The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
.c.c-c.S DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
 
 DEWITT TALMAGE D.

parental COupdCl Nltil N1Ods O1b Ah0 1T lustrate. You come to me and want to buy tract of land for S1o,0Oo. gay, MT. Jones, why are you buying this land?" Oh" you answer, 'I am buying this land for homestead where I can live and my children can live after me, gen. eration after generation" "All right" I say, 'I can sell you the land, but you will have to pay the taxes and fulfill your obligations to the county, and your cnil- dren will have to do the same when they inherit" You understand that and 1 say; ''Then in consideration of $1o,000 will give you deed of that land for your self and your heirs forever. That deed will seal the bargain" Just so the oe- scendants of Abraham entered Into cove nant with God. They were under obrrgn- tons of which the rite was the visible sign. But the rite counted for nothing 1T the obligations were not fulfilled The later history of Abraham's descendants proved that the real condition was obe- dience and that when this was not rem dered the outward sign was not accepved. It became a mockery when 1t no longer represented a change of heart.
 My brother, do you wonder that David said, "Thy statutes have been my songs when was baby in the cradle?" was not David conseorated to God when he was 6 child by godly father and moth err Will you not allow Christ to take you and hold you close to his loving heart because your Christian mother gave you to him by prayer and pledge when you were little innocent cniid7 Thou divine Father, by the sacred mounds of my fathers and mothers graves, I thank thee that thou art and always wilt be covenant making Christ and wilt save me in answer to the pray CTS of my loving parents for Christs sake.
 The Songs of Childhood.
 But the statutes were more than the guardian angels which sang the songs of the Nativity over the manager of Betnie- hem of Judaea- They sang for David the happy songs of childhood. The statutes became songs of rejoicing. They were the conditions of sonship and inheritance which 1t was joy to fulfill They were the sweetest recollections of the old homestead when he was a growing boy. They were the songs which made his fa- ther and mother and brothers one of the family altar. They were the songs which taught him how to say his evening pray CTS at his mothers knee. They were the songs which made him as a child study the old Mosaic laws They were the songs by which he was corrected when he did wrong. And they were the songs which taught him faith in God as well as faith in his fellow men. In other worGs, they were the same laws by which you and I as boys and girls were developed in Christian home for our lifes strug- gle. If you dld not learn these statutes of God when you were young, then the memory of them makes you rich indeed.
 The happiness of our childhood days was not dependent upon the size of our fathers pocketbook. But to a great ex- ant if wa Hanandant ruba parents obeyed and made us obey the statues of our Lord in the house of our pilgrimage. Sometime ago a sorrowlng Son was on the way back to the village of his boy1hood to bury an aged parent. How much was your father worth when he died?" asked one of his friends. Moth ing; l think he was worth less than noth- ing. I suppose I shall have to buy him.. But the day after the funeral the young man was going down the village street. As he walked along he met an old man, who held out his hand and said: God bless you, my boy. Jim, you had a good father. I knew him for over forty years and never knew him to do one act which did not stamp him as noble, brave, Christian hero" And a little further on a young girl stopped him and said; "Jim, your father was the best friend my moth- CT ever had. When papa died he gath clt III dIl our HdINtSlS anu tndue It DOS- sble for us to live" A little farther on he met another man. who said: "Jim, there is not a man, woman or child in this whole region who has not been brought nearer to God on account of the noble life of your father" When ,ae young man turned his steps toward the old home he said to himself: Well, my father did not have much money, but he was rich. He lived rich In Gods grace, l.. T l4.s9k k-l.. | ~ I guess I have inherited as much good as any boy could receive from any parent"
 Sweet Memories of Home.
 Tell me. friend, was not the religious training of your boyhood the sweetest you have of the old homesteaui When your parents were bringing you up you thought those statutes of God were awfully strict. It did seem at times as though Sunday would never get through. When you got up early in the morning there were the new baseball and the fine bat. No, no,' said mother, you cannot use them today. Better put them away in the closet, and then you will be ou, Of And then when the other boys were ready to go off fishing you had to come back for family prayers. Then those long tramps with the delicate food for the sick nelghbors-it did seem that
 
 one. And then those Bible stories you had to learn when Robinson Crusoe" and that new book of Jules Verne were lying so near-my how you did grumble and twist and fume and worry And then 1t seemed as though your father kept a regular hotel for all the ministers who came to your town. Then your father would never let you play cards or go to the country dances. The other boys went. but not you. Oh, how strict those old folks werel Why, your mother would not even let your sister wear a low necked dress. because she said it was in- modest But, tell me, do you not tooay glory in those strict ways of your old home? Those old folks were so strict that they would never do anything they thought the statutes of the Lord forbade them to do But did not those strict laws of God bring peace to your old home- stead which not any of the so-called lib- oral ideas of the present time have ever produced? Yes. think we have a right. ike David. to sing, Thy statutes have been my songs in the happy days of my | 
 Singing to Keep Step.
 But the statutes of the Lord were more nan a sacred memory of the scenes of David's boyhood. They were the songs oy which the youn man and the middle lged man kept step in the journey of life. lust the same as the German soldiers when on a line of march invariably start np one of their national airs and sing al they tramp along and all In unison keep step to the music, so this marvellous man of my text kept step to the laws of God during his journey of life and sang as ne walked along. | am very much imDreSsed