St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-07-17

L
glasses, with which to storm the barret
castles of the natural world until i
shall surrender its last secret. w,
thank God for the geological curiosity
Of Prof. Hitchcock, and the mechanical
curiosity of L:ebig, and the geological
curiosity of Cuvier, and the inventive
curiosity of Edison; but we must I'd
init that unhealthful and irregular in
quisitiveness has rushed thousands and
tens of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She wa
curious to find out how it tasted, anG
that curiosity blasted her and blasted
all nations. So there are clergymeE
in this day inspired by unhealthtul in
quisitiveness, who have tried to lool
through the keyhole of Gods myste
ries-mysteries that were barred and
bolted from all human inspection. and
they have wrenched their whole moral
nature out of joint by trying to pluck
fruit from branches beyond their reach,
or have come out on limbs of the tree
from which they have tumbled into
ruin without remedy. A thousand
trees of religious knowledge from
which we may eat and get advantage;
but from certain trees of mystery how
many have plucked their ruin! Elec-
tion, free agency. trinity, resurrection
in the discussion of these subjects
hundreds and thousands of people ruin
the soul. There are men who actually
have been kept out of the kingdom Of
Heaven because they could not under
stand who Melchisedec was not!
oh, how many have been destroyed
by an unhealthful inquisitiveness. It
is seen in all directions. There are
those who stand with the eye-stare
and mouth-gape Of curiosity. They
are the first to hear falsehooa, build
it another story high and two wings to
it. About other peoples apparel, about
other peoples business, about other
peoples financial condition, about
other peoples affairs, they are over
anxious Every nice piece Of gossip
stops at their door, and they fatten
and luxuriate IN the endless round of
the great world of tittle-tattle. They
invite and sumptuonsly entertain at
their house Col. Twaddle and Esquire
Chitchat and Gov. Smalltalk. Who
ever hath an innuendo, whoever hath
q scandal, whoever hath . valuable
secret, let him come and sacrifice it to
this goddess of splutter. Thousands
of Adams and Ewes do nothing but eat
fruit that does not belong to them.
Men quite well known Is mathema-
ticians failing in this computation Of
moral algebra; good sense plus good
breeding, minus curiosity, equals mind
ing your own affairs
Then, how many young men. through
curiosity, go through the whole realm
of French novels, to see whether they
are really as bad as moralists hate pro-
nounced them! They come near the
verge of the precipice just to look on.
They want to see how far it really is
down, but they lose their balance while
they look, and fall into remediless ruin;
or, catching themselves, Chamber up.
bleeding and CHASTITY. on the rock, glib
bering with curses or groaning inef-
fectual prayer. by all means enc0ur-
age healthful inquisitivness, by all
meant discourage illy-regulated Curl
osity.
The subject also impresses me with
the fact that fruits that are sweet to
the taste may afterward produce great
agony. Forbidden fruit for Eve was 80
pleasant she invited her husband also
to take of it; but her banishment from
Paradise and g. 900 years of sorrow, and
wretchedness, and war, and woe, paid
for that luxury. Sin may be very
sweet At the start and may induce
great wretchedness sfterward- The
cup Of sin is sparkling at the top. but
there is death At the bottom. lntoxi-
cation has great exhilaration for
awhile, and it fillips the blood, and it
makes a man see five stars where
others can see only one star.
and it makes the poor man
rich, and turns cheeks which arc
white red rs roses; but what
about the dreams that come after.
when it seems falling from great
heights, or is prostrated by other fam
cied disasters, and the perspiration
stands ON the forehead-the night dew
of everlasting darkness and he is
ground under the horrible hoof of
nightmares shrieking with lips that
crackle with all-consuming torture?
Rejoice. o young man, in thy youth.
and let thy heart cheer thee in the
days of thy youth; but know thou that
for all these things God will bring thee
into judgmentv' Sweet 1T the start,
horrible at the last. Go into that hall
Of revelry, where ungodly mirth stag
gers and blasphemes. Listen to the
senseless gsbble, see the last trace Of
intelligence dashed out from the
faces made in Gods own image.
AHA! ahsT says the registering i'm
ebriate; this is joy for You; fill high
your cups, my boys. l drink TO my
wife's misery and my children's rags
and my Gods defiance" And he knows
not that fiend stirs the goblet in his
hand and that adders uncol from the
dregs and thrust their forked tongues
kissing through the froth on the rim.
The Philistines jeered and laughed and
shouted at Samson. Oh. they wanted
him to make sport for them, and he
made sport for them! How bright and
gay was the scene for = little whilel
After awhile the giant puts one hand
against this pillar and the other hand
against that pillar, and bows himself
and 5000 merry-makers are mashed
like grapes in . wine press. Sin rap
turous at the start, awful at the last.
That one Edenic transgression did
not seem to be much, but IL struck .
blow which to this day makes the earth
sta9ger. To 6nd ont the consequences
of that one sin you would have 20 COM
pel the world to throw open al its
prison doors and display the crime. and
threw open all its hospitals and dis
play the disease. and threw open all