The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, October 07, 1904, Image 7
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By Rev.
Frank Be Witt Talmage, D. D.
Los Aiyreles, Cal., Oct. 2.—At this
time, when renewed attempts are Te-
Ing made by the enemies of religion
to undermine tbe old established foun
dations of fniu and to revolutionize
the Christiana Sabbath, this sermon
makes n vivid contrast of "the old time
religion” and the new. The text is
Psalm xi, d, "If the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Emasculating, depressing and be
numbing is the maxim propagated by
some lazy, nonprogressive people as
the rule of thought and life; that
‘‘what was good enough for our fa
thers should he good enough for us.”
I would yield to no man in my rever
ence for the memory of the sainted
dead whose sacred dust lies in our
cemeteries. No flowers are there too
fragrant for the family plots, no epi
taphs too eloquent or too reverent to
recount their virtues, nor, when the
family finances are adequate, any
mausoleum too imposing to enshrine
their remains. I have always found
out when Investigating that if a son
does not respect the memory of a dead
mother ho will not respect the living
wife, who becomes tbe mother of bis
children.
We should hold sacred the dust of
our dead. Tnat is true, but we should
never build tbe hillock of the grave so
high that it will dam back the onward
flow of the “waters of knowledge"
and change the "river of progress”
Into the “stagnant pool of ignorance
and sloth.” When the past genera
tions did their work they did it well
for the time and the conditions in
which they jived, but tbe dead gen
erations would not do as they did in
the past if they were living now. Wo
would not cry “bait" to the “forward
march”, of scientific investigation:;
neither would we compel t:% church
of the Lord Jesus Christ to “mark
time” by the grave of a Justin
Martyr, a Calvin, a Wesley, a Luther,
a Knox, or bivouac with eternal som
nolence in tbe chambers of a West
minster abbey, where the honored ec
clesiastical fathers gathered July 1,
1643, and composed the Presbyterian
Confession of Faith and our Longer
'and Shorter Catechisms.
But, though we would not consider
our ancestors infallible In their opin
ions nor absolutely wise iu their ways
of living, yet, on the other hand, we
must grant that our ancestors knew a
great deal more than some of us are
willing to give them credit for. Though
our forefathers' "lightning expresses"
were only canal boats and stagecoaches
ami sailing boats, In which most of us
would he afraid to cross Long Island
sound, let alone the Atlantic ocean, that
is flo reason why they did not know
how to develop Christian men and wo
men as successfully as do we. Though
our ancestors for the most part had no
books save that of a Bible, a “Pil
grim’s Progress” or a Loddridge's
“Itlse and Progress of iteligion In the
Soul,” that Is no proof that they did
not know an flinch of Cod and hold the
truth in its purity ns thoroughly ns do
we who have across to such vast mod-j
•rn libraries, and yet today we find a
spirit of "exterminating Iconoclasm”
abroad. Man's profane hands are dig
ging up the old foundations and de
stroying the old altars and ridiculing
the old ways merely because they nro
old. I would not have you bend the
knee before the hillock of an ancestral
grave us though it were a shrine, hut
I would have you respect and not de
stroy It and use that hillock of a grave
as the stepping stone to a higher
throne. Tin* living may in some things
be right where their Christian ances
tors were wyojig, yet we have only to
look around at the modern Innovations
and observe the effect they have on the
community to he convinced that iu
some things our Christian ancestors
were right and the modern innovators
deplorably wrong.
I'd tit* mil n I ns Hit* Konntlnt Ions.
In the first place, I protest against
the Iconoclasm which Is undermining j
the foundation stones of our ancestral
Sabbath. Its descent tors have been
going up and down tin* length and
breadth of the laud asserting that re
ligious worship can become its much a
form of dissipation as drink or over
eating or overcxerclslng can he. They
make a wrong application of our
Lord's words that the “Sabbath was
made for man. and not man for the
Sabbath." They affirm that It Is ab
surd for a business man who has been
at hard work for at least six days of
the week from 7 o’clock In the morn
ing sometimes until 1<) or 11 or 12
o'clock at night to he compelled to get
up on Sunday In time foi an early
Sunday school, then to attend two
long church preaching services, ami
then perhaps to attend a Christian En
deavor society besides.
