St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-03-17

"
hump Of the heart there II something
saying: work, work." and lest We.
should complain that we have NO tools
TO work with God gives us our hands
and feet. with every knuckle and with
every joint and with every muscle,
saying to us, "Lay hold and do some
thing"
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not serve Christ.
They are like . ship full manned and
full rugged, capable of vast tonnage,
able to endure all stress of weather,
yet swinging idly at the docks. when
these men ought to be crossing and re-
crossing the great ocean of human suf-
fering and sin with Gods supplies OF
mercy. How often it is that physical
strength is used in doing positive dam
age or in luxurious ease, when. with
sleeves rolled: up and bronzed bosom.
fearless Of the shafts Of opposition. II
ought to he laying hold with all its
might and tugging away to lift up this
sunken wreck Of world.
1t is = most shameful fact that much
Of thi business Of the church and ofthe
world must be done by those compare
lively invalid. Richard Baxter, by rea-
son OF his diseases. all his days sitting
in the door of his tomb. vet writing
more than 100 volumes and sending out
an influence for God that will endure
as long as the Saints Everlasting Rest"
Payson. never knowing vel!
day, yet how he preached and how he
wrote, helping thousands of dying
souls like himself to swim in the sea of
glory. And Robert HcCheyne. walk
ing Skeleton, yet you know what he did
in Dundee and how he shook Scotland
with zeal for God. Philip Doddridge,
advised by his friends because of his i'll.
ness not to enter the ministry. yet you
know what he did for the -Rise and
Progress of Religion" in the church Of
the world.
II is not the small, weak men Of the
Jay who do the damage. These small
men who go swearing and loafing about
your stores and shops and banking
houses. assailing Christ and the Bible
and the church-they do not do the
damage. They have no influence. They
are vermin that you crush with your
foot. But it is the giants of the day.
the misguided giants. giants in physic-
al power, or giants in mental acumen,
or giants in social position, or giants In
wealth. who do the damage-the men
with sharp pens that stab religion and
throw their poison all through our lit
erature. the men who use the power of
wealth to sanction iniquity and bride
Justice. and make truth and homer bow
to their golden scepter.> Misguided gi-
ants-look out for them! In the middle
and latter part of the last century no
doubt there were thousands of men in
Paris and Edinburgh and London who
hated God and blasphemed the name Of
the Almighty; but they did but little
were small men, insig-
nificant men. Yet there were giants in
those days. Who can calculate the soul
havoc Of Rousseau, going on with a
very enthusiasm of iniquity. with fiery
imagination seizing upon all the impul-
sive natures of his day, or David Hume.
who employed his life as spider en-
ploys its summer, in spinning out silk
en- webs to trap the unwary. or voltaire,
the most learned man of his day, mar
xhaling a great host of skeptics and
leading them out in the dark land of in
fidelity. or Gibbon, who showed IN I'M
controllable grudge against religion in
his history of one of the most fascinat-
ing periods of the worlds existence
"The Decline and Fall OF the Roman
Empirer-a book in which, with all the
splendor of his genius. he magnified the
errors Of Christian disciples, while with
a .parseness of notice that never ran be
forgiven he treated Of the Christian he
roes of whom the world was not
worthy? H
Oh. men of stout physical health,
men of great mental stature. men of
high social position. men Of great pow
er of any sort. want you to under
stand your power. and ] want you to
know that TINT power devoted to God
win be n crown on earth. to you typical
of crown in Heaven, but misguided,
bedraggled in sin, administrative Of
evil. God will thunder against you
with His condemnation in the day when
millionaire and pauper, master and
slave. king and subject, shall stand
side by side in the judgment and
money bags and judicial ermine and
royal robe shall be riven with the light
nings.
Behold also how giant mag be slain
of woman. Delilah started the train
of circumstances that pulled down the
temple of Dagon about Samson's ears.
And tens OF thousands Of giants have
gone down to death and hell through
the same destinations. 1t seems to
me that ii is high time that pulpit and
platform and printing, press speak out
against the impurities of modern So
ciety. Fastidiousncss and prudery
say: "Better not speak. You will
rouse up adverse criticism. You will
make worse what You want to make
better. Better deal in glittering gen.
eralities. The subject is too delicate
for polite ears" But there comes a
vcice from Heaven overpowering the
sentimentalities of the day.
saying: Cry aloud, spare not, lift up
thy voice like trumpet and show my
people their transgressions, and the
house of Jacob their sins"
The trouble is that when people write
or speak upon this theme they are apt
to cover il mp with the graces of bellies
lettres. SO that the crime is made at
instead of repulsive. Lord By
ron in Don Juan" adorns this crime
until ii smiles like May queen. Mich
elet, the great French writer, covers it
up with bewitching rhetoric until il
glows like the rising sun. when it ought
TO be made loathsome as q smallpox hos
pital. There are to-day influences
abroad which. if unresisted by the pull
pit and the printing press. will turn
our modern cities into Sodoms and Co
fit only for the storm Of fire
and birthstone that whelmed the cities
of the plain. H9a
You who are seated in your Christian
comprised by moral and reli-
gious restraints. do not realize the
Uulf of iniOuity TINT bounds YOU on the