The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-01-03


sermon in Brooklyn Tabernacls
last Sunday on the subject of Christ
mas in America" We publish q
couple of extracts that are well
worth reading:
Amid a thousand mercies we give
each other the holiday congratula-
tlons; by lOng-establishsd custom we
exhort each other to heultful merri-
ment, by gifts, by household games,
by Christmas trees that blossom and
fruit in the same hour, by long line
"f candles lit,' by surprises, by chill
dren's procession, by sound of in
struments more blatant than musical
We wake up the nights and prolopg
the days.
A merry Christmas TO the nation
No land has SO many happy houses
MS America, such varieties of food on
the table, such appropriate family
wardrobes or such healthful domestic
architecture. At the same time we
recognize that these holidays find u
vast multitude of people without
work or without food and without
apparel and without shelter Some
thing must be awfully wrong. as you
will see when | put two facts parallel.
More wheat in Dakota and Mime
sofa and Michigan than they know
what to do with. More cotton ut the
South than they know what to do
with. In other words surplus OF
bread and surplus of clothing have
been provided by Divine goodness,
and yet nultitujes of people are halt
starved and half clothed, aud to
hundreds Of these it is a shlverinp
and hungry Christmas / think ali
the matter with the nation is an
overdose of politics. The trouble is
that SO many public men spend their
TIME 10 keeping the. equilibrium OF
public affairs disturbed, that business
staggers and stops. The eloqnen,
make us believe that
everything depends upon the domi-
nance Of their party, when to the
great masses of the people it makes
not two cents difference for the next
four yeais who is President. But
TINS superabundance of harvests iu
"heat aud corn and cotton aud rice
must evsninally be felt in better sup
ply of all our national wants. The
present national depression is not
IKE that which comes from drought
u delnee or plague. 1t is more like !
hat OF man who has plenty OF
money in ~ sale or like that of a
1onsewife who has plenty OF food ~
. pantry, but they have lost the Ike,
md they are trying to find them, aud
hough 1T will be an impatient aiza
irritating search it will be successful |
Bnt there are two things for the |
omfortable classes to do--one toll
'elp those who are helpless, and tie
'ther, to talk cheerful This expcri-
nent has been made BY medical
cieutisis: A dozen men agree 10
neet a man ut different points Of his
Quincy and tell him how very sick
'e looks. By the time he has be Ell
ccosted with the fourth melancholy
alutation he is ready to drop under
he impression that his doom has
ONE. aud the twelfth man meets
im just in time to help carry him
ome on a stretcher. Now, the ma
ion is only one man on a large scale.
III you have to do to. PROSTATE the
uslness Of this country is to talk
loomily and to keep on talking in
he same tone. Let all the mer-
hants Sigh and all the editors prog
osticate hard winter and all the |
minister's groan. In the great chorus
I complainers those who play the
,udest trombones are those who have
10 fullest cellars aud those who have
ne most complete wardrobe. They
re mad because they have TO fall |
ack on the surplus of other years
r cannot make as large investments
5 they expected. i
Artists tell us that it is impossible
} sing we'll on a full stomach, bit I,
lere are thousands of men to-day
demonstrating that it is possible to
roam well On a fall stomach. ri
people would for few
eeks exchange the lamentations of
sremiah for tile exnltant songs of /.
avid it would be well for the coun-
y. | wish . conspiracy might be
rmed. and / would like to belong
it, conspiracy of all the business
en- and editors and ministers Of
ligion by which they would have
iih in God and talk cheerfully and
e revival of prosperity would be
,mediaie and glorious Stop | /
Naomi" and give us Coronation. I
errv Christmas! I;