Milford chronicle., 1906-08-10
CalmaQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase, D.. ,.

AOss Angeles, Cal.. Aug. On InlS
sermon the preacher shows that in
order to make ones life work of real
value to the world and humanity the
foundations of character must be laid
deep and true. The text is Matthew
vii, p, "And the rain descended. aud
the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house, and it fell,
and great was the fall of It,"
The reason the Bible is not as plain
and interesting to some people as it
might be is because they do not un-
derstand the geographical and geOlog-
ical and meteorological conditions Of
the Holy Land. In order to intelligently
follow the earthly footsteps Of the
o. Man OF Galilee" the tourist should not
be content with cursOry or superb
cial examination. He should study
the meteorOlOgy of Palestine TO the
last detail He should not only study
the tornadOes and hurricanes and
fhunderstOrms' which unsheath their
swords of destruction and tumble
down upon the earth huge masses OF
water when the windows of the
heavens are opened by great cloud
bursts, but he should also study the
faashets and those movable sands
mixed with water, commonly called
"quicksands," and the simooms' or
siroccOs, sweeping over its nearby
deserts, where there is but little mois-
ture in the furnace heated air, for the
atmosphere of Palestine would not be
what it is if the Arabian desert was
not on its border. All these meteoro-
logical studies will clarity the lessons
of many of Christ's parallels and give
an added meaning to some of the
strange. weird oriental customs OF
the Hebrew race.
It is said that General Lew Wallace
wrote his great religious masterpiece
"Ben-Hur," before he as a tourist had
ever seen Jerusalem. But, though Lew
Wallace might have evolved a true Idea
of the Holy Land out of books, l am
frank TO confess that with all my theo-
logical studies never knew what the
HOLY Land was like until l set foot In
those sacred valleys and saw with my
own ewes those hallOwed hills. l eX-
pected to find Palestine almost trOp-
ical land. 1 expected to find Its nils
covered with dense forests, its valleys
dotted with farms, it's bees turning
every mound into a hOneycomb, all It's
VINEYARDS growing huge grapes Of Es-
chol and its flowers crowding every
nook and corner of the soil. Now what
did l findf 1 found he Holy Land
nothing more or less than parallel OF
southern California with another name.
People who have been to Los Angeles
and ridden through San Diego county
can form an idea Of the Palestine hillS'
Like Southern California.
The soils of both lands are ricE
enough if you can only get water upon
them. but the trouble is to get the wa
ter. Instead of every two or three
weeks having a gentle rain or shower
as we used to have in the New Eng
land and the middle states, we have In
these two lands the dry and the rainy
seasons. When it is dry it is awfully
dry. Day in and day out, week in ana
week out. month in and month out,
that drv weather will continue. Not
one drop of water will fall from the
heavens during all that time. Literal
lv not one shower will come. Then the
grass withers. The soil becomes like
baked clay. The dust Is everywhere.
But when the rainy season comes
then, in order to compensate tor her
paucity Of moisture, nature sends
storms in perfect deluges. Every
CANYON has lis raging torrent. The
hillsides are cut into deep gullies.
The water seems to be everywhere.
This fact Is due to the geographical
conditions, because the waters cannot
find their drainage outlets as they do
in the verdure covered hillsldes OF the
east. No man, except the DraVest'
dare venture out Of doors when the
storms break upon Los Angeles in the
rainy seasons. The sewers Will De
choked with water. Every street from
curb TO curb will be a huge, rushing
river. The car lines will be block
aided. All traffic will come to a stan0-
still. Then the hillsldes and the vat
Ieys will blossom as the rose. 1he
flowers and the rich grasses will spring
up as If by magic on every side. No
New Yorker or New Englander can
fully understand this atmospheric con
dition unless he has been in Palestine
or in southern California. Thus you
must study the meteorological infu-
ences Of Palestine before you try TO
interpret the parable OF my text.
Christ is not here saying, every
one who heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them not shall be likened
INTO a foolish man who built his house
upon the sands in Pennsylvania or in
Germany or in France, where it will
rain two or three days every two or
three weeks in every season of the
wear and the water will be drained
quietly and quickly away" Christ is
saving. Every one who heareth these
savings Of mine and doeth them not is
TO be likened unto a foolish man who
builds his house on the sands at the