Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-02-28
CalnaSe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmace, d. d.

vine call. Inc text is / corinthians,
tx. 10. Woe is unto me If preach not
the gospel"
In the Pitt palace of Florence Is Il
wonderful picture. supposed to have
been painted by Michael Angelo. called
the Three Fates." There sit the three
sisters Of neurological fame-Clotho
spinning the thread of life: Lachesis
holding the thread Of life. and Atropos.
with her long, sharp shears, cutting
the thread of life. 1t is thought that
when Michael Angelo painted this pic
ture he used the same model for all the
three faces. Whether that is true we
know not. but one fact about this pic
turc we know-it Is n most impressive
and suggestive picture. The artist has
depicted three women ut their daily
tasks. going on in their work serene
w. r"morselnsSiy and absolutely indie
pendent of all outside Influences by
which they may be surrounded. When
you watch those three faces YOU in
voluntarily say: Yes. | can understand
how men who did not recognize Gods
hand in the government of the world
may have said as they looked at this
picture: THE fates are ruling our lives.
They meet us At the cradle. They
guide us through childhood's hours
They grow for us the orange blossoms
of the marriage altar. They lower the
bars of the great fields of usefulncs,
in which We are to labor They plant
the trees out Of which our collins are
tn 1,n do l,Ai,,
mandments. we shall do our work well.
If we turn Il deaf ear to their behests,
then unutterable misfortune and fail
ure will be ours. There the fateS ait,
spinning our thread of life, holding our
thread of life and with their long
shears cutting the thread of life at the
brink of the grave" Thus men have
felt the overarching influences of life
about them, and they believed they
would never get away from the place
of the life those fates had made for
them.
Sometimes men with this belief tried
10 avoid their mission in life, just as
men in our day sometimes try to evade
the duty to which God has called them.
are unhappy in their work and do not
make the most out of their lives. They
are like the late Henry S. Freze, the
beloved Latin professor OF Michigan
university. God never meant him to
be a Latin professor. He was born to
be a musician. All his desires seemed
to call out, Let me linger by the
piano keys" President Andrew d.
White once said of him: Though it
has been my good fortune to hear all
the leading panists Of my time, l have
never heard one who seemed to inter-
pref the masterpieces more worthily.
have always insisted that had he
lived in Germany he would have been
a second Beethoven. SO passionately
was he devoted to music that at times
he sent his piano away from his house
in order to shun temptations to abridge
his professional work" We find men
like Henry Simmons Frieze in every
department of life. They are like
John Tyndall. who tried to be civil
engineer when he was meant to he
a physicist. They are like Matthew
Simpson. who wished to be q phys-
clan when God intended him to be
minister They are like James Rus
sell Lowell and Walter Scott. trying
to DO lawyers when God meant them
to he poHs and literary men. Happy,
thrice happy. are the men who allow
the inward tendencies of their minds
and hearts to develop along the lines
for which they were born and for
which God equipped them.
One of Happiest Of Men.
Now. Paul in the words of my text il
Elorying in the fact that he has conSe-
Grated his brain and body and soul to
the work God had intended him to do.
lie seems to say i'll this chapter: Some
people think | sacrificed my joy and
pleasure when / gave up my life TO
gospel preaching Why. sirs, | could do
nothing else if tried. My greatest en-
joyment in life is not TO he found out
side of the gospel ministry but inside.
Why, sirs, If | were not allowed to
preach Jesus Christ | would be the
most misera bic of all men" Then he
uses these words of my text: Woe is
unto me If | preach not the gospel of
Jesus Christ" | want to show you
that Paul was one of the happiest of
men because he was allowed TO be q
missionary of Jesus Christ and that he
would have been one of the most mis-
cradle of men had he not surrendered
all his energies-body, mind and soul
TO be flaming evangelist of the cross.
Paul had an absorbing passion to
preach the gospel because, in the first
place, he had revelation of the divine
personality of Jesus Christ lie could
never get away from his Damascus
road experience. He had felt the
Christ touch. lie had stood face to
face with Jesus. He had seen Jesus
lie had talked to Jesus. He had heard
Jesus talk to him. No sooner did this
divine revelation come than there
sprang up in him longing desire to
go forth and tell to the world what he
had seen and how his Christ could be-
come the worlds Saviour. Paul's Da-
mascus experience was like that which
some OF us have had during our past
lives. 1t may have been during some
revival services In the village church
OF our boybood days or it may have
been during a season of awful sickness
or when We buried little child or dur.