Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-08-11
Calnase
Sermon
By Rev.
Prank De Witt Tslmase. D. d.

sermon the preacher takes for his
theme the hidden voices that call men
TO evil courses and british indulgence
and those that cali US to higher, nobler
ana better living. The text is Ecclesi-
astss 4, 20, '-For bird OF the air shall
carry the voice, and that which hath
wings shall tell the matter"
Ever since my beyhood days, when
John Brown introduced me to "Rab
and His Friends" animal stories have
had for me a complete fascination.
Seton Thompson's Lives OK the Hunt
ed." his wild Animals That I Have
Known" his Biography OF Grizzly
and his Trail Of a Fanhill Stag" Rud-
yard Kipling's Jungle Tales" Mar
shall Saunders Beautiful joe and
Aiss Anna Sewelrs BLACK Beauty"
oHsr the widest range for the imagi-
native writer and the greatest oppor-
tunities for pressing home MORAL
truths But. though many books have
been and are being written whose he
roes and heroineS are covered with the
shaggy names OF the Wild beasts or
with the glossy coats of the domestic
animals, by far the most interesting
animal story l have ever read IS Jack
London's "Csn OF the Wild" Mr.. Lon
don WAS a very young man when he
wrote his masterpiece, yet that story
has found an almost universal appro-
baton. There are always many voices
calling US down TO sin and back to an
cestral evils.
This sentiment stirred my heart
when first read the book. / was in
a railroad car when The Call of the
Wild" was placed in my hand. Day
after day we had been travelling across
the western prairies. bad finished
all the books In my satchel when a
gentleman crossed the aisle and said:
Here Is little storyi read IT." 1
read 1t through In q very short time.
But as 1 traced Jack LondOD's mighty
St Bernard dog from being pet of
a California millionairs's home until Il
became a Wild beast amid the SHOWS
OF the far north. leading on a pack OF
hungry wolves. l asked myself this
other question: why is there not a
Call of the Good as well as a Call
Of the BadT Why do we not hear the
innumerable voices which are de-
scribed by Ecclesiastes as everywhere
around us calling us to cease asso-
ciatinH with human wolves and de-
structive wild beasts as well as those
that are calling US to let loose our
lower and vilsr natures7" AS 1 sat in
that car, with the Arizona deserts slip-
ping away underneath our wheels,
said TO myself: Yes. there is "A Call
OF the Good 1t Is even a better theme
for 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
Christ's condemnation.
The Call or the Good" in the first
place. Is spoken by the lips OF our an
ceStors. who have been fifty years,
seventy-flve. a hundred-aye. perhaps
$50 years dead. IL comes to us from
forgotten graves. unmarked by tomb
stones, or. II headstones are there,
with epitapbs moss covered or eaten
away by time. the destroying ieono-
clast 1t comes 20 us not so much
from our fathers and our mothers. but
from great-great -grandfathers. whose
names we have never read unless we
have ferreted them out in some genoa
logical library when trying TO prove
our descent from the pilgrim fathers
or the Maynower time or when trying
10 prove hereditary claim to some val
liable property In England or Scotland
or Germany whose late owners. who
bore our family name, died chlldIess
and without last will and testament.
This ancestral call OF the good"
comes to US Ina our dispositions, In
our desires. AZ well as in our physical
makeups and our entailed landed es-
tates.
Family ResembIanees.
There IS absolutely no doubt In any
intelligent mind that we inherit our
physical qualities from our ancestors.
IL we could only have a family album
which goes back generation after gem
Grafton. how easy IL would be for some
or Us TO tell from whence our physique
ana appearance came. I can see you
now turning over the pages OF that i'm
aginary album and looking at the DIFF
fersnt pictures. Yes" yeu say,
brother John certainly looks like my
mothers mother. and my grandmother
certainly looks like her fathers sister,
and nay great-great-aunt certainly
looks like her grandfather" And back,
generation after generation. you go,
tracing the physical resemblance OF
yourself and the other members OF
your family. Even with the few fam
ily pictures you have you can trace
wonderful slmIlarltics between your
brothers and sisters aud cousins and
-uncles and aunts and great-unoles and
gfeat-aunts and grandparents. Fur
thermore, outsiders are able to trace
these lfksnesses as we'll 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
parior the visitor pointed 10 an oil per-
trait banging upon the wall Rnd said:
Il know that Is one Of your husbands
xeIativeat they look so much alike.
Why. your husband looks far more like
that man fhan ne looks hike his own
father Who is hep That" answer
ed my wife. sis Mr.. Talmage's great
uncle. Every one who enters this room
70 struck by the similarity in their
looks, That Is the picture OF Rev.
Samuel Il. TaImage OF Georgia, who
was president OF the famous Ogle-
thorpe university and Mr.. TaImage's
grandfather's youngest brother II I
LOOK like Samuel X. Talmage, who died
before I WAS born, why could he not
nave looked Ike his grandfather or
grsat-Erandfather? III I inherit my
physieal traits from my grandfather
and ne In turn from his grandfather.
why, in the same way, cannot trace
Dkek my spiritual nature and those
higher yearnings after the better and
nobier life and my holier deslres-trace
them back generatiO after generation
70 some remote progenitor? Why can
net bear that faron voice pleading
With me TO be good and true? Jack
London's noble st. Bernard dog heard