The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1907-02-28
Caln1aSe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. D. D.

Los Angeles, Cal, Feb. "a. = The
preacher gives In this sermon an ideal
BIZ conservation to the work of preach
ing the gospel and Of the obligations
arising from consciousness of di-
zine call. The text Is Corinthians,
*, 16, WOE is unto me If preach not
be gospel"
in the Pitt palace of Florence is a
pnderful picture, supposed to have
en painted by Michael Angelo, called
"Three Fates" There sit the three
tiers of neurological fame-Clotho,
Inning the thread of life; Lachesis,
holding the thread of life, and Atropos,
with her long, sharp shears, cutting
the thread of life. 1t is thought that
when Michael Angelo painted this pic
ture he used thessame model for all the
three faces Whether that is true we
know not, but one fact about this pic
ture we know--it is most impressive
and suggestive picture. The artist has
depicted three women at their daily
tasks, going on in their work serene
ly, remorselessly and absolutely indie
pendent Of all outside influences by
which they may be surrounded. When
you watch those three faces you in
voluntarily say. Eyes, can understand
how men who did not recognize Gods
hand in the government of the world
may have said as they looked at this
picture: sThe fates are ruling our lives.
They meet us at the cradle They
ait
They grow for us the orange blossoms
of the marriage altar. They lower the
bars Of the great fields of usefulness
in which we are, to labor. They plant
the trees out Of which our collins are
to be made. If we heed their COM
mandments, we shall do our work well.
II we turn deaf ear to their behests,
then unutterable misfortune and fail
r4Are will be ours. There the fates sit,
spinning our thread of life, holding our
thread of life and with their long
shears cutting the thread Of life at the
brink of the grave" Thus men have
felt the overarching influences of life
about them, and they believed they
would never get away from the place
of the life those fates had made for
= them
d Sometimes men with this belief tried
to avoid their mission in life, just as
men in our day sometimes try to evade
the duty to which God has called them.
But whenever they do so these men
are unhappy In their work and do not
make the most out of their lives. They
ere like the late Henry s. Frieze, the
beloved Latin professor Of Michigan
University. God never meant him to
|e a Latin professor. He was born to
Be musician All his desires seemed
10 call out, LET me linger by the
biano keys" President Andrew ID.
White once said of him: Though it
+ las been my good fortune to hear all
he leading pianists of my time, have
ever heard one who seemed to inter-
bret the masterpieces more worthily.
have always insisted that had he
lived In Germany he would have been
second Beethoven. So passi0nately
vas he devoted to music that at times
he sent his piano away from his house
IA order to shun temptations to abridge
lis PROFESSIONAL work We find men
Ike Henry Simmons Frieze In every
apartment Of life. They are Ike
bin Tyndall, who tried to be civil
hgiueer when he was meant to be
physicist. They are like Matthew
impson, who wished to be a physi-
Ian when God intended him to be
minister They are like James Rus
bell Lowell and Walter Scott, trying
to be lawyers when God meant them
i to be poets and literary men. Happy,
j thrice happy, are the men who allow
the inward tendencies of their minds
and hearts to develop along the lines
for which they were born and for
which God equipped them.
One Of Happiest Of Men.
Now, Paul In the words of my text is
glorying In the fact that he has conse-
Grated his brain and body and soul to
the work God had intended him to do
He seems to say in this chapter: Some
people think sacrificed my joy and
pleasure when gave up my life to
gospel preaching. Why, sirs, could do
nothing else If tried Ny greatest en-
joyment in life is not to be found out
side of the gospel ministry, but inside.
Why, sirs, II / were not allowed to
preach Jesus Christ l would be the
most miserable of all men," Then he
uses these words OF my text: "Woe is
unto me II preach not the gospel Of
Jesus Christ" l want to show you
that Paul was one of the happiest OF
men because he was allowed to be
missionary Of Jesus Christ and that he
would have been one of the most mis-
cradle OF men had he not surrendered
all his energies body, mind and soul
to be flaming evangelist Of the cross.
Paul had an absorbing passion to
preach the gospel because, In the first
place, he had revelation of the divine
personality of Jesus Christ. He could
never get away from his Damascus
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