Milford chronicle., 1907-09-27
CalmaSe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. D.

Los Angeles. Cal, Sept. I'm this
sermon the preacher shows that to the
man or woman who is living Alright
and in harmony with Gods laws
those laws are no longer a burden. but
are transformed into a continual song
of encouragement. The text is Psalm
cxix, "a, Thy statutes have been my
songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
Never did sculptor's chisel create
two statues of more opposite charac-
ter than are Michael Angeles Moses
and David" When you study these
two wonderful figures It does not seem
possible that the same human brain
could conceive both. They are Differ
ent as the storm cloud and the sun
shine, as the rumbling Onrushing ava
lanche breaking loose Gom its anchor
age and the bubbling, laughing, leap
ing. happy brook gurgling down the
mountain side. They are different as
the shrieks and the grOans OF the car
mage of battle and the soft cooling lul-
iabies Of a mother rocking her DaDy
TO sleep. In other words, the one stat
ue represents power and the other
love. The one represents the crags
and the cliffs and inaccessible heights
Of old Sinai, with its bare rocks IN
dented by the sword cuts of the light
nings. and the other represents the
melodious harp of the young shepherd
bow singing to his sheep among the
wild flowers of the valley and the
dreamy relaxation Of the poet while'
living upon a couch of softest leaves
he watches the parent birds feed their
young among the swaying branches
overarching his nOontide resting place.
Never did Phidias' colossal statue OF
''Zeus" at Ellis or CanOva's "Theseus"
at Vienna represent greater strength
than does Angeles Moses" at Rome.
Never did Praxiteles' "Aphrodite" at
Cnidus or the Sleeping Ariadne" at
Rome reveal more love or poetic sym
metry than does Angeles marvellous
statue of David" at Florence.
But, though we have a perfect right
to think of David the musician, David
the poet, David the imaginative youth.
who is always singing the praises OF
God, wonder il we have not some
times overlooked the fact that David
sang his songs Of triumph under the
shadow of old Mount Sinai and that he
had but a vague and shadOwy idea OF
the tenderness of the cross OF Jesus
Christ The poetic eyes Of David IN
the statue may not search us from out
of deep sockets or from under over
arching forehead as do the penetrating
ewes of Moses the lawgiver, but the
same thought that teemed in the brain
NJ Moses lived and throbbed in the
brain of David. All through the Psalms
I find that the Ten Commandments OF
Mount Sinai are the skeletons upon
which David the psalmist based his
praises. When David writes his most
beautiful songs he seems to be echolne
in rhyme what Moses, the great law
giver. had written 800 years before in
the books of the Pentateuch. David'S
poetry is only Moses laws and com
mandments set to music.
The Law of God.
It was so with the other poets whose
COMPOSITIONS are in that great hymnal
Turn almost anywhere in the Psalms
and you can find this fact illustrated
What is the burden Of the One Hun
dred and Nineteenth Psalm? 1t is thu
law, the rock ribbed law of God. "Oh
how I love thy law! 1t is my media
ton day and night" is the song. VIVA
ia the burden of the First Psalmf
"a the law Of God. What is the burdel
Of the Thirty Psalm and IN
Fortieth Psalm and the Seventy eight
Psalm? 1t is the law of God. AM
TODAY in the words of my text tn
shepherd poet tells us that the statute
of God have been his songs IN tn
house Of his pilgrimage all through hi
life. The law of Moses is here toun'
to be the theme of the sweetest SINCE
Israel ever produced.
Did you ever stop to think that tn
laws of God could be set to music
Oh, how prosaic a book of commo
law is to the average man! VINE
my brother was a young student l
the law college he one day came
nv father and placed before him
lawbook and said: Father, read tina
Did you ever read any set OF rules
dry or so uninterestingT Truly f'
a young man a lawbOOk is dry an
uninteresting book, but when II
young man has mastered those du
codes and uses them in his pracd'
.hey are changed from dry skeleton
into living forces. Then he sees no
those legal enactments are the gre'
barriers by which the rights OF me
are protected against the assaults
evildoers. So with David. When
mastered the principles Of Gods Law
he was able to clothe them with poet
Imagery. He saw the far reaching
feet of those laws. Instead of bell
a collection Of skeletons bleaching In
cemetery they became to him Hvil
power. AS living principles they W,
coined him at the cradle. They gui
ed him through chldhoods houl