Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-11-09
.Caln1age
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, ID. ID.

may rise to the highest spiritual dig
nifty and universal honor by living In
harmony with the divine will and by
showing love and kindness toward his
fellow men. The text is Peter Ii, II,
Honor all men"
There are three great sources OF
knowledge. Though the intellectual
reservoirs may be wide and deep, yet
for the most part they are fed from the
waters of three streams, which. like
pure, sparkling fountains bubbling out
of the mountains of perpetual youth,
never seem to lose their strength or
to exhaust their source. The first
stream of education is that which we
receive from the old homestead.
Though we may live on to our three
score years and ten and our hair be-
come white as snow, yet what our
mothers and fathers taught us contin-
ually recurs to the mind with new sig
niiicance.
The second stream of knowledge
comes from books. BY that | do not
mean simply what we learned when
we. were at school. The teachers Of
our youth impaired comparatively lit
tie knowledge to us. Their chief work
was TO teach us how to study. They
lowered the bars so that we could en-
G,I,l Of
them, as cattle step over the lowered
bars to get their fill of the rich sweet
clover. And | believe that most col
lege men Will agree with me when |
say that their chief education from
books came to them after they left
their alma mater. The third great
source of information comes to us not
from the home or from books, but from
reyeiing in the haunts of nature and In
the busy marts of the world, studying
the endless procession Of multitudes or
men. Oh, how many men there are
ara how many the different lessons
which they teach!
When some one once asked Henry
Ward Beecher how he knew so much
about the human heart he replied: by
sfldying men. | am indebted much to
books, for have always been a great
reader. But | am most indebted to
tie speaking lips of men. | never ride
uDon n street car but | try to talk with
tie driver. | rarely talk TO a driver
but he tells me something | do not
know. | never cross the Brooklyn fer
nv but try to mingle with the other
a zssengers and have them tell Inc
about themselves. Books have part
In the great intellectual uplifting of
mankind. but no true public teacher
can do his full duty unless. for time
at least. he takes off his priestly robes
and mingles with men,"
Peter Was No Bookworm.
One of the reasons why the author
of my text takes such deep hold
upon all our human sympathies is be-
cause lie gathers most of his informa-
ton from living men. You cannot
imagine Peter as a boOkworm. You
cannot think Of him as a gowned and
capped graduate of some classical uni
versity. You cannot think of him as
a hermit or clustered recluse. Pe-
ter was essentially a man of affairs, a
man among men. When he came to a
town or village do not believe he
sought the retirement of his room'
where he could read and rest, but with
that intense energy of his he used to
go to the place where the people were
gathered. There he would talk and
draw them out After awhile he would
get them telling him the innermost Sc
crets of their hearts. Then when he
was thrown among the wealthier class
es as he surely must have been at
times. be dropped the fathom line into
the depths of their hearts as well. And
If were TO send warning to my
brother ministers | would make this
blunt statement: II the Christian pull
pit is making any mistake today, it is
that some of the ministers are becom-
ing so lignifcd that they are not will
ing TO take of their black clothes and
don tweed suits and wander about in
their vacations incognito among all
classes of people. The true preacher
must get acquainted with living men
or else he cannot be helpful messen-
ger of Christ.
Now. after Peter, the rough, uncut
diamond among the apostles, had spent
so much of his life among all classes
of people he sums up his experience in
one general law. He says, Honor all
men," He declares that one of the
chief duties Of the true Christian Is to
learn to respect man, no matter where
he may be found. AS there are SO
many people who in the social as well
as the theological sense are talking
about the total depravity" of man,
am today going to speak about man
as the noblcst creature God has ever
produced. Thus | shall try to point
out four or five great reasons why we
should have a universal respect for
the human race.
Mans Supremacy.
First | bid you honor mans intel
lectual supremacy over the beasts OF
the field. the birds of the air, the fish
of the sea and the mineral and vege
Ia bic worlds. If there is emphatically
one animal 10 whom God has given
the right to rule over all other living
animals and over the elements, that
creature is man. Though man can
aptly be likened to a farmer with q
large landed estate which he has not
all under cultivation. yet more and
more, like Joshua with the land af
Canaan. he is going up to possess 1t
He Is reaching out and continuing t
reach farther out and is making th'
wealth of the land and of the sea an(
of the air tributary to his wealth an(
to his power.
Man looks upon the mighty noun
tains and says 81 must have gold To-
the basis of my monetary system. II