Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-06-29
CalnnaSe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase, d. d.

| Frank De Witt Talma9e, ID. ID.
Los Angeles, Cal, June 23.-In this
termon the preacher shows that the Sc
rret to a life of real achievement and
usefulness is to live up to our priv
ileges by laying hold Of the divine
promises In good faith and expecting
large things. The text Is John IL, Z
"And they filed them up to the brim."
IL there is any passage in the Bible
which teaches us to expect big things
from God 1t is the sentence which l
have chosen for my text When Jesus
commanded the servants at the wed
ding of Cana of Galilee to fill up the
water pots they did not go grumbling
laround saying: "Oh, what Is the usef
What the guests need is wine, not wa
ter. Besides, Jesus Is not asking us
to fill one water pot, but six Of them.
Why, those six water pots will hold l3o
gallons Think of the distance we VIII
have to travel down to the well to get
that water Think Of all the fun and
the music and the songs we will lose
while we are gonew No, those young
men spake not thus. They obeyed or
ders. If they had known what was
about to occur they would have said,
'If Christ can change the water into
wine, then the more water we have
the more wine we shall have" SO
! they took their buckets and started OH
for the well. They kept emptying the
water into the water pots until the wa
ter ran over the tops of the water pots.
"And they filed them up to the brim."
| They did big things for God and they
got big things. May we today learn
to have "a 'brimful faith" May we
expect God to bless us nightly In ev-
cry department of life and in our
youth and middle age and old age and
make great preparations for the COM
ing spiritual blessings.
Let us, in the first place, have
brimful faith in reference to our pray
ers. Let us learn that prayer to God
is not a narrow ledge of rock upon the
side of a mighty preciplce where we
must stand trembling and pleading for
eternal life or else our feet will slip
and we will tumble into the bOttomless
Dit But prayer is the broad invitation
God gives to his children to come ana
talk with him and ask what they will,
and he will grant their requests If 1t is
best for them to be granted. Prayer is
n promissory note that God puts into
our hands, and we are encouraged to
fill 1t out literally. Prayer is the hold
we have on the power that Is capable
of recreating ourselves and recreating
our dear ones and lowering the bars so
, that we can enter into great fields OF
usefulness Prayer is the most vital
spiritual power we have on earth.
With it we can catch the ear OF the
Lord God Almighty, and he will listen
to our petitions and grant them II II
is best for us and for those for whom
we pray. What says the Biblef Is
there any limitation to the petitions
we are to make to God? Nay. All
things will be granted for our best
welfare If these petitions are made in
the spirit of Jesus Christ. ASK, ana
II shall be given you; seek, and We snail
find: knock, and it shall be opened I'M
to YOU" But, though this sweeping In
vItation is given to make our prayers
as big as heaven itself, some or the
most miserable and contemplate and
insignificant things in the world are
those we ask In the circumscribed and
limited petitions which we make to
God through the gateway Of prayer
Narrow Ideas.
| In our ideas of prayer we are just as
narrow boundaried as are the Ideas OF
some men born away back in the coun-
try who have never seen steam en-
CINE. who have never learned to read a
newspaper and who have never been
to a village of larger population than
| 200 inhabitants. You go to such man
and say. "AIy friend, how would you
like to go to New York and see the
greatest metropolis of the new worldF
| He answers: mo, l don't want TO GO
| WHY. some Of the men down at the
| village store tell me that the buildings
there are twenty times higher than my
barn. Why, l would be afraid TO go
there for fear they would fall down
and crack my skull open. And they
say the street cars run so fast that
they kill people there every day. And
they say there are lot Of thieves and
murderers there. No New York for me.
I prefer to live here in my quiet dig
eings. where | am not in danger OF
being killed every step l take" But
say: "My friend, you are not going to
keep your children here in the DacK
woods. There are no schools OF
churches here You have poor, mis-
erable shack Of house, with no car
pets on the floors and no pictures upon
the walls. Are you going to let youl
children grow up as ignorant as you
areYr Well" answers the old back
woodsman. 81 do not know that DooF
learning does man any good. The
children have enough to eat. They
have enough clothes to wear. Ihey
have room in which to sleep. Wha
IS the good of stockings and under
clothes? They do not help a man tC
keep any warmer. And then a littl'
dirt does not hurt anybody. | have
lived for nigh on to fifty years In thes'
here woods without learning how Il
read or write, and guess the children
are no better than their father Is. II
had to do as l have done | guess the.
{ can do the same" You see that man 1
an animal, a simple animal. The grea
wide world. with its music and books
, and knowledge and joys and hopes,
utterly beyond his visual range. Ill