The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-04
DR.. TALMACE'S SERMON
BY THE REv. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. D. D.

night after night, year in and year out.
: The midnight cold sent the shriekins
winds against her when she, night after
night, had to change cars. Miserable hotel
meals, badly ventilated audience rooms
mental strain enough to- exhaust the
! strongest of nerves, were all hers. And
yet that frail body went on and on In
its herculean tasks supported by faith
Open the leaves of history and what
do you find? The greatest of workers have
often been those who were working I'm
der the shadow Of death By the COM
mand of physicians and friends and by
the reasoning of every physical law these
I men and women should have ceased to
work: John Richard Green, an invalid;
/ Alexander II. Stevens, an invalid; Robert
/ Hall, an invalid; John Summerfeld, an
/ invalid; Richard Baxter an invalid Ed
4 ward Payson an invalid; Phil Doddridge.
j an invalid; Wilberforce, an invalid; L. S.
Grant, writing his memoirs of the civil
/ war when he was writing in the agones
of physical torture; Robert Louis Steven
son an invalid: Henry Fawcett, the ally
/ and helper of English statesmen, yet blind
| from a youth of IA. Oh do not tell me
4 that the miracle Of the blind men has
not been duplicated In the eighteenth and
/ nineteenth centuries. II has 1t has BY
faith they have compelled their frail
bodies to achieve marvels
Now, what is the practical deduction of
this principle? DO not be hypoehondriacs.
Do not talk about your physical ailments.
| DO not spend most of your time telling
! your neighbor how bad you feel Do not
humor your pains and your aches by con
! tnually taking an inventory of them.
/ There is nothing in the world which will
make the body more of a weaking than
/ the habit of getting the idea into your
minds that it is weak and that it can do
nothing. In almost every sanitarium IN
IL In,
! ing hung up everywhere around the
i walls: Don't talk about your sick
nesses." If you have faith in God that
! He will give you physical strength to do
your work, believe me, that physical
strength, in most cases, will come to you.
Better throw away those circulars which
advertise the benefits of patent medi-
cines. Get up and get out, and your body
will grow In strength as you obey the
call of duty.
But if triumphant faith is important in
reference to the physical body how much
more is it important in reference to the
| mind If II is important in reference to
the action of my lungs and heart, how
much more is 1t important in refernee to
the action of my intellect. I force my
mind to do what 1 believe l can do and
| that as rule is the limit of the achieve
| ment no more and generally no less. Let
me here illustrate my thought by some
| of the homely incidents OF everyday Ire.
Looks Just the Same.
take the train and go out to the little
country town where you were born We
| get off at the station and go up the old
! familiar street. 1t is surprising how lit
tie some of the old country towns change.
| There are the same little postoffice and
! the same little church covered with the
same colored paint. When we walk
| around it almost seems as though tho
same chickens were running about the
yards as ran there thirty years ago. We
enter the old farm house where you were
born, and | find that the son of your
Oldest sister, now dead, has it. / turn to
him and say: Harry, what is the good
of your burying yourself alive here in the
| country? You know this farm will never
amount to anything. The soil is poor.
| The great ranchers of the west. with their
wonderful implements, are able to raise
| their wheat far cheaper than you and by
the transcontinental railroad lines under
sell you in the eastern markets. Why do
| you not get out Of here and go west or
| go to one of our large cities and make a
name for yourself, as your Uncle Henry
has done?"
The young man looks up at me and
| says: ooh, l don't know do not believe
| / could do 1t. You know, / was born
here, and, though cannot make much
out of the farm, at least | am assured OF
one fact-I can make living. Better
bird in the hand than two In the bush
Better hold on to an assured little than
to reach out after something and perhaps
fail entirely What is the matter with
your nephew? He has just as much brain
as you, Just as much chance to make a
great success as you have made. There
is Just one trouble-he lacks faith-faitf
! in himself. A man without faith In him
| self has no more chance to forge ahead
AND accomplish anything for good than
a steam engine has to draw a train with
out water in the boiler or than a furnace
| is able without fuel for the flames to feed
upon to give forth heat.
Now for the other side of this question:
| Here is a boy born the son of a barber.
| His mother was woman of ungoyernablo
| temper, who passed the last years of her
| life in an insane asylum. Poverty ushered
him into life. His boyhood days were
passed by an unhappy fireside. But one
day while going along the London streets,
he looked into the windows OF an art
| store and saw some beautiful pictures.
| They open to him new world. He says:
| II, too, am q painter" But his genius
was not like that of Edwin Landseer, who
at fourteen was able to win prize at
the academy by exhibiting there the pic
ture of a majestic ST. Bernard dog. But
slowly, painfully, amid ridicu1e with an
empty purse and an empty stomach. he
had to struggle on at hfs canvas Every
outside influence fought him back Only
the inward consciousness that he was
painter kept him at his task. Then what
Boswell was to Samuel Johnson John
Ruskin became to him. Then Ruskin, the
matchless art critic, led the English world
to his feet. Then came success. William
Turner became the most honored colorist
of all the British empire. 1t was the tr,-
umph of faith. Would William Turner
ever have accomplished what he did, with
the whole world ignoring him for years
| had he not been willing to starve and
suffer because he believed in himself?
But 1 find that faith has a broader