St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-01-20
he Gospel singer, or Of the card play

SooSC lACy OOStIUCt tue view VI IN
stage, and lady reporter asked me-
what thought about it, and told hel
that if the indecent pictures of actress
es in the show windows were accurate
pictures of what goes on in many Of The
theaters night by night then it would
be well if the ladies' hats were milk
high, so as to completely obstruct the
vision. If professed Christians go tt
such places during the week, no one vii
ever prosecute them for their religion
for they have none, and they are The
joke of he'll. But let them live a conse
Grated and Christian life, and they viii
soon run against sneering opposition.
For a compromise Christian char
acter an easy time now, but for con
secrated behavior grimace and carica
ture. For the body, thanks to the Goo
of free America, there are no swords OF
fiery stakes, but for the souls of thou
sands of the good, in a fgurative sense
rack and gibbet and Torquemada. The
symbol of the domestic and social ani
private and public suffering of a grea,
multitude of Gods dear children, pillars
of smoke. What an exciting scene in
India when during the sepoy rebellion
regiment of Highlanders came up and
found the dead body of one