Milford chronicle., 1907-04-19
CalnaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee. D. D.

'oSAuAOA nc AGdAu llAt ltSSO4 ludL IL We
do our full duty to God and society
much of our lives must be devoted to
foundation laying and seed planting
for the benefit of those to come after
SIS. The text is John iv, 81, zone SOW
eth, and another reapeth."
Christ is here describing a group of
workmen going forth to their labors.
Each laborer carries upon his arm a
bag full of seed. They fill their hands
with the seeds and begin to scatter
them far and wide. Finally one of
these laborers turns and says to Christ:
''Why, Jesus, for what am planting
these seeds? will never live long
enough to gather the harvests in this
world" mo" answers Christ, II know
1t. But the coming generations will
gather the harvests of your seed plant
ing. AS your ancestors planted seeds
from which you are today gathering
harvests, so you must plant seeds that
your children and children's children
AuhY EdLDGA lLGAA nnA fEoAes III OAh(A
words, the great lesson of this text is
that 1--WE ourselves may die and be for
gotten, but our works shall live on, and
other men may get the credit of the
work" Come, let me read to you the
text in full: "And herein is that say
ing true, one man soweth, and another
reapeth."
Every generation builds upon the
tombs and the catacombs of previous
generations. This fact is emphatically
true in both the scientific and the in
dustrial world. 1t is true of the houses
in which we live, and the railroad
trains and steamboats, in which we
travel, and the food that we eat, and the
clothing that we wear, and the electric
fights by which we see, and the books
that we read. It is true in almost all
the industrial developments of life. 1t
IS also true that the men who made
these Industrial developments possible
themselves, as a rule, got very little
reward out Of their inventions or i'm
provements.
a Magnificent Heritage.
Have you ever stopped to think how
magnificent is the heritage in the indus
trial world you as a child fell heir to
when YOU were born? Have you ever
STONED to think of all the well built
roads and the railroad tracks and all
the lighthouses and aqueducts and
Eanitary developments which have
come to you through your ancestors?
How you have been served by the
wise men and the greatest heroes of
the worldi Child Of the twentieth CEN
tury. how rich is the heritage on which
Won have entered! Men have thought
and studied and toiled, and you are en-
joying the fruit of their labors. Do
Won not realize that when John Guten-
berg invented printing he was invent
ing it for you: and that when Column
bus sailed across the seas he was dis
covering America for you, and that
when CYRUS w. Field stretched his ca
bles he was laying them for you, and
that when Galilei developed the tele-
scope he was developing it for you'
and that when Isaac Newton discover
ed the law Of specific gravity he was
discovering it for you? All these men
were seed planters. They were the
giants who laid the foundation stones
unon which the superstructures of our
Industrial prosperity have been erect
ed. They themselves received very lit
tie personal benefit out of their seed
DIanting. but they made millions Of
dollars for other men. The next gen
Grafton reaped the harvest of their
seed planting. "One man sOweth, and
another reapeth."
This fact was powerfully illustrated
In the life of one of my friends. In
nv Pittsburg church there was a fam
i1v which for generations had produced
bridge builders and contractors. The
first member Of that family who came
to the western part Of Pennsylvania
was a contractor. His grandson, whom
I knew well, was also a contractor
Some years ago this grandson OF the
first pioneer had a contract to Dulld
over or reconstruct a railroad bridge.
AS he dug down into the foundations
to relay some of the old stones, much
to his surprise he found there a tool
chest marked with his own Initials,
ar s" That tool chest could have be-
Ionged to but one person, and that MS
own grandfather, after whom ne had
been named. One of his grandfather S
men had forgotten and left his tools
there when his grandfather built the
original bridge. So when we begin to
die down into the foundations of our
modern industrial prosperity we al
wavs find that our modern industrial
life has been built out Of the inventions
and tbe discoveries Of the generations
that are dead and gone. Like the coral
Feef. we have been growing in tenn
moral sense. Our industrial prosperl-
files are built upon the catacombs and
the tombs Of our ancestors. These for
mer generations may have received
from fhnTT