The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-16

a duty to tulflll Tn perfect1ng tue laDoIs of those who have gone before is the lesson of this sermon. The text is Joshua xi, 15 He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses"
 One of the saddest places to visit is the study or office of a great man who has been called away by death and has left his things in just the way he was ac- eustomed to use them. Some years ago visited Washington and Lee college in Lexington, Va, and went into the presi- dents room, where the great Confederate general, Robert D. Lee, did his last work. There was the chair in which he used to sit. There was the table at which he used to write. There was his old ink well and the very penholder which he had join ed together with his own hands. There were his slippers, waiting to rest his tired feet when he drew off the heavy army boots he always wors when out tramp Ing And there was the paper all ready for his next letter. But suddenly the death angel canse and touched him, and, though Robert E. Lee in his time com manded one of the greatest armies, he had to obey the sudden summons of death. He could not delay his going one week or one day or one hour or one min ute or one second. He could not say; 70, death, let me complete some unfin- ished business I have at my office. There are certain papers want to sign and certain documents wish to correct" No; Robert E. Lee could not go back to com plete one page In an instant he had to be gone. The labors of his busy life were left to be finished by other hands and his incomplete problems to be solved by other brains.
 Bertel Thorvaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, was one of the most rapid work CTS that ever lived. What Rubens was to Antwerp this modern Phidias was to Co., penhagen, the capital of the north. But his works are not all to be found In Dem mark. As with the "Lion of Lucerne." his masterpieces are to be found scattered over Europe. But even Bertel Thorvald- sen did not complete all that he wanted to do. On March "A, 1S44, he was at work in his studio upon a colossal statue of Martin Luther. Suddenly there walked tD an intimate friend. Baroness von Stampe. She wanted him to come and dine with her family. He refused. He said, "No; I must finish the statue" But finally. overpersuaded, he dropped his chisel and went with her home to dine That night a short time after eating, pain grtpped his heart, and in a few minutes he was dead. There today in the great National mu7 scum of Copenhagen is the unfinished statue of Martin Luther which Thorvald- sen tried to complete, but did not have time. He left his work to be finished by other hands and his problems to be work ed by other minds.
 Lord Macaulays Task.
 One of the most pathetic incidents in literature is related of Lord Macaulay, the charming historian, who at the be- ginning of his great work wrote, 'l purpose to write the history of England down to a period within the memory of men still living" But he did not live 4. f,,IG !. .t. ln6 hff1o and he laid aside his pen. When his nephew went into the historians study after his death there lay the unfinished manuscript. The last words he had penned were those describing the death of one of England's worthies, who, Ma caulay said, In words that might have stood for his own epitaph, "died grieving, as only noble minds can grieye, that he must leave his work only half finished" When Charles Dickens dropped his magic pen his novel '"The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' was already three-fourths writ ten, but 1t was published as fragment, and, though many have attempted to f1n- ish it, no man could do it as Dickens would have done it. Dickens, like other great men, left his task unfinished. Had these men lived little while longer they would have been able to complete the work they had mapped out in their minds. And what is true of great men Is also true of people in ordinary walks of life. When they pass away they generally leave some unfinished labor which they had hoped to complete. This will be true also of our life work.
 This is true of nations as of individ- uals. The new generation inherits re- sponsibility for the completion of great enterprises begun by it's predecessors. It would be a degenerate generation that deplored the death of the great men
 
 their work, and carry it forward to success. The torch that drops from the dead hand must not fall to the ground. Some hand, perhaps not so illustrious, nor so able, must take 1t up and, humbly doing it's best, carry 1t forward to tri- umph Were it not so the world would not grow and much of the best and most beneficent labor would be lost.
 The Work of Joshua.
 Moses had his work to do. God gave to him a definite commission. He had to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, through the wilderness and up to the Jordan. Then he was laid aside. Joshua, the soldier, the younger man, came in to finish the labors of Moses, the organizer and law giver. The one completed the task of the other. 'As the Lord commanded Moses, his servant, so did Moses com- mand Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord com manded Moses" Now the great question which comes before us is this: Are we ready to take up and carry forward the unfinished labors of those who have gone before as Joshua completed the work of Moses?
 There is a great deal of unfinished work in the old homestead. Your father and mother were not lazy or negligent peo- pie. They worked from early morning until late at night. They were not extrav- agant. They did not run up useless ex- penses. When they passed away they did not leave lot of bills unpaid. At their funeral you did not have a broken column of flowers standing at the head of the casket. symbolic of the fact that they were snatched away in their prime. Their lives for the most part were well rounded lives. When they died you chis- eled the same passage of scripture on both their tombstones: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth-yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them" But were those labors of your father and mother completed? If they were upon earth, would they not find something which they would like you to do?
 You were a mature, educated man when your father died. Why? You were one of the oldest children, and your father was able to do for you what he could not do for your youngest brother. It was a hard struggle, but he sent you through school and college and educated you as a lawyer, a physician or civil engineer. You have been getting on nnn'9 WaaP