St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-05-22

make 1Or queen CndrlOIJc Lnc nrSG
royal table service of English manufac-
ture. That was what helped James
Watt, scoffed at and caricatured. until
he could put on wheels the thunder
bolt Of power which roars by day and
by night in every furnace of the loco
motive engines Of America. That is
what helped Hugh Miller. toiling amid
the quarries of Cromartv. until every
rock became to him volume
of the worlds biography, and
he found the footsteps of the Creator
in the old red sandstone. Oh, the world
wants a Christ for the Office, a Christ
for the kitchen. Christ for the shop,
Christ for the banking honse. Christ
for the garden. while spading and
planting and irrigating the territory.
Oh, of course we want 20 see Christ at
last in royal robe and bediamonded, .
celestial equestrian mounting the white
horse. but from this Easter of 1897 to
our last Easter on earth we most need
to see Christ as Mary Magdalene saw
Him at the daybreak, ''supposing Him
to be gardener
Another thing which the church and
the world have not noticed in regard to
the resurrection of Christ is that He
made His first post-mortem appearance
to one who had been the seven-deviled
Mary Magdalene. One would have
supposed lie would have made His first
posthumous appearance to woman
who had always been illustrious for
goodness. There are sanity women
who have always been sanity, sanity
in girlhood, sanity in infancy, always
sanity. In nearly all our families
there have been sanity aunts. In my
family circle it was sanity Aunt
Phoebe: in yours. sanity Aunt Martha.
or sanity Aunt Ruth. One always
| sanity. But not so was the one spoken
| of in the text.
While you are not to confouHd her
| with the repentant courtesan who had
made her long locks do the work OF
towel at Christ's footwashing, you are
not to forget that she was exercised Of
seven devils. What captive Of
demonology she must have been.
| What chorus of all dia-
bolism. Seven devils-two for the
eyes. and two for the hands, and two
for the feet. and one for the tongue.
| Seven devils. Yet all these are extir-
pated, and now she is as good as once
she was bad. and Christ honors her
with the first posthumous appearance.
| What does that mean?
Why. it means for worst sinner great
est grace: it means those lowest down
shall come perhaps, highest up. 1t
means that the clock that strikes u at
midnight may strike Il at
midnoon; it means that the grace of
God is seven times stronger than sin.
| Mary Magdalene the seven-deviled be-
came Mary Magdalene the seven
angeled. 1t means that when the Lord
meets us at last He will not throw up
to us what we have been. All He said
to her was: ''Mary~ Many people hav-
| ing met her under such circumstances
would have said: Let me see, how
many devils did You have? one, two.
three, four. five, six, seven. What q
terrible piece you were when l first
met YOU" The most of the Christian
women in our day would have
nothing to do with Mary Magdalene
even after her conversion, lest some
how they be compromised. The only
thing l have to say against women is
that they have not enough mercy for
Mary Magdalene. Christ put all pathos,
and all "reminiscences, and all anticipa-
ton, and all pardon, and all comfort,
and all Heaven into one word of four
letters: Nary Mark you, Christ did
not appear to some Bible Elizabeth, or
Bible Hannah. or Bible Esther. or Bible
Deborah. or Bible Vashti. but to Mary,
not to Mary against whom nothing
was said. not to Mary the mother OF
Jesus, not to Mary the mother OF
James. not to Mary the sister Of Laza-
rus. but to a seven-deviled Mary.
There is a man seven-deviled-devi
of avarice. devil of pride, devil of hate
devil of Incidence. devil of falsehood
devil Of strong drink, devil Of impurity
God can take them all away, seven ol
seventy. l rode over the new cantilcvel
bridge that spans Niagara-a bridge 90t
feet long, $50 feet of chasm from bluff
to bluff. l passed over it without
anxiety. Why: Because - locomo
tives and % cars laden with gravel had
tested the bridge. thousands of people
standing on the Canadian side, thou
sands standing on the American side,
to applaud the achievement And
however long the train of our immor'
tai interests may be we are to remem
Der that Gods bridge of mercy span
ming the chasm of sin has been fully
tested by the awful tonnage of all thu
IL nh Ny<sk
militant standing on one bank. church
triumphant standing on the othe
bank. Oh, it was to the seven-levilet
Mary that Christ made His first post
mortem appearance.
, There is another thing that th'
world and the church have not ob
served in regard to this resurrection
and that is, il wa5 the morning
twilight
If the chronometer had been inven
ted and Mary had as good watch a
some of the Marys of our time hav'
She would have found it was about 5:3
o'clock a. m. Matthew says it was II
, the dawn: Mark says it was at the sun
rising: Luke says it was very early il
the morning; John says it was Will
i. was vet dark. In other words
it was twilight. That was tn
, o'clock at which Mary Mag
dealene mistook Christ for tn
+ gardener. What does that mean
| II means there are shadows over tn
, grave unified. shadows Of myster
that are towering. Mary stopped dow
ana tried to look to the other end c
, the crypt. She gave hysteric outer,
, She could not see to the other end