The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1907-03-15
G.'aQr11aQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt TalmaGe, d. D.

Bible story and how common in gu
that characterized men in the time O
Christ. The text is Luke xii, 1, "Be
ware of the leaven of the Pharisees
which is hypocrisy"
The Bible may be compared to
family album When you turn the sa
cred pages, the different faces you Sc
there are like your own ancestors
They are men of another age and an
other land, but they are men like our
selves. Their faults and their gOo(
qualities are plainly described, and We
see that they were such men as those
we associate with today. Moses an(
Joshua and Gideon and David and
Paul and Peter and Mary and Martha
and Lazarus do not seem to be sc
much Jews as human beings like our
selves-nOt strangers, but your own
flesh and blood. By their own mis-
takes and sins and failings and spir-
itual triumphs they are preaching their
practical lessons. They seem to sit
by your side and say: MY son, l would
not live as you are living. l would
not sin as you are SHINING. The only
true and happy life is the gospel life.
1 know your temptations by expert
ence. There were black days in my
life as there are in yours, but they
were the dark days when l was fol
lowing my own selfish will When
surrendered my life to the divine will,
there were no dark days. Try to live
for Christ, my child. BY my own sad
history l want you to learn this les
son." Yes, the Bible pages are simply
filled with pictures of those who are
part of us, as you seem to be part of
them.
But, though the Bible is a great
photograph album with its hundreds
of sanity faces pleading with us to be
good, the Bible also has it's rogues' gal
lery as well. There the fiendish faces
are pilloried for our warning. There are
Cain, the murderer, and JeZebel, the
painted bag, whose bleeding carcass is
being eaten by the dogs under the walls
of Jezreel. There is the swaying corpse
ofPrime Minister Hannah dangling from
the hangman's moose which he had pre-
pared for just Mordecai. There is the
BabylOnish banquet hall where Bel
sha2zar and his intoxicated jewellers
were holding the high carnival of
death. There are the cruel face of
bloody HerOd and the demoniac visage
of the unrepentant thief disappearing
Christ when they were both dying up
on the cross. There is Judas, the trail
tor, clutching the blood money forwhch
he had sold his Master. These sinful
faces are all there. They seem to be
human lighthouses, flashing out their
red lights over the stormy seas of life,
warning us away from the fatal rocks
upon which they have eternally foun-
dered. Yes, the Bible seems to be
crowded with two kinds of pictures.
There we find the saints and the fiends.
The pictures of the saints are pleading
with us to come and kneel at the foot
of the cross. The fiends by their mis-
cradle fate are continually calling, BE
ware, beware, bewarew
Whted Sepuchers.
Among all the excoriated sinners of
the Bible not any are more vehement
ly denounced by Christ than the Phari-
sees In one place Christ compares
them to the whited sepulchers filled |
with dead mems bones and all unclean-
ness. In another place Jesus compares |
these Pharisees to the woman who |
cleanses the outside of her cups and |
yet leaves the inside corrupt and filthy. !
In another place Christ describes a
Pharisee and publican praying in the
temple. To the Pharisee God is turn
ing deaf ear. To the publican God
is reaching out the hands of forgive
ness and love. In another place Christ
is comparing the Pharisee to a wolf
crawling around in sleeps clothing.
In my text he calls them hypocrites.
In other words, these Pharisees may
seem to have the face of an angel, but
they have the claws of a tiger. Though
they may seem to be the friends and
helpers of mankind, yet everything
they touch they pOllute and destroy, as
does the infectious hand of a leper.
''Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees.
hypocrites, for We compass sea and
land to make one proselyte and when
he is made We make him twofold more
the child of hell than yourselves" This
was Christs idea of the PhariSees
when he was upon earth. 1t is just as
true picture of the Pharisees today.
Now, why should the faces of the
Pharisees always be found in the
rogues' gallery of the Bible? These
men, as class, represented the brains
and the wealth of the east They had
among their representatives most of
the social and political and ecclesias.
deal leaders of Palestine When can
1idates were about to be indicted into
heir order they had to take vows of
)iety and pledge themselves that they
would give One-tenth of all their finan-
,ial income to the Lord. They held
most of the seats in the sanhedrin, yet
lere Christ is denouncing them as
worse than thieves and murderers and
ocial outcasts. Why is all this? Let
Is study their origin and then mark
he spiritual degeneracy of these men, ,
Vho were outwardly fair to look upon, ,
ut inwardly were as a writhing mass ,
decomposition. !
First their origin. But what is the !
'tymology Of the word7 Pharisee ,
comes from the Hebrew :
yord perushim or separatists. A Phar. \
see in 5coad Technology means "a !
eparatoT" separator from what? {
Their Origin. d
Away back In the time of Jehoiakim, v
90, years before Christ. Nebuchadnez- v