St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-06-13

II ss ID sss ss III AZ $3.50
solar system = only one Of The smaller
wheels Of tho great machinery Of the
universe turning around some one
great center, the center 20 far distant
+ r beyond all imagination and calcu-
lation, and il, ~ Some think, that
great center in the distance il heaven,
Christ came far from home when
He came here. Have you ever
thought Of the homesickncss Of Christi
Some of y0u know what home
sickness is when You have been only Z
few weeks absent from the domestic
circle. Christ was % years away from
home. Some Of you feel homesiclnesa
| when you are 100 or 1000 miles away
from the domestic circle. Christ was
moro million miles away from home
than you could count II all your life
you did nothing but count. You know
what it is to be hOmesick even amid
pleasant surroundings, but Christ
slept In huts, and He was athirst. and
He was ahungcrcd, and He was on the
way from being born in another mans
barn to being buried in another mans
grave.
I have read how the Swiss, when
they are far away from their country,
At the sound of their national air get
SO homcsick that they fall into melan-
choly and sometimes they die under
the inconsistencies. But, oh! the home
sickness of Christ. Poverty homesick
for celestial riches. Persecution home
sick for hosanna- WEAKNESS home
sick for rest Homesick for angelic
and archangelic companionship Home
sick to get out Of the night and the
storm and the worlds execration.
Homesickness will make a week seem
rs long as q month, and it seems to me
that the three decades of Christ's resi-
dence on earth must have seemed to
Him almost interminable. You often
tried to measure the other pangs Of
Christ, but you have never tried to
measure the magnitude and ponder
osity Of a Saviour's inconsistencies.
take a step further and tell you
that Christ was an exile which He
knew would end in assassination. Hol-
man Hunt, the master painter, has .
picture in which he represents Jesus
Christ in the Nazarene carpenter shop.
Around Him are the saws, the ham
mers, the axes. the drills Of carpentry.
The picture represents Christ as rising
from the carpenters working bench
and wearily stretching out His arms
as one will after being in contracted
or uncomfortable posture, AMI the
light Of that picture is 50 arranged
that the arms Of Christ wcarily
stretched forth, together with His body,
throw on the wall the shadow of the
cross. Oh! my friends. that shadow
was on everything in Chris:'s lifetime.
Shad ow of cross on the Bethlehem
swaddling clothes. Shadow OF q cross
on the road over which the three fugi-
tivcs fed into Egypt. Shadow of :
cross on Lake Galilec as Christ walked
its mosaic floor of opal and emerald
and crystal. Shadow Of cross on the
brook Kedron, and on the temple, and
on the side of Olivet. Shadow of q
cross on sunrise and sunset. Constan-
tine, marching with his army. saw just
once cross in the sky, but Christ saw
the cross all the time.
On q rough journey we cheer our
selves with the fact that it will end in
warm hospitality; but Christ knew
that His rough path would end at q
dcfoliaged tree without one leaf and
with only two branches, bearing fruit
Of such bitterness as no human lips
had ever tasted. Oh! what an exile
starting in an infancy without any
cradle, and ending in assassination.
Thirst without any water. Day with
out any sunlight. The doom Of dcs-
perado for more than angelic excel
'lcnce. For what that expatriation and
that exile? Worldly good sometimes
comes from worldly evil. The acci-
dental glance of > sharp blade from a
raxor-grinders's wheel put out the eye
Of Gambetta and excited sympathies
which gained him an education and
started him on q career that made his
name more majestic among Frenchmen
than any other name in the last 20
years Hawthorne, turned out Of tho
Office Of collector at Salem, went home
in despair. His wife touched him on
the shoulder and said: NOW is the
time to write your book" and
his famous Scarlet Letter. was
the brilliant consequence. World
" good sometimes comes from
worldly evil. Then he not un-
believing when I tell You that from
the greatest crime of all eternity and OF
the whole universe, the murder of the
Son of God. there shall come results
which shall eclipse all the grandeurs
Of eternity past and eternity to come.
Christ, an exile from Heaven opening
the way for the deportation toward
Heaven and to Heaven of all those who
will accept the proffer. Atonement, q
ship large enough to take all the pas
sengers that will co me aboard it.
For this royal exile bcspeak the
love and service Of all the exiles here
present, and, in one sense or the other,
that includes all of US. The gates Of
this continent have been so widely
opened that there are here many
voluntary cxiles from other lands.
Some of you are Scotchmen. see it
in your high check-bones, and in tho
color that illumines your face when /
mention the land Of your nativity.
Bonnie Scotland! Dear old kirk! Some
Of your ancestors sleeping in Grey
frairs churchyard, or by the deep
lochs filed out Of the pitchers Of
Heaven, or under the heather some
times 50 deep of color it makes one
think OF the blood of the Covenanters
who signed their names for Christ,
dipping their pens into the veins Of
their own arms opened for that pur-
pose. How every fiber of your nature
thrills as mention the name Of Rob-
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