The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-10-20
be too much enraged at nette along the


fence if it be in field containing forty
acres of ripe Michigan wheat. Some time
ago naturalists told us there was on the
sun spot 10000 miles long. but from the
brightness and warmth / concluded it was
good deal of a sun still. The sun can
afford to have very large spot upon 1t,
though it be 10000 miles long, and ! am
very apologize for those men who have
great faults while at the same time they
have magnificent virtues.
Again. when ] read in my text that the
Lord shaves with the hired razor OF Assy-
ria the land of Judea l think myself of
the precision of Gods providence. A ra-
zor swung the tenth part of an inch out
of the right line means either failure or
laceration, but Gods dealings never SIP.
and they do not miss by the thousandtn
part of an inch the right direction. PEG:
pie talk as though things in this world
Marseillcs and Madrid and Palermo: and
we watch anxiously. VIII the epidemic
sweep Europe and America? People say:
THAT will entirely depend on whether
The incubation is a successful experiment;
that will depend entirely on quarantine
regulation; that will depend on the early
or late appearance of frost; TINT epidemic
is pitched into the world, and it goes blum;
ierinQ across the continents and it ls all
zuesswork and all appalling perhaps" !
think perhaps that God hae something to
10 with it and that His mercy may have
N some way protected us, that lie may
.oua donn q much for ns rs the nnaran-
line and the health officers. 1t was right
md necessity that all caution should be
lsed, but there have come enough maca-
.oni from Italy and enough grapes from
he south of France and enough rags from
;atterdermalons and hidden in these. arti-
les of transportation enough choleraic
rerms to have left By this time all the
sites mourning in the cemeteries. l
hank all the doctors and 1uarantines, but
more than all and first fall and last OF
III and all the fine thank God. In all
he GGOO years of the worlds existence,
here has not one thing merely, happened
o." God is not an anarchist, but king,
1 Father.
When little Tad the son Of Presdent,
Lincoln. died, all America svmpath'zed
With the sorrow in the White House. He
,sed to rush into the room where the
Cabinet was in session and while the most
eminent men of the land We're discussing
he questions of national existence But
:he child had no care about those Iues-
lions. No. God the Father and God the
Son and God the Holy Ghost are in per,
,etual session in regard to this world
md kindred worlds Shall you. His child,
.ush in to criticise or arraign or condemn
;he divine government? No. The cab.
net of the eternal three can govern and
will govern in the wisest and best way,
md there never will be mistake and.
ike razor skillfully swung. shall cut that
which ought to be avoided. Precision to
the very hairbreadth. Earthly time
pieces may go ont of order and strike
wrong, saving it is / o'clock when it is 2
" 3 when il is 8. Gods clock is always
ieht. and when it is ! it strikes !, and
when it is u it strikes II. and the second
hand is as accurate as the minute hand. :,
Further. my text tells us that God
sometimes shaves nations: "1n the same
Jay shall the Lord shave with razor
that is hired" With one sharp sweep
He went across Judea, and down went Its
bride and it's power. In 1861 God shaved
he American nation We had allowed to
yrow Sabbath desecration and oppression
ind blasphemy and fraud AMI impurty
md all sorts of turpitude. The South had
is sins and the North had its sins, and
The East it's sins and the West it%sins:
We had been warned again and again, and
we did not heed At length the sword OF
war cut from the St. Lawrence to the CUT
| ind from Atlantic seal oard to Pacihc sea
| board. The pride of the land, not the
| towards, but the heroes. on both sides
vent down. And that which we took for
| The sword of war was the Lord razor In
| 1862 again il went across the land; in
| 1868 again: in 1894 again. Then the sharp
instrument was incased and put away
One would think that our national sym.
Dol of the eagle nigh. sometimes suggest
| another eagle, that which ancient Rome
| carried. In the talons of that eagle were
| Stitched at one time Britain, France,
Spain, Italy. Dalmata, Ehaetia, Norlcum,
Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thraee, Mace
| donia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoem-
,ia, Palestine, Egypt and all northern
| Africa and all the islands of the Mediter-
ranean-indeed all the world that was
worth having; l2o .ooo oeo OF peoPHeh Hhann under
she now? Ask Gibbon, the historian; IN
his prose poem, the decline and Fall OF
| the Roman Empire" Ask her gigantic
ruins. bemoaning their sadness through
| the ages, the screech owl at windows o"t
| of which worldwide conquerers looked.
! Ask the day of judgment, when her
crowned debauchees, Commodus and FER
tinax and Caligu1a and Dioclctan, shall
answer for their infamy. As man and as
nations let us repent and nave our uus,
| in a pardoning God rather than depena
on former successes for immunity. Out
| of thirteen of the greatest battles OF the
world Napoleon had lost but one before
Waterloo. Pride and destruction oit~-
rode in the same saddle.
Rut notice once more and more than
ali in INV text that God is so kind and
loving that when it is necessary Tor hiin
to cut He has to go to others LOT 3ne
sharp edged weapon. In the same gay
shall the Lord shave with a razor that Is !;
hired" God is love. God is pity. zoo
is help. God is shelter God IS rescue,
There are no sharp edges about Hum, nc
thrustinp points, no instruments OF iaceTa
ton. II You want balm for wounds lie
has that. If you want divine sa,'e 1oi
evesiaht, He has that. But, II there Il
sharp and cutting work to DO winch re re-
om;res a razor. that He hires. God ha;
nothing about Him that hurts save Wner
dire necessity demands, and then ne has is
to 90 clear off to some one else to get ',t
instrument. This divine clemency VIII ot
no novelty to those who have Pondere,c
The Calvarean massacre, where God SUD
MERGED Himself in human tears ana clIil
soned Himself from punctured arterle'
and let the terrestrial and interna! "orid
maui Him until the chandeliers OF IN
skv had to be turned out because the UNI
verse could not endure the outrage. luus
trious for love He must have been 10 tax
iii that as our substitute. paying out
His own heart the price OF our admiss'o'
at the gates of heaven;
King Henry II. Of England crowned M M
son as king, and on the, day OF coronatiol
mt on servants garb and waited, he
| r., - ~ tho cons table. to the aston