St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-07-21
. few DAYS are gone, and she heart sits

few days are gone, and Che heart sits
in desolation listening for the little
feet that will never again patter
through the hall, or looking for them
trance Of those who will never come
Administering into the darkness-ever
and anon coming across some book or
garment or little shoe or picture that
arouses former association, almost kill
ing the heart. Long days and lights
Of suffering that wear out the spirit
and expunse the bright lines Of life and
give haggardness to the face and draw
the flesh tight down over the cheek
bone and draw dark lines under tho
sunken eye, and the hand is tremulous,
and the voice is husky and uncertain,
and the grief is wearing, grinding, ac-
cumulating, exhausting.
Now, what are such to do? Are they
merely to look up into a brazen and un-
pitying sky? Are they to walk a blast
ed heath unfed of stream, unsheltered
by overarching trees? Has God turned
us out on the barren common to die?
Oh, no! no! no! He has not. He comes
with sympathy and kindness and love.
He understands all our grief. lie sees
the height and depth and the length
and the breadth of it. He is the only
one that can fully sympathize. Go and
tell Jesus. Sometimes when we have
trouble we go to our friends and we
explain it, and they try to sympathize;
but they do not understand it. They
cannot understand it. But Christ sees
all over it and all through it. He not
only counts the tears and records the
groans, but before the tears started,
before the groans began Christ saw the
Utmost hiding place of your sorrow,
and He takes it, and He weighs it. and
He measures it, and He pities it with an
all absorbing pity. Bone of our bone.
Flesh of our flesh. Heart of our heart.
Sorrow of our sorrow. As long as He
remembers Lazarus grave He will
stand by you in the cemetery. AS long
as He remembers His own heartbreak
He will stand by you in the liberation
of your affections. When He forgets
the footsore way, the sleepless nights,
the weary body, the exhausted mind,
the awful cross, the solemn grave, then
He will forget you, but not until then.
Often when we were in trouble we
sent for our friends, but they were far
away; they could not get to us. We
wrote to them: "Come right away"
or telegraphed: take the next train"
They came at last, yet were a great
while in coming or perhaps were too
late. But Christ is always near-before
you, behind you, within you. No moth
er ever threw her arms around her
of affection as Christ has shown toward
you. Close at hand-nearer than the
staff upon which you lean, nearer than
the cup you put to your lip, nearer than
the handkerchief with which you wipe
away your tears-I preach Him an ever
present, all sympathizing, compassion-
ate Jesus. How can you stay away ono
moment from Him with your griefs?
Go now. Go and tell Jesus.
It is often that our friends have no
power to relieve us. They would very
much like to do it, but they cannot dis
entangle our finances, they cannot cure
our sickness and raise our dead, but
glory be to God that He to whom the
disciples went has all the power in
Heaven and on earth, and at our call
He will balk our calamities and at just
the right time in the presence of an
applauding earth and resounding
Heaven will raise our dead. He is
miRhtier than Herod. He is swifter
than the storm. He is grander than
the sea. He is vaster than eternity.
And every sword of Gods omnipotence
will leap from its scabbard and all the
resources of infinity be exhausted
rather than that Gods child shall not
be delivered when he cries to Him for
rescue. Suppose your child was in
trouble. How much would you endure
to get him out? You would go through
any-hardship. You would say: II
don'tacare what it will cost. must get
him out of that trouble" Do you think
God is not so good father as you? See
ing you are in trouble and having all
power, viii He not stretch out His arm
and deliver you? He will. He is
mighty to save. He can level the noun
tains and divide the sea and can ex.
tinguish the fire and save the soul. Not
dim of eye, not weak of arm, not feeble
of resources, but with all eternity and
the universe at his feet. Go and tell
Jesus. viii you? whoseche are
wet with the night dew Of the grave;
We, who cannot look up; We whose
hearts are dried with. the breath of
sirocco; in the name of the religion of
Jesus Christ, which lifts every burden
and wipes away every tear and delivers
every captive and lightens every dark
ness, I implore you now, go and tell
Jesus.
A little child went with her father. a
sea captain, to sea, and when the first
storm came the little child was very
much frightened and in the night
rushed out Of the cabin and! said
::'Where is father, where is sfatherf"4
Then. they told her:~ .Father Is on.
deck, guiding the vessel and watching
the storm" The little child immedi-
ately returned to her berth and said:
''It's all right, for fathers on deck"
Oh, We who are tossed and driven by
this world, up by the mountains and
down by the valleys. and at your wits
end, want you to know the Lord God
is guiding the ship. Your Father is On
deck. He will bring you through the
darkness into the harbor. Trust in
the Lord. Go and tell Jesus. M
If you 60 to Him for pardon and SYM.
pathy, all is well. Everything will
brighten up, and joy will come to the
heart and sorrow will depart; your
sins will be forgiven and your foot will
touch the upward path, and the shining
messengers that report above what is
done here will tell it until the great
arches of God reso1nd with the glad
tidngs, If now, with contrition and
full trustfulness of soul, you will only
90 and tell Jesus.
But I am oppressed as think Of
those who may not take this counsel
and NAV remain unblessed. I cannot