St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-01-06

mia baElshed, neuralgia EaHished. As
near as | can tell from what have read
our atmosphere Of this century is a
mingling of the two months Of May and
October of the nineteenth century,
And we believe what our escort says.
for as we pass on we find health glow
ing in every check and beaming il
every eye aud springipg in every step
apd articniating in every utt,rance.
and you and I whisper TO each other
as our escort has his attention drawn
to st.me new sunrise upon the morning
sky, and we say. each to the other:
.'Who would believe that this is the
world we lived in over 100 years ago:
Look at those m.n and women we
pass on the road! How improved the
human race! Slch beauty, such
strength, such gracefulness, such
geniality! Faces without the mark of
one sorrow! Cheeks that seem never
to have been wet by one tear! A race
sublimated! a new world born!'
But say to our escort: did all
this merely happen so? Arc all the
good here spontaneously good? How
did you get the old shipwreched world
afloat again, out of the breakers into
the smooth seas?' NO, no." responds
our twenty-frst century escort. do
you see those towers Those arc the
towers of churches, towers of reform
atory institutions, towers of Christian
schools. Walk with me-; and let us
enter some of these temples" We en-
ter, and I find that the music is in
the major key and more Of it il the
minor. "Gloria In EScelsis" rising
above ''Gloria In ENcclsis." Tremolo
stop in the organ not % much used
as the trumpet stop. More of Ariel
dirges. Not thin song, the words
Of whieh no one understands on the
lip of soloist, but mighty Earmonies
that roll from outside door to chan
eel and from floor to grained rafter
as though Handel had come out Of
the eighteenth century into the TWEEN
ty-first and had his foot on the organ
pedal, and Thomas Hastings lad conc
out of the carly Part of tic nineteenth
century into the twc.ty-first and were
leading the voices. Music that moves
the earth and makes Heaven listen.
But / say to our twenty-frst cen
fury escort: Il cannot understand
this. Have these worsLiners 70 sor-
rows, or have thcy forgotten their SCR
rows?1 Our escort responds: ''Sor-
rows! Why, they had sorrows mere
than YOU ccEld count, but by a divine
illumination that the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries never enjoyed
they understand the uses of sorrow
and are comfor;cd with supernatural
coincidence such IS previous centuries
never experienced"
/ ask again of the interpreter: HAS
death been banishctl from the world :"
The answer is: NO. but people die
now only when the physical natirfne-
nv is worn out, and they realize it is
time to go and slat they are certain
~ and without doubt going into a
world where they will be infinitely bet
ter off and are to live in n mansion
that awaits their immediate occu-
fected?" I ask our escort. Answer:
by floods of Gospel power. You who
lived in the nineteenth century never
saw a revival of religion to BE- COM
pared with what occurred in the lat
ter part of the twentieth and the carly
part of the twenty-frst century. The
prophecy has been fulfilled that a
nation shall be born in a day'-that is.
ten or twenty or forty million people
converted in "a hours. In our church
history we read Of the great awak-
ening of 1857, when 100000 souls were
saved. But that was only drop of
the coming showers that since then
took into the Kingdom Of God every
thing between the. Atlantic and the
Pacific, between the Pyrenecs and the
Himalayas." The evils that good peo
pie were in the nineteenth century
trying to destroy have been overcome
by celestial forces. What human
weaponry failed to accomplish has
been done by omnipotent thunder
bolts.
As you and 1 see in this terrestrial
visitation of the coming centuries that
the church has under God accomplished
SO much, we ask our escort, the spirit Of
the twenty-first century. to show us the
different kinds Of churches. So we are
taken in and out of the churches of diff
ferent denominations, and we find that
they are just as different in the twenty
first century as they We're different in
the nineteenth when we worshiped in
them There is unity in them as to the
great essentials Of salvation. But we
enter the Baptist church, and it is bap-
tismaf day, ard we see the candidates
for membership immersed. And we 60
into q Presbyterian church and see a
group of parents around the baptismal |
font holding up their children for the
And we enter the Episco-
pal church and hear the solemn roll. of
her liturgies, and her ministers are
gowned and 'surpliced. And we enter
the Lutheran church. and we hear in the
sermon preached the doctrines of the
greatest of German reformers. And we
go into the Methodist church just in
time to sit down ct a love feast aEl give
audible "Amen" when the service stirs
us. At least so kinds Of churches in the
twenty first century. as there were $50
different kinds Of churches in the nine
teseth century.
Eut what is yonderrow Of buildings,
ma jestic for architecture The spirit
of the twenty-first century says:
.Tnose are our legislative halls and
places of public trust, and if You would
like it viii show yop the political cir
cles, the modes Ct preferment, the styles
Of election, the character of public men
in this century" '.Thank YOU" | re-
ply. II can easily understand how Cos l
pelization would improve individual life
and social life and commercial life. but
+ would like 10 see What it can do for
political life." LET me tell you" says !.
he spirit ,of the twfnts-first century, !.
that l have read about political CHI /
and corruption of more than 100
years .auO-fhe nineteenth century. in