They contend that Sunday should he
a day of r<st and that what a man
needs upon the Sabbath day is relaxa
tion. lie should go to bod Saturday
night after a hot hath with his mind
perfectly at ease. As he crawls into
bed he should he able to say to him
self: "Now, I can lie here Just as long
as I please. If I awake at D o'clock, all
right. If I can sleep to 12, better still.
Then aft«T 1 awake I will have a cup
of coffee and a roll brought to my
bedside, and I will eat a little and then
slay In bed for another hour, reading
toe ne spaper. Then after dinner I
'• will lake my children out to <*pm of the
public parks or down by the seaside
and get a sun hath and a view of
Cod’s trees and valleys and hillsides
or 1 will go to one of our great art
pr Uerier and look at the pictures. It
is impossible fo” me to go and see the
painters' and the sculptors’ master
pieces on any other day. Therefore the
city art galleries should he opened on
Sunday. T1 on in tin* evening hour 1
will go to church if 1 feel like it. If
I do not desire to do so 1 will go to bed
again and re d. rest- yes, just rest. By
such a system of rest I shall he in
vigorated and shall return to my work
the next Monday strong in body, clear
in mind, more loving to my family, the
hitman race at large, and to Cod him
self. That,” says our iconoclast, "is
my idea of the Sabbath day. 1 do not
think a hardworking man has a right |
to make his Sunday a day of hard
work in churchgoing, so that he works
harder on the Sabbath than he does on
any other day of the week.”
The Old Fashioned Monday.
Sabbath iconoclasts, is that the way
yoq would have man spend his Sab
baths? Well, already your modern
teaching in reference to the Sabbath ;
too well has taken root. Your pro-;
mises are wrong, for you know not to
what conclusions they tend. To see'
whether your grandfather’s Sabbath or
your own is the better I would have
you compare the two side by side. I
Thirty, fifty years ago the man who;
made Sunday a day of pleasure was
looked upon as a blasphemer, an out
and out enemy of Cod, of the church!
:md of the better elements of the social!
community. When Sunday morning j
would come even the horses and thej
stoc k of the farm knew it was a day j
^ rest. The family would arise a lit-J
lie later than usual. Then they would I
linger a little longer at the breakfast'
table. Then the sweetest music of thej
world would begin to sound. The old
village bell would send its silvery notes!
rolling down the valley. Then, after I
morning prayers, the horses were hitch
ed up, and father and mother and all |
the c hildren rode to town in the same
big wagon. Then the pew was a fam-1
Ily pew, and all the members were j
there. Theq came the sermon, then!
the* journey home, then the quiet yet
bountiful dinner, then the afternoon for'
reading or restful quiet, then the sing-1
Ing of the hymns around the old fash
ioned piano. NO Damrosch’s orchestra!
or Theodore Thomas’ stringed instru-j
ments ever had such enthusiastic au
diences and participants as those old
family oratorios about the piano, where j
our sisters played and our fathers and
mothers and the* rcM of the family all
joined in the singing. Then the even
ing church service again or, if the'
farm was too far away, the evening)
prayers and early bed. You know, <>
man, that old fashioned Sabbath day
meant more than mere* cessation from
worldly work. It meant quiet com
munion with Cod. It meant Bible
study and sacred readings as well as
mere rest. I><> you wonder that such a
Sabbath as our fathers observed was
the very foundation of church life, of
Christian home life, of Bible reading
and of consecration to Cod?
Alongside of this beautiful Sabbath
day of rest I want yon to place the
modern Sabbath, with its so called lib
eral ideas. First, where do we find the
vestibule of the Sabbath? Namely, Sat
urday night. To bed early? Oh, no!
Saturday night has come. In our large
cities the slreet oars are crowded.
Where are the people going? Some to
the theaters; others, alas, to places of
still more* evil resort! Men and wom
en, tired from work now, are turning
this Saturday night into the hardest
kind of work. They are dissipating for
pleasure’s sake. To the noneliurehgo-
er, as a rule, Saturday night Is only
too often a time for free indulgence of
every desire that is had.
