St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-06-06

city of Rome and while in his gallery
asked him, What is the art OF paint
mgr" would he take us ont in . low
pretender At painting? or would he
take us down into the corridors
and show us the Rubens, and
the Baphaels, and the Michael An.
gelos? When we asked him: "What il
the art of painting?" he would point
to the works Of these great masters,
and say: THAT is painting" Now, you
propose to find the mere caricature of
religion, to see X after that which Is
the mere pretension Of holy life. and
and you call that religion. l point
you to the splendid men and women
whom this Gospel has blessed and lift
ed and crowned. Look at the MASTER
pieces Of Divine grace If you want to
know what religion is"
We learn also from this story o1
Joseph that the result of persecution
Is elevation. Had it not been for his
being sold into Egyptian bondage by
his malicious brothers, and his false
imprisonment, Joseph never would
have become . governor. Every body
accepts the promise: "Blesscd are
they that are prosecuted for righteous
ness sake. for theirs is the kingdom
Of Heaven" but they do not realize
the fact that this principle applies to
worldly ~ wcll a. spiritual sue
cesA It 10 true in all depart
mentA Men rise to high official po-
sitions through misrepresentation.
Public abuse is all that some of our
public men have to rely upon for their
elevation. It has brought to them
what talent and executive force could
not have achieved. Many of those
who are making great effort for place
and power will never succeed, just be-
cause they are not of enough impor-
tance to be abused. II is the nature
of men-that is, of all generous
and reasonable men-to gather
about those who are prosecuted
and defend them, and they arc
apt to forget the fault Of those who
are the subjects of attack while at
tempting to drive back the slandcrers
Persecution is elevation. Helen Stirlx,
the Scotch martyr, standing with her
husband at the place of execution,
said: Husband, let us rejoice to-day;
we have lived together many happy
years; this is the happiest time Of all
our life; you see we are to be happy
together forever. Be brave now, be
brave. Twill not say Good night to
you, for we shall soon be in the King
dom of our Father together" Perse-
cution shows the heroes and heroines.
Igo into. another department and I
find that those great denominations of
Christians which have been most
abused have spread the most rapidly.
No good man was ever more violently
maltreatcd than John Wesly-bclied,
caricaturcd and slandered until one
day he stood in . pulpit in London and
= man arose in the audience and said,
''You were drunk last night" and
John Wesley said, "Thank God,
tho whole catalogue is now COM
plete. I have been charged
with everything but that!' His fol-
lowers were hooted at and maligncd
and called by every detesable name
that internal ingenuity could invent.
but the hotter the persecution the
more rapidly they spread, until you
know what a great host they have be-
come and what q tremendous force for
good and the truth they are welding
all the world over! 1t was pcrsccu-
tion that gave Scotland to Pres
bytcrianism. It was persecution
that gave our land first to civil lib
erty and afterwards to religious free
dom. Yea, l might go further back
and say it was persecution that gave
the world the great salvation Of the
Gospel. The ribald mockery, the
hungcring and thirsting, the unjust
charge, the ignominioas death, when
all the force of hell's fury was hurled
against the cross, was the introduc-
tion Of that religion which is yet to
be tho earthis deliverancc and our
eternal salvation. The state some
times said to the church.: ..Comc,
take my hand and I will help you"
What was the result? The church
went back and It lost its estate Of holi-
ness, and it became ineffective. At
other times the state said to the
church: Il will crush you" What
has been the result? After the storms
have spent their fury the church, so
far from having lost any of its force,
has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before.
Read all history and you will find
that true. The church is far more
indebted to the opposition of civil gov
ernment than to its approval. The
fires Of the stake have only been the
torches which Christ held in His hand,
by the light of which the church has
marched to her present glorious posi-
tion. In the sound of racks and inn
plements Of torture I hear the rum
bling of the Gospel chariot. The scat
folds of martyrdom have been the
stairs by which the church mounted.
Learn also from our subject that sin
will como to exposure. Long. long
ago had those brothers sold Joseph
into Egypt They had made their old
father believe that his favorite child
was dead. They had suppressed the
crime, and 1t was . profound secret
well kept by the brothers. But sud-
denly the secret is out The old faith
er hears that his son is in Egypt, hav-
ing been sold there by the malice Of
his own brothers. How their cheeks
must have burned and their hearts sunk
at the flaming out of this long.suc-
pressed crime. The smallest iniquity
has . thousand tongues, and they will
blab out exposure. Sacl was sent to
destroy the Canaanites, their sheep and
their oxen; but when he got down
there among the pastures he saw some
flne sheep and oxen too fat to kill. 90
he thought he would steal them. No
body would know it He drove these
stolen sheep and oxen toward
home. but stopped to report to
the prophet how he had executed
his mission. when in the distance
the sheep began to bleat and the
oxen TO below. The secret was ont,
and Samuel said to the blushing and
confused Saul: "What meaneth the
bleatine Of the sheep that hear and
the believing Of the cattle?" Ah!my
hesrer, you can not keep IN iniquity
still. At Just the wrong time the