St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-12-11

ried couple De q Christian and the other
not, the one a Christian is bound to 90 any
where to q church where the unconvertet
companion is willing to go, if he or she vii
go to no other. You, Of the connubal part
nership, are a Christian; you are safe fol
the skies; then it is your first duty to Sc
cure the safety of your lifetime associate
Is not the everlasting welfare of your wife
impenitent, of your husband impenit ent, OF
more Importance than your church rela
tionship! Is not the residence of your com
panion for the next quadrillion of years a
mightler consideration to you than the
qualification Of your ecclesiastical taste for
forty or fifty years3
A man or woman that would stop
half a minute to weigh preferences as to
whether he or she had better go with the
unconverted companion to this Or that
church or denomination has no religion at
all, and never has had, and I fear never
will have. You are loaded up with what
you suppose to be religion, but you are
like Captain Frobishcr, who brought back
from his voyage OF discovery a ship-load Of
what he supposed valuable minerals, yet,
instead Of being silver and gold, were moth
ing but common stones of the field, to be
hurled out finally as useless. Mighty God |!
In all Thy realm is there one man or
woman protesting religion, yet SO stolid
so untitled, SO far gone unto death. that
there would be any hesltancy IN surrender
ing all preferences before such an oppor-
tunity OF salvation and heavenly reunion!
If you, a Christian wife, are an at
tcniant upon this Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, and your unconverted husband
does not come here, because he does not
;%r
itecture, or its uncomfortable crowding,
and goes not to any house of worship, but
would go if you would accompany him
somewhere else, change your church rela-
tons. Take you hymn-bool home with
you to-day. Say goodbye to your friends
in the neighboring pews, and go with him
to any one of hundred churches, till his
soul is saved and he joins you in the march
to Heaven. More important than that
ring on the third finger of your left hand it
is, that your Heavenly Father command
the angel Of mercy concerning your hus-
band at his conversion, as in the parable of
old: Pat ring on hi hand"
No letter of more Importance ever came
to the great city Of Corinth, situated on
what was called the Bridge of the Sea-
and glistening with sculpture, and gated
with a style of brass the magnifccnce Of
which the following ages have not been
able successfully to initiate and oyershad-
owed by the Aero Corinthus, a fortress of
rock two thousand feet hight say, no let
ter ever came to that great city of more i'm
portance than that letter in which Paul
puts the two startling questions: What
knoWest thou, oh wife, whether thou shalt
save thy husbanda Or how knowest thou,
oh man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?"
The dearest sacrifice on the part of the one
is cheap if it rescue the other. Better go to
the smallest weakest, most insignificant
church on earth, and be co-partners in eter-
nal bliss, than pass your earthly member
ship in most gorgeously attractive church
while your companion stays outside OF
privilege. Better have the
drowning saved by a scow or sloop than let
lim or her go down while you sail by in the
5ilded cabins of Britannia or Great
Eastern.
Second: If both of the married couple be
Christians, but one is SO naturally Goa
tructed that it is impossible to enjoy the
ervces of particular denomination, and
he other is not so sectaran or punctilious,
ct the one less particular go with the other
Who is very particular. As for myself, l
eel as much at homo in one denomination
# evangelical Christians as another and |
hink | must have been born very near the
inc. like the solemn roll of the Episco- |
'al liturgy, and | like the spontaneity of
he Method1sts, and I like the Importance |
'iven to the ordinance of baptism by the |
Saptists, and like the freedom of the Con- |
regationalists, and | like the government |
nd the sublime doctrine of the Presbyte- |
ians, and l like many of the others just as
God as any have mentioned, and | could |
apply live, and die, and preach, and be |
ured from any Of them.
But others are born with so stout and I'M |
ending and inexorable liking for some |
enomnation that it is a positive necessity |
hey have the advantage of that one. What |
hey W ere intended to be in ecclesiasticism |
vas Writtenin the sides of their cradle, if the |
ather and mother had eyes keen enough to |
ee it. They would not stop crying until |
hey had put into their hands as playthings |
Westminster Catechism or the Thirty |
inc Articles. The whole current of their |
emperament and thought and character |
uns into one sect of religionists as nat |
rally as the James river into the Chesa-
cake. 1t would be a torture to such per-
ons to be any thing outside of that one
hurch. Now, let the wife or husband who is
ot 80 constructed sacrifice the milder pref
renee for the one more infexible and rigor- |
US. Let the grape vine follow the rugosities |
nd sinuosities Of the oak or hickory. Abram,
ne richer in f1ocks of Christian grace,
hould say to Lot, who is built on a smaller |
Gale: " Let there be no strife, [ pray
Zee, between me and thee, and between
~ herdmen and thy herdmen. Is not the
yhole land before thee?n AS YOU can be
difed and happy any where, go with your
ompanion to the church to which he or
he must go or be miserable.
Third: If both the married couple are very
srong in their sectarianisms, let them at
End the different churches preferred. It |
not necessary that you attend the same
nurch. Religion is between your con-
,ience and your God. Like Abram and
OF q ffe1: Whom Ssal.l.a h