Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-02-18
Calnage
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage, ID. ID.

peace been as a river
What art thou doing. o prophet of
Israel: Art thou tauniing thy people
with the blessing they had missed
through forsaking God and disregard
ing thy teaching: When trouble
swoops art thou one of those who say:
Il told you so? If YOU had only taken
my advice you would not be in the diff
ficulty you are in today. If you will
make your bed out of thorns and
thistles instead of rose leaves. then
upon the thorns and thistles YOU must
lie Are you like an executioner who
upbraids and derides the trembling
murderer whose life he is soon TO
strangle with the rope? In drawing
Your enchanting picture of peace flow
ing like a river before Il people harass-
eel 10y powerful foreign enemies and
disturbed by internal dissensons are
you not merely adding To their distress,
as the mirage of the desert aggravates
the thirst of the dying traveller: Are
you saying TO your miserable people:
Look at those beautiful banks water
ell by the river. rich i'm fora and tune
full with singing birds. They would
have been all yours if you had not
wandered into the desert of sin. but
now they are lost TO you forever"
"Ah. no. says the prophet Isaiah. LIT
is not 10 aggravate their thirst that |
tell them of this river. but to invite
them TO return TO the way from which
they have wandered: not to exult over
their misfortunes. but TO warn them of
the consequences OF sin. | am not
here glorying in the suffering of Gods
fallen ones. My river is not composed
of the black waters of the river StyX.
but from the flowing crystal waters of
the river of life. | am like n loving
father whose maynard son has disre-
garded warnings and has sinned and
brought himself into trouble. and the
father sorrows with him and pleads
with him TO repent and assures him
that If he will forsake his sin his wick
edness shall be forgiven and his peace
shall be like Il river. as though he had
never sinned." May God help us as
we use the banks of the Jordan or the
Rhine or the Tiber or the upper
Thames or the banks of our own po-
etc Hudson for sacred pulpit. Such
a river bank today may become as
sacred a pulpit as that in the chancel
of Westminster abbey or st. Pauls or
Canterbury cathedral. even though
bishops hand has not consecrated ii
or ecclesiastical convocation dedicated
it.
What the River Teaches.
The pleading river. in the first place,
teaches us that the divine peace which
comes TO man must come as the result
of natural law in the spiritual life 1t
is not the result of haphaZard 1t is
not miracle as we in the broad sense
term miracle. 1t does not come as a
miraculous wind which might dig up
seed in some Italian garden and in its
teeth lift it above Alpine crag and
carry il over land and sea and without
human aid plant it as an exotic upon
the banks of the Ohio or the Monon-
gahela river But the divine peace
comes TO man as the result of ration
al cause. 1t has rational source, as
a river has a natural source: il has a
natural flow, as the Jordan has nat
ural flow. and it has rational outlet,
as the Amazon empties itself into the
Atlantic or the Ganges finds a resting
place i'm the huge reservoir of the Ben
gal gulf.
A river cannot disobey natural law.
A river cannot become free lance
among rivers. A river cannot do any
thing that specific gravity says thou
shalt not do This fact is demonstrate
ed everywhere | climb one of the tall
pyramids Of the Rocky mountains.
There upon the highest peak | find
what is called a watershed. Then as
l stand upon this watershed | repeat
to myself the beautiful words of the
poet:
God sent his messenger the rain.
And said unto the mountain brook.
Rise up and from thy caverns look
And leap with naked snow white feet
From the cool hills into the heart
or the broad arid plain
But. though the mountain brooks may
leap from the cool hills into the heat of
the broad. arid plain. II makes great
deal OF difference into what plain that
falling raindrop shall go. whether il
falls one inch to the right or one inch
TO the left of the Rocky mountain wa
tershed. One inch To the right it flows
into the gulf of Mexico: one to the left
IL flows into the waters of the Pacific
The waters of river must obey
natural law. Now. If Gods laws are
inexorable in regulating the source
and the course of Il river. are they not
equally memorable in reference to the
source and the course of his divine
peace which is like a river:
The Conditions of Peace.
You must obey Gods laws before you
can enjoy Gods peace. To resist them,
to disobey him. is TO set yourself
against omnipotent power and infinite
wisdom. Ii is not necessary that God
should punish you for it; you bring the
punishment ON yourself in failure and
disappointment and eternal wreck
Your whole nature is given over to
anarchy and lawlessness Only as you
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