The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-16
.osceo.c't , DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
 
 TALaLAGE

oS ANGELES, Cal, June e-That
 worldly fame and repriate are evanes- 1 cent and that even the greatest serv- ices one can render to his fellow men are apt soon to be forgotten in the lesson of this sermon. The text is Exodus l. 8, Now there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph"
 If there Is any country which pre- emnently built it's monuments to endure as long as the world lasts that land is ancient Egypt When the Egyptians planned a monument to commemorate a victory or the glories of their kings or national heroes they seemed to say. "We will erect this monument out of such mas siye stones that the foundations of the earth shall have to be moved before they are rocked down." These graves, like those of the "toflbs of the kings" were eXcavated from the sides of the noun tains themselves. To break them down the lconoclast must rip open the earth and tear down the foundations of the hills and destroy the unbroken rocks which have never been disturbed since the Divine Mason mortared them in al their laying. Yet there is a strange irony
 
 remain, the memory of the men they were intended to immortalize has perished Ex- plorers can only guess at the purpose for Which some of those monuments were raised. The modern Egyptian cannot tell you the meaning of the Sphinx: he can not tell you why the pyramids were built ana he has to ask the modern German or Frenchman or Englishman what is the meaning of the inscriptions on the walls DlldrnDba Df bo ,s are completely forgotten by the people of the country over which they ruled
 II Egypt-old Egypt-could forget the purpose for which the pyramids were built, if 1t could forget where was the valley of the vest in which the kings Of the eighteenth dynasty were buried, if It could forget the sites of some of it's greatSst and most populous cities surely II IS not wonderful to learn that there arose a king and 0 people in old Egypt who could forget that great prime min lster like Joseph ever lived There had been q time when his name was in every mouth, when his power and authority had been felt from one end of the country to the other, but, like the pharaohs. was forgotten. So 1t is in modern times. The men who occupied so large a space in the newspapers, who were followed by crowds of admirers. on whose lips great audiences hung enraptured, are scarcely mentioned now. They have passed into history and the world goes on without them. The fact tehches A lesson that all of Us should learn. Let us do faithfully the work God has given to us to do and not waste our energies in building sand castles on the beach of time, which will not immortalize us, but will be swept away by the waves of oblivion.
 Jospeh Forgotten.
 The name of Joseph was forgotten by the Egyptians because, in the first place the conditions which made him prime min ister of Pharaoh's kingdom had forever passed away. The seven years of famine were gone. The huge granaries in which the product of the seven years of plenty were stored had been emptied and pulled down. The recolltions of those weary months when the great river Nile re- fused to overflow It's banks, haw grown dinner and dinner. The horses and the cattle and the sheep and the oxen and the men and the women and the children were no longer in danger of starvation. Thus the condition which made Josephs name the most potent in all Egypt had gone and been forgotten as well. When mans work is done the man as far as the world Is concerned ceases to exist The world does not enjoy picnicking in a graveyard nor associating with the dead It has heard enough work to keep up with its living Issues without unwrapping the fold of It's mummied past.
 I come to you today and say: "TeI me the history of the great American po- litical parties. What did the federalists stand for? What was the great bond which held together the demoeratic-repu lfcan party. with Thomas Jefferson at its head? What was the leading issue which made James K. Polk president of the United States? Upon what ground was Texas admitted into the union ?" oh you answer, 'T do not know have never studied those causes. Those causes are dead issues. I have hardly enough time to keep up with the plat forms of our present political parties. I say as do most men, Let the dead bury their dead "
 l ask you another question, Who built the Erie canal?" Of course you know that the Erie canal was the most famous piece of engineering ever under taken in the United States up to that time. What das the history of hte pony express" one of the most daring mercan- tile enterprises ever started and which once connected the Calfornians with the eastern metropolis. Your answer: q do not know and since the mighty locomo- tive, with It's iron rails, has spanned this continent l am more anxious to study the future of our modern trans portation systems than to find out the genesis of our Erie canal or pony express When the stagecoach and the canalboat have become the relics of defunct past say, Let the dead bury their dead What is true of the sociological and sclen- tific world Is also true of the domestic and the ecclesiastical When an Issue which has made a man famous passes away the mans work is done and the mans name will surely be forgotten.
 
 But there is another reason why those Egyptians ceased to honor the name of Joseph The disasters which flowed from the stay of his people in Egypt were so overwhelming that Joseph's services were forgotten. They could not mention his name unless at the same time they re- called the calamities his descendants had brought upon teir kingdom. Those He- brews who were the descendants of Jo- seph and his brethren were like small tribe of Indians called the Aztecs, which settled in Mexico. They multiplied rapid ly in numbers until they overran and captured the whole land of what is now called Mexico. So was 1t with the chil- dren of Israel in Egypt. They were null tiplying so fast that they threatened to overturn the throne of the pharoahs.
 "Joseph? Who was Joseph?' l hear some of the Egyptians ask. 'Oh know" some one answers. He is that Hebrew who was captured by a band of rowing Ishmaelites and brought into this coun- try and sold as a slave about POO years Nf ha cba ,nca iverr