St. Landry democrat., 1885-10-24

uORls 1u1S Ndg1ODg So easily opp S0ShSN
on north and south and from both oceans,
might have on hand at once more hostiIi-
ties than were ever arrayed against any
one power. We have recently been told
by skillful engineers that all our fortresses
around New York harbor could not pre-"
vent the she'll from being hurled from the
sea into the heart of these great cities.
Insulted China, the wealthiest of all ma
tions, as will be realized when her re-
sources are developed, will have adopted
all the modes of modern warfare, and at
the Golden Gate may be discussing
whether Americans must go. II the
combined jealousies of Europe and
Asia should come upon us we should
be pleasant. / hope no such combina-
ton against us will ever be formed, but l
want to show that, as Assyria was the
hired razor against Judah, and Cyrus
the hired razor against Babylon, and the
Huns the hired razor against the Goths,
there are now many razors that the Lord
could hire if, because of our National
sins, he should undertake to shave us.
In 1870 Germany was the razor with
which the Lord shaved France. England
is the razor with which very shortly the
Lord will shave Russia. But nations are
to repent in. a day. May. a speedy and
worldwide coming to God hinder on
both sides the sea all national calamity.
But do not let us as nation, either by un:
righteous law at Washington or bad lives
among ourselves, defy the Almighty.
One would think that our National sym.
boil Of the eagle might sometimes, sug-
gest another eagle-that which an
cient Rome carried. In the talons of
that eagle were clutched at one
time, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Dial.
malta, Rhoetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moe
STA, Dacia, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece
Asia Minor. Assyria, Phoenicia, Palestine,
Egypt and all Northern Africa, and all the
islands of the Mediterranean, and, indeed,
all the world that was worth having, and,
120,0o0.00O of people under the wings of
that one eagle. Where is she now? Ask
Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem,
the 'Decline and Fall Of the Roman EN-
pre-" Ask her gigantic ruins struggling
their sadness through the ages, the screech
owl at windows out of which
worldwide conquerors looked. Ask the
day of Judgment when her crowned
debauchees, Commodus and Pertinax and
Caligula and Diocletan, shall answer for
their infamy. As men and as nations let
us repent and have our trust
in pardoning God rather than
depend on former successes for
immunity. Out of thirteen greatest
battles of the world, Napoleon had lost
hut hnFoua Drsl AL Il
struction often ride in the same saddle.
But notice once more, and more than all
in my text, tlat God is so kind and loving
that when it is necessary for him to cut he
has to go to others for the sharp-edge |
weapon. 'In the same day shall the Lord
shave with razor that is hired" Go is
love. God is pity. God is help. Col is
shelter. God is rescue. There are no sharp
edges about him, no thrusting points, no
instruments of laceration. II you want
balm for wounds, he has that. Il you want
salve for divine eyesight, he has thar. Bnt
if there is sharp and cutting work to do
which requires q razor, that he hires. Col
has nothing about him that hurts, save
when dire necessity demands, and then he
has to go clear off to some one else to get
the instrument. This divine geniality will
be no novelty TO those who have pom
dered the Ca1varean massacre, where
God submerged himself in human tears,
and crimsoned himself from punctured
arteries, and let the terrestrial and in.
fernal worlds mani him until the chan
deliers of the sky had to be turned out,
because the universe could not endure the
indecency. Illustrious for love he mus
have been to take all that as our substi.
tute, paying out Of mis- own heart the Grim
son price of our admission at the gates of
Heaven King Henry IL of England
crowned his son as King, and on the day
of coronation put on servants garb and
waited, he, the King, at the sons table,
to the astonishment of all the Princes
But we know of more wonderful scene,
the King of Heaven and earth Offering to
put on you, his child, the crown of life,
and in the form of a servant waiting on
you with blessing. Extol that love, all
painting, all sculpture, all music, all
architecture, all worship. In Dresdepian
gallery let Raphael hold him up as a
child, and in Antwerp Cathedral let II
bens hand him down from the cross as
martyr, and Handel make all his oratorio
vlbrate around the one chord: "He was
wounded for our transgressions, bruised
fol our iniquity.D But not until all the
redeemed got home, and from The counte.
nances of all the piled.up galleries of the
ransomed shall be revealed the wonders
of redemption, shall either man or seraph
or archangel know the height and depth
and length and breadth of the love of Col.
At our National capital monument in
honor of him who did more than any one
to achieve our American independence
was for scores of years in building. and
most of US were discouraged an said i
never would be completed. And how glad
we all wore when, in tho presenc Of
the highest ofic;a ais Of the Nation, the