The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-08-13
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DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.


SHOWS of the far north, leading a
pack of hungry wolves, I asked myself
this other question: why is there not
"A Call of the Good as well as "A Call
of the Bad? Why do we not hear the
innumerable voices which are described
by Ecclesiastes as everywhere around us
calling us to cease associating with human
wolves and destructive wild beasts as
we'll as those that are calling us to let
loose our lower and viler natures?" AS
1 sat In that car, with the Arizona des-
erts slipping away underneath our wheels,
/ said to myself: Yes, there Is "A Call
of the Good. 1t Is even a better theme
for a story than The Call of the Wild
May God help me to teach the glorious
lesson that there are many voices about
us, which are calling us up to his love,
instead of calling us down to Christs
condemnation.
1.-THE Call of the Good" in the first
place, is spoken by the lips of our an
cestors who have been fifty years, sew
enty-hve, a hundred-aye, perhaps $50
years dead 1t comes to us from forgot
ten graves, unmarked by tombstones, or.
If headstones are there, with epitaphs
moss covered or eaten away by time,
the destroying iconoclast. 1t comes to us
not so much from our fathers and our
mothers, but from Observation-Disclosures,
whose names we have never read unless
we have ferreted them out in some gen.
ealogical library when trying to prove our
descent from the pilgrim fathers of the
Mayfower time or when trying to prove
hereditary claim to some valuable prop
erty in Egland or Scotland or Germany
whose late owners, who bore our family
name, died childless and without last will
and testament This ancestral call Of
the good" comes to us in our dispositions.
in our desires, as well as in our physical
makeups and our entailed landed estates.
Family Resemblance.
There is absolutely no doubt in any in
telligent mind that we inherit our physi-
cal qualities from our ancestors. If we
could only have a family album which
goes back generation after generation.
how easy 1t would be for SINE of US to
tell from whence our physique and ap-
pearance came / can see you now turn
ing over the lSges of that imaginary al
bum and looking at the different pic
lures. Yes" you say, brother John GER
tainly looks like my mothers mother, and
my grandmother certainly looks like her
fathers sister. and my great-great-aunt
certainly looks like her grandfather" And
back, generation after generation, you go,
tracing the physical resemblance Of your
self and the other members of your fam
ily Even with the few family pictures
you have you can trace wonderful SINH
larities between your brothers and sis
tiers and cousins and uncles and aunts
and grandparents. Furthermore. outsid-
ers are able to trace these lkenesses as
well as your own biased eyes.
Some time ago the president OF one
of our western colleges was calling at
my house. When my wife entered the
parlor the visitor pointed to an oil por-
trait hanging upon the wall and said:
II know that is one of your husbands
relatives: they look so much alike. Why,
your husband looks far more like that
man than he looks like his own father.
Who is he?" That" answered my wife.
sis Mr.. Talmage's great uncle. Every
one who enters this room Is struck by the
similarity in their looks That is the
picture Of Rev. Samuel X. Talmage Of
Georgia. who was president Of the famous
Oglethorpe university and Mr.. Ta1mage's
grandfather's youngest brother" II l
look like Samuel X. Talmage. who died
before l was born, why could he not
have looked like his grandfather or great
grand father? II 1 inherit my physical
traits from my grandfather and he in
turn from his grandfather. why. IN ths