St. Landry democrat., 1886-10-09

one foot. The ordinary casualties of life
have been quadrupled, quintupled, sex.
tupled-aye, centupled, i'll our time by the
civil war, and at the North and South
great multitude that no man can number
are fighting the battle of liz with half, or
less than half, the needed physical arma-
ment. / do not wonder at the pathos Of
soldier during the war, who when told
that he must have his hand amputated,
said:
"Doctor, can't you save it,"
And when told that it was impossible,
said, with tears rolling down his cheeks:
"Well, then, good bye, old hand; hate
to part with you. You have done me
good service for many years, but it seems
you must go. Goodbye"
A celebrated surgeon told me Of a scene
in the clinical department of one of the
New York hospitals, when poor man
with wounded leg was brought in be-
fore the students to be operated on. The
surgeon was pointing out this and that to
the students, and handling the wounded
leg, and was about to proceed to amputa-
ton, when the poor man leaped from the
table and hobbled to the door, and said:
"GentlemeH, nm sorry to disappoint
you. but, by The help Of God, | will die
with my leg on"
What a terrific loss is the loss of cur
physical faculties.
The way the battle of Crecv was decided
against the French was by the Welshmen
killing the French horses, and that
brought their riders TO tine ground. And
when you cripple this body, which is
merely the animal on which the soul
rides, YOU may sometimes defeat the soul.
Yet, how many suffer from this physi-
cal taking off. Good cheer, my brother!
God will make it up to you somehow.
The grace, the sympathy of God will be
more to you than any thing you have lost.
If God allows part Of your resources to be
cut off in one place, He will add it on
somewhere else. As Augustus, the EN-
peror, took off day from February, maxi
ing it the shortest month in the year, and
added it to August, the month named af-
ter himself, SO advantages taken from one
part of your nature will be added on to
another.
"I pray and beseech you to lead me so
lar inCO une uTnU tndG L MAY StElhe oHe
good blow with this sword of mine"
Do not think so much of what faculties
you have lost as of what faculties remain.
You have enough left to make yourself
felt in three worlds, while you help the
earth, and balk hell, and win Heaven.
Arise from your discouragements, oh men
and women of deplete Or crippled physi-
cal faculties, and see what, by the special
help of God, you can accomplish!
The skilled horsemen stood around Bu-
cephalus, unable to mount or manage him,
so wild was the steed. But Alexander
clutched him by the bride and turned his
head away from the shadow and towards
the sun, and the horses agitation was
gone, and Alexander mounted him and
rode off, to the astonishment of all who
stood by. And what you people need is
to have your sight turned away from the
shadow of your early lot over which you
have so long pondered, and your head
turned toward the sun-the glorious sun
of gospel consolation and Christian hope
and spiritual triumph.
And then remember that all the physical
disadvantages will after awhile vanish.
Let those who have been rheumatismed
out of a foot, or cataracted out of an eye,
or by the perpetual roar of our cities thun-
dered out of an ear, look forward to the
day when this old tenement house
of flesh will come down and a bet
ter one shall be builded. The resurrec-
tion morning will provide you with bet
ter outfit.
8. Another form of disadvantage under
which many labor is lack of early educa-
tion. There will be no excuse for ignor-
ance in the next generation. Free schools
and illimitable opportunity of education
will make ignorance crime. believe in
compulsory education, and those persons
who neglect to put their children under
educational advantages have but one right
left, and that is the penitentiary. But
there are multitudes of men and women
in middle life who have had no oppor.
tunity. Free schools had not yet been es-
or no school at ali. They feel it when, as
Christian men, they come to speak
or pray in religious assemblies or
public occasions, patriotic, or po-
litical, or educational. They are
silent, because they do not feel compe-
tent. They owe nothing to English gram
mar, or geography or bellies letters. They
would not know participle from pro-
noun if they met it many times day.
Many of tue most successful merchants of
America, and men in high political places,
can not write an accurate letter on any
theme. They are completely dependent
upon clerks and deputies and stenograph-
ers to make things right. knew a liter
ary man who, in other years, in Washing
ton, made his fortune by writing speeches
for Congressman, or fixing them up for
The Congressional Record after they were