Sunday morning is here. Where do
we now find most of the* nouchurchgo
ers? Again crowding our railroad
trains and cars; picnics, hall games,
outing parties, where the breweries
and the wine sellers get their biggest
revenues. The beautiful pictures of
the family Bible which we used to
study as a hoy have given place to the
silly pictorials of the Sunday newspa-
pcr. Everywhere on the Sabbath sin
simply runs riot. In many cities even
the saloons and playhouses are full.
Instead of the quiet family group going
to the village church, now almost every
country road near an adjacent city has
Its yelling rioters, half drunk or entire
ly debauched, who are off for a day of
gin. Do you mean to tell me, sensible
man, that the modern way of spending
the Sabbath is as profitable as a day
of rest and communion with Cod as
were the Sabbath days our forefathers
observed?
Obi>ervfin<*<* of tbe l.ord'N Day.
The rigid observance of Cod’s day
as a day consecrated to himself Is the
most Important foundation stone of
the church of Jesus Christ. Without
It no true gospel consecration can ex
ist. I know that In some homes the
lines were too tightly drawn and lu
them the Lord's day was gloomy and
was a weariness to the children. Hen
ry Ward Beecher, the brilliant pastor
of Plymouth church, used to give a
humorous description of such Sab
baths. He described his brother and
himself watching the sun go down
over the western hills. In his boyhood
Sunday was observed from the setting
of the sun Saturday to the setting of
the sun Sunday. No sooner would the
hum sink over the western hills than
these two hoys would let out a great
yell, crying: “Hurrah, hurrah! Sun
day's over. Now for some fun!” But,
though the Puritanic Sabbath was
sometimes very angular In the rigid
observance, I claim that Knhhnth had
ten chances to where the modern Sab
bath has one of producing such a fam
ily as Lyman Beecher developed.
I protest. In the second place, against
the Iconoclasm which would eliminate
from our lives the divine principle of
concern for the welfare of others. Pro
fane Iconoclastic hands have been an-
ctcrminlng the foundation stones of our
sacred Sabbath. Aye, these enemies
of (Jod have been doing more; they
have been sneering and ridiculing the
beautiful parable of the good Samari
tan. Tney have- been declaring that
a man's neighbor belongs not to the
family which lives next door to him.
The only neighbor who has claims he
would recognize is the wife or child
who !iv<*s within the four walls of his
own house. He has been asserting that
a man's chief duty in life is to himself
and his own.
“Can any good come out of such a
Nazareth?” I once read of a great
conqueror invading a country of the
far east. One day he entered a temple
where stood an idol so beautiful that
not one of his followers was willing to
destroy it. Witli an oath, the conquer
or said, "If you will not obey my com
mands I will destroy it myself.” He
lifted his hattleax. As he raised him
self In his stirrups-for he had ridden
his horse into the temple—with a
mighty blow he shattered the idol into
a thousand pieces. Then, to his fol
lowers' surprise, he revealed the fact
that the inside of the idol was not a
vacuum. It had been tilled with thou
sands upon thousands of golden coins,
which as a lava bed hurst from the
broken statue and rolled to the feet of
the western iconoclast. The iconoclast
who destroys the beautiful image of
efiarity and benevolence may think
that he, too. will he able to grasp the
wealth which it pours forth on the
needy and the suffering, hut he will
he disappointed. The economy which
refuses to give help to those who need
proves a canker to prosperity, and
those who withhold their charity come
to poverty. The command is that he
who loves God loves his brother also,
and the converse is true that he who
does not love his brother proves that
he does not love his God.
The Golden Buie with our ancestors
was a practicality and not a mere the
ory. "Where are you going tonight,
mother?” the father often asked. “You
look tired. You ought not to he going
out tonight.” "I know it,” she would
say, "hut I must go. Our neighbor is
very sick. I am af aid she will not get
well, They have sent for me to come
and spend the night with her. 1 have
fixed everything for breakfast. If I
do not get heck in time in tbe morning,
you can get along somehow’.”
