Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-18
TELLS OF
GREAT LEADER
TESTIMONY" SUB
JEcT OF SERMON
Delivers Interesting Address on Life
Of Adopted Son of Pharaoh's
Dauchter--Great Force
Swayed Actions

| In his sermon on "'The Lawgiver's Tes-
timony' Rev Frank Dewitt Talmage,
| d. D., yesterday showed the significance
of the testimony of Israels great leader
to Jesus as Messiah He said in part:
THE symbol of the graveyard is used
by Jesus for his gospel teachings, just as
many artists use skeletons for their mod
els in great artistic masterpieces. The
parable of Dives and Lazarus is nothing
more or less than a great panorama, a
collection of verbal pictures, showing the
eternal tragedy of a misspent life
| Scene the first An eastern prince is
| in his palace, All that wealth and power
and temporal grandeur can give is his.
| His clothes are of royal purple His din
| ing room is banquet hall. His walls are
of white marble. His floors are filled
with statuary and richest tapestries ind
beautiful, artistic masterpieces. Upon his
| doorstep crouches a poor beggar, starving
| to death, malodorous and offensive from
| innumerable ulcers and assesses, which
| have broken out over his body on account
of improper nourishment.
Scene the second. Two graves and the
celestial advent of the beggar and the
| eternal incarceration of him who had
once been king among men, The earthly
pauper has been crowned. The earthly
| prince has been stripped of his all. Then
Dives, down in the region of the lost,
looks up and sees Lazarus who had once
sat at his doorstep a despised beggar. but
now cherished and cared for by Abraham,
the father of the faithful, and he cries
out: L pray thee, father that thou
wouldst send Lazarus to my father s
house; for l have five brethren; that he
may testify unto them, lest they also
come into this place of torment
"Then what happens? God seems to
reach down and lift a skeleton out of its
grave and clothe it again with flesh. He
stands this resurrected dead man before
us and points to him as he says: If they
| hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded though one rose
| from the dead. The statement practical
| ly is that if a man Is open to convicuon,
| he will be convinced by the writings of
| Moses and the prophets; if he is not con-
vnced by them, nothing would convince
| him-not even the testimony of a specter.
| This is startling assertion. Have we
ever fully realized that those works are
so convincing? What was there in the
| life and writings of that ancient lawgiver
| that makes them so influential?
Moses, by the law of adoption, took
| the rank of one who was well born. He
| was the adopted soa of Pharaohs daugh-
ter. He was the heir-apparent of the
| greatest throne on earth. He had all that
wealth and position and honor could give
him. He was born great. He was rocked
| in golden cradle and fed out of a golden
spoon and had servants innumerable to
run his bidding When he was carried
forth in one of the royal charots the
people used to kneel and say, There gees
the child who will one day rule over us
| as king In the sight of the law he was
not pauper, slave or a Hebrew. He
| had been raised to royal rank All he
| had to do was to keep his lips closed, and
/ he might live in affiuence and inherit a
throne And yet this Egyptian prince,
this adopted child of Pharaohs daughter,
| was ready to surrender all of kingly pow
er, in order to be a follower of the true
God Now every effect must have log
ical cause. man does not surrender a
great prize of life just for whim. There
must have been some great impelling
! force in Moses life to have led him to
serve L ID and espouse the cause of the
| Hebrew slave
1--WE have read of men and women sur
rendering their faith for an earthly
throne, but did you ever know of a man
surrendering an earthly throne for his
religion unless he deeply and consclen-
tiously believed in that religion? When a
German princess few years ago married
Emperor Nicholas and became Empress
| Alike of all the Russas, she renounced
the Lutheran church and Joined the Greek
church, of which her husband is the spir-
itual head. When the English Princess
Ena of Battenberg became Queen Vic
| toria of Spain. she left the Episcopalian
church. in which she had been confirmed
and baptized, and Joined the Catholic
church, which is the established church
| of her adopted country. These two
princesses changed their religious creed
in order to win q royal diadem. But what
would you say if the present prince of
Wales should join the Roman Catholic
church? What would you say if he
should turn from the Episcopalian church
and give his religious fealty to the pope
of Rome, as did Cardinal John Henry
Newman?"