The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-25
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
eY rHE REv. FRANK pg wIrr rALMAaE. D. D.

DE WITT TALMAGE, D. Q,
 away with your dear one you called out i 'Oh. Death, is my darling child dead forever2" And away off in the distance you could hear your dear one call back; l T am not dead. l am living again Be- lieve me, am living again. Is not that ] statement true? Deep down in your heart your loved ones are alive today though their bodies are moldering in the grave
 Oh, how quickly the sudden appearance of death can shatter the conclusions we have built up by years of painful theoriz- ingl l had this fact Illustrated in a re- markable way some years ago when l was visiting the crematory of Pittsburg, 1 in which city I was living at that time. l was taken into a vaulted room where quite a number of tin cans, each about the size of a two-quart pail, were stand ing around on shelves. Each one of these tin cans contained the ashes of a human being Some had more ashes in them than others. The older man is the more his | cartridges ossify and therefore the more incombustible material there is left in the retort of the crematory. Here are the ashes of George w. Ferris of the Ferris wheel of the Chicago Worlds fair, wno died only a few months ago., said my guide. Yes, yes!" l answered. knew  ten And here are the ashes of MT. So-and-so." mentioning names which were household words in the western part of Pennsylvania. Then my guide gave me one of the most dramatic accounts have ever heard. He described Emma Abbott' the great American songstress, descend- ing the same steps l descended and stand ing just where I was standing After she had carefully examined the erematory she said. Some day I am coming here to be turned into ashes" Then she slightly raised her skirts and began to dance around the room and as she danced she sang and she kept on singing until she sang herself out of the door. And with in twelve months" said the man, "her dead body was brought here and commit ted to the flames. Yes her body was burned in wonder furnace"
 Believed In It Only In Theory.
 After my guide had been speaking thus to me for over an hour 1 said to him: Do you believe In cremation? What is your own private opinion in reference to it?" He stopped a moment, and then he slowly said: T believe in it in theory. But theories, no matter how well formed, do not always work out in practical re- suit. For years I have been preaching the benefits of cremation. But last year my baby girl died She was my only child. She was the idol of her mother and myself. The day after our little one had gone the mother came to me and said, Husband, shall we cremate herT l said: No, Mary. No We cannot burn her up. Her body was too dear to us. Let us go and bury her among the flow ers' " Yes, our beautiful theories and the hard practicabilities of life are often as far away from each other as the zenith Is high above the nadir. You may | have argued for spiritual annihilatlon at 1 the grave, but as soon as God took your 1 dear ones you knew they did not die l and are not dead now. And within you today. in spite of all that atheists and skeptics may say, something keeps sing l ing: "I shall live! l shall live! l shall l live long after this earth Is crematedl 1 l, shall live my dear ones whose bodies are sleeping in the grave, are living nowl" Ah my friends, do not let sin come offering to you the unpalatable husk of annihilation at the grave! Let drink and be merry. for tomorrow we die." We know, we intuitively know, that we shall never, never die.
 1 A step further. When Satan cannot lure us into dissipation by the doctrine of annihiliation at the grave the old flend takes another course. He comes to us and says You are going to live. | Oh. yes; you are going to live ages upor ages, millenniums upon millenniums. | That, of course, means that there is a God and that this God has provided a place for your eternal existence. But this does not alter the fact that you can eat, drink and be merry and do as you would. Why? Because the very name of God implies that he Is a good Deity This good God will save us all There fore if you have little fun here or earth that will not prevent you from enjoying all the blessings of heaven hereafter. If you sow a few wild oats here you will be like the younger boy in the parable of the prodigal son. You will go off into the far country You will laugh and dance and sing and drink and make merry And after you have spent your all and had a superfine time on earth you can go back to your fathers house. and he will put the ring upon your finger and shoes on your feet and the best robe on your back and xiii for you the fatted calf. Don't you see you have all the pleasure of the ban quet hall of a Circe's palace, with none of the horrors of the swine trough into which Ulysses followers were compelled to go." Now. my friends. this second Satanic argument to me Is far more per nicious than the first. It is the means, believe. of destroying more immorta souls than does even the annhilatior theory, and 1t is furthermore the most Illogical theory ever held by man.
 A Pernicious Idea.
 We have, In the first place. a common ground for argument and that is God Yes, we go further than that. We have another common ground for arguments sake and that Is God as a heavenly, a loving Father, who wants to save al his children if he can. Now, if we agree in reference to these two cardinal prem ises want to ask you a blunt question
 "Can you think of a good father with out being a true father, father who is looking after the best interests of his children? Can you think of good father without being a just father as well as a forgiving fatherI' Suppose one of your