Milford chronicle., 1906-09-21
CalnaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. D. D.


timely sermon, appropriate TO the sea-
son of the ingathering Of fruits, brings
to us a breath of the vineyards The
text is Canticles i, 6. But mine own
vineyard have l not kept"
Yes, l have seen neglected vine
yard. No man can fully understand
what my text means unless he has
roamed through one and has seen the
rabbits scurry through the weeds two
feet high and has lifted up the long
unpruned vines heavy laden with un-
developed grapes, immature through
lack of care, and has seen how the
suckers have shot out from under the
crowns as vipers sapping away the
strength of the vines, and yet, as a
rule, bearing no fruit Yes, / have
been through such a vineyard. have
wandered through one, accompanied
by an old vine grower. l have seen
him pathetically lift up vine after vine,
as a physician might look at the gan
grened limb of little child, which de-
composition has been caused by the
malpractice of an ignorant doctor, and
/ have heard him say: Shame! Shame!
It is a perfect shame to let this vine
yard 60 to waste. Why, even after this
neglect, there are at least sixty pounds
of good grapes upon that one vine
alone. Shame shame, to destroy such
a vineyard as this growing upon such
rich soil" Thus we went through
%
vines.
Perhaps you would like to know how
we came to see this fine vineyard going
to waste. l had turned my steps home
ward. My summer vacation in south
ern California was about ended. The
duties of a busy pastOFate were calling
me back to the city. With a cOmpan-
ion, 1 was taking a short cut through
one of the very rarely Travelled can
yOns, when suddenly, as night overlook
us, we came upon a deserted farm, OF |
ranch. 1t was in one of the garden |
spots of the world. For nearly twenty |
years it's owner had lived there, battling |
against consumption. A few months |
before we arrived the end had come, |
and his pain racked body was placed |
in the dust from whence it came. For |
some years before he died all his |
energies were evidently exhausted in
a physical struggle for mere existence.
There were the broad fields stretching
away, practically uncultivated. There
were the beautiful trees near to his
ranch home just as nature had grown
them. There were the deserted rooms
of his dwelling, with one of the walls
fallen in upon his empty bed. The
books and weekly periodicals were still
lying around. There were even some
of his Cancelled checks lying upon the
floor. There was a farm, or ranch, Of
500 acres, 300 of which were tillable,
with their orchards and fields and vine
yards, but with no hand to care for
them. The doves, the quails, the rab-
bits, the bees, were everywhere holding
high carnival AS we lay for a few
nights under those trees we could hear
the wildcats snarling calls and the
fox's barks and the coyotes yells as
they were starting out to hunt their
prey. It was a beautiful, but a sad,
sad, sad place. For this place, like
Victor HugO's Notre Dame, had q
spirit. We could see moving every
where the frail. sick form of the late
owner. who. on account of his physical
ailments, had been compelled to neglect
those fields and orchards and vineyards.
A Neglected Vineyard.
There might have been some excuse
for the sick man who owned this
neglected vineyard of which have
spoken to have neglected his vine
yard, but there is no excuse for us
TO neglect our spiritual vineyards, as
the author of Canticles declares the
church of God has been doing. Now,
as we all. each fall. delight to eat the
rich, luscious grapes which are placed
upon our dining room tables l thought
this morning would draw my ser
nonic illustrations from the vineyard
Industries Of the world. My compari-
son will not be found in the grape
vines which some of us raise in our
homes, where we build a little
lrbor in our back yards and there
allow a few vines to grow over it,
Inder which we flee to escape the in I
ense heat Of the midnoon sun. But I S
will draw my illustrations from the
rape industries of southern Califor- {
liza and the Holy Land, where grape 9
growing is a business upon an en- c
arged scale, and where the vines, laid c
,ut in long rows 8 by or by 10, q
tretch themselves over hundreds and I
ometfmes thousands upon thousands q
# acres, as the corftields spread them U
elves over the prairies of Kansas or {
he wheatfelds grow in the Dakotas. a
Many Of the oriental cities like Sa- a
maria were nothing more or less than f
,reat oenters for this grape industry. q
The plains Of AbelKeramin were 4
ometines called "the Plains of Vine n
ards" The grapes of the valley of n
7shcol not only made their vines clam q
,er over all the hillsides and the low II
ands between Hebron and Kadesh, n
mt those cranes were famous for their | 4