St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-09-11

clares His own eternity: Il an Alphx
and Omega How can He be = l.sn,
under Ills foot crushing kingdoms,
and yet a lamb licking the hand that
slays Him? At what point do
the throne ana the manger touch?
If Christ was Gol. why fec into
Egypt? Why not stand His gror nd?
Why, instead of bearing the cross, not
lift up Ills right hand and crush Ills
assassins? Why stand and be spat
uEon? Why sleep on the mountain
when He owned the palaces Of eternity?
Why catch fish for His breakfast on
tpe beach in the chill morning, when
all the pOmegranates ere His. and all
Sae vineyards His, and all the cattle
His, and all the partridges His? Why
walk when weary, and His feet stone
bruised, when He might have
taken the splendors of the sunset for
Ills equipagc and moved with horses
and chariots of fire? Why beg a drink
from the waysidc, when out OF the rvs
tai chaliccs of eternity He poured the
Euphrates, the Mississippi, and the
Amazon, and dipping His hand in the
fountains of Heaven, and shaking that
hand over the world, from the tips OF
His fingers dripping the great lakes
and the oceans? Why let the Roman
regiment put Him to death, when He
might have ridden down the sky fol-
lowed by all the cavalry of Heaven,
I'D rr,l,s - of M.
victory?
You try to confound me. / am con-
founded before you speak. Paul said
it was unsearchable. He went climbing
up from argument to argument and
from antithesis to antithcsis, and from
glory to glory, and then sank dow n in
exhaustion rs he saw far above him
other heights of divinity unscaled, and
exclaimed. that in all things he might
have the pre-eminence."
Again: Christ was wonderful in His
teaching. The people had been used
TO formalities and technicalities;C Christ
upset all their notions as to how
preaching ought to be done. There
was a popularity about His preach ing:
The people knew what He meant. Bis
illustrations were taken from the hen
calling her chickens together; from
salt, from candles, from fishing tackle,
from q hard creditor coliaring debt
or. How few pupils of this day would
have allowed Him cntrance? He would
have been called undignified and
familiar in His style of
preaching. And yet the people went
te hear Him. Those OLD Jewish rabbis
might have preached on the side of
Olivet 50 years and never got an audi
ence. The philosophers sneered at His
ministrations and said: This will
never do.' The lawyers caricatcred.
but the common people heard Him
gladly. Suppose you that there were
any sleepy people in His audiences?
Suppose you that any woman who
ever mixed bread was ignoran. of
what He meant when lie compared
the kingdom of Heaven with leaven
or yeast? Suppose you that the
sunburncd fishermen, with the FISH,
scales upon their hands, were listless
when He spoke Of the Kingdom of
Heaven as a net? We spend three
years in college studying ancient
mythology, and three years in the the
illogical seminary learning how to
make q sermon, and then we 60 out to
save the world; and if we can not do it
according to Claude's ''Sermonizing,"
or ''Blair's Rhetoric" or Kane's Crit
icism," we will let the world 60 to per-
ditiOn. IT we save nothing else, we
will save Claude and Blair. We see a
wreck in sight We must go out and
save the crew and passengers. We.
wait until we get on our fine cap and
coat and find our shining oars, and
then We push out methodically and
scientifically. while some plain shores
man, in rough fishing smack, and with
broken oarloclks. goes out and gets the
crew and passengers, and brings them
ashore in safety. We throw down our
delicate oars and say: ''What ridic-
ulous thing to save men IN that way!
You ought to have done 1t scientifically
and beautifully "Ah" says the
If those sufferers had
waited until you got out your fine boat
they would have gone to the bottom"
The work of a religious teacher IS to
save men, though every law OF gram
mar should be snapped in the under
taking, and there be nothing but ewk-
wardness and blunders in the mode,
all hail to the man who saves soul.
Christ, in His preaching, was plain,
earnest, and wonderfully sympathetic.
We can not dragOo men into Heaven.
We can not drive them in with the
butt-end of q catechism. We waste
our time in trying to catch flies with
acids instead of the sweet honeycomb
of the Gospel. We try to make crab
apples do the work of pomegranates-
Again: Jesus was wonderful in His
sorrows. The sun smote Him, and the
cold chilled Him, the rain pe.ted Him,
thirst parched Him, and hunger ex-
Him. Shall I compare His
sorrow to the sea? No; for that is
hushed into calm. Shall
l compare twith the night? No; for
that sometimes CLEANS with Orino,
or kindles with AURORA If one
thorn should be thrust through
your temple you would faint.
But here is . whole crown made
from the Bhamnus or Spina Christi
small, sharp, stinging thorns- The mob
makes . cross. They put down the
long beam. and ON it they fasten
shorter beam. Got Him 1T last. Those
hands. that have been doing kindness
and wiping away tears-hear the ham,
mer driving the spikes through
them. Those feet. that have
been going about on ministra-
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