St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-04-29

| sand men, charging up the parapets to
the sound of martial music, but it is not
| SO easy to endure when no one but
the nurse and the doctor are the wit
nesses of the Christian fortitude. Be-
| sides that, You never had any pains
| worse than Christ's. The sharpness
that stung through His brain. through
His hands. through His feet, through
His heart, were as, great as yours GER
tainly. He was as sick and as weary.
Not nerve or muscle or ligament
escaped. All the rangs of all the ma
lions of all the ages compressed into
one sour cup. He took the vinegar!
There is also the sCurness OF poverty.
4 Your income does not meet your out
goings. and that always gives an honest
man anxiety. There is no sign of desti-
tuition about you-pleasant appearance
I and cheerful Ecme for you-but God
only knows what time you have had
10 manage your private fiGnnces. just
as the bills run up the wages seem to
run down. You may say nothing. but
j life to You is hard push. and when
YOU sit down with your wife and talk
=
over the expenses you both rise up dis
couraged You abridgc here. and you
abridge there. and you get things snug
for smooth sailing. and, 10, suddenly
there is large doctors bill to pay. or
you have lost your pocketbcok. or some
| debtor has failed. and you are thrown
abeam end. Well, brother. you are in
| glorious company. Christ owned not
the house in which He stopped or the
| colt on which He rode or the boat in
which He sailed. He lived in a bor-
rowed house: He was buried in bor-
! rowed grave. Exposed to all kinds of
weather, yet He had only one. suit
Of clothes lie breakfasted in the morn
ing, and no one could possibly tell
where He could get anything to eat be-
| fore night. He would have been pro-
| nounced a financial failure. He had to
perform a miracle to get money to pay
tax bill. Not dollar did He own.
Privation Of domesticity. privation Of
nutritious food. privation of a comfort
able couch on which to sleep. priva-
| ton of all worldly resources! The
kings of the earth had chased chalices
cut cf which to drink. but Christ had
nothing but plain cup set before Him,
and it was very sharp. and it was very
sour. He took the vinegar.
There were years that passed along
before your family circle was invaded
by death, but the moment the charmed
circle was broken everything seemed
to dissolve. Hardly have you put the
black apparel in the wardrobe before
you have again to take it out. Great
and rapid changes in your family rec
ord. You got the house and rejoiced
in it, but the charm was gone as soon
as the Grape hung on the doorbe!l. The
one upon whom you most depended was
taken away from you. A cold marble
slab lies on your heart to-day. Once,
as the children romped through the
house, you put your hand over your
aching head and said: "Oh, if could
only have it still" Oh. it is too still
now! You lost your patience when the
tops and the strings and the shells were
left amid floor, but, oh, you would
be willing to have the trinkets scat
tered all ever the floor again il they
were scattered by the same hands.
With what a ruthless plowshare be-
reavement rips up the heart! But
Jesus knows all about that. You can
not tell Him anything new in regard
to bereavement. lie had only few
friends. and when He lost cne ii
brought tears to His eyes. Lazarus had
often entertained Him at his home.
Now Lazarus is dead and buried. and
Christ breaks down with emotion, the
convulsion of grief shuddering through
all the ages of bereavement. Christ
knows what it is to go through the
house missing familiar intimate.
Christ knows what it is to see an uncc-
cupiet place at the table. Were there
not four of theEl-Mary and Martha
and Christ and Lazarus? Four of them.
But where is Lazaruse Lonely and af-
fiicted Christ. His great. loving eyes
filled with tears! Oh. yes. yes! He
knows al! about loneliness and the
heartbreak. He took the vinegar!
Then there is the sourness of the |
death hour Whatever else we may cs-
cape. that acid sponge will be pressed
to our lips. / sometimes have Curl |
osity to know how will behave when |
l come 10 die. Whether l will be calm |
or excited, whether will be filled with |
remin;scence or with anticipation. I
cannot say. But come TO the point 1 |
must and YOU must. An officer from |
the future world will knock ut the door |
of our hearts and serve on us the writ |
of cjectment. and we will have to sur
render. And we will wake up after |
these autumnal and wintry and vernal
and summary glories have vanished
from our vision. We will wake up into
a realm which has only one season and
that the season of everlasting love.
Eut you say: II don't want to break
out from my present associations. 1t
is so chilly and SO damp to go down the
stairs of that vault. don't want any
thing drawn so tightly over my eyes.
If there were only some way of break
ing through the partition between
worlds without tearing this body all to
shreds. l wonder if the surgeons and
the doctors cannot compound mix
turc by which this body and soul can
all the time be kept together? Is there
no escape from this separaiion?"
None. absolutely none. A great mans
men tumble through the gates of the
future, as it were. and we do not know
where they have gone. and they only
add gloom and mystery to the passage
but Jesus Christ SO nightly stormed
the gates of that future world that
they have never since been closely shut
Christ knows what it is to leave this
world, of the beauty of which He was
more appreciative than we ever could
be. He knows the exquisiteness Of the
of the sea. He trod
it. lie knows the glories of the mid
night heavens. for they were the span
gled canopy of His wilderness pillow.
He knows about the lilies. He twisted
them into His sermon. He knows about
the fowls of the air. They whirred
their way through His discourse. He
knows about the sorrows of leaving
this beautiful world. Not taper was
As.