Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-12-18

of activity long after the world mas put on
ashes. and the solar system shall have
snapped its axle, and the stars that, in their
courses, fought against Sisera, shall have
been slain and buried amid the tolllng
thunders Of the last day.
You see that God has adapted everything
to our comfort and advantage. Pleasant
things for the palate; music for the ear;
beauty for the eye; aroma for the nostril;
kindred for our affections; poetry for our
taste: religion for our soul. We are put IN
a garden, and told that from all the trees
we NAV eat, except here and there one.
He gives the sun to shine on US, and the
waters to refresh us, and food to strengthen
us: and the herbs yield medicine when we
are sick, and the forests lumber when we
would build house or cross the water IN
ship. 1910, &c..
datiop, and metals upturned for our cur
rency, and wild beasts must give US cover
ing and the mountains must De Cunneieo
to let us pass, and the fish OF the sea come
I'D in our net, and the birds of the air drop
at the flash of our guns, and the cattle or
thousand hills come down to give US meat.
For us the peach orchards bend down their
fruit and the vineyards their purple clusters.
TO feed and refresh our intellect, ten tnou-
sand wonders in nature and providence
wonders of mind and body, wonders or
earth and air, and deep analogies and anti
theses, all colors and sounds, lyrics In the
air. idyls in the field, conhagrations in the
sunset, robes of mist on the mountains ana
the Grand March" of God In the storm
But for the soul still higher adaptation;
a fountain in which it may wash; ladder
by which it may climb; song of endless
triumph that it may sing; crown of I'M
fading light that it may wear. Christ came
to save it-came with cross on His back;
came with spikes in His feet; came when no
one else would come, to do work which no
one else would do See how suited to mans
condition is what God has done for him.
Man is a sinner; here is a pardon He has
lost Gods image; Christ retraces it. He is
helpless, Almighty grace is proffered. He is
a lost wanderer; Jesus brings him home. He
is blind, and at one touch of Him who cured
Bartimeus, eternal glories stream into his
soul. Jesus l sing Thy grace! Cure Of worst
disease! Hammer to smlte OFT heaviest
chain! Light for thickest darkness! Grace
divine! Devils scott at it and men reject it,
but heaven celebrates it!
I wish you good cheer for the national
health. Pestilence, that in other years has
come to drive out its thousand heerseS to
Greenwood and Laurel Hill has not visited
our nation. 1t is a glorious thing to be
we'll! How strange that we should keep our
health when one breath from marsh or the
sting of an insect or the slipping OF a foot or
the falling of tree branch might fatally
assault our life. Regularly the lungs work,
and their motion seems to be spirit within
US painting after its immortality. Our sight
falls not though the air is so full OF OBJECTS
which by one touch could break out the
souls window What ship, after a years
tossing on the sea- could come in with SO
little damage ourselves, though we arrive
after years voyage to-day.
l wish you good cheer for the national mar
vest. Reaping machines never sWathed
thicker rye and corn husker's peg never ripped
OUT fuller ear, and NOW poles never bent
down under sweeter hay, and wlndmllPs
hopper never shook out larger wheat. Long
trains of white covered wagons have brought
the wealth down to the great thoroughtares
The gamers are full the stOrehOuSeS are
overcrowded, the canals are blocked with
freights pressing down to markets.. The cars
rumble all through the darkness and whistle
up the fagman at dead OF night to let the
western harvests come down to feed the
mouths of the great cities. A race of kings
has taken possession of this land-King Cot
tor King Corn, King Wheat, King Rice,
King Grass King Coal.
wish you good cheer for civil and relig-
ious liberty. No official spy watches our en-
trance here nor does an armed soldier inter
fere with the honest utterance Of truth. we
stand here to-day with our arms free to
work and our tongues free to speak. This
Bible-it is all unclasped. This pulplt-there
is no chain around about 1t. there Is no
swapping of musketry in the street. Blessed
be God that to-day we are free men, with the
prospect and determination of always being
free. No established religion-Jew and Cen
tile, Arminian and Calvinist, Trinitarian and
Unitarian, Protestant and Roman Cathohc
on the same footing.
If persecution should come against the
most unpopular of all the scots, l believe
that all other denominations would band to-
gether and arm themselves, and heart would
be stout. and blood would be free, and the
right of men to worship God according to
the dictates of their cOnsclences would be
contested at the point of the bayonet, and
with blood flowing up to the bits of the
horses brides.
For merces temporal and spiritual let
| consecrated lives be offered. Wherever Gods
| light shines and Gods rain descends and
| Gods mercy broods let the thanksgiving
! arise