Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-03-13
Calmase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage, d. d.


most every home throughout the land
the topic chosen by the preacher in
this sermon is a more or less familiar
one The text is Proverbs X, l, "A fool
ish son is the heaviness of his mother"
Death is an enemy. The Bible dis
tinctly declares 1t. remember some
years ago. when visiting one of the
New Zealand cities, this thought was
impressed upon me as never before. A
young man, a musical genius. had late
~ come from London and captured that
whole city by his organ playing. He
was to play that Sunday in the church
where we were worshiping. The night
before, coming home from practicing
upon the keys, he sat down to eat din
ner with his wife and two children.
Suddenly he began to gasp. a fish
bone had caught IN his throat In a
few minutes he was dead. The whole
city was shocked at the awful trag-
edy. The church was draped in black
The organ was covered with Grape.
Among the sobs of the dead mans
friends his pastor preached a eulogy
upon this young mans life from l Co
rinthians XIV, %, "The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death" As the
preacher uttered those solemn words
they sank into his hearers consciences,
an automatic truth.
Oh, yes. death Is an enemy Death
at times seems to be a cruel and
olyC q
the marital bands 1t lifts the little
baby out of the crib and shuts her for
ever from our eyes by the closing of
the coffin lid 1t strikes down the strong
man who is proelaiming Gods word in
the pulpit. 1t empties the Office of the
physician who is bending over the pa
tient. 1t sometimes sends the pleading
lawyer to the grave even before the
murderer whom he has defended eXpi-
ates his crime upon the gallows.
A Living Sorrow.
But when listening to that sermon in
the farOff country of New Zealand |
soliloquized thus: "That widow is to-
day having her heart crushed by the
hearses wheels even as the Indian
juggernaut used to mangle the bodies
of the Hindoo devOtees. But a living
sorrow can be more formidable and a
more awful enemy than sorrow of
the grave. The fendish acts of a disso-
lutte. a debauched, a drunken, a cruel
or an unfaithful husband can weigh
more heavily upon the Wife's heart
than the corpse of a dead husband.
And by the same reasoning the evil
deeds of an undutiful or unfaithful
son fall upon the parental heart with
"A more crushing weight than the sod
that falls upon the coffin lid of a dead
child Thus today, from a parental
standpoint, I would preach upon the
agonizing sufferings of father and a
mother when their children go astray
and do wrong. l include here the ia
theirs sufferings, as well as the moth
er's. The full wording of the verse of
my text embraces both parents. "a
wise son maketh a glad father" That
sentence, interpreted from the negative
standpoint, means, "a bad boy maketh
sad father, and a foolish son is the
heaViness of his mother"
Why sad? Why heavy? First be-
cause the true father and mother can
never separate their joys and sorrows
from the joys and sorrows of their
child. Though a man may live after
his right arm has been amputated, the
hand and the arm cease to live as soon
as the surgeons knife has cut the ar
teries and the bones which unite then
to the shoulder But here nature
seems to reverse the conditions of life
Though q child may live independen
Of his parent, a true parent can neve
live independent of his children. From
the parental standpoint the parenta
life and the child life are not onl.
bone Of one bone and flesh Of on
flesh, but their existences are trul
grated upon each other.
Law of Love Is Unequal.
From the standpoint of a child yo
NAV not believe this. You ask: Is no
the love between parent and child
mutual love? Why, then, should no
its separation affect the one equall
with the other? Oh, no! The law o
love is unequal The one who make
sacrifices has stronger affection tha
the one for whom the sacrifices ar
made. I go into the sculptor's studio
and l say: "Thorwaldsen, why ar
thou bending so lovingly over yonde
piece Of cold marble? Has the ston
heart" "Oh, no." answers the Dan
ish sculptor II do not love this ston
because 1t has a heart. I love it be
cause have put my heart into it II
my effort to bring out the beautiful
figures which there l see slumberini
or reckoning to me from the COLI
stone" Why does the artist love hi
canvas and the composer his oratorio
Because their life's work has gone int
the creations of those masterpieces G
art or Of music. Why did Chrlstophe
Wren's life seem to be anchored 10 )
Paurs cathedral and Isaac Newton
life TO his laboratory? Because
these places those men speat most
their earthly existence in order