The Opelousas courier., 1890-09-27

granaries that had been left in the possessol
of the victorious Israelites. Then the firi
was kindled, md the ears of corn were thrust
into it, and. fresh and crisp and tender, were
deyoured of the hungry v~ietors; and bread
was prepared, and many things that can be
had been sharpened by the long march.
s'And the mamma ceased on the morrow
after they had eaten of the old corn Of the
land"
Blessed be God, we stand in just such q
field to-day, the lExuriant grain coming
above the girdle, the air full of the odors of
the ripe old corn of the gospel Canaan.
'tOhryou say, s'thef fare is too plain" Then
I remember you will soon get tired of q fam
ciful diet. While / was in Paris I liked for q
while the rare and exquisite cookery, but |
soon wished / was home again, and had the
plain food of my native land. So it is a fact
that we soon weary of the sirups and the
custards and the whipped foam of the fanci-
full religionists, and we cry: "Give us plain
bread made out of the old corn of the gospel
Canaan" This is the only food that can
Quell the souls hunger.
There are meE here who hardly know what
is the matter with them. They have tried
to get together a fortune and larger account
at the bank and to get investments yielding
larger percentages. They are trying to sat-
isfy their soul with a diet Of mortgages and
stocks. There ara others here who have been
trying to get famous, and have succeeded to
q greater or less extent; and they have been
trying to satisfy their sou with the chopped
feed Of magazines and newspapers. ALI these
men are no more happy now b before they
made the first thousand dollars: no more
happy now than when for the first time they
saw their names favoraby mentioned. They
cannot analyze or define their feelings; but
will tell them what is the matter-they are
hungry for the old corn of the Gospel. That
you must have, or be piuched and war and
wasted and hollow-eyed and slriveled up
with an eternity of famine.
The inhdel scientists of this day are offer
ing us differen kind of soul food; but they
are, Of all men, the most miserable. I have
known many of them; but | never knew one
of them who came within a thousand miles
of being happy. The great John Stewart
Mill provided for himself q new kind of por-
ridge; but yet, when he comes to die, he ac-
k~nowledges that his philosophy never gave
him any comfort in days Of bereavement, n
in a roundabout way he admits that his life
was a failure. So it is with all infidei scien-
lists. They are trying to live on telescopes
and crucibles and ~protoplasms, and they
charge us with can't, not realizing that there
is no such intolerabie can't in all the world as
this perpetual talk We are hearing about
positive philosophy" and 1.-THE absolute
and 'tthe great to be- and s'the everlasting
no." and ''the higher unity" and '.the
latent potentialities,n and 1.-THE cathedral of
the immensities." | have been translating
what these men have been writing, and
have been translating what they have been
doing, and | will tell you what it all means
1t means that they want to kill God! And
my only wonder is that God has not killed
them. Ihave in other days tasted of their con.
f~ections, and | come back and tell you to-day
that there is no nutriment or life or health i'm
anything but the bread made out OF the old
corn of the Gospel. What do | mean by
that? I mean that Christ is the bread Of
life, and taking Him, you live and live for
ever.
But, you say, corn is Of but little practical
use unless it is threshed and ground and
baked. I answer: This Gospel corn has gone
through that process. When on Calvary oil
the hoofs of human scorn came down on the
heart of Christ, and all the fails of satani,
fury beat Hin long and fast, was not the
corn threshold When the mills of Gods in
dignation against sin caught Christ between
the upper and neither rollers was not the
corn ground? When Jesus descended into
hell, and the flames of the lost world wrapped
Him all about, was not the corn baked? Oh,
yesI Christ is ready; His pardon all ready;
His peace all ready; everything ready In
Christ. Are you ready for Him?
You a y THAT is such a simple Gospel
/ know it is. You say you thought religion
was q strange mixture of elaborate COM
pounds. No; it is SO plain that any apiece
darian may understand it. In its simplicity
is its power. II you could this morning re-
alize that Christ died to save from sin and
death and hell not only your minister, and
your nei2hbor, and your father, and your
child, but you, it would make this hour like
the Judgment day for agitations, and, nc
longer able to keep your seat, you would
leap up crying: for me! for mer' God
grant that you, my brother, may see this
Gospel with your own eyes, and hear it with
your own ears, and feel with your own heart
comes for your extrication. Can you not
take that truth and digest ii, and make it a
part of your immortal life? 1t is only bread.
You have noticed that invalids cannot
take all kinds Of food. The food that will
do for one will not do for another. There
are kinds of food which will produce. in
cases OF invalidism, very speedy death.
But you have noticed that all persons. how
ever weak they may be, can take bread.
Oh. soul sick with sin, invalid in your
trausgressions, ] think this Gospel will
agree with youi I think If you cannot take
ANYTHING else you can take his. Lost
fo1ndl Sunken raised? Condemned =
p~ardonedI Cast out-IflV1ted I'M InaG Is
the old corn of the Gospel.
You rave often seen q wheel with spokes
of different colors, and when the wheel was
rapidly turned all the colors blended into a
rainbow of exquisite beauty. ! wish ]
could to-day, take the peace, and the life,
and the joy and glory Of Christ. and turn
them before your soul with such speed and
| such strength that you would be enchanted
with the revolving splendors OF that nam
-nsmI p -Ts1-ao ~YCnyx ~1--a +Ir .Anr an -~wsA
ten once with tears of exile and in blood OF
martyrdom. but written 10Y In FURNISHED
crown, and lifted sceptre, and t~ransangeli
throne.
There is another characteristic abou
bread, and that is, you never get tired Of it
There are people here seventy years of ag,
who find it just as appropriate for their ap
petite as they did when, In boyhood, thei
mother cut a slice of it clear around the loaf
You have not got tired of bread. and that i
a characteristic of the Gospel. Old Christian
| take His name out of our Bible, and let u
with pen and ink erase that name whereva
we see it. Let us cast it out of our hymnc
logy, and let There is q Fountain an
Rock OF Ages go into f~orgetfulness. lie
us tear down the communion table where W
celebrate His love. Let us dash down TIL
haptismal bowl where we were consecrated t
lIim. LebuS nuFl Jesus from our nearb, an
ask some other hero to come in. Let us say
$50 away, Jesus / want another companion
another friend, than Thou art.n Could 70
do it? The Years of your past life, nged mar
would utter q protest against it, and lib
graves OF your Christian dead would chare
you with being an migrate, and your littl
grandchildren would say: .Grandfathel
don't do that. Jesus is the one to whom W
say our prayers at night, and who is to ope
heaven when we die. Grandfather, don't d
that.n Tired of Jesnsi The BHronndv rms
You PUCK from the garuen is NOT so Iresn an
fair and beautiful. Tired of Jesusf As we
get weary of the spring morning and th
voices of the mountain runnel, and the quis
A uo,,r oxv,, harna and tba uladnaes of won