The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-02-26
Caln1age
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talrnase. D. d.

Los Angeles, Cal. Feb. 81. - The
preacher gives in this sermon an ideal
of conservation to the work of preach
ing the gospel and of the obligations
arising from a consciousness Of di-
| vine call. The text is I Corinthians,
TX, 1G, Woe is unto me il l preach not
the gospel"
In the Pitt palace of Florence Is a
wonderful picture. supposed to have
been painted by Michael Angelo, called
the Three Fates." There sit the three
sisters of neurological fame-Clotho.
spinning 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 the same model for all the
three faces. Whether that is true we
know not. but one fact about this pic
ture we know-it is a 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: Yes, l can understand
how men who did not recognize Gods
hand in the government of the world
may have said rs they looked at this
picture: The fates are ruling our lives.
They meet us at the cradle. They
vol
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 we'll.
If we turn deaf ear to their behests,
then unutterable misfortune and fail
ure 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
would never get away from the place
of the life those fates had made for
them.
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 las 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
are like the late Henry s. FrieZe, the
beloved Latin professor OF Michigan
university God never meant him to
be a Latin professor He was born to
be musician All his desires seemed
piano keys" President Andrew D.
White once said of him: Though it
has been my good fortune to hear all
the leading pianists of my time, l have
never heard one who seemed to inter-
pref the masterpieces more worthily.
have always insisted that had he
lived in Germany he would have been
a second Beethoven. So passionately
was he devoted to music that at times
he sent his piano away from his house
in order to shun temptations to abridge
his PROFESSIONAL work" We find men
like Henry Simmons FrieZe In every
department Of life. They are like
John Tyndall, who tried to be civil
engineer when he was meant to be
a physicist. They are like Matthew
Simpson, who wished to be physi- |
clan when God intended him to be a |
minister. They are like James Rus |
sell Lowell and Walter Scott, trying |
to be lawyers when God meant them |
to be poets and literary men. Happy, |
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. l could do
nothing else il | tried. Ny greatest en-
joyment In life is not to be found out
side Of the gospel ministry, but inside.
Why, sirs, If / were not allowed to
preach Jesus Christ / would be the
most miserable of all men," Then he
Uses these words of my text: Woe Is
unto me if I preach not the gospel of
Jesus Christ" l want to show you
hat Paul was one of the happiest of
men because he was allowed to be a
of Jesus Christ and that he
would have been one of the most mis-
.rable of men had he not surrendered
Ill his energies-body, mind and soul
% he flaming evangelist of the cross.
Paul had an absorbing passion to
preach the gospel because, in the first
)lace, he had revelation of the divine
of Jesus Christ. He could
never get away from his Damascus
Dad experience. He had felt the
Christ touch. He had stood face to
ace with Jesus. He had seen Jesus.
lie had talked to Jesus. He had heard
Iesus talk to him. No sooner did this
livine revelation come than there