The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-03-19
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
BY THE rev. FRANK DE WITT rALMAoE. D. q.

Los Angeles. Cal, March FIN ale
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 K. 1. "A foolish son
is the heavf ness Of his mother"
Death is an enemy. The Bible dis
tinctly declares it. I remember some
years ago. when visiting one of the New
Zealand cities. this thought was i'm
pressed upon me as never before. A
young man, a musical genius, had late
ly come from London and captured that
whole city by his organ playing. He
was to play that Sunday int he church
where we were worshiping. The sight
before, coming home from practicing
Upon the keys. he sat down to eat din
rer with his wife and two children. Sud-
denly he began to gasp. A flshbone had
caught in his throat. In few minutes
he was dead. The whole city was shock
ed at the awful tragedy. 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
Corinthians XIV, 26, "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
al times seems to be cruel and a
nerciless enemy. It breaks asunder the
marital bands. It lifts the little baby out
Or the crib and shuts her forever from
our eyes by the closing of the coffin lid.
IL strikes down the strong man who is
Iroclaiming Gods word in the pulpit. 1t
ompties the office of the physician who
is bending over the patient. It sometimes
sends the pleading lawyer to the grave
even before the murderer whom he has
defended expiated 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-
cay having her heart crushed by the
hearse's wheels even as the Indian Jug
gernaut used to mangle the bodies OF the
Findoo devotees. But a living sorrow can
be more formidable and a more awful
enemey than a sorrow of the grave. The
fiendsh acts of a dissolute, debauched.
a drunken, a cruel or an unfaithful hus-
bund can weigh more heavily upon the
wife's heart than the corpse of dead
husband And by the same reasoning the
evil deeds of an undutiful or unfaithfui
son fall upon the parental heart with
a more crushing weight than the sod
that falls upon the coffin lid of dead
child Thus today, from parental
standpoint. I would preach upon the
agonizing sufferings of a father and
mother when their children go astray
and do wrong I include here the father S
srfferings, as we'll as the mothers. me
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 ia
tber, and a foolish son is the heaYiness
of his mother
Why sad? Why heavy? First because
the true father and mother can never
separate their joys and sorrows from
the joys and sorrows of their child.
Though 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 arteries and
the bones which unite them to the
shoulder. But here nature SENS to re-
verse the conditions of life. Though q
child may live Independent of his parent,
a true parent can never live independ-
ent of his children From the parental
standpoint the parental life and the
child life are not only bone of one bone
and flesh of one flesh, but their exist
erces are truly grated upon each other.
Law of Love is Unequal.
From the standpoint of a child you
may not believe thus You ask: Is not
the love between parent and child a
mutual love? Why. then. should not its
separation affect the one equally with
the other? Oh. mol The law of love is
unequal. The one who makes sacrifices
has stronger affection than the one for