St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-07-08

emit from the way they treat the strong
est nation of all the earth. God may
chiefly deal with individuals in the next
world, but He deals with nations only
in this world, and when persistently 4
nation practices injustice against other
people it is only question OF time when
the offender will find his doom. The
path of time is strewn with the car
cases Of nations that because OF their
maltreatment of other nations persisted.
The higher such offending empires rise
the harder will be their fall.
1 believe the United States govern
ment will last as long as the world lasts.
believe the fires of the judgment day
will leap on the domes of our state and
national capitols while yet they are in
their full power. l believe the last
earthquake will put in its explosion I'M
der our national foundations while yet
they stand firm. believe the republic
an and democratic form Of government
will be the universal form Of govern
ment for all nations when they have
been evangelical, for then the nations
will be capable of self-government and
will have demanded and secured that
right. 1t will be either that or a theoc-
racy, which will be the direct govern
ment of Christ in His personal reign
on earth. as many Bible students be-
lieve. Yet that jubilant expectation is
founded not on the skill of human
craftsmanship or human legislation,
but upon the belief that this nation will
submit to Divine guidance, and obey
the Divine law, and carry out its divine
IL imposed mission. But if we defy the
God of nations our doom is fixed.
1t required The pen of an Edward Glib
bon, through four great volumes OF
more than 500 pages each, to tell the
story Of 1.-The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire" concluding his mon
nnental work with the words: ut was
among the ruins of the capitol that
first conceived the idea of a work which
has amused and exercised nearly 20
years of my life. and which, however in
adequate to my own wishes, finally
deliver to the curiosity and candor of
the public" What, the Roman Empire
dead! Did she lack warriors? No. be
hold her Pompey and her julius Caesar.
Did she lack lawmakers and lawgiversY
No. Think of the masters of Roman
Jurisprudence, our American attorneys
to-day quoting those laws in our court
rooms more than Is centuries after
they were enacted. In poetry did she
not have her Virgil and Ovid? In his
tory did she not have her Sallust and
her Livy? In eloquence did she not
have her Scipio and Cicero? In satire
did she not have a Juvenal and Hor-
ace? What pens were welded by her
Cato. and her Terence, and her Pliny!
All nations heard the cry of her war
eagles. the voices of her oratory and
the chime of her cantos. But the day
of Judgment came for that nation, and
Hannibal crossed the Apennines, and
the Goths and Vandals swooped, and
the Carthaginian fleet assailed, and
Numidian horsemen galloped, and ma
tions combined, and Rome sank. The
tourist now on the banks of the Tiber
sees the ruins of her forum, the ruins
of her Coliseum, the ruins of her art,
the ruins of her aqueducts, the ruins
of her catacombs, the ruins of her pal
aces.
We concluded a few days ago the an
nual decoration of northern and south
season, in memorial sermon proposed
the twisting of two garlands, one to be
put upon the grave of the northern sol
der and the other to be put on the grave
of the southern soldier, but this year
we need three garlands. the third to be
put upon the graves of those who fell
in this Americo-Hispanicc conflict. The
third garland needs to be quite as fra
grant and as radiant as the other two.
These last heroes braved more than
bayonets; they braved the pestiferous
breath of the tropics, whole battalions.
whole regiments, whole brigades,
whole armies of beautiful malaria. They
confronted those oppositions of the
torrid climes which no sword can pierce,
no agility climb, no stratagem flank, no
torpedo explode, no courage conquer.
Under the awful charge of visible and
invisible hosts about 6,G00 men went
down, some to instant death and others
through lingering pangs in hospital.
III in this third wreath you twist the
crimson rose, suggestive of snnguinary
sacrifice, and the white Gala lily, sug-
gestive of glorious resurrection, put in
also few forsetmenots, suggestive of
remembrance, and few passion flow
ers, suggestive of the love that mourns
the slain, and a few heliotropes, sug-
gestive of the fragrance of their men,
DRY. Then let the nights dew put the
tears into the blue eyes Of the violets
and all the soldiers cemeteries be SO
many censers burning incense before
the throne of that God who has been
the friend of this nation from the time
Of Lexington to the time of San Juan
hill. from the guns of the United States
warskips Constitution and Constella-
ton. at the beginning of the century,
to the guns of the United States war
ships Olympia, Oregon, Brooklyn and
other loaded thunders, at the close Of
this century. -
Remember here and now that those
brave boys opened up the way for kind
of expansion we all believe in. They
swung open the gates for the speedy
gospelization OF islands stupid with the
superstition of ages. They cleared the
way for missionaries and Bibles. They
set those islands free. Leaving to the
United States government to decide
what shall be the political destiny OF
those peoples, let us all join in cam
paign of religious expansion. expan-
sion of affection that can take all the
world in, expansion of our theologies
until none shall reject their broad in
vitation, expansion of hope that EN-.
braces eternity as well as time, expan-
sion of effort that will not cease till
the whole earth is saved and the time
arrives when the prophecy shall be full
filled and they shall come from the
north and the south and the east and
the west and sit down in the kingdom
of God. and the last shall be first and
the first last"
Week before last, in this capital Of the