Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-09-19
C>a(1,1age

BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talrnage, D. d.

Los Angeles, Cal, Sept 15.-In this
sermon the preacher shows that TO the
man or woman who is living Alright
md In harmony with Gods laws
those laws are no longer n burden, but
are transformed into n continual song
Of encouragement. The text is Psalm
xix, "a, "Thy statutes have been my
songs in the house Of my pilgrimage"
Never did scuptors chlsel create
two statues of more opposite charac-
ter than are Michael Angeles Moses"
md David When you study these
two wonderful figures 1t docs not seem
possible that the same human brain
could conceive both They are differ.
mt as the storm cloud and the sun
shine. as the rumbling onrushing ava
anche breaking loose from its anchor
lge and the bubbling laughing. leap
Ing happy brook gurgling down the
mountain side. They are different AS
The shrieks and the groans of the car
mage of bnttic and the soft cooling lul-
In bes of mother rocking her baby
to sleep. In other words, the ono stat
lie represents power ana the other
love. The one represents the crags
md the cliffs and inaccessible heights
ST old sinai with It's bare rocks in
iented ny the sword cuts of the light
nings. and the other represents the
melodious harp of the young shepherd
boy singing 20 his sheep among the
wild flowcrS of the valley and the
Dreamy relaxation of the poet while,
lying upon couch of softcst leaves,
| he watches thc parent birds feed their
young among the swaying branches
overarching his noontide resting place.
Never did pAiilas' colossal statue OF
XcuS" nj Els or Canova's "Thescus"
at Vienna represent greater strength
than does AuEclo's Moses" at Rome
Never did Praxltces' "Aphrodite" at
/ Cnidus or the Sleeping Ariadne" at
Rome reveal more love or poetic sym
metry than does Angeles marvellous
statue of "David" at Florence.
Put, thougu we have perfect right
/ to think of David the musician. David
/ the poet, David the imaginative youth
/
/ God, | wonder If we have not some
lines overlooked the fact that David
sang his SONGS OF triumph under the
shadow of old Mount Sinai and that he
/ had but Il vague and shadowy idea of
he tenderne-s of the cross of Jesus
Christ. The poctic eyes of David in
the statue may not search us from out
IF deep sockets or from under over
arching forehead. as do the pcnctrat ting
eyes of Moses the lawgiver, but the
same thought th1t tecmed in the brain
If Moses lived and throbbed in the
brain Of David. All through the Psalms
| find that the Ten Commandments Of
Mount Sinai are the skeletons upon
which David the psalmist based his
praises. When David writes his most
beautiful songs he seems to he echoing
in rhyme what Moses. the great law
yiver, had written 800 years before in
the books Of the Pentateuch David's
poetry is only Moses laws and COM
nandments set to music.
The Law OF God.
It was so with the other poets whose
compositions arc IN that great hymnal.
Turn almost anywhere in the Psalms
and you can fin this fact illustrated.
What Is the burden OF the One Hun
lred and Nineteenth Psalm? 1t is the
law, the rock Ri bed law of God. "Oh,
how love thy law, 1t is my medita-
ton day and night Is the song What
T., &C
is the law Of God. What IS the burden
Of the 1'hirty-seyonth Psalm and the
Fortieth Psalm and the Seventy eighth
Psalm? 1t is the law Of God. And
today in the words of my text the
shepherd poet tells us that the statutes
Of God have been his songs in the
house of his pilgrimage all through his
life. The law Of Moses is here found
to be the theme Of the sweetest singer
israel ever produced
Did you ever stop to think that the
avs of God could he set to music!
Oh, how prosaic a book Of common
law Is TO the average man, When
my brother was a young student in
the law college he one day came to
any father and placed before bin a
awbook and said Father, read that
Did you ever read any set of rules SO
Try or so uninternsting?" Truly, for
a young man lawbooll Is dry and
unintercstlng book, but when the
young man has mastered those dull
codes and uses them in his practice
they are changed from dry skeletons