St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-01-13

q tree or river bank where G - first an
swered your prayer. You will never
pass that place or think OF that place
without thinking Of the glorious COM
munion. There was some gate or some
room or some garden wall where you
were aflianced with the companion who
has been your chief joy in life. You
never speak of that place but with a
smile. Some of you have pleasant men,
cries connected with the evening star,
or the moon in its first quarter, or with
the sunrise, because you saw it just as
you were arriving at harbor after a
tempestuous vo! Il. Forever and for
ever. 0 nearer, associate the sunset
with your magnanimous, out and out.
unlimited remuneration Of all hatred
and forgiveness of all foes.
admit 1t is the most difficult thing Of
all graces TO practice, and at the start
you may make a complete failure, but
keep on in the attempt to practi.. I.
Shakespeare wrote ten plays before he
reached "llamlct" and II plays before
he reached Merchant of Venice" and
2s plays before he reached Macbeth"
and gradually you will come from the
easier graces to the most difficult. Be-
sides that, it is not n matter of personal
determination so much as the laying
hold of the almighty arm of God, who
will help us to do anything we ought to
do. Remember that in all personal con-
troversies the one least to blame will
have to take the first step at pacifica-
ton if it is ever effected. The contest
between Aeschines and Aristippus re-
sounds through history, but Aristippus.
who was least to blame, went to Aes-
chimes and said: "Shall we not
agree to be friends before we make our
selves the laughing stock of the whole
country?" And Aeschines said: "Thou
art far better man than /, for began
the quarrel, but thou hast been T. first
in healing tie breach" and they were
always friends afterward. So let the
one of you that is least to blame take
the first step toward reconciliation. The
one most in the wrong will never take it.
Oh, il makes one feel splendid to be
able by Gods help to practice unlim.
tied forgiveness. 1t improves ones body
and soul. My brother, it will make you
measure three or four more inches
around the chest and. improve your
respiration SO that you can take deep
er and longer breath. 1t improves the
countenance by scattering the gloom
and makes you somewhat like God
himself. He is omnipotent, and we
cannot copy that. He is Independent
of all the universe, and we cannot copy
that. He is creative, and we cannot
copy that. He is omnipresent, and we
cannot copy that. But He forgives with
a broad sweep all faults, and all neg
lects, and all insults, and all wrong
doings, and in that way we may copy
Him with mighty success. Go harness
that sublime action of your soul to the
hour when the gate of
Heaven opens to let the day pass into
the eternities, ard some of the glories
escape this way through the brief open
ing. We talk about the italian sunsets
and sunset amid the Apprentices and
sunset amid the cordilleras, but I will
tell you how you may see grander sun
set than any mere lover of nature ever
beheld; that is, by flinging into it all
your hatreds and animosities, and let
the horses of fire trample them, and the
chariots of fire roll over them, and the
spearmen Of fire stab them, and the
beach of fire consume them, and the bill
lows of fire overwhelm them.
Again, we should not let the sun go
down on our wrath, because it is of lit
tie importance what the world says Of
you or does to you when you have the
affiuent God of the sunset as your pro-
WIDER and defender. People talk as
though it were a fixed spectacle of ma
ture and always the same. But no one
ever saw two sunsets alike, and if the
world has existed 6,O00 years there have
been about 2,190,0o0 sunsets, each Of
them as distinct from all the other pic
lures in the gallery of the sky as
Titian's last Supper" Rubens DE
scent From the Cross" Raphsrls
TRANSPORTATION" and Michael Angeles
Last Judgment" are distinct from |
each other. If that God is of such infinite |
that he can put on the wall OF
The sky each evening more than the |
Louvre and Luxembourg galleries al.
in one is my God and your God, our
provider and protector, what is the use |
Of our worrying about any human an
tagonism? If we are misinterpreted,
he God of the many-colored sunset
ian put the right color on our action.
II all .he garniture of the western heav-
Ems at eventide is but the upholstery of
one OF the windows of our future home,
what small business for us to be chas-
ing enemies! Let not this Sabbath sun
20 down upon your wrath.
Mohammed said: "The sword is the |
Key of Heaven and hell" But, my hear
RS, in the first day we will find just
he opposite of that to be true, and that
he sword never unlocks Heaven, and
hat he who heals wounds is greater
han he who makes them, and that on
he same ring are two keys-God's for
,iveness of us and our forgiveness OF
these two keys unlock
paradise.
And now wish for all of you bear.
iful sunset to your earthly existence.
With some of you it has been a long
ay of trouble, and with others of you
t will be far from calm. When the sun
ose at six o'clock, it was the morning
# youth. and fair day was prophesied,
tut by the time the MONDAY or middle
ife had come and the clock of your
arthly existence had struck IL, cloud
acks gathered, and tempest beloved
n the track Of tempest. But as the
vening of old age approaches, pray
;cd the skies may brighten and the
louds be piled up into pillars as of ce-
estial temples to which you 60, or
nove as with mounted cohorts come to
AXE you home. And as you sink out
1 sight below the horizon, may there
'e a radiance of Christian example lin
.ering long after you have gone. and on
he heavens be written in letters Of