St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-09-01


| fcult thing for man to feel his depend
ence upon God when he has ten thousand
dollars In the bank and fifty thousand
dollars In Government securities, and q
block of stores and three ships.
"Well," the man says to himself, 'sit Is
| silly for me to pray Give me this day my
daily bread when my pantry is full and
| the canals from the West are crowded
| with breadstuffs destined for my store
houses"
Oh, my friends, if the combined mis-
fortunes and disasters of life have made
you climb up into the arms of SYM
pathetic and compassionate God, through
all eternity you will bless Him that in this
world
There was sharp rock on the one side and
a sharp rock on the other side
Again, that man is in the crisis Of the
text who has home troubles and outside
persecution at the same time. The world
treats man we'll just as long as it pays
best to treat him we'll. AS long as it can
manufacture success out of his bone and
brain and muscle it favors him. The
world fattens the horse 1t wants to drive
But let man see 1t his duty to cross the
track of the world, then every bush is full
Of horns and tusks thrust at him. They
will belittle him. They will caricature
him. They will call his generosity self
aggrandizementa and his piety sanctim oni-
BUSINESS. The very worst persecution will
some time come upon him from those who
profess to be Christians.
John Milton-great and good John Mil
ton-so forgot himself as to pray, in so
many words, that his enemies might be
eternally thrown down into the darkest
and deepest gulf of hell, ana be the I'M
dermost and most detected and the low
est down rassals Of perdition! And Mar
tin Luther SO far forgot himself as to
say, in regard to his theological oppo-
nents:
'Put them in whatever sauce you
please, roasted, or fried, or baked, or
stewed, or boiled, or hashed, they are
nothing but asses"
All, my friends, if John Milton or MAR
tin Luther could come down to such sour
rility, what may you not expect from less
elevated opponents? Now, the world
sometimes takes after them; the news
papers takes after them; public opinion
takes after them; and the unfortunate
man is lied about until all the dictionary
Of Billinsgate is exhausted on him. You
-S4bSiA
good, and pure, and honest set upon by
the world and mauled by whole commu-
mites, while vicious men take on a super
cilious air tn condemnation of him; as
though Lord Jeffreys should write an es-
say on gentleness, or Henry VIII. talk
about purity, or Herod take to blessing
little children.
Now certain amount of persecution
JaGc IL
for magnificent battle and makes him
fifty times more a man than he would
have been without the persecution. So it
was with the great reformer when he
said,
II will not be put down; I will be
heard"
And SO 1t was with Willard, the preach
or, in the time of Louis XII. When Louis
XII. sent word to him that unless he
stopped preaching in that style he would
throw him into the river, he replied:
Tell the King that will reach Heaven
sooner by water than he will reach it by
fast horses"
A certain amount of persecution is a
tonic and inspiration, but too much Of 1t,
and too long continued. becomes the rock
Bozez, throwing dark shadow over a
mans life. What is he to do then? Go
home, you say. Good advice, that. That
is just the place for man to go when the
world abuses him. Go home. Blessed be
God for our quiet and sympathetic homes.
But there is many man who has the
reputation of having home when he has
none. Through unthinkingness or pre-
there are many matches made
that ought never to have been made. An
priest can not alone unite a
couple. The Lord Almighty must pro-
claim banns. There is many home in
which there is no sympathy and no hap-H
piness and no good cheer. The clamor of
the battle may not have been heard out
side, but God knows, notwithst anding all
the playing of the "Wedding March" and
all the odor of the orange blossoms and
the benediction Of the officiating pastor,
there has been no marriage.
Sometimes men have awakened to find
on one side of them the rock Of persecu-
ton, and on the other side the rock Of do
nestle infdel1ty What shall such an
one do? Do as Jonathan did-climb. Get
up the heights of Gods cons olation, from
which we may look down in triumph up
on the outside persecution and home
trouble. While good and great John
W esley was being silenced by the magis-
trates, and having his name written on
the board fences of London in doggere1,
at that very time his wife was making
him as miserable as she could-acting as
though she were possessed with the devil,
rs suppose she was; never doing him a
kindness until the day she ran away, so
hat he wrote in his diary these words:
~ did not forsake her; have not dis
missed her; will not recall her."
Planting one foot John Wesley did,
Upon outside persecution, andthe other
'oot on home trouble, he climbed into the |
heights of Christian joy, and, after
preaching forty thousand sermons and
travelling two hundred and seventy thou |
sand miles, reached the heights Of Heav-
IN, though in this world he had 1t hard !
enough. r
A sharp rock on the one side, and sharp |
rock on the other.
Again, that woman stands In the crisis
If the text, who has bereavement and a |
livelihood at the same time.
Without mentioning names, I speak from
observation. All, it Is hard thing for d |
woman to make an honest living, even |
when her heart Is not troubled, and she
aas fair cheek and the magnetism Of an
exquisite presence. But now the hus-
q + Ma