St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-02-26
AILURING INFLUENCES.
Traps for the Unwary Discoursed
Upon by Dr.. Talmage.
The PunlahMent OF Taatink n Little Honey
-DlighiinE fuences Of Corrupt
Literature, Drinking and
Gambling.

Rev. DIR. Talmage did not preach the
Sunday succeeding his recent marriage.
but prepared the following sermon for
his great reading congregation. 1t is
based ON the text:
did hut taste little honey with the end OF
the rod that was in my hand, and 10, must
die.-L Samuel. xiv, e
The honey bee is o most ingenious
architect, Christopher Wren among
insects; geometer drawing hexagons
and pentagons, . freebooter robbIng
fields of pollen and aroma, wondrous
creature of God whose biography.
written by Huber and Swammerdam,
is an enchantment for and lover OF
nature. Virgil celebrated the bee in
his fabel of Aristseus; and Moses. and
Samuel. and David, and Solomon, and
jeremiah. and Ezekiel. and st. John
used the delicacies of bee manufacture
as Bible symbol. A miracle OF for
nation is the bee; five eyes, two
protection. hairs ON all sides of its tiny
body tp brush up the PARTICLES OF hoW-
ers, its flight SO straight that all the
world knows of the bee line. The
honeycomb is palace such as no one
but God could plan. and the honey bee
construct; its cells. sometimes store =.
house, and sometimes q cemetery.
These winged toilers first make eight
strips of wax. and by their antennae,
which are to them hammer, and chisel,
and square, and plumb-line, fashion
them for use. Two and two these
workers shape the wall. II an acci-
dent happens, they put up buttresses
of extra beams to remedy the damage.
When about the year 1776. an insect
before unknown. in the night time at
tackled the bee hives all over Europe,
and the men who owned them were in
vain trying to plan something to keep
out the invader that was the terror OF
the bee hives of the continent, it was
found that everywhere the bees had
arranged for their own protection, and
built before their honey-combs an es-
pecial wall of wax with portfolios
through which the bees might go to
and fro, but not large enough to admit
the winged combatant called the
Sphinx A.ropos.
Do you know that the swarming OF
the bees is divinely directed? The
mother bee starts for q new home. and
because of this the other bees OF the
hive get into an excitement which
raises the heat of the hive some four
degrees, and they must die unless they
leave their heated apartments and fol-
low the mother bee and alight on the
branch of tree, and cling to each
other and hold on until . committee of
two or three bees have explored the
region and found the hollow OF tree
or rock not far off from q stream OF
water, and they here set up new col
ony, and ply their aromatic industries,
and give themselves to tho manufac-
ture OF the saccharine edible. But
who can tell the chemistry of that
mixture of sweetness, part OF 1T the
very life of the bee. and part of it the
life of the fields?
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods Of Bethaven
during the time of Saul and Jonathan.
Their army was in pursuit OF an enemy
that by Gods command must be exter-
minated. The soldiery were positively
forbidden to eat any thing until the
work was done. If they disobeyed
they were accursed. Coming through
the woods they found place where
the bees had been bnsy-a great honey
manufactory. Honey gathered in the
hollow of the trees until it 0verhowed
upon the ground in great profusion of
sweetness. All the army obeyed orders
and touched it not save Jonathan, and
he, not knowing the military order
about abstinence. dipped the end Of q
stick he had in his hand into the can
died liquid, and, as yellow and tempt
ing it glowed on the end Of the stick,
he put it to his mouth and ate the
honey. Judgment fell upon him, and
but for special intervention he would
have been slain. In my text Jonathan
announces his awful mistake: Il did
but taste little honey with the end oi
the rod that was in my hand. and. 10,
must die" Alas. what multitudes oi
people in all ages have been damaged
by forbidden honey, by which l mean
temptation, delicious and attractive,
but damaging and destructive!
Corrupt literature, fascinating but
deathful, comes in this category.
Where one good, honest. healthtul
book is read now, there is hundred
made up of rhetorical trash consumed
with avidity. When the boys on the
cars come through with pile Of publ
cations. look over the titles aud notice
that nine ont OF ten Of the books are
Injurious. All the way from here To
Chicago or New Orleans notice that OBJ
iectionable books dominate. Taste for
pure literature is poisoned by this scum
0f the publishing house. Every book
in which sin triumphs over virtue. Oh
| in which glamour is thrown over dis-
sipation, or which leaves yon at its
last line with less respect for the
marriage institution aud less abhor-
renee for the paramour, is depression
of your own moral character. The
book bindery may be attractive, and
the plot dramatic aud startling, and
the style of writing sweet as the
honey that Jonathan took up with hi.
rod. but your best interests forbid it
your moral safety forbids it. your Coo
forbids it, aud one taste Of it may leae
to such results that you may have te
say at the close of the experiment, o.
at the close of misiinproved life: -
did but taste little honey with th'
rod that was in my hand. and 10!
must die"
| Corrupt literature is doing moro to
day for the disruption of domestic life
than any other cause. Eiopments
marital intrigues, sly correspondence
ficticious names given at post offic'
windows cladestine meetings in parks
and at ferry gates. and in hotel par
lors, and conjugai perjuries are among
the ruinous results. When woman
young or old, gets her head thorough.
stuffed with the modern novel she j
in appalling peril. But some one vii
say: "The heroes are so adroitly knav
ish, and tho heroines so bewitchingl
tuntrue, and the turn Of the story 50 81
uuisite, and all the characters SO en-
rapturing. can not quit them" n
brother mv sister Won can f3ud stvle