Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-28
NATURES LAWS
ARE UNCHANGED
Frank Dewitt TaImage Shows That
Men Cannot Gather Grapes
of Thorns or Figs of
Thistles

The Rev. Frank Dewitt Talmage
preached yesterday on Attempted Inn
| possibilities" taking as his text
Matthew 7:16: do men gather grapes
of thorns, or figs from thistles?
| He said in part:
"An absurd question! OF course a
man cannot gather grapes of thorns or
| figs from thistles, any more than Sit
ting hen can hatch out a brood Of
twenty chickens when she has only a
half-dozen eggs in her nest. We have
learned that nature has its laws and
that they are invariable. Walnuts will
not produce peach trees. Apple seeds
| planted in garden will not changeI
themselves into rose bushes and ger
aniums and begonas; even things that
look alike or similar to the eye differ
entiate themselves in operation. The
marigold and the California poppies
and the blossoms of the ordinary squash
have their garments dyed with the
same shade of yellow; but q squash
seed will not produce a California
poppy any more than a morning glory
seed can he changed into one of those
| beautiful Ice plants you see growing
along the Pacific coast. In other words
God has decreed there are certain things
which it is impossible for man to do.
| And yet we find men everywhere at
| tempting such things. They try to
achieve the impossible. l think that a
man can have no more valuable ca
pacity than that of knowing what is
| mpossible-impossible in itself, or i'm
possible for him. I would not discour
age any one who is striving to accom-
plish great things, but when once you
see that an achievement cannot be
won, l urge you to abandon the effort
without delay There comes a time in
| life when we should let CO., as we'll as
there come other times in life when we
should hang on and never loosen our
grip until success is ours.
"Some months ago, the time for my
summer vacation drew near. Then my
old longing to get away from the city,
and back, way back, into the country,
took possession of me. Hardly had we
| arrived at my summer cottage than a
| party of three of us started out on a
hunting trip. The wagon vas packed
with food. The guns and ammunition
were put in, and away we went Where
are you going to take us?' l asked the
driver. To my old RANCH was the re-
| ply. After the first days hunt was
over and we were gathered about the
blazing fire, the driver told me this
story. First he pointed out some tall
eucalyptus trees. Look at those
clumps of trees dotting the mesa here
|
| few years ago each one of those groves
represented a prosperous farm. We
| had our church, our school and as fine
| harvest fields and lemon orchards as
any one might wish to see. We ex-
pected the Southern Pacific railroad to
run through this valley. We expected
water to be brought from Poma reser-
voirs, twenty-six miles away, to irri-
gate this land. l refused $4,000 for these
| ha w
tonight, now uninhabited, save by the
rattlesnakes which we heard today and
the deadly tarantulaS. But l did not
know when to stop. The Southern Pa
cific did not come through as we eX-
pected. The water was not brought
down from Poma reservoirs. Then
came the four or five years of drought.
We farmers We're literally burned and
starved out. Family after family left
this region. l was the last to go. To-
day there is not a living family for
miles around. Here are only the broken
FENCES, the tumble-down houses, the
" sonous spiders, the rab-
bits, the birds and the coyote. But /
still hoped-I struggled on for twelve
long years. Then, like the rest, l had
to leave and go elsewhere. Twelve long
years of work went for naught."
Did you ever hear a story more pa
thetic? For twelve long years that man
had worked among those hills. The
camp fire that cooked the game we
killed that afternoon, the camp fire
about which we were chatting that
night, was fed by the shingles the
beams and the boards of his old home.
The water holes near which we hunted
had been dug as reservoirs by his
hands. We were camping that night
upon the ruins of a dozen long years of
labor. Yet as l lay upon ;he ground,
short time after this story was told,
trying to go to sleep, 1 could not get
this thought out of my mind: How
many men there are hanging on to a
certain line of work which is unprofit-
able and doomed to certain failure
Then as l rolled over, / said to my
friend under the blankets by my side,
Mr.. Brown, there Is a weighty lesson
here. There is a time to let go, just as
there is a time to han. on Early next
morning, when, with gun over my
shoulder, l went off alone to hunt, every
bare bush, every deserted farm, every
crumbling fence kept calling, Let go!
Let go When you are attempting the
impossible, have courage enough, and
manhood enough, and faith in God
enough, to let 60 This is the reason
1 have selected the theme for this
mornings discourse"
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