Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-02-07
Calmase
sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt TalmaSe, D. D.


blest of passions, the pursuit OF which
he assures us will bring to us more
satisfaction and enduring happiness
than anything else on earth. The text
is Proverbs ri, 80, "He that winneth
souls is wise"
Every man wants to make the most
out of his life. AS the blossom changes
to the bud and the bud opens into the
flower. so man wants the latest buds
CT his better life to mature aud ripen
and then spread their leaves far and
wide that he may scatter their fra
GRANGE everywhere. The heart is not
silent tomb filed only with the de-
composing corpses Of dead memories.
1t Is a great hall i'm which myriads of
voices are chanting i'm chorus And all
these voices are sounding Il clarion call
to the higher life, which God bids all
his children live.
OF course man does not always obey
these calls to the higher life. The
spirit may be willing, but the flesh is
very weak. This means I'm plain Eng
llsh that our good intentions are often
like the seed Christ described i'm the
gospel of Mark: "And some fell by the
wayside, and the fowls came and de-
voured it up. And some fell on stony
ground, where 1t had not much earth,
and Immediately it sprang up, because
it had no depth of earth, but when the
sun was up it was scorched, and be-
cause Ii had no root IL withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the
thorns grew up and choked it." In
other words, our good intentions, like
the good seed in the hand OF the sower,
are in our hearts, but no sooner are
they planted than the thorns OF temp
tation rise up and choke them, and in
stead OF our lives becoming n flower
garden they are nothing but barren
waste. But that does not dlsprove the
fact which | have already asserted
namely, that our hearts are great mu-
sic halls In which myriads of voices
united In chorus are sounding forth
the clarion calls for us to lead the bet
ter life.
Soul Winning Versus Gold.
King Solomon in my text tells us
how we can make good use of our
lives. He says: "Soul winning is the
greatest of all work open to us on
C"A IL - bSNlCA Austu ScChiuE SOiu-
1t is better than seeking fame. 1t is
better than having high political posi-
tions. Its returns overtop those OF all
other mental and physical and spirit
ual endeavors. No matter what your
brain or worldly opportunities may be.
the grandest, the best and the happiest
work on earth is the work OF bringing
men and women to the cross" "ue
that winneth souls is WISE" or, to put
this trulsm in another way, Solomon is
saying. mo matter what n man may
he accomplishing, If he is not soul
winner for Christ he is missing the
greatest opportunity of his life"
And this assertion is the more amaz-
Ing because we find it In the book of
Proverbs. or all the writer's of the
two Testaments there is not one who
represents worldly wisdom in its clear
est type rs did King Solomon. A man
may not believe in the rest of the BIZ
bic, but he must believe In the truth OF
most OF these proverbs. Indeed, il has
been asserted that Solomon could not
have written the book of Proverbs, but
must have collected the proverbs OF
many lands and combined them In one
book. And yet right in the midst OF
those Invaluable nuggets of worldly
advice he wrote these words OF my
text: "Ie that winneth souls is wise"
Let us study for little while why the
occupation OF soul winning Is the
greatest and the most important and
the happiest business In which any
man can engage.
In the first place, when n Christian
wins soul for Christ he deals with
the only part OF man that Is immor-
tai He deals with the only part OF
man that will never die The soul is
that unweighable, unanalyzable some
thing I'm the human body which dwells
In the flesh. but which springs out OF
the flesh when that flesh dies. And
then. taking upon itself the pinions of
Immortality. it dies away TO another
realm, another world, another place of
existence, where it lives and continues
To live after the worlds themselves
shall be no more. The soul will never
die.
The Soul the Vital Part.
Now, if the soul is the only part OF
~~sh sAstN 10 SOlHS ~ i've OH
the coming ages the wisest act of our
lives must be to put the chief empha-
Sis of our work upon that part OF man
which alone has immortal life. You
surely are not going to expend all
your energies of mind upon the phys
ical body, which at most can live only
a Few years. while the soul Is going to
i've forever. You may say you love
the bod, and SO you do. But you
merely love the body because the soul
Is In It, When the soul Is gone, then
that body will soon become a mass of
decomposition. l was talking about
this matter the other day to a friend
or mine who had lately lost his moth
er. Her body, according to her ex-
pressed wish, was cremated. Her ash
es only few days before had been
Sfought home and deposited in a
bronze urn on the parlor table. THAT
Is uncanny," ] said, ''that fine, strong
woman like your mother should be
brought home little handful Of ash
es. For my own part, believe there is
a sacredness in tine use of a family
plot. a holy reverence comes over us
when we realize that the sacred dust
or our parents is sleeping in Gods
acre" "Oh, no" answered my friend,
that should not be. If | injure my
leg and have it cut off, do not want
TO preserve my leg because it is part
or me. When my leg Is cut off 1t
ceases to be me. 1t is then only dead
piece of flesh. And when the soul of
my loved one leaves the body all that
/ loved aud clung to is gone 1t mnkes