Milford chronicle., 1906-10-19
CalmaQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. D. D.

are the fOrerunners of growth and or
derly development in nature, so social
disturbances. upheavals, labor strikes
and the conflict of 1.-The classes and the
masses" are the inevitable precursors
of orderly national Development The
text is Proverbs xiv. 4. "Where no
oxen are, the crib is clean, but much
Increase is by the strength Of the OK
All true lovers of the beautiful should
read the messages of its great high
priest, John Ruskin. There never lived
a man who welded Il pOetic-prOSe pen
like his. His Seven Lamps of Arch-
lecture" and Ethics of the Dust and
"Stones of Venice" his Sesame and
Lilies" and Grown OF Wild Olive" his
"Studes of Wayside Flowers" and of
"The Cloud Form" and the "Relation
of Natural Science to Art offer to the
aesthetic enthusiast visions of this
world which cannot be found among
the writings Of any other writer, living
or dead.
Well do I remember the powerful
fascination which held me when first
perused one of his books. Though /
have seen many sages, yet not one ef
these ever impressed me with the awe
with which l looked upon the trem-
bling form of this mighty penman.
whose face [ saw many years ago
when as a student travelling through
England | saw Il nurse lead John Rus
kin along the country road for his aft
ernoon walk. What was the more re-
markable about this view was this; At
that time | was looking only upon the
shell of man. l was watching Il
great writer whose body was alive, but
whose mind was dead. If you have
read the biography of John Ruskin
YOU know that in his last days he was
a mental wreck. The brain which had
created thoughts which will charm the
English speaking world for all time
had burnede1tself cut. When I saw
John B8fan he was an old, wornout'
Temless man. His mind was Mel
rose abbey in ruins.
If YOU have read John Rusl1in care
fully you may remember how in one
f+tlHIlLtE ne NldhtS tt llll-lAA l'ANtN ~ eAAN
aesthetics of life as against the ruthless
invasion Of commcrcialism. He de-
nounccs in vehement language the
heartless vandalism Of the business
world which would paint a horrible
advertisement of some patent medi-
cine upon the rocks of majestic pali-
sade or frowning Gibraltar. He be
walls the fact that England's artistic
sensibiltics are so chilled and dulled
that she would allow the manufactur
er's wheel to turn into a muddy stream
fhe clear. beautiful waters that leap
ont of the mountains. and he eXcori-
ates the icOnoclastic brutality of the
lumberman which would bury the ak
in the heart of the grand old oaks that
for centuries have been lifting up their
leafy hands to God in an attitude of
prayer. But though John Ruskin, our
teacher. our Gamaliel, our aesthetic high
priest who leads us in worship at the
altar Of the beautiful, makes this plea
for the preservation of the woods and
the valleys, though he would strike
down the hands of the icOnocast who
would desecrate the high cliff, yet the
whole world knows that if CONNER
cialism did not shut its eyes at times
to the aesthetic our railroads would be
unable to tunnel under the mountains
and the farmers could never cover their
fields with grain. In order that the in
creasing human race may live we must
cut and tear down and slash. In many
senses we must have a chaotic cosmos
in order to have progression.
Disorder Is Necessary.
If YOU will turn to my text and read
ii carefully, as the inspired penman
ne,mt it to be read you will find that
the thought which l am enunciating
King Solomon taught in his book of
Proverbs thousands of years ago. He
goes out one morning, when the COM
planning farmer enters his barn. Ev-
erything there is filthy and dirty. The
straw beds upon which the oxen slept
are all mussed up and must be raked
out into the barnyard and the stalls
cleaned The chickens have flown into
the haymow and scattered the hay.
The grain bags have been broken open
by the mice. The manger itself is in a
fearful state. The oxen in nosing 70
their food have scattered it every.
where. "Oh. DEAR" exclaims the farm
er, Just look at that barn. Did you
ever see such mess? 1t is work. work,
work; clean. clean clean. never finish
fixing up the barn one day, but l have
to go to work and fix it all up again
the next" "'Tis true that what YOU
say is hard" answers the wisest of all
men. But farmer, remember that you
cannot have tidiness and cleanliness if
you have oxen, and if you did not have
any oxen you could not plow your
fields and could not SOW your grain and
could not receive any financial return
from your lands" Thus King Solomon
says to us today: "Friend, sometimes it
is best to have disorder Sometimes it
is best to have an upAeayai. Where no
oxen are. the crib Hn; but the dis
order you deplore anu :..a increase of
property you rejoice IN are inseparable