Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-11-20
Calnase
sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talrnaee, d. d.

ual ana the humble there are words of
cheer and congratulation in this SER
mon, as well as encourage i'm we'll
doing. The text is Romans xvi, 8, "Sa-
lutte Urbane, our helper in Christ, and
Stachys, my beloved"
Have you ever wandered over any Of
the great battlefields of the world?
Have you ever had a guide lead you
over the blood soaked soil of Gettys-
burg? Then you have been struck with
the fact that no one squad, no one COM
pany, no one regiment, no one brigade,
no one division alone fought that bat
tie. The success of General George G..
Meade or of Robert Z. Lee depended
not more upon the generals being
faithful than upon all the colonies and
majors and captains and sergeants and
corporals and private soldiers being
faithful and working together and in
unison. The difference between a con-
quering army and a mob is the differ
ence between men working together in
an intelligent way to achieve a desired
purpose and a conglomerate collection
of individuals, each claiming that his
own will is the equal if not the supe-
rior, Of all the other wills and intelli-
gences about him.
What is true of the army is absolute
ly true in reference to business. How
is the. Panama canal to be dug? By
the United States commissioners APP
pointed by the president? By the chief
engineer? By the contractors? oh, no.
As in the MERCANTILE establishment, the
buyers, thes advertising agents, the
foorwalkerSs the statesmen, the delivery
wagons, al work together in unison
and each as cooperative agent helps
the others so in the Panama canal all
the diffefent departments are working
together Each man is helped by some
other nan, and each man tries to help
the other men. Now, what is true in
the atmy and in the business and in
the eontract0rs world is equally true
in regard to church work. Here we do
no8hnd the minister himself doing all
tue work. Paul himself could not do
81 He had his helpers, his associates,
&is workers. He himself tells us that
Erbane and Stachys were his associ-
ates in Gods work. Neither can the
church members make a successful
church unless there is cooperation in
the pulpit Thus the purpose of my
sermon today is to show you who are
the minister's best friends; who are the
men and the women upon whom he
should most wisely lean and whose adj
vice he should be most anxious to fol-
+. low | speak thus not only to help the
pew, but also to answer letters which
have come to me from all parts of the
country, written by young ministers,
asking what course they should take in
reference to their church work.
Who are the minister's best friends?
In the first place, they are the old
folks. They are the men and the wo-
men who have been walking with Je
sus Christ twenty, forty, fifty or even
sixty years. They are the church mem
bers whose hair is white whose step
is often infirm and whose hearing
sometimes must have the sounding
board of the palm of the hand back of
the ear in order to hear the sermons
Alright. But, though their eyes may be
weak and their hearing muffled, with
those eyes they have been reading the
promises of God, and with those ears
they have been listening to his words
of comfort through many dark trials
which have come to thea year in and
year out perhaps for half a century.
Now, my friends, the minister of the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ can
not afford to turn his back upon such
counselors; neither can the church
members themselves afford to stop
their ears TO the words of advice which
these aged Christians can speak out of
their past experiences.
The Value of Experience.
Is not the man OF experience in the
temporal world to be more followed
than the young stripping whose knowl-
edge consists only of theories and gen.
eraIities? Suppose you had very Sc
rious illness, suppose dangerous OPP
Grafton had to be performed upon you,
for whom would you send? Would
you call the young doctor whS last
year graduated at the head of his med
ical class brilliant though he might be?
No. You would send for such man
as DR.. Hamilton, who stood by the
bedside of James A. Garfield, or for a
man like Dr., Janeway, who came as
fast as revolving wheels could carry
him to the bedside of William McTin-
ley, or for a skillful practitioner like
Sir Morell Mackenzie, who looked into
the diseased throat of Crown Prince
Frederick. These were all old men.
For years and years and years they
had been examining throats and cut
ting away diseased tissues
Suppose you are going to ascend the
Gances, the most dangerous navigabla
river Of the world Every day the cur
rent of that river changes. The banks
are. strewn with. the bleaching bones Of
ships which were allowed to rot in the
sun when tllefr keeIs treEe beached.
Would you send f5r. tslsass3fsaliant laced
San officer of Indias vicerey: Nay.
You would send for the old. grizzled.