St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-11-27
attempts 10 leap the chaam and. he fall.

attempts 70 leap the chasm and he falls
into it
Then it u in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. II . man
makes a fortune before 80 years OF age,
lie generally loses it before 10. The
solid and permanent fortunes for the
most part do not come to their climax
until in mid-life. or in old age. The
most of the bank presidents have white
hair. Many of those who have been
largely successful have been flung OF
arrogance or worldliness or dissipation
in old age. They may not have lost
their integrity. but they have become
SO worldly aud so selfish under the in
fluence of large success that it is evil
dent to everybody that their success
has been q temporal calamity and nn
eternal damage. Concerning many
people. it may he said it seems Is il it
would have been better IL they could
have embarked from this life at 20 or
80 years OF age. .ksk =
Do you know the reason why the
vast majority OF people die before SOP
1t is because they have not the moral
endurance for that which is beyond
the 80, and merciful God will not al
low them to be put to the fearful strain.
Again: There is blessing In an
abbreviated earthly existence in the
fact that one is the sooner taken on the
defensive. As soon as one is old enough
to take care of himself he is put ON his
guard. Bolts ON the doors to keep out
the robbers. Fireproof safes to keep
of the flames. Life insurance and fire
insurance against accident Receipts
lest you have to pay debt twice.
Lifeboat against shipwreck. Westing-
house air-brake against railroad col
lision, and hundreds of hands ready to
overreach you and take all you have.
Defense against cold, defense against
heat, defense against sickness, defense
against the worlds abuse, defense
all the way down to the grave. and
even the tonbstones sometimes is not
q sufficient barricade.
If a soldier, who has been on guard.
shivering and stung with the cold.
pacing up and down the parapet with
shou.dered musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can
go inside the fortress, ought not that
man to shout for joy who can put
down his weapon OF earthly defense
and go into the Kings castle? Who is
the more unfortunate, the soldier who
has to stand guard twelve hours or the
man who has to stand guard six hours?
We have common sense about every
thing but religion. common sense
about everything but transference
from this world.
Again: There is blessing in m ab-
breviated earthly existence in the fact
that one escapes SO many bereave-
| ments. The longer we live the more
attachments and the more kindred,
the more chords to be wounded or
rasped or sundered. II man live on
to 20 or SO years of age. how many
graves are cleft Mt his feetl In that
long reach of time father and mother
90, brothers aud sisters 20. children
go. grandchildren go, personal friends
outside the family circle whom they
had loved with love like that OF Da-
vid and Jonathan. Besides that,
some men have y natural trepi-
dalton about dissolution. and ever
and anon during forty or fifty
or sixty years, this horror
| Of their dissolution shudders through
soul and body. Now, suppose the lad
goes at IL years of age? lie escapes 50
funerals, so caskcts, Sd obsequies, 81
awful wrenchings OF the heart 1t il
hard enough for us to bear their depar>
ture, but is it not easier for us to bear
their departure than for them to stay
and bear SO departures? Shall we moi
by the grace of God rouse Ourselve:
iAto generosity Of bereavement which
will practically say: 1T is hard
enough for me to go through this be
rcavement, but how glad l am that hi
will never have to go through it" 81
l reason with myself, and SO you viii
find it helpful to reason with your
selves. David lost his son. Though
David was king, he lay on tn,
earth mourning and inconsolable fol
some time. At this distance Of time
which do you really think was the one
to be congratulated. the short-livet
child, or the long-lived fstherf Hat
David died rs early rs TINT child diet
1
capped that particular bereavement
then he would have escaped the wors.
bereavement of Absalom, his recrean
son, and the pursuit Of the Philistines
and the fatigues of his military cam
paign. and the jealousy Of Saul, an,
the persidy Of Ahithopel, and the ours
Of Shimei, and the destruction of hi
family at Ziklag, and. above all, h,
would have escaped the two great ca
lamities OF his life. the great sims o
uncleanness and murder. David live,
to be of vast use to the church and tn
world, but so far as his own happines
was concerned, does it not seem TO yO1
that it would have been better for hin
to have gone early?
Now, this. my friends, explains som
things that to you have been inexpli
cable. This shows you why when Go
takes little children from = household
He is very apt to take the brightest
the most genial, the most sympathetic
the most talented. Whyf 1t is be
cause that kind of nature suffers tn
most when it does suffer, and is mos
liable to temptation. God saw til
tempest sweeping up from the Carrit
bean, and lie put the delicate craft int
the first harbor. Taken away fror
the evil to come"
Again. my friends, there 10 a blessin
in AN abbreviated earthly existence i
the fact that it puts one sooner In tn
center OF things. An astronomers. in
fdels Is well rs Christian, agree in b
iieving that the universe swings aroun
some great center. Anyone who ha
) studied the earth and studied th
/ hon lenosra 4laal (Scnd,a &axcxs3