Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-08-30
CalnaSe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage. u. d.

sermon the preacher gives an altOgeth-
er now Interpretation to a passage
which teaches us that Gods mercies
and blessings sometimes come to us in
strange DISCUSSES. Tho text Is Luke
xii, 40, II am come to send fire upon
the earth"
To the casual Bible reader these nine
words may seem to convey n meaning
which IL Is hard to reconcile with other
passages. You cannot understand how
Christ can be called the Prince Of
Peace" and yet how he could send fire
upon the earth. Fire" you ~say-"why,
FIRE is the agent Of death, not the fore
runner Of life. 1t Is the most ruthless
destroyer known to man." Go today
through any Of our great forests, and
what do you see printed by the road
Bides2 It Is a warning to the campers
and the travellers to beware Of starting
forest fire. Why do the government
tul officials in Yellowstone park and
Yosemite and in many of the mountain
reserves refuse to allow the camper to
carry a shotgun? Is it for fear that he
Will kill game out of season? Perhaps
that is one reason, but the chief reason
Is that the forest rangers are afraid
that the shotguns might set fire to the
woods. Have you never attended n
rountry college and witnessed the
aeadly forest fires burn for weeks and
weeks upon the mountain side? What
was the only danger the western ow-
boy feared worse han the Indians
warwhoop? 1t was the prairie fire,
which could lick up the dead grasses
faster than horse could run or deer
rould scurry away. Have you ever
read of the unsheathed sword of fire
which RACED Moscow to the ground?
These flames were able to devour the
lndolnitable ambitions of the Little
Uorsican."
VIII our people ever forget the
CHASTITY tragedy that destroyed Ameri-
ra's western metropolis, which over
looked the Golden Gate of San Fran
cisco bay: One of the first lessons we
teach our children is to leave matches
alone and fear the danger of fire. Yet
the so called prince of Peace says,
Il am come to send fire upon the
earth" How can you explain his
anomaly? / can only suggest SOM Of
the effects Of fire. which may give us
n hint of II Lords meaning, for,
though we may look upon fire as an
agency of death. we cannot forget
that it may become in Gods hands an
agency of eternal life and of the pur-
est and the best of all earthly lives.
May God help us as we try to under
stand these holy words.
A Symbol of Heat.
Fire, in the first place, is the symbol
of heat. Heat is the symbol of life.
Therefore we find that all true life
comes from God. even as all heat of
the earth primarily comes from the
fires Of the sun. In every bird that
flies, in every bee that huns, in every
squirrel that chatters, in every flower
that grows. in every tree that rustles
and in every human being that walks
we see the great divine fact illustrated
that the God who sent fire upon earth
is the great God who was and is the
Creator Of all. Now, the fact that all
animal and vegetable life is dependent
upon fire and heat for creation and de-
velopment is we'll understood.
am sitting upon the farmers kitchen
porch, and I hear n cackling noise.
The old speckled Plymouth Rock hen Is
calling: Il have laid an egg! / have
laid an egg. l am going to hatch out
a little chicken, for / have laid an egg"
But the farmers wife has another use
for the egg. Each morning she goes
md takes that egg away from the hen.
She is absolutely merciless in this re-
spect. She cooks for her summer
boarders the best food for a breakfast
namely, a fresh laid egg. When you
break it open, there it lies cut in half,
with its center Of gold covered Owe
with its wrappings of purcst white.
The snow could not be whittier than the
albumen Of a new laid egg. At last the
old hen grows tired Of having her eggs
eaten, so she. in turn, finds a secret nest.
She flies away to the top Of the hay
loft, or she goes off to the other side Of
the grain field and crawls under an old
DOuTu near inc fence, anu lueTe Sle
makes her nest. Day after day the
white beauties grow in number. The
old feathered fowl keeps very still
about her secret. When you go out and
say, "Biddie, where is your nest:" she
looks as innocent as an old owl. Then
after twelve or thirteen of those eggs
have been laid side by side Biddie
suddenly disappears. She comes
around once a day for food, but that is
oil. Then after three weeks you hear
a great commotion, and up to the
kitchen door marches the proud mother,
lending "A large brood Of fuzzy little
creatures which nre her children. Now,
how were the contents of those eggs
turned into little living creatures?
Simply by the agency Of heat. Day
after day and week after week that old
hen sat upon those eggs. She sat so
long that the feathers We're worn off
her breast. She sat so long that her
breast became like fire. The warmth
of her body went into the & and
that warmth developed there the little
germs of life which grew until they
were able to burst asunder the shells
and walk forth us perfect chickens.
"Why do You not plant your flowers