St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-05-13

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VO'
rection Of nothing and in the life that
never shall be. sAmeni" That is the
creed OF tens Of thousands Of people
in this day. II you have mind to adopt
such theory. I will not. II believe IN
God the Father Almighty. Maker.of
heaven and earth, and in Jcsus Christ
and in. the holy Catholic church and'
in the communion Of saints and in the
life everlasting. Amen" Oh, when l
see Eleazar taking such stout grip
of the sword in the battle against sin
and for-righfeousness, come to the
conclusions that we ought to take q
stouter grip of Gods eternal truth
the sword OF righteousness
As look ut Eleazar's hand ! also 6D-
tice his spirit OF self forgetfulnesx He
did not notice that the hi.t of the sword
was eating through the palm OF his
hand. He did not know IL hurt him.
As. he went out into the conflict he was
so anxiou& for the Sictory he forgot
himself. and that hilt might go never
so deeply into the palm OF his hand,
it could not disturb him. His hand
clave unto the sword" On. my brothers
and sisters, let us 10 into the Christian
conflict with the spirit of seb abnega-
tion. Who cares whether the world
praises rs or denounces MS? What do
we care for Misrepresentation or abuse
or persecution in = canfi;ct like this?
Let us forget ourselves. That man
who is afraid Of getting his h9nd hurt
will never kill PhilixtiIie. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not if you, get
the victory? oh, how many Christians
there are who ere all the timdkworry-
ing about the way the world treats
them. They are so tired. and they are
so abused, and they IRE SO tempted.
when Elenzar did not think ssvbether
he had hand = an arm or foot. All
he wanted was victory.s
: We see how men forget them<eEes in
Worldly achievement We have often
seen men Who, in order to achieve
worldly success, win forget all physical
fatigue and all annoyance and all OBJ
stacle. Just after the battle of York
town, in the American revolution. q
musician, wounded. was told .he must
have his ~imas4amnqtated, and they
wenrk about 70 tasten him to the sur
geonfs table, for it was long before 1he
merciful discovery Of fanacathetics- He
said, mo, don't fasten me to That table;
get mee violin" Aviolin was brought
70 him. and he said, aNow 60 to werl
- i begin toph1." and for 20 minutes,
during the awful pangs Of anfputation,
he moved not = muscle nor dropped .
note, while he played some sweet tune.
Oh, is it not strange that with the music
OF the gosp1 ~ Jesus Christ and with
this grand f1narch Of the church mill
tant o1ethe, way to become the church
triumphant we cannot forget ourselves
and forget all pang and all sorrow and
all persecution and all perturbation?
We know what men accomplish un-
der worldly opposition. Men do not
shrink back for antagonism or for hard
ship. You have admired Prescott's
Conquest OF Mexico" as brilliant and
beautiful-A history as MAS ever writ
ten, but some of you may not know
under what disadvantages it was writ
ten-that Conquest of Mexico"-for
Prescott was totally blind, and he had
two pieces of wood parallel to each
other fastened, and, totally blind, with
his pen between those pieces of wood,
he wrote. the stroke against one piece
of wood telling how far the pen must
60 in one way, the stroke against the
other piece of wood telling how far the
pen must go the other way. Oh, how
much men will endure for worldly
knowledge and for worldly success,
and yet how little we endure for Jesus
Christ! How many Christians there
are that go around saying: "Oh, my
hand; oh, my hand. my hurt hand.
Don't you see there is blood on the
hand, and there is blood on the sword ?"
while Eleazar, with the hilt imbedded
in the flesh of his right hand, does not
know it.
What have we suffered in compari-
son with those who expired with suf-
location or were burned or were
chopped to pieces for the truths sake !?
We talk Of the persecution of olden
times. There is just as much persecu-
ton going on now in various ways.
In 1S49, in Madagascar, IS men were
put to death for Christ's sake. They
were to be hurled over the rocks, and
before they were hurled over the rocks,
in order to make their death the more
dreadful in anticipation, they were put
in baskets and swung to and fro over
the precipice that they might see how
many hundred feet they would have
to be dashed down, and while they were
swinging in these baskets over the
rocks they sang:
Jesus, lover Of my soul.
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the pillows near me roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Then they were dashed down to
death. Oh, how much others have en-
dured for Christ, and how little we en-
dure for Christ! We want to ride to
Heaven in Pullman sleeping car, our
feet ON soft plush, the bed made up
carly, 30 we can sleep all the way, the
black porter of death to wake us up
only in time to enter the golden city.
We want all the surgeons to fix our
hand up. Let them bring on all the lint
and all the bandages and all the salve,
for our hand is hurt, while Eleazar does
not know his hand is hurt. His hand
clave unto the sword"
As ! look at Eleazar's hand come to
the conclusion that he has done great
deal Of hard hitting. am not sur
prised when see that these four men
-Eleazar and his three companions
drove back the army of Philistines-
that Eleazar's sword clave to his hand,
for every time he struck an enemy with
one end of the sword the other end
Of the sword wounded him.
Oh, we have found An enemy who can
not be conquered by rosewater and soft
speeches. 1t must be sharp stroke and
straight thrust. There is intemper-
ance, and there il fraud. and there IS
gambling, and there is lust, and there
are 10000 battalions Of iniquity,