St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-09-18
You maltreat an aged parent. lou be.


! grudge him the room in your house. You
are impatient of his whimsicalities and
garrulty. 1t makes you mad to hear him
| tell the same story twice. You give him
| food he can not masticate. You wish he
was away. You wonder if he is going to
live forever. He will be gone very soon.
His steps are shorter and shorter. He il
going to stop. But God has an account IL
settle with you on that subject Afte.
awhile your eye will be dim and your gait
will halt, and the sound of the grinding
will be slow, and you will tell the same
story twice, and your children will won
der if you are going TO live forever, and
| wonder if you will never be taken away.
They called you "father" once; now they
call you ''the old man. If you live a few
years longer they will call you "the old
chap What are those rough words with
which your children are accostiug YOU,
They are the echo of the very words you
used in the ear of your Old father forty
years ago. What is that which you are
trying to chew, but find it un-
masticable, and your jaws ache
as you surrender the attempt?
Perhaps it may be the gristle which YOU
gave to your father for his breakfast forty
years ago. A gentleman passing along
the street saw son dragging his father
into the street by the hair of his head.
The gentleman, outraged at this brutal
conduct, was about to punish the offender.
when the old man arose and said:
Don't hurt him: it's all right; forty
years ago this morning l dragged out my
father by the hair of his head.'
1t is circle. My father lived into the
eighties, and he had very wide expert
ence, and he said that maltreatment Of
parents was always punished in this
world. Other sins may be adjourned to
the next world, but maltreatment of par
ents is punished in this world.
The circle turns quickly, very quickly.
Oh, what a stupendous thought that the
good and evil we start come back to us!
Do you know that the Judgment day will
be only the points at which the circles
join-the good and the bad we have done
coming back to US, unless divine interview
ton understanding back to US, welcome
of delight or curse of condemnation
Oh, would like to see Paul, the invalid
missionary, at the moment when his in.
fuence comes to full orb-his influence
rolling out through Antioch, through
Cyprus, through Lystra, through Corinth,
through Athens. through Asia, through
Europe, through America, through the
first century, through five centuries,
through twenty centuries, through all the
succeeding centuries, through earth,
through Heaven, and, at last, the wave of
influence having made full circuit, strikes
h
sweap of the circle of his influence, save
the One who is seated on the circle of the
earth.
swell, now" say people in this audi
ence, "this in some respects is very glad
theory, and in others a very sad one; we
would like to have all the good we have
ever done come back to us, but the
thought that all the sins we have ever
committed will come back to us fills us
with Alright
My brother, have to tell you God caA
break that circle and will do so at your
call. I can bring twenty passages of
Scripture to prove that when God for
Christ's sake forgave man, the sins of his
past life never come back. The wheel may
roll on and roll on, but you take your posi-.
ton behind the cross, and the wheel
strikes the cross and it is shattered for ]
ever. The sins fly off from the circle into
the perpendicular falling at right angles
with complete oblivion. Forgiven! for
given! The meanest thing man can do
is, after some difficulty has been settled,
to bring it up again; and God will not be
SO mean as that Gods memory is mighty
enough to hold all the events of the ages,
but there is one thing that is sure to slip
his memory, one thing he is sure to forget
and that is pardoned transgression. How
do know it? I will prove it.
Their sins and iniquities will remember
no more.
Come into that state this morning, my |
dear brother, my dear sister.
Blessed Is the one whose transgressions |
are forgiven.
But do not make the mistake of thinking |
that this doctrine Of the circle stops with |
this life; it rolls on through heaven. You |
might quote in opposition to me what st. |
John says about the city of Heaven. He |
says it "lieth four square," That does
seem to mitigate against this idea, but you
know there is many a square house that
has family circle facing each other and
in circle moving, and can prove that
this is SO in regard to heaven. st. John
says:
heard the voice OF many angels round
about the throne and the beast and the
elders. .....
And again he says:
There was rainbow round about the
throne.
The two former instances a circle; the
last either circle or a semi circle. The
seats facing each other, the angels facing
each other, the men facing each other;
Heaven an amphitheater of glory. Cir
conference of patriarch, and prophet, and