St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-07-04
TALMAGE's SERMON.
A Patriotic Discourse to tho Ma
donal Le0islatorA

A Patriotic Discourse to tho Ne-
aonal Legislators
= Plea for Recsgaltlsa Of God n the
COMMUNICATIONS Against The
Appropristsoa Of Money for
sectaEian schools.
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject Of = sermon before his WASH
ington congregation: Before They
Adjourn" having reference to the early
dispersal of congress- His text was:
And teach his senators wisdom.-Psalms cv,
z
Senators in this text stand for law
makers. Joseph was the lord treas
urer OF the Egyptian government, and
among other great things which he
did, according to my text, was to
teach his senators wisdom; and il any
man on earth ought to be endowed
they stand in congress. parliaments, or
reichstag, or legislatures. BY their
decisions nations 70 up or down.
| Lawmakers are sometimes SO tempted
by prcjudices, by sectional prefer
ences, by opportunity Of personal adj
vancement, and sometimes what is
best to do is SO doubtful that they
ought to be prayed for and encour-
aged in every possible way, instead Of
severely criticised and blamed and ex-
coriated, as il much Of time the
case. Our public men are SO often
the target to be shot at, merely
because they obtain eminence which
other men wanted but could not reach,
national legislature than the people
of the United States can possibly i'm
agine. The wholesale belying Of our
public men is simply damnablc. by
residence in Washington have come
10 find out that many of our public
men are persistently misrepresented,
and some Of the best of them, the pur-
est in their lives and most faithful in
the discharge of their duties. are the
worst DETAINED. Some day l want to
preach y sermon from the text in III.
Peter: "They are not afraid to speak
evil of dignities. Whereas angels,
which are greater in power and
might, bring not railing accusa-
ton against them before the
Lord. But these, as natural brute
beasts, made to be taken and de-
stroyed, speak evil of the things that
they understand not So constant
and malignant is the work Of depreci-
alton and standardization in regard to
our public men that all over the land
there are those who suppose that the
city of Washington IL the center Of all
corruption, while, what with its parks,
and its equestrian statuary. and its
wide streets, and its architectural
Eymmetrics, and its lovely homes. it is
not only the most beautiful city under
the sun. but has the highest style of
citizenship. have seen but one in
toxicated man in the moro than six
months Of my residence. and do not
think any man can give similar testi-
mony to any other city on the Ameri-
can continent
The gavels of our two houses OF ma
tional legislature will soon fall, and
adjournment Of two bodies Of men as
talented, as upright, and as
patriotic as ever graced the CAPT.
toll will take place. The two or
three unfortunate outbreaks which
you have noticed only make more con-
spicuous the dignity, the fraternity,
the eloquence, the fidelity which have
characterized these two bodies during
the long months Of important and
anxious deliberation. We put halo
around great men Of the past because
they were SO rare in their time. Our
senate and house Of representatives
have five such men where once they
had one. But It will not be until after
they are dead that they will get appre-
ciated. The world finds it safer to
praise the dead than the living, because
the departed, having a heavy pile Of
marble above them, may not rise to
become rivals. But before the gavels |
of adjournment drop and the doors Of
Capitol Hill shut, there are one or two
things that ought to be done. and let |
US pray to God that they may be &C
complished. More forcibly than ever
before, congress has been implored to |
acknowledge God in our constitution.
The Methodist church. q church which |
is always doing glorious things, has.
In its recent Wilmington conference,
requested our congress to amend the |
immortal document, which has been |
the foundation and wall and dome Of |
our United States government, by in
serting the words: Trusting in Al
mighty God" II that amendment is
made, it will not only please all the
good people Of the country, but will
please the heavens 1t was only m
oversight or mental accident that
the fathers who made the constitution
did not insert divinely worshipful
sentence. They all. so far as they
amounted to anything, believed in
God, the Father Almighty. the Maker
of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus
Christ, His only begotten Son." The
would have been . fail
urc had it not been for the Divine in
reference. The members Of the con-
vention could agree on nothing until,
I'm response to Benjamin Franklin's
request that the meeting be opened by
prayer. the Lord was called on to in
terferc and help, and then the way
was cleared, and all the states signed
the document; q historical fact that
all the rat terriers Of modern infidelity
can not bark out of existence!
know that there was an exception
to the fact that the prominent men of
those times werc good men. Tom
Paine, hbertine and sot. did not
believe in anything good until he was
dying, and then he shrieked out
for Gods mercy. And Ethan Allen,
from one of whose descendants have
received within few days coDfirma-
ton of the incident mentioned in .
recent sermon, rs saying to his dying
that she had better take her
mothers Christian religion than his
own infidelity, The article sent me
says: The story has been denied by
some Of the Allen family, but the
Bronson family, some of whom were