St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-10-28

uCNOtluk ulS W0OAC UOOA 10 L0dI &uOlCCls
So wonderful are these bodies that God
names his own attributes after different
parts of them. His omniscience-it II
Gods eye; His omnipresence-it is
Gods ear; His omnipotence = it is
Gods arm; the upholstery of the mid
hight heavens-it is the work of Gods
fingers; His life-giving power-it is
the breath Of the Almighty; his donin-
icn-'the government shall be upon his
shoulder"
A body SO divinely honored and SO di-
yinely constructed, let us be careful not
to abuse it. When it becomes Chris
tian duty to take care of our health, is
not the whole tendency toward longev-
ity? II toss my watch about reck-
lessly and. drop it on the pavement AMI
wind it up any time of day or night /
happen to think of it and often let 1t
run down, while you are careful with
YOUR watch and never abuse it and
wind it up just at the same hour every
night and put it in place where 1t will
not suffer from the violent changes
of atmosphere, which watch will
last the longer? Common sense
answers. Now, the human body
is Gods watch. You see the hands
of the watch, you see the face
of the watch, but the beating of the
heart is the ticking of the watch. Be
careful and do not let it run down.
Again, l remark that practical re-
ligion is a friend Of longevity in the fact
that it is protest against dissipations,
which injure and destroy the health.
Bad men and women live q very short
life. Their sins kill them. ! know hum
dreds Of good old men, but I do not
know half dozen bad old men. Why?
They do not get old. Lord Byron died
at Missolonghi at &c years of age, him
self his own Mazeppa, his unbridled
passions the horse that dashed him
into the desert. Edgar A. Poe died at
Baltimore at 3s years Of age. The black
raven that alightcd on the bust above
his door was delirium tremens-
Only this ard nothing more.
Napoleon Bonaparte lived only just be
yond midlife, then died at st. Helena.
and one Of his doctors said that his dis
ease was induced by excessive snufhng.
The hero of Austerlitz, the man who
by one step of his foot in the center Ct
Europe shook the earth, killed By a
snuffbox! How many people we have
known who have not lived out half their
days because of their dissipations and
indulgences! Now, practical religion
is a protest against all dissipations of
any kind.
'.But," you say, professors Of religion
have fallen. professors of religion have
got drunk, professors of religion have
misappropriatedtr trust funds, professors
of religion have absconded." Yes, but
they threw away their religion before
they did their morality. If man on a
White Star line steamer, bound for
Liverpool, in mid-Atlantic jumps over
board and is drowned, is that anything
against the White Star lines capacity
to take the man across the ocean? And
if a man jumps over the gunwale of his
religion and goes down never to rise
is that any reason for your believing
that religion has no capacity to take
the man clear through? In the one
case, if he had kept to the steamer,
his body would have been saved; in
the other case, if he had kept to his re-
ligion, his morals would have been
saved.
There are aged people who would
have been dead 25 years ago but for the
defenses and the equipoise of religion.
You have no more natural resistance
than hundreds Of people who lie in
the cemeteries to-day slain by their own
vices. The doctors made their case as
kind and pleasant as they could, and it
was called congestion of the brain or
something else, but the snakes and the
blueflies that seemed to crawl over the
pillow in the sight of the delirious pa
tient showed what was the matter with
him. You, the aged Christian man,
walked along by that unhappy one un-
til you came to the golden pillar Of q
Christian life. You went to the right,
he went to the left. That is all the
difference between you. II this reli-
gion is protest against all forms of
dissipation, then it is an illustrious
friend of longevity. "With long life
will satisfy Him.
Suppose you had a supernatural
neighbor who came in and said: "Sir,
want you to call on me in every exi-
gency. l am your fast friend. could
fall back on $4,000, 600. can foresee
a panic ten years. hold the controll-
ing stock in 30 of the best monetary in
stitutions of New York. Whenever you
are in trouble call on me, and will
help you. You can have my money,
and you can have my influence. Here
is my hand in pledge for it." How
much would you worry about business?
Why, you would say: "Tll do the best
can, and then I'll depend ON my
friends generosity for the rest"
Now, more than that Is promised to
every Christian business man. God
says to him: II own New York and
London and st. Petersburg and Peking,
and Australia and California are mine.
can foresee a panic q hundred years.
have all the resources of the universe
and am your fast friend. When yCu
get in business trouble or any other
trouble, call on me, and will
help. Here is my hand in pledge OF
omnipotent deliverance." How much
should that man worry? Not much.
What lion will dare to put his paw ON
that Daniel? Is there not rest in this
Is there not an eternal vacation in this
"Oh," you say. nere is a man who
asked God for blessing in q certain
enterprise, and he lost s., 900 in it. Elk.
plain that"
will. Yonder il factory, and one
wheel is going north, and the othe,
wheel is going south. and one wheel
plays laterally, and the other plays yer
tically. 60 to the manufacturer anc
I say: 20 manufacturer, your ma
chinery II q contradiction! Why de
| you not make al the wheels 70 ont
way?" "Well," he says, II made then
60 in opposite directions on purpose
and they produce the right result. Ydl
go downstairs and examine the car
pets we are turning out in this estab
lishment, and you will see" / 20 dowI