St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-12-03
[SH, La, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1898.
COVINGTON, ST. TAMMANY PARISH. LA


reasons. First, because I find that
some of you are impatient to be gone.
You are tired of this world, and you
want to get into that good land about
which you have been thinking. pray
ing and talking SO h,any years. Now
be patient. ] could see why you would
want to go to an art gallery ii some
of the best pictures were to be taken
away this week or next week, but II
some one tells you that there are other
beautiful pictures to come--other Ken
sets, Raphaels and Rubens; other
masterpieces to be added to the gal
lery-you would say: 81 can afford to
wait. The place is improving all the
time" Now. / want you to apply the
same principle in this matter of reach
ing Heaven and leaving this world.
Not one glory is to be subtracted, but
many glories added. Not one angel
will be gone, not one hierarch gone,
not one of your gloritied friends gone.
BY the long practicing the music will
be better, the procession will be
longer, the rainbow brighter, the cor
onation grander. Heaven, with mag
nificent addenda! Why will you conf
plain when you are only waiting for
something better?
l speak these words on the changes
in Heaven, and the new improvements
in Heaven, also, because want to
cure some of you of the delusion thst
your departed Christian friends hare
gone into dullness and silence and un-
consciousness. They are in a stirring.
picturesque, radiant, ever-accumula-
tive scene. When they left their bol-
les they only got rid of the last him
drance. They are no more in Oakwocd,
Laurel Hill or Mount Auburn than
you, in holiday attire, having seated
yourself at banquet, can be said to
be in a dark closet, where you have
left the old apparel that was not fit to
wear to the banquet. A soldier can
not use sword until he has un-
sheathed it, and the body of your de-
parted was only the sheath of .
bright and glittering spirit which God
has lifted and is swaying in the Heav-
enly triumph. According to what l
am telling you at present, your de-
parted Christian friends did not so SO
much into the company of the mar
tyrs, and the apostles, and the prophs
cts, and the potentates of Heaven, as
into the company of grandfather and
grandmother, and the infant sister
that tarried just long enough to abb
sorb your tenderest affection and all
the home circle. When they landed
it was not as you land in Antwerp, or
Hamburg, or Havre, wandering up a
strange wharf, looking at strange
faces, asking for a strange hotel. They
landed amid your glorified relatives,
who were waiting to greet them.
1 do not think it was superstitions
when. one Wednesday, night, / stood
BY a deathbed within a few blocks OF
the church where i preached, and on
the same street, and saw one of the
aged Christians of the church going
into glory. After l had prayed with
her said to her: I'VE have all love,l
you very much, and will always cher
ish your memory in the Christian
church. You will see my son before
see him, and / wish you would give
him our love-" She said: Il will.
will;. and in 90 minutes she was III
Heaven-the last words she ever spoke
1t was a swift message to the skies. II
YOU had your choice between riding in
Heavenly chariot and occupying the
srandest palace in Heaven, and sitting
on the throne next highest to the
throne of God, and not seeing your de
parted loved ones; and on the other
hand, dwelling in the humblest place
in Heaven. without crown or throne
and without garland. and without
scepter, yet having your loved ones
around you, you would choose the lat
ter. l say these things because
want to know it is domestic Heaven
and consequently it is all the time I'M
proving. Everyone that goes vi
makes it brighter place, and the at
fractions are increasing month by
month and day by day; and Heaven, st
vastly more of a Heaven, thousanG
times more of Heaven, than it usee
to be, will be a better Heaven yet
oh. I say this to intensity your antici
patton!
enter Heaven one day. 1t is almos'
empty. / enter the temples of wor
shin. and there are no worshipers.
walk down the street, and there arr
no passengers. / go into the orches
ira, and l find the instruments art
suspended in the baronial halls o
Heaven, and the great organs OF eter
nity, with multitudinous banks o
| KEYS, are closed. But l see shining
one at the gate, as though he wer'
standing on guard, and I say: "Senti
mel. what does this mean? 1 though
Heaven was a populous city. Ha
there been some great plague sweep
ing off the population? Have yo'
not heard the news?' says the senti
mel. .There is world burning, Their
is a great confiagration out yonder
and all Heaven has gone out to look q
the conflagration AID take the victim
out of the ruins. This is the day TO
which all other days are made. Thi
is the Judgment! This morning al
the chariots, and the cavalry, and tn
mounted infantry rumbled and gal
loped down the sky" And after ha'
listened to the sentinel, 1 looke'
off over the battlements, and l sa,
that the fields of air were trigh
with blazing world. l said
"Yes, yes, this must be the Judg
ment;" and while stood there hear
the rumbling of wheels and the clat
tering of hoofs, and the roaring o
many voices, and then l saw the core
nets and plumes and banners. and
saw all Heaven was coming back agai
looming to the wall, coming to tn
gate, and the multitude that went Of
in the morning was augmented by
vast multitude caught up alive fror
the earth, and vast multitude of tn
resurrected bodies of the Christia
dead, leaving the cemeteries and tn
abbeys and the mausoleums and tn
prs.eyards of the earth empty. Pr
cession moving in through the gate.
And then l found out that what wa
fiery Judgment day on earth was Jub
lee in Heaven, and cried: "Dool
keepers of Heaven. shut the gates: a