St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-09-08
THE TRUE RELIGION.
Df. Talmage Says It Must Be from
Heaven.
Aakeshifts Of HaInan Manufacture
Are Useless Whch Measured ~
Gods PLUSH Line-The
Wall Of Character.
Copyright. 1900. By Louis Klopsch.1
Wa shin1fnn

Copyright 1900 by Louis Klopsch1
Wa shington,
From Trondhjem, Norway, where
DR.. Talmage is now staying, he sends
the following discourse, in which he
shows that the world can never be
benefited by a religion of human man
ufacture, which easily yields to ones
surroundings, but must have a reli-
gion let down from Heaven; text,
Amos rs: And the Lord said unto
me, Amos. what seest thou? And
said, A plumb line"
The solid masonry of the world has
for me a fascination. Walk about
some of the triumphal arches and the
cathedrals 400 or GOO years old, and
see them stand as erect as when they
were built, walls of great height, for
centuries not bending quarter of an
inch this way or that. So greatly
honored were the masons who builded
these walls that they were free from
taxation and called "free" masons.
The trowel gets most of the credit
for these buildings, and its clear ring
ing on stone and brick has sounded
across the ages. But there is another
implement of just as much Importance
as the trowel, and my text recognizes
it. Bricklayers and stonemasons and
carpenters, in the building of walls,
use an instrument made of q cord,
at the end of which a lump of lead
is fastened. They drop it over the
side of the wall, and, as the plummet
naturally seeks the center of gravity
in the earth, the workman discovers
where the wall recedes and where it
bulges out and just what is the per-
pendicular. Our text represents God
as standing on the wall of character
which the Iraelites had built and in
that way testing it. sand the Lord
said unto ME, Amos, what seest thou?
And said, A plumb line"
| What the world wants is straight up
and down religion. Much of the So
called piety of the day bends this way
and that to suit the times. 1t is
oblique, with low state of sentiment
and morals. We have all been build
ing a wall Of character, and it is glar-
ingly imperfect and needs reconstruc-
ton. How shall it be brought into
perpendicular? Only by the Divine
measurement Sand the Lord said
unto me, Amos, what seest thou?
And said. A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the times is
to make us act by the standard of
what others do. We throw over the
wall of our character the tangled
plumb line of other lives and reject the
infallible test which Amos saw. The
question for me should not be what |
you think is right, but what God
thinks is right. This perpetual refer |
ence to the behavior of others. as
though it decided anything but hui
man fallibility, is a mistake wide as
the world. There are 10000 plumb |
lines in use, but only one is-true and |
exact. and that is the line of Gods |
eternal right. There is q mighty at
tempt being made to reconstruct and |
fix up the Ten Commandments. To |
many they seem too rigid. The tower |
of Pisa leans over about 13 feet from |
the perpendicular, and people go thou
sands of miles to see its graceful in
elination and to learn how, by extra |
braces and various architectural con-
trivances, it is kept leaning from CEN
tury to century. Why not have the
ten granite blocks of Sinai set little |
aslant? Why not have the pillar of
truth a leaning tower? Why is not an !
ellipse as good as a square? Why is
not an oblique as good as straight up
and down? My friends, we must have
standard. Shall it be Gods or
mans?
The Divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thou
sands of years ago Solomon discovered
the tendency of buyers to depreciate
an article lower and lower and saying
it was not worth the price asked, and
when he had purchased at the lowest
point he told everybody what a sharp
bargain he hal struck and how he
outwitted the merchant. ut is
naught, saith the buyer, out when he
is gone his way, then he boasteth"
proverbs 2O:1D. Society is so utterly
askew in this matter that you seldom
find seller asking the price he ex-
poets to get; he puts on higher value
than he expects to receive, knowing
that he will have to drop. And if he
wants $50, he asks SIS. And If he
wants $4,000. he asks $500. 1T is
saith the buyer. "The fabric
is defective; the style of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere a better ar
e:.v. ~ o s~,lIor pr;co IL 80 -,,< -
fashion; it is damaged; it will fade;
it will not wear WELL" After awhile
the merchant, from overpersuasion or
from desire to dispose Of that partic-
ular stock Of goods, says: "Well, take
it at your own price," and the pur-
chaser goes home with light step and
calls into his private Office his conf
Dental friends and chuckles while he
tells how for half price he got the
goods. In other words, he lied and
was proud of it.
Nothing would make times SO good
and the earning of livelihood so easy
as the universal adoption of the law
of right. Suspicion strikes through
all bargain making. Men who sell
know not whether they will ever get
the money. Purchasers know not
the goods shipped will be ac-
cording to the sample. And what,
with the large number Of clerks who
are making false entries and then ab-
sconding and the explosion Of firms
that fail for millions Of dollars, HON
est men are at their wits end to
make q living. He who stands up
amid all the pressure and does right
is accomplishing something toward
the establishment of q high CONNER
cial prosperity. have deep sympa-
thy for the laboring classes who toll
with hand and foot. But we must
mot forget the business men who.
without any complaint or hammered
through the street, are
enduring . stress Of circumstances
terrific The fortunate people Of to-day
are tb>se who are receiving daily
wages or regular salaries. And the
men most to be pitied are those who
conduct q business while prices are