The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-17
ss.s,.c.c c.c'o't
 DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
 BY THE REV. DE WITT TALMAGE D.


 king of the Chaldeans with his mighty army swept southwestward and laid siege to and captured Jerusalem. As was the custom of that day, a large number of the Hebrews were carried away from the iand of their nativity. There, within the strong walls of old Babylon, they had to dwell. No temple had they No pries- hood had they. Surrounded by the sins of heathern nation and under the shadow of the shrines of the idols, they had to do something to prevent thei children becoming immoral idolaters So what did they do? They withdrew them selves just as far as possible from asso. ciating with these sinful Babylonians. They did what the Puritans did when they were eXiles in Holland. They diG what the foreign missionaries are accus- toned to do amid the awful customs of the heather lands. They keep their child ren within their own homes as far as possible. And when their boys and giTis grow too big to be longer kept clean from the contamnating immoral infG- ences of the east they send them back home to be educated in the American homes and American institutions. Oh said an American missionary some years ago to me in India, "the hardest burden which a missionary has to bear is this I separation from his children. But what i can missionary do? l cannot allow my children to grow up amid the licentous ] influences of this land. I must separate
 them from these evil surroundings and therefore I send them back home to be educated and to be kept morally and i spiritually pure'
 When the Puritans arrived in the city of Leyden. which was to be their home for some years to come' wrote the au- thor Of "The Pilgrim Fathers of New England, "the exiles from Scrooby lived very much together community with in community, dwelling among strange people, Thus was 1t with the Hebrews l in the Babylonish exile They kept as , completely separated possible. In or der to keep their Hebrew religion pure and undefiled they became in time people narrow and bigoted and clannish
 So the beginning of the sect was alto gether commendable. The Jew was despised captive He could not reform the conditions around him, but he couli register his protest against them by withdrawing himself from them. Not all the Jews of that time were willing to thus withdray at the cost of obloquy and perhaps financial loss. Those who did withdraw were called separatists or Phar- isees. Though the Pharsees as class were narrow and bigoted, they had their . Dli2ln III the llOpleSI anu puItSA ol iutdi9 They were first organized as a sect in order to protect their own morals and the morals of their children.
 | cannot illustrate my thought better than by taking you for e little while in old Jerusalem to the waiting place ot the Jews. It is one of the' great sights for the Palestine tourist to see. Though Jerusalem has been under foreign con trol for centuries upon centuries yet the i,,+o JphrawS not IOr- gotten their race or their religion. They are not allowed to enter the Moham- medan mosque, which IS built upon the site of the old temple. so they gather day after day at the foot of the walls where there are stones that once formed part of the temple. There they repeat over and over again the lamentaton of the seventy-ninth Psalm: 70 God, the heathern are come into thine inheritance Thy holy temple have they dehled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps we are become a reproach to our neiShDors, u scorn and q derision to them that are roundabout us. How long, Lord! Wlit Thou he angry forever"' Thus they saha day after day as their fathers stood, and month after month and year after year and century after century the Weepihs and wailing and praying and pleading go on. Thus did the exiled Hebrews become the Pharisees or the separators ol baps lon Day after day, year after year, they nleaded with God to bring them back to the Davidic capital How long, Lord" they cried, 'how long must we live amid these licentious and plasphehi ing Babylonians? How long? How long: How long?" Thus they prayed Ihus they pleaded And thus they refused to minsie with the Chaldean sinners. Thus we niu that the genesis of the Pharisees was m spired by love for God, by love for pufVy and by love for the Mosaic laws.
 Their Degeneracy.
 Having explained the genesis or the Pharisees, it is sad to have to trace their spiritual degeneracy. When God took nitv on the race and permitted them to return to Palestine, the Pharisees were nround of the attitude they had taken. They had been faithful while many or their brethren had not, and they were proud of it. Now, spiritual pride IS ali ways a bad thing and leads men ihto ser ious faults. If you once teach the uoc- trine that the most important fact or mans life is to live by set or ruies and stand up straight. it is not very o'i- ficult for him, like fancy pigeon, ,o eo strutting around bending backward. AS he had separated rom the o,s s,''''s Chaldeans he now separated himself irola his brethren and plumed himself on ms obedience to the minute letter or the law In order to keep separated rom his fellow men he said, 'l Will opey the law" Then, in order to try to loiiow oue the letter of the law. he lost sight or the snirit of the law. Then he said. III nav my tithes and I keep the laws or purity and l obey the law or ',e oao ath. why, l am a perfect man. No"' vou know and l know that there IS no
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