Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-05-08
Calmage
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. D. D.

Los Angeles, Cal, May I'm this
/. sermon the preacher, while appreciat-
ing at their true value the higher
flights of oratory and the famous tri-
umphs of great speakers, shows how
even the humblest may be effective in
the eloquence Of Christian converse
ton and example. The text is John
vii, 46, 'Never man spake like this
man"
What is true oratory? Mere conjura-
ton, bewitchery, enchantment, mysu-
cism, mesmerism or animal magnet
ism, a mere transitory magic spell
with which great public speaker is
able to hypnotic an audience for an
evening or for a night alone? Is it
few poetic garlands made up of pretty
wax flowers which never grew in
garden, which never caught the in
cense laden breath of the soil, which
cannot stand the light of the day and
which, like the moon flowers, melt
away as soon as the morning sun has
touched their painted cheeks? Is it
human corpse tremble for little
while and even lift a hand or shake
head and yet current which can new
er bring the dead body back to life!
Is it a mere magnetic needle when
will momentarily move an iron heart,
as many magnetic needles can make
nails and screws stand upon their
Fox
back cold, motionless screws and nails
as soon as their lifting touch is taken
| away? Oh, no; true oratory is more
| than that.
True oratory is one of the most p0-
tent gifts, if not the most potent gift,
with which God has endowed man. 1t is
mighty for good or mighty for evil. 1t
is a social factor which creates and
! molds and upbuilds or it is social
| factor which undermines and destroys
| and wrecks. If it were possible for
me to believe in the doctrine of the
RECONSIDERATION of souls, then | would
| believe in this doctrine in reference
to oratory. With mere words skill
| full orator can have his spirit incar-
mated in the minds and the hearts of
his hearers. With mere words not
only can the true orator compel his
/ fellow countrymen to think as he
/ thinks, but to do as he would have
| them do and as he himself wants to
! do.
The gift Of true oratory is second in
power to no other human gift An
overstatement is this? | think not
Andrew Fletcher, the great English
dramatist and poet, once said, ST be-
lieve if man We're permitted to make
all the ballads OF a country he need
not care who should make its laws"
! a true orator has all the power of
/ the sweet singer of. the fields. He has
more than that In his own realm he
i has the power of. personal touch. He
has the influence of the flashing eye,
of the quivering lip, of the power which
/ comes from a soul on fire, which reach
es forth and as a whirlwind drives OPP
/ position before him or consumes them
| as in a mighty confagration. If the
i pen be mightier than the sword then
! the orators scepter is greater than
that of the warriors or the writer's.
The Demosthenean tongue compelled
mems ears to hear what his pen could
| not compel his auditors eyes to read
Great is the eloquent tongue of silver
speech!
Beecher's Services as Orator.
/ Great if not the greatest of all gifts
with which God has endowed man is
! oratory. Who but one like Henry
Ward Beecher could have conquered
England during the dark days of 1868
Then the British factories had their
cotton supply cut off by northern ships
blockading the southern ports. British
capitalists were calling out, 1.-The
American war must stop or British
employees must starve and the British
merchants will have no goods to SELL
Not only that, but the peerage or the
landowners almost to a man hated ouI
republican form of government. They
believed the American congress was
perpetual menace to British interests
Beecher accomplished with his tongue
what an invading army Of 500,00e
men could not have accomplished witt
bayonets. Alone he faced audience aft
er audience, bitter in their hatred to
ward him and his people. He faced
enemies. He left friends. He faced
his country's censors. He left behind
him his country's applauders. Henry
Ward Beecher won this victory for hi:
country by the tongue, and the tongue
alone
Great is the power of oratory anC
orators! But if it is great in the pres
ent age how much greater must i
have been in the times of the ancients
Then the modern printing press hat
not yet been born, and the human minC
could only appeal to the human minC
through the influence of the human
tongue But, though the generation
preceding Christ sat at the feet o
some of the greatest orators who eve
lived. though Pericles and Lysias an
Lycurgus and Eschines had won thei
marvellous triumphs in old Athens
, though the mighty Roman orators ha
lived and. like Marcus Tullius Cicer'