St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-12-17
And cow I came to Che clinilctefic

And now I came to the cliniactefic
yon were built for happy eternity, Ill
the disasters which have happened to
your nature to be overcome by the
blood of the Lamb If you will heartily
accept that Christly arrangement. We
are all rejoiced at the increase in hu-
man longevity. People live, as near as
can observe, about ten years longer
than they used to. The modern doc
tors do not bleed their patients on all
occasions as did the former doctors. In
those times IL man had fever they bled
him; If he had consumption they b!ed
him; II he had rheumatism they bied
him. and il they could not make out ex-
actly what was the matter they bled
him. Olden time phlebotomy was
deaths coadjutor. All this has changed.
From the way ! see people skipping
about at so years of age conclude that
the life insurance companies will have
to change their table of risks and
charge a man, no more premium ct 20
than they used to do when he was 60,
and no more premium at so thap when
he was 40. By the advancement of
medical science and the wider ac-
quaintance with the laws of health and
the fact that the people know better
how to take care of themselves human
life Is prolonged. But do you realize
what. after all, Is the brevity of our
earthly state? In the times when peo-
pie lived 700 and 500 years the patriarch
Jacob said that his years were few.
Looking at the life OF the youngest per-
son in this assembly and supposing
that he will live to be a nonasenarfan
how short the time and soon gone.
while banked up in front of us Is an
eternity 50 vast that arithmetic has not
figures enough to express its length. or
breadth, or depth. or height. For a
happy eternity You were born. unless
you run yourself against the divine in
tentions. If standing in your presence
my eye should fall upon the feeblest
soul here as that soul will appear when
the world let's it up and heaven en-
frances it. / suppose would be SO over
powered that should drop down MS one
dead.
You have examined the family Bible
and explored the family records. and
you may have seen daguerreotypes of
some of the kindred of previous gener-
ations. you have had photographs taken
of what You were in boyhood or girl
hood. and what you were ten years
later. and it is very interesting to any
one to be able to look hack upon pic
lures of what he was ten, or twenty, or
thirty years ago, but have you ever had
n picture taken of what you may be
and what you will be if you seek after
God and feel the spirits regenerating
power? Where shall plant the CAM
era to take the picture? plant it on
this platform. ! direct it toward you
Sit still or stand still while | take the
picture. 1t shall he an instantaneous
picture. There! l have it. 1t is done.
You can see the picture in its imper-
feet state and get some idea of what
it will be when thoroughly developed.
There is your resurrected body. so bril-
liant that the monday sun is n patch
of midnight compared with it. There
is your soul. so pure that all the forces
of diabolism could not spot it with an
imperfection. There is your being. so
mighty and so swift that fight from
heaven to Mercury or Mars or Jupiter
and back again to heaven would not
weary you. and world on each shoul-
der would not crush you. An eye that
shall never shed tear. An energy
that shall never feel fatigue. \ brow
that shall never throb with vain. You
are young again. though you died of
dccrepitude. You. are well again.
though you coughed or shivered your
self into the tomb. Your everyday as
sociates are the apostles and prophets
and martyrs and most exalted souls.
masculine and feminine. of all the CEN
turtles. The archangel to you no en-
barrassment. God Himself your pres
ent and everlasting JOY. That is an
picture of what You may
be and what / am sure some OF you
will be.
If you realize that it is an imperfect
picture. my apology is what the apostle
John said: 1T doth not yet appear what
we shall be-" ITO this end was born.
/. did not think so, I would be ever
WHEEL ned with melancholy. The world
does very well for little while. SO or leo
or $50 wears. and l think that human
may yet he improved up to
that prolongation, for now there is so
little room between our cradle and our
grave we cannot accomplish much, but
who would want to dwell in this world
for all eternity? Some think this earth
will finally be turned into Heaven. Per-
haps it may. but it would have to under
20 radical repairs and thorough elm
nations and evolutions and revolu-
tons and transformations infinite to
make it desirable for eternal residence.
All the east winds would have to be-
come west winds, and all the winters
changed to springtides and all the
volcanoes extinguished and all the
oceans chained to their beds, and the
epidemics forbidden entrance and tie |
world SO fixed up that think it would |
take more to repair this old world than
to make an entirely new one. But |
must say do not care where Heaven
Is, il we can only get there: whether
a gardenized America or an empara
aised Europe or world central to the |
whole universe. ITO this end was
born" IL each one Of us could say that |
we would go with faces shining and |
hopes exhiIarant amid earth's worst |
and trials.
In the seventeenth century all Eu-
rope was threatened with wave of |
Asiatic barbarism, and Vienna was es-
pecially hesieged. The king and his |
'ourt had fled. and nothing could save |
he city from being overwhelmed I'M
ess the king of Poland, John Sobieski,
10 whom they had sent for help, should
with his army come down for the re-.