Milford chronicle., 1907-03-01
CalmaQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage, D. D.


TX, 16, Woe is unto me if 1 preach no
the gospel"
In the Pitt palace of Florence is &
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
tuTe he used the same model for all the
three faces. Whether that is true we
know not, but one fact about this pic
ture we know-it is a most impressive
and suggestive picture. The artist has
depicted three women at their daily
tasks, going on in their work serene
ly, remorselessly and absolutely inde-
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 usefulness
in which we are to labor. They plant
the trees out Of which our coffins are
to be made. If we heed their COM
mandments, we shall do our work well.
If we turn a deaf ear to their behests,
then unutterable misfortune and fail
ure will be ours. There the fates sit,
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
to avoid their mission In life, just as
men in our day sometimes try to evade
the duty to which God has called them.
But whenever they do so these men
are unhappy in their work and do not
make the most out of their lives. They
are like the late Henry S. Frieze, the
beloved Latin professor of Michigan
university. God never meant him tc
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 il
has been my good fortune to hear all
the leading pianists Of my time, have
never heard one who seemed to inter
pret the masterpieces more worthily.
I 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 professOrial work" We find men |
like Henry Simmons Frieze in every |
department of life. They are like |
John Tyndall. who tried to be a civil |
engineer when he was meant to be |
a physicist They are like Matthew !
Simpson. who wished to be a physi' |
clan when God intended him to be
minister. They are like James Rus
self Lowell and Walter Scott, trying
TO be LAWYERS when God meant them
to be poets 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 is
glorying in the fact that he has cOnse-
Grated his brain and body and soul to
the work God bad intended him to do.
He seems to say in this chapter: Some
people think l sacrificed my joy and
pleasure when l gave up my life to
gospel preaching. Why, sirs, l could do
nothing else if I tried. My greatest en-
joyment in life is not to be found out
side of the gospel ministry, but inside.
Why. sirs, if l were not allowed to
preach Jesus Christ l would be the
most miserable of all men," Then he
uses these words of my text: 'WOe is
unto me if 1 preach not the gospel of
Jesus Christ" l want to show you ;
that Paul was one of the happiest of
men because he was allowed to be a J
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 a flaming evangelist Of the cross. I
Paul had an absorbing passion to {
preach the gospel because, in the first J
place, he had revelation Of the divine S
of Jesus Christ. He could {
never get away from his Damascus G
-oad experience He had felt the I
Christ touch. He had stood face to c
'ace with Jesus. He had seen Jesus. ]
lie had talked to Jesus. He had heard t
Jesus talk to him. No sooner did this, @
livine revelation come than there v
;prang up in him a longing desire to /
10 forth and tell to the world what he t
lad seen and how his Christ could be- b
,ome the worlds Saviour Pauls Da- t
f,,A fa1r