New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-05-12
Thy kingdom come. st. Matthew. VI, II

Church, at Christ Church Cathedral New o.
leans, La, April % 1900.
Thy kingdom come. st. Matthew. VI, 10.
And John saw the holy city, new Jerll
salem, coming down from God out o
heaven, prepared as bride adorned fo
her husband
And l heard a great voice out of heavel
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God j
with men, and he will dwell with them
and they shall be his people, and God him
self shall be with them, and be their God
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes and their shall be no NOR
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neithe
shall there be any more pain: for the forme
things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said
Behold, make all things new. And h,
said unto me, write: for these words ar,
true and faithful Revelation XXI. %.
AT this fin de steele when we are
about to deliver our valedictories
on the closing century, and to ap.
propriate to our own thought and
action its manifold lessons and
varied experiences; it may not be
amiss to examine again our time
honored faith. Let US therefore
study this morning with renewed
earnestness the possible develop
ment Of Gods kingdom of which
this faith is the life and power. Oul
texts have given us a prayer and q
prophecy. The prophecy fulfilled
is the prayer answered. Our Lord
has taught us to pray, "Thy king
dom come" St. John the Divine has
revealed to US his Apocalyptic vision
of the holy city, in which we behold
the kiagdom completely realized.
49, What is that triumphant celestial
picturei Let our eyes gaze upon il
in all its glorified splendor. Let
the impression be indelibly photo
graphed on our minds. The holy
city, the new Jerusalem, coming
down from God out Of heaven; the
tabernacle of God with men; the
presence of God himself; the wip-
ing away of tears; the annihila-
tion of death, the vanishing of sor-
row and crying and pain; the pass
ing away of former things; the
"Behold l make all things new"-
can nature or art furnish us any
thing more realistici 1t was the
mission of the Seer of Patmos to
reveal to us poor and toiling artis-
ans the completed architecture of
this kingdom of God.
l have advisably called the Apo
a realistic picture. A phil
osophic wisdom may prefer to call
this the ideal; but it may truthfully
be said that nothing is so intensely
real as the ideal. The human soul
has an architecture of it's own. 1t
builds its palaces; constructs its
and in its dreams sees the
vision Of the beautiful perfected in
art and hears divine minstrelsy
triumphant in song. What we call
the real is passing away: tomorrow
it shall have gone. The picture of
The city of God, painted in the
golden glory of times sunset, shall
be the intensely real throughout the
aeons Of eternity. Well might we
sing with the poet:
MY feet are worn and weary with the march
Over the rough road and up the steep hillside;
Deity of our God, / fain would see
Thv pasture green, where peaceful waters glide!
Ny eyes are weary looking at the sin,
[mpiety and scorn upon the earth;
city Of our God, within thy walls
Hall are clothed again with thy new birth"
From this mount Of transfgura-
tion we must come down. We have
been refreshed by the vision and in
It we have seen our divine Arch
itect's plan. It must now be ours
TO build the kingdom Of God on
earth agreeably to this celestial
picture. It is needless for us to
Iay that the metaphors Of the
and the city stand for per-
Pected human life. It must be the
inquiry Of all true philosophy: Is
life really advancing toward the
supremely goodi Il there such a
hing as the progress of civiliza-
tioni Is Christianity fully develop
ing the human individual toward
heavenly citizenship: the human
race toward the conception Of the
livine kingdomi How shall we
answer these questionsi A fruit
less agnosticism would contempt
lously ignore the only authority
to solve the mystery; q
lespairing pessimism would cruelty
remove that authority from . con-
Of earthly affairs. Thank
God! we have the guidance Of our
blessed faith. We can turn its pure
ems upon the trend OF human
history and there behold the opera
ion Of q divine power, who is
shaping and developing humanity
o an eternal purpose.
We cannot see the plant grow,
nor the planet move but after time
has sped its course, we discover that
he one has increased in size, the
other has changed its position in
he heavens. So hnman society is
growing and moving on toward =
1iyine destiny. The research Of the