The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1907-03-01
Ca(n1aQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt TalmaGe, d. d.

preacher gives in this sermon an idea
of a conservation to the work Of preach
ing the gospel and of the obligations
arising from a consciousness of dt'
vine call. The text is l Corinthians,
tx, 16, "WOe is unto me if | preach not
the gospel"
In the Pitt palace of Florence is a
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
ture we kuow-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, remorselessIy and absolutely indie
pendent of all outside influences by
which they may be surrounded. When
you watch those three faces you in
voluntarily say: Eyes, | 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 childhOOds hours.
They grow for us the orange blossoms
% +br ,,i1r off
bars of the great fields of usefulness
in which we are to labor. They plant
the trees out of which our collins 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 thGy
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 to
be Latin professor. He was born to
be 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 pianists 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 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
sell 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 had intended him to do.
He seems to say in this chapter: Some
people think | sacrificed my joy and
pleasure when l gave up my life to
gospel preaching. Why, sirs, could do
nothing else if l tried. My greatest en-
joyment in life is not to be found out
side of the gospel ministry, but inside.
Why, sirs, if | 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 l 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
missionary of Jesus Christ and that he
would have been one of the most mis-
cradle of men had he not surrendered
ell 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 He could
never get away from his Damascus
road experience. He had felt the
Christ touch. He had stood face to
face with Jesus. He had seen Jesus.
He had talked to Jesus. He had heard
Jesus talk to him. No sooner did this
divine revelation come than there
sprang up in him a longing desire to
go forth and tell to the world what he
had seen and how his Christ could be-
come the worlds Saviour Paurs Da-
mascus experience was like that which
some of us have had during our past
lives. 1t may have been during some
revival services i'm the village church
of our boyhood days or it may have
been during a season of awful sickness /
or when we buried a little child or dur
ing the hours which succeeded our
yielding to a heinous sin that Christ
appeared unto US. We can remember
roua ~, Iafnro