden
than to leave those buildings in that
state" Il know it," answered my
friend, 'but the owner Of those build
ings Oyerreached himself. When the
buildings were half completed his mon
ey 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 out
come. Anyway. he cannot go on unless
he gets out Of his present difficulties.
His property must still lie idle in this
incompleted form"
What is the purpose of those two
mammoth sheds?" l asked a naval |
friend some years ago while we were |
walking through the Brooklyn navy |
yard. Why" said he, chose are the
sheds erected over two immense hulls
of half completed warships. During
the civil war the navy department was
building as many and as large ships
as it could. but as soon as the Apo
mattox peace agreement was signed
the work was stopped upon these two
vessels. The government had at that
time no use for them. Now they are
lying there. rOtting away The wood
viii be used for nothing but kindllng,
as the plans upon which those keels
were laid are already obsolete"
incomplete beginnings" were both
the Chicago houses and the navy yard ,
ships We do not have to 90 clear
back to Bible times to find illustrations :
for my text. We can see them every !
where around US in our present day =
and generation.
We have a right to draw new Illus h
-rations and up to date applications T
.or this sermonic theme Indeed the @
resher and more modern the applica- h
ions the better. The reason why this n
lmile of my text made an overwhelm- o
ng impression upon Christ's hearers /,
vas that it was an object lesson near v
t hand. When Christ was seated in "
he fishing smack upon the waters of X
AXE Galilee and said, Behold. there m
7ent out sOwer to SOW" he looked q,
Il upon the hillsides overhanging the m
Ike and pointed to a farmer scatter 8,
lg his seed upon the rich soil Of the 81
asst. In the same way legend tells lis
lat when Christ spake these words Of hi
" text he pointed to the half con- or
-ructed walls of a tower which PLATE. ad
le governor, had begun to build, over te
oking one Of the Jerusalem adue- TO
lcts, and had left in an incompleted We
ate. There it stood, a powerful OBJ lai
ct lesson, showing that what one nj,
in life one should carry on We
its full completion. So today 1 wi
ould draw my Illustrations from wo
cry whittier. / would find them in die
home, the store, the factory in the kir
urch and on the street. l would find
EN- in your life as well as in mine L
Half Built Towers of Life. vol
The half built towers of life have a tod
'dern application in the average mil
lOolrOOm education. They can be anG
md in the preparations with which the
ny Of us were sent forth to the be
uggle of life. They can especially We
found in the smattering Of French one
sons and painting and music and SIC
thetic culture in which some sisters san
daughters are being dipped for a to I
months a year on the principle In
t the mere outward color of the dye No,
ides whether or no the garment is havl
ely woven and of good wearing Ond,
lily. They are the "incompleted be- in '
lings" Of the schools and colleges to Il
ch often send a young man or no g
ng woman forth into the world not
wing little OF everything and not Their
one study perfectly. They make of /
students know little of astrono- prop
a little Of chemistry, a little Of prof
*, little Of mathematics, little has
Mythology, a little of architecture. a year
of mechanics, a little of electric you
a little Of this. that and the other ent
3 and yet not well versed in any could
subject or along any one line Of aonly
(. What true education should do work
teach a man to do at least one five !
, as well as any one else could do Of m'
4 not to know many things poorly. get o
K of all trades is master of none" / can
'ould illustrate my thought with How
ence to a remarkable speech which your
les Francis Adams delivered some your
ago before the Phi Beta Kappa into
y Of the Harvard university. The along
Of this address was "A College left t
b." In it Mr.. Adams denounced estate
'surd course Of study which many matte
es demand Of students in years of none.
over Greek and Latin and the got OF