Milford chronicle., 1907-03-22
CalmaQe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. D. D.

Los Angeles, Cal, March 17.-In this
sermon the preacher outlines in imagi-
nation the dramatic story of a charac-
ter Of the time Of Christ whose ex-
perience has a remarkable interest for
the people of today. The text is Mat
thew xvii. "a, 'Truly this was the
Son Of God"
No picture of the crucifixion is per-
feet unless the face Of Jesus Christ is
the center and the absorbing theme.
All other parts of the picture must
converge toward that divine face or
radiate from 1t even as the spokes Of
the wheel branch out from the hub.
There may be three crosses, but Jesus
cross must be the central cross. There
may be soldiers there gambling for
prize, but that prize must be the gar
ments Of Jesus Christ. There may be
a long line of scOffers and mOckers
and sneerers and blasphemers passing
by, but they must all have their eyes
riveted upon the dying Lord. The
heavens may be black and the rocks
riven, but through the blaeknesS Of
that midnoOn there must be some
beam Of light lowering about the
bleeding brow of the dying Jesus. All
parts of the crucifxion scene must
cOncenter in the personality Of the
chief figure of the divine or universal
tragedy, the death of him whose atom
ing blood was shed that whOsoever
believeth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
But, though we would not for one
instant turn your chief thought Of the
crucifxion from our Divine Lord, yet
in order to bring Christs saving sac
rifce a little closer we would this
morning have you watch the upturned
face of a Roman soldier who is stand
ing at the foot of the cross and with
,outstretched arms is uttering the words
of my text. Who Is this centurion
Where did he come from? What was
his past life? Why was he led to be-
lieve in the divinity of our Master and
King? These are questions which l
would like to answer in an imaginative
way, for in all the Bible we do not
read one word about him except that
he was a captain or a petty line officer
in the Roman army and that he was
detailed by his superior officer to see
that Christ was executed according to
the Roman law. And yet in an imag-
NATIVE way I believe we can read be-
tween the lines and trace this cen
turions life step by step from his era
die to his spiritual surrender at the
foot Of the cross, where today we are
all gathered to worship our dying Lord.
In the first place, l imagine that this
centurion was once a Roman youth
who was born amid the pure, sweet
wholesome country life Of old Italy
By that I do not mean he came OF an
ignorant, poverty stricken family. but
1 believe he came of an Italian land
owning family which had neither pow
erty nor riches, but had purity in do
nestle life. refinement of home asso-
Citations and had all which was posi-
BILE in a heather land to make life
Dure and sweet and wholesome. IN
other words, believe this Roman sol
der came from a family like that OF
hundreds and thousands which lived
before the civil war in Georgia and
Alabama and Kentucky and Virginia
and Tennessee and the Carolinas
These families had their slaves tC
work their plantations, but they lived
for something good besides money
making. They lived for the noble pur
pose of making true, brave, manly
men out of their boys and noble, Wiz
tuous wives and mothers out of theil
daughters. And, what is more, they
not only strove to make noble. pure
men and women out of their children
but as a rule in the Augustinian age
from which this Roman centurion
sprung they accomplished what they
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