St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-05-26

Is Il falInIui saying anu WOrtBy OI dIA
that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Of
whom / am chief" Mark that-"of
whom 1 am chief" PUT down yoaI
overcoats and hats. and / will take
care of them while you kill Stephen" !"
So Saul said to the stoners of the
first martyr II do not care to ex-
ert myself much. but l will guard
your surplus apparel while you do
the murder" The New Testament ac-
count says: "The witnesses laid down
their clothes at young mans feet.
whose name was Saul No wonder
he said: sinners, of whom | am the
chief"
Christ is used to climbing. He
climbed to the top of the temple. He
climbed to the top of Mount Olivet.
He climbed to the top of the cliffs
about Nazareth. He climbed to the
top of Golgotha. And to the top OF
the hills and the mountains of your
transgression He is ready to climb
with pardon for every one of you.
The groan of Calvary is mightier than
the thunder of Sinai. Full receipt is
offered for all your Indebtedness. II
one throws a stone at midnight into
a bush where the hedge bird roosts,
it Immediately begins to sing, and
into the midnight hedges of your
dependency these words / hurl, hop
ing to awaken you to anthem. Drop
the tunes in the minor key and take
the major. Do you think it pleases
the Lord for you to be carrying
around with you the debris and car
casses of old transgressions? You
make me think of some ship that has
had tempestuous time at sea and
now that it proposes another voyage
keeps on it's davits the damaged life
boats and the splinters of a shiv-
cred mast and the broken glass of a
smashed skylight. My advice is:
Clear the decks, overheard with all
the damaged rigging. brighten up the
salted smokestacks. open a new log
book. haul in the planks. lay out a
new course and set sail for Heaven.
You have had the spiritual dumps
long enough. You will please the
Lord more by being happy than by
being miserable.
Again, my text has good advice con-
cerning any Christian hampered and
bothered and bound by fear of his
own dissolution. To such the book re-
fers when it speaks of those who
through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. The most
of us, even if we have the Christian
hope, are towards about death. Ii a
plank fall from a scaffolding and just
grazes our hat, how pale we look! Ii
the Atlantic ocean plays with the
steamship. pitching it toward the
heavens and letting it suddenly drop,
how even the Christian passengers
poster the steward or stewardess as to
whether there is any danger. and the
captain. who has been all night on
the bridge and chilled through, com.
ing in for cup of coffee. is assailed
with whole battery of questions as
to what he thinks of the weather.
And many of the best people are, a.
Paul says, throughout their lifetime
in bondage by fear of death. My
brothers and sisters. if we made full
use of our religion we would soon get
over this.
Heaven is 95 per cent. better than
tnis world. thousand per cent. bet
ter, a million per cent. better. Take
the gladdest, brightest, most jubilant
days you ever had on earth and COM
press them all into one hour, and that
hour would be requiem. fast day,
a gloom, horror. as compared with
the poorest hour they have had in
Heaven since it's first tower was built
or its first gate swung or its first song
caroled. "Oh," you say. 'that may
be true. but l am so afraid of cross
ing over from this world to the next.
and fear the swapping of the cord
between soul and body" Well. all the
surgeons and physicians and scientists
declare that there is no pang at the
parting of the body and soul, and all
the restlessness at the closing hour OF
life is involuntary. and no distress at
all. And I agree with the doctors. for
what they say is confirmed by the
fact that persons who were drowned
or were submerged until all conscious
ness departed and were afterward re-
suscitated declare that the sensation
OF passing into unconsciousness was
pleasurable rather than distressful.
The cage of the body has a door on
easy hinges, and when tnat door OF
the physical cage opens the soul
simply puts out its wings and scars.
But YOU say. Il fear to go be-
cause the future is SO full of mystery
Well. / will tell you how to treat the
mysteries. The mysteries have ceased
bothering me. for do as the judges OF
your courts often do. They hear all
the arguments in the case and they
say: Il will take these papers and
give you my decision next week." So
l have heard all the arguments in re-
gard to the next world. and some
things are uncertain and full of mys-
terry. and SO fold up the papers and
reserve until the next world my de-
cision about them. I can there study
all the mysteries to better advantage,
for the light will be better and nv
faculties stronger, and I will ask the
Christian philosophers, who have had
all the advantages of Heaven for cen-
turies. to help me. and l may be per-
mitted myself humbly to ask the Lord,
and / think there will be only one
mystery left; that will be how one 50
unworthy as myself got into such an
enraptured place. Come up out Of the
sepulchral shadows. If you are not
Christians by faith in Christ, come up
into the light; and if you are already
like Lazarus. terminated, but still
have your grave clothes on, get rid Of
them. The command is: loose him.
and let him CO."
The Family Described.
A Savannah sportsman who recently
went on fishing trip up the Savannah
river tells q story of an old darky whom
he saw on the bank of the stream. To