The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1906-10-19
Caln1age
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage, D. d.

Los Angeles, Cal, Oct. 14.-In this
sermon the preacher shows that as
storms, stress and elemental confusion
are the forerunners of growth and or
derIy development in nature, so social
disturbances, upheavals, labor strikes
and the conflict of ''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
man who welded a poetic-prose pen
like his. His "Seven Lamps of Archi-
lecture" and "Ethics of the Dust" and
"Stones of Venice" his Sesame and
Lilies" and Grown of Wild Olive" his
"Studies 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 l remember the powerful
fascination which held me when first
perused one of his books. Though l
have seen many sages, yet not one of
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 a 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 I was looking only upon the
shell of man. l was watching a
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 al! time
had burned itself out. When I saw
John Ruskin he was an old, wornout,
helpless man. His mind was a Mel
rose abbey in ruins.
If you have read John Ruskin care
fully you may remember how in one
chapter he makes a mighty plea for the
aesthetics of life as against the ruthless
invasion of commercialism. He de-
nounces in vehement language the
heartess vandalism of the business
world which would paint horrible
advertisement of some patent medl-
cine upon the rocks of majestic pail
SADIE or frowning Gibraltar. He be-
walls the fact that England's artistic
sensibilities are so chilled and dulled
that she would allow the manufactur-
ers wheel to turn into muddy stream
the clear, beautiful waters that leap
ont of the mountains and he excori=
ates the iconoclastic brutality of the
Iumberman 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 iconOclast 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
it carefully, as the inspired penman
meant 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
fearful state. The oxen in nosing for
their food have scattered it every
where. ooh, dear" exclaims the farm
er. ''iust look at that barn. Did you
ever see such a mess? 1t is work, work,
work: clean, clean clean. l never finish
fixing up the barn one day, but / have
to go to work and fix it all up again
the next" "'Tis true that what you
Fay is hard" answers the wisest of all
men. "But, farmer, remember that you
cannot have tidiness and cleanliness II
YOU have oxen, and if you did not have
any oxen you could not pillow your
fields and could not sow your grain and
could not receive any financial return
from your lands" Thus King Solomon
saws TO us today: "Friend, sometimes il
IS best TO have disorder. Sometimes il
is best to have an upheaval. Where nc
oxen are, the crib is clean; but the dis
order YOU deplore and the increase OF
property you rejoice in are inseparable
from the presence of the OK, and you
cannot have one without the other"
A valuable practical lesson is this
Thought for almost every department
of life. In the first place. it will apply
to the disorders of the natural world
Some people, If they could have Their
way, would never have a rainstorm
They would never have a blizzard
They would never have the trees rob
bed of their leaves. They would never
have them stand in a uniform of spot
less white. Ike grim soldiers with theil
bayonets of ice as sharp pointed al