The daintiest delicacies ever cooked
in the mother's stove were not for the
growing hoys, with healthy, vigorous
appetites. They were for the poor con-
Miniptive young girl who used to sit
day after day upon the neighbor's ve
randa in the noon sun, smiling at us
as we trudged away to school. My,
how we cast longing eyes at those jel
lies! We then at times almost wished
we could he sick, at least for a little
while, to get a taste of them. And
how’ warm and comfortable the mit
tens looked which mother knitted for
the poor children living over the hill!
And when the farmer who lived down
iu the valley was prostrated with ty
phold fever and lay for month, hover
ing between life and death, don’t you
remember how your father and tin*
neighbors took turns plowing his fields
and sowing his grain and getting in
his harvests? They say that that sick
man was once a strong athlete. How
ever that may ho, when upon his sick
bed he beard what Ids neighbors had
done and how they had kept the wolf
of hunger from his door he cried like
a little child. He became Just such a
sick man as Ralph Connor depleted in
one of his backwoods tales.
Then the funerals of our fathers and
forefathers. They never allowed n neigh
bor to he buried like a dog or a friend
less pauper, as sometimes we do. No.
They literally practiced the gospel rule:
“It Is better to g* to the house of
mourning lhan to the bouse of feast
ing.” When their neighbors wept, they
wept. When their neighbors were
lowered into their open graves, they ,
themselves held the ropes that gently j
let down the coilins. Was not their
way better than our way? We live
and breathe only for self. Was not
ti e Christian helping hand our fore
fathers extended to the troubled ones
In their midst better than the icy
stare with which we regard our neigh- j
hors? We grumble In a street car he-1
cause we have to wait for two min- 1
utes while a funeral procession, wend-
rocite a piece you can have the finest i
of orchestras furnish the music. If
you want speaking, you can hire a pro
fessional elocutionist to recite. This
Is an age of progress. The clubhouse,
the public recep: ion halls, the large din
ners given iu large downtown restau
rants. just as certainly mark the evo
lution of the hu: i.m race in pleasure as
a locomotive train is an improvement
over the old prairie schooner or the tel
egraph communication by electric wire
is an improvement over the ‘cowboy’s
express’ that forty years ago used to
carry the mail from New York to San
Francisco before the great Union Pa
cific railroad was built.”
Do you, my brother, think for one In
stant that the advent of the modern
clubhouse and public reception hall
and Delmonico banquets is a moral im
provement for modern men over the
old fashioned quilting parties and mer
rymaking frolics which once made the
rafters of the old farmhouse creak
like the beams of a ship at sea and
bend almost like William Tell’s how?
Do you think this? I do not. I believe
that any enjoyment which a man is
compelled systematically to find out
side of the society of his wife and
children and home is a depleting, en
ervating and ultimately degrading en
joyment. I believe that any enjoyment
which systematically makes a mother
relegate the care of her children to
nursegirls and to hired hands Is an
enjoyment which is poisoned through
and through by evil influences which
will ultimately bring forth harvestings
not for God, hut for Satan. I believe
this tendency of the human race, this
evil poison almost everywhere preva
lent. to find enjoyment anywhere, ev
erywhere except by your own fireside,
will ultimately result In a second
downfall of man as dramatic and over
whelming and complete as when Adam
and Eve ate of the fruit of the for
bidden* tree unless man himself, by
the grace of God, halts and learns
again to find his chief pleasures in the
associations of his wife and children
within the four walls of his own home.
I once heard father say to my mother,
“I hope after we are dead that our
children will believe we have loved
them and have wanted to he with
them more than with any one else on
earth.” They lived for us. Yes, our
parey‘s lived for us. May we he like
the I d folks. May we find our chief
enj<i,."iiient not only in living for our
children, hut also in the companion
ship of our children, no matter how
old or how young they may. he. May
modern society not he involuted Into
the pleasures of a clubhouse or a pub
lic reception hall, hut he evoluted into
the sanctified enjoyments of a Chris
tian home.
Worliljy Supcomm Vermin ChrlMtlunlty.
But, lastly, I would state that the
iconoclasts of this day are trying to
sidetrack the chief purpose for which
our forefathers and foremothers lived
iu reference to their children. Instead
of leading a parent to the altar of
Jesus and saying, “Oh, fathers and
mothers, the chief desire of your lives
should he to consecrate your children
at these altars and have them make u
public profession of Christ here," they
would break these altars. They would
say: "Here is the statue of wisdom.
Dedicate your children here. Send your
boys to college and give them an In
tellectual education.” “Here is the
statue of Midas. Sacrifice here, that
you may leave them money.” "Here
is the statue of fame. Make out of
your children great orators or painters
or musicians or authors.” Thus we
see scores and hundreds of parents
working by day and night to give their
children what? To give them to God
and the higher life, as their parents
tried to do? No. To give them to a
worldly success, which those parents in
their hearts know may only lead their
children to moral ruin and perhaps
to eternal death.
O man, 1 ask of you one question.
It Is a blunt question. Will you an
swer me? What would you sooner
have had your father to be—a
great speaker, a great financier, a
great general or a simple, noble, pure)
hearted and devoted servant of Christ
as he was and is today iu heaven? You
answer wull. There is but one right
answer. ^*!icn, if the noble, pure, gen
tle Christian life of your father meant
so much to you, can you not, will you
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ing its way to the cemetery, is bolding llot givt . t( , your boy the same Cbrls-
us at a crossing. The Golden Rule |
which our forefathers practiced should
never he allowed to slip out of our
lives. The sick man who lives next
door to us should he Just ns carefully
cared for aqd nursed by us as if he >
was our own son.
Clubhouse Versus Home,
I deplore also the Iconoclasm which
iu robbing this country of the sanctity
of home life. The Iconoclast’s profane
bands are ruthlessly laid upon our an
cestors’ Sabbath observance aud our
forefathers’ doctrine of “Do to others
as you would have them do unto you.”
They go further than this. Those same
profane hands are also snatching away
our ancestral home enjoyments as well.
They are saying to modern man: “Man,
do not he an old fashioned granny. Do
not think because your grandfathers
found most of their enjoyment In the
tian heritage? By the sacred altar of
God’s love will you not follow their ex
ample? Will you not carry out the
dying wishes of your now redeemed
and glorified parents and consecrate
yourself to your Divine Master? Will
you not here and now lead your hoys
and girls to the feet of Christ and con
secrate them to the Master also? Shall
not the chief purpose of your Christian
parents iu reference to their children
he duplicated In the chief purpose of
your life, to bring to Christ your chil
dren and your children’s children?
Today let us have some of the old
fashioned purposes and ways and hah
its of our forefathers. When we are
dying may we never he ashamed to
Utter the words which Dwight L.
Moody said to his children. You all
have read them; "May wff not he am
bitious to make money. May we not
society sf your grandmothers and your i he ambitious for worldly fame and
uncles and aunts that you have to find
most of your enjoyment in the society
of your wives and children. Do not
forever be a ’stay at home.’ Come; let
us build for you clubhouses, where you
can find nightly fellowship with strong
and brilliant men. Come out of that
little hencoop of yours. If you want
to give a reception to your friends, do
not give It lu your home. It Is too
small. Hire a big hall In the center of
the town, where you can receive In bet
ter style. There, Instead of having a
few cakes baked by your own hands
and some lee cream which you made In
your own freezers, you can have a fine
caterer furnish an elaborate HUpi*er; in
stead of having your own daughter
ting a simple song or your little boy
honors. May we simply be ambitious
to find a consecrated, earnest place to
work in God’s vineyard and have In
that vineyard our wives, our children
and nil our friends working by our
side In the Master’s name.” That pur
pose Is n nol le purpose. That purpose
God will bless us he has blessed that
holy purpose In the lives of the old
fashioned folks who are now In heaven
awaiting the homo coming of their chil
dren. That purpose forms the true
foundation, the maker and builder of
which Is the living and true and par
doning and redeeming and ascended
and glorified Christ. May God answer
the fulfillment of this prayer for pul
pit and pew alike.
[Copyright, 1904, by Loula Klopach.]
I luive just returned from Baltimore and
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receivin';
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Big lot of “Parker” Hats for Men. All styles and sizes in
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UP-TO-DATE LINE OF
DRY GOODS, NOTIONS AND
I have a large and welDaelected stock of Shoes and can fit any
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FRESH LOT OF FERTILIZERS FOR GRAIN.
J. I. SARRATT
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