St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-08-14

not cheat God out of . single esnt
Here is man who has made SIC, 900 in
fraud. Before he dies every dollar OF
it will be gone. or it will give him vio-
lent unrest Here is . Christian who
has been largely prospered. He has
not given to God the proportion that
is due in charities and benevolences.
God comes to the reckoning, and
He takes It all away from you.
How often it has been that
Christian men have had large estate,
and it is gone. The Lord God come
into the counting room and said: Il
have allowed you to have all this prop
erty for 10, IS or 20 years, and you have
not done justice to my poor children.
When the beggar called upon you, you
bounded him of you steps; when my
suffering children appealed to you for
help, you had no mercy. l only asked
for SO much, or SO much, but you did
not give it to me, and now l will take
it ALL"
God asks Of us one-seventh of our
time in the way Of Sabbath. Do you
suppose we can get an hour Of that
time successfully away from its true
object? No, no. God has demanded
one-seventh of your time. II you take
one hour of that time that is to be de-
voted TO Gods service, and instead of
keeping His sabbath, use it for the pur-
pose of writing up your accounts or
making worldly gains. God will get
that hour from you in some unex-
pected way God says to Jonah:
''Yo 60 to Nineveh." He says:
mo. won't I'll go to Tarsh-
ish." He starts for Tarshish. The
sea raves, the winds blow, and the
ship rocks Come. yc whales and take
this passenger for Tarshish! No man
ever gets to Tarshish whom God tells
to 60 to Nineveh. The sea would not
carry him; it is Gods sea. The winds
would not watt him; they are Gods
winds Let a man attempt to do that
which God fOrbids him to do. or to go
into . place where God tells him
not to 60, the natural world as
we'll rs God is against him. The
lightnings are ready to strike
him, the fires to burn him, the sun to
smite him, the waters to drown him,
and the earth to swallow him. Those
whose princely robes are woven out OF
hearts strings; those whose fine houses
are built out Of skulls; those whose
springing fountains are tears of OPP
pressed nations have they successfully
cheated God? The last day will dem
onstrate-it will be found out ON that
day that God vindicated not only His
goodness and mercy, but His power
to take care of His own rights
and the rights of His church, and
the rights of his oppressed children.
Come, ye martyred dead, awake!
and come up from the dungeons where
folded darkness hearsed you, and the
chains like cankers peeled loose the
skin, and wore of the flesh. and rat
tied on the marrowless bones. Come,
We martyred dead, from the stakes
where you were burned. where the arm
uplifted for mercy fell into the ashes,
and the cry of pain was drowned in
the snappings of the fame and the
bowling of the mob; from valleys of
Piedmont and Smithfield Market.
and London Tower, and the High
lands of Scotland. Gather in great
procession. and together clap your
bony hands, and together stamp your
moldy feet, and let the chains that
bound you to dungeons all clank at
once. and gather all the flames that
burned you in one uplifted arm of
fire, and plead for q Judgment.
Gather all tho tears We ever
wept into . lake, and gather all
the signs We ever breathed into a
tempest, until the heaven-piercing
chain-clank, and the tempest-sigh, and
the thunder-groan. announce to earth
and hell and Heaven Judgment! Oh,
on that day God will vindicate the
cause Of the troubled and the OPP
pressed. 1t will be seen in that day
that though we may have robbed our
fellows, we never have successfully
robbed God.
My Christian friends, as you go out
into the warld, exhibit an open-hearted
Christian frankness. Do not be hypO-
critical in anything; you are never safe
if you are. At the most inopportune
moment the sheep wilt .bleat and the
oxen below. Drive out the last Amale-
kite of sin from your soul. Have no
mercy on Agag. Down with your sins;
down with your pride; down with your
worldliness. l know you can not
achieve this work by your own arm,
but Almighty grace is sufficien.-that
which saved Joseph in the pit; that
which delivered Daniel in the den; that
which shielded Shadrach in the fire;
that which cheered Paul in the ship
wreck.