Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-03-03
Calmase
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. ID. ID.


this sermon the benefits that accrue to
men who serve and obey God. The
text IS Isaiah Xviii, Is, "Then had thy
peace been as a river
What art thou doing, o prophet of
Israel? Art thou haunting 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:
II told you so? II 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
Ie." Are you like an executioner who
upbraids and derides the trembling
murderer whose life he Is soon to
strange with the rope? In drawing
your enchanting picture Of peace flow
ing Ike river before a people harass-
ed by powerful foreign enemies and
disturbed by internal dissensions 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.
ed by the river, rich in fora and tune
ful with singing birds. They would
have been all yours IL you had not
wandered into the desert Of sin, but
now they are lost to you forever"
Ah, no." says the prophet Isaiah. at
Is not to aggrsvate their thirst that L
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 l am not
here giorying in the suffering OF Gods
fallen ones My river is not composed
or the black waters of the river Styx,
but from the flowing crystal waters of
the river OF life. L 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 IL he will forsake his sin his wick.
edness shall be forgiven and his peace
shall be like a river, as though he had
never sinned." May God help us az
we use the banks of the Jordan or the
Rhine or the Tiber or the upper
Thames or the banks of our own POI
etc Hudson for n sacred pulpit Such
river bank today may become as
sacred pulpit as that in the chanceI
OF Westminster abbey or st. Pauls or
Canterbury cathedral, even though
bishops hand has not ,consecrated it
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 a miracle. 1t does not come as q
miraculous wind which might dig up a
seed In some Italian garden and in its
teeth lift it above Alpine crag and
carry 1t 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 n ration
al cause, 1t has a rational source, as
river has natural source; il has a
natural flow, as the Jordan has nat
urai flow, and it has n rational outlet
as the Amazon empties itself into the
Atlantic or the Ganges finds a resting
place In the huge reservoir OF the Ben
gal gulf.
A river cannot disobey natural law.
A river cannot become free lance
among rivers. \ 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 l find
what is called watershed. Then MS
stand upon this watershed 1 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
OF the broad. arid plain
But, though the mountain brooks may
leap from the cool hills into the heat of
the broad, arid plain, it makes a great
deal or 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 il flows
into the gulf of Mexico; one to the left
1T flows into the waters of the Pacific.
The waters of n river must obey
natural law. Now, if Gods laws are
inexorable In regulating the source
and the course of n river, are they not
equally memorable in reference to the
source and the course of his divine
peace, which is like 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. 1t 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
yield to his will do you put yourself
IN hne with the eternal order and enter |
INTO peace. I do not care how much
you may think your way is better than
GODS ways. one fact you must under |
stand-you cannot get the divine peace,
which Is like river, unless you bring
yourself into harmony with Gods laws
and obey Gods commandments.
Naaman had to learn this lesson be-
fore he could be cured of his Ieprosy.
His way was that the prophet should
come out to him and stand and call on
the name OF the Lord and strike his
hand over the place. Gods way was
that be dip seven times in the Jordan. |
when he took Gods way he was cured. |
but not until he took it. Gods way can
cure you, O immortal, OF your sin. Are
you ready to welcome this divine peace. |
nike a river, which will come to You
Through Jesus Christ? The way of the
ercss is the source of this peace. From
the mount of Calvary that stream
gashes forth, as from Mount Hermon
nows the Jordan and from the Adj
irondacks the mighty Hudson.
But the pleading river teaches us an
other lesson about the divine peace
winch passeth ell understanding. The