St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-07-15


daughter, vAose face was illuminated
with the brightness of another world
on the day when the Lord took her into
His heavenly keeping years ag..
l should not wonder if, after all,
these parents pass the evening of theiI
life in the same church, all differences
of church preference overcome by the
joy of being in the house of God where
their children were prepared for use
fulness and Heaven. But can give
you a recipe for running your children.
Angrily contend in the household that
your church is right and the church OF
your companion is wrong. Bring sheer
and caricature to emphasize your opin-
ions, and your children will make up
their minds that religion is a sham,
and they will have none of it. In the
northeast storm of domestic contro-
versy the rose of Sharon and the lily
of the valley will not grow. Fight
about apostolic succession, fight about
election and free agency, fight about
baptism, fight about the bishopric. fight
about gown and surplice, and the re-
ligious prospect Of your children will
he left dead on the field. You will be
as unfortunate as Charles, duke of Bur-
pundy. who in battle lost diamond
the value of kingdom, for in your fight
YOU will lose the jewel OF salvation for
your entire household. This is moth
ing against the advocacy of your own
religious theories. Use all forcible ar
gument, bring all telling illustration,
array all demonstrative facts, but let
there be no acerbity, no singing retort,
no mean insinuation, no supercilious-
ness, as though all others were wrong
and you infallibly right. 80
Take hint from astronomy. The
Ptolemaic system made the earth the
center of the solar system, and every
thing was thought to turn round the
earth. But the Copernican system
came and made the sun the center
around which the planets revolved. The
bigot made his little belief the center
of everything, but the large-souled
Christian makes the sun of righteous
ness the center and all denominations
without any clashing and each in his
own sphere revolving around it. Over
the tomb of Dean Stanley in Westmin-
ster Abbey is the passage of Scripture:
"Thy commandments are exceeding
broad" Let no man crowd us on to a
path like the bride al Sirat, which the
Mohammedan thinks leads from this
world over the abyss of hell into para
disc, the breadth of the bridge, less than
the web of starved spider or the edge
Of a sword or razor, off the edges OF
which many fall. No. While the way
is not wide enough to take with us any
of our sins, it is wide enough for all
Christian believers to pass without
peril into everlasting safety. But dc
not any of you depend upon what YOU
call "a sound creed" for salvation.
man may own all the statutes of the
state Of New York and yet not be q
lawyer, and man may own all the
best medical treatise and not be ply
stefan, and a man may own all the best
works on painting and architecture and
not be either painter or architect, and
n man may own aA the sound creeds
in the world and yet not be Christian.
Not what you have in your head and
on your tongue, but in your heart and
in your life, will decide everything.
In olden times in England before the
modern street lamps were invented
every householder was expected to have
a lantern suspended in front of his
house, and the cry of the Waterman
in London as they went along at even.
tide was: Hang out your lignts!"
Instead of disputing in your home about
the different kinds of lantern, as the
Waterman on the walls of Zion, / cry:
Let your light SO shine before men
that they, seeing your good works.
may glorify your Father which is in
IIeaven!" Hang out your lights! You
may have a thousand ideas about re-
ligion and yet not the great idea OF
pardoning mercy. 1t is not the num-
her of ideas, but the greatness of them
A mouse hath ten offspring in her nest.
while the ioness hath one in her lair.
All ideas about forms and ceremonies
and church government put together
are not worth the one idea of getting
to Heaven yourself and taking your
family with you.
But do not reject Christianity, as
many do, because there are SO many
sects. Standing in Westminster hotel,
London, I looked out of the window
and saw three clocks, as near as can
remember one on the parliament
house, another on St. Margaret's chapel.
another on Westminster abbey - and
they were all different. One said IL
o'clock at noon, another said five min
utes before IL, another said five min
utes after IL. 1 might as we'll have con-
cluded that there is no such thing as
time because the three timepieces were
different as for you to conclude that
there is no such thing as pure Christi
anity because the churches differ in
their statement oft.
But let us all rejoice that, although
part of our family may worship OH
earth in one church and part in an.
other church or bowed at the same
altar in a compromise of preferences.
we are, if redeemed, on the way to a
perfect church, where all our prefer
ences will be fully gratified. Great ca
thelral of eternity, with arches of anne
thysts and pillars Of sapphire, with
floors of emerald and windows aglow
with the sunrise of Heaven! What |
towers, with chimes angel
hoisted and angel rung! What myriads
of worshipers, white robed and coronet-
ed! What an officiator Mt the altar. |
even ''the great High Priest of our pro-
fession!" What walls, hung with the
captured shields and flags, by the
church militant passed up to the church |
What doxologies of all |
nations! Coronct to coronet, cymbal |
to cymbal. harp to harp. organ to or
gan! Pull out the tremulant stop to |
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