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

he or she had better 60 with the uncon-
verified companion to this or that church
or denomination has no religion at all,
and never has had, ard fear never will
have. You are loaded up with what
YOU suppose to be religion. but you are
like Capt. Frobisher, who broug hit back
from his voyage of discovery ship
load of what he supposed valuable min
erals, yet, instead of being silver and
gold, were nothing but common stones
of the field, to be hurled out as finally
useless.
Mighty God, in all Thy realm is there
one man or woman protesting religion,
vet SO stolid, SO untitled, so far gone
unto death that there would be any
hesitancy in surrendering all prefer
ences before such an opportunity of
salvation and heavenly reunion? If
YOU, a Christian wife, are an attend-
ant upon any church and your uncon-
verted husband does not go there be-
cause he does not like its preacher. or
its music. or its architecture, or its un-
comfortable crowding. and goes not to
any house of worship, but would 60 If
you would accompany him somewhere
else, change your church relations.
Take your hymn book home with you
to-day. Say good-by to your friends in
the ncighboring pews and go with him
to any one of hundred churches till
his soul is saved and he joins you in the
march to Heaven. More important
than that ring on the third finger of
your left hand it is that your Heaven
" Father command the angel of mercy
concerning your husband at his con-
version. as in the parable OF old: Put
q ring on his hand"
No letter of more importance ever
came to the great city of Corinth. stu
ated on what was called the Bridge of
the Sea" and glistening with sculpture,
and gated with style of brass the mag
nificence of which the following ages
have not been able to successfully imi-
tate, and overshadowed by the Aero
Corinthus, fortress of rock 2,0C0 feet
high-I say no letter ever came to that
great city of more Importance than that
letter in which Paul puts the two
startling questions: what knowest
thou, o wife, whether thou Ghslt save
thy husband? Or how knowest thou.
o man, whether thou shalt save thy
wife?'' The dearest sacrifice on the
part of the one is cheap if it rescue the
other. Better go to the smallest, weak
est, most insignificant church on Garth
and be copartners in eternal bliss than
pass your earthly membership in NEST
gorgeously attractive church while
your companion stays outside of evan
gelical privilege. Better have the
drowning saved by a scow or sloop
than let him or her go down while you
sail by in the giided cabins of Majestic
or Campania.
Second remark: If both of the mar
ried couple be Christians, but one is so
naturally constructed that it is impos-
sible to enjoy the services of particu-
lar denomination and the other is not
so sectarian or punctilious, let the one
less particular go with the other. who
is very particular. AS for myself, l feel
as much at home in one denomination
Of evangelical Christians as another,
and think / must have been born very
near the line. 1 like the solemn roll of
the Episcopal liturgy, and l like the
spontaneity of the Methodists, and ]
like the importance given to the ordi-
nance of baptism by the Baptists, and
1 like the freedom of the Congrega-
tionalists. and / like the government
and the sublime doctrine of the Presuy-
terians, and 1 like many of the others
just as much as any have mentioned,
and could happily live and preach and
die and be buried from any of them.
But others are born with liking SO
stout, so unbending. so memorable for
some denomination that it is positive
necessity they have the advantage of
that one. What they were intended to
be in ecclesiasticism was written in the
sides of their cradle, if the father and
mother had eyes keen enough to see it.
They would not stop crying until they
had put in their hands as a plaything
a Westminster catcchism of the Thirty
nine Articles. The whole current of
their temperament and thought and
character runs into one sect of rcli-
gionists as naturally as the James river
into, the Chesapeake. 1t would be a
torture to such persons to be anywhere
outside Of that one church.
Now, let the wife or husband who is
not SO constructed sacrifice the milder
preference for the one more inflexible
and rigorous. Let the grapevine follow
the rugosities and sinuosities of the oak
or hickory. Abram, the richer in flocks
of Christian grace, should say to Lot,
who is built on a smaller scale: let
there be no strife, pray thee, between
me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen. Is not the whole land
before thee? As you can be edited
and happy anywhere, 60 with your COM
panion to the church to which he or she
must go or be miserable.
Remark the third: If both the mar
ried couple are very strong in their Sec
let them attend the different
preferred. 1t is not necessary
that you attend the same church. Re-
ligion is between your conscience and
=
your God. Like Abram and Lot, agree
to suffer. When on Sabbath morning
you come out of your home together
and one goes one way and the other the
other. heartily wish each other good
sermon and time of profitable devo-
ton, and when you meet again at the
repast let il be evident. each to
each and to your children and to the
hired help. that you have both been on
the Mount of TRANSPORTATION, although
you went up by different paths, and
that you have both been fed by the
bread of life, though kneaded by diff
ferent hands in different trays and
baked in different ovens. But how
about the children?' am often asked
by scores of parents. Let them also
make their own choice. They will
grow up with reverence for both the de-
represented by father and
mother if you by holy lives commend
those denominations. If the father lives
the better life, they will have the more
opinion of his denomination.
And some day both the parents will,
for at least one service, go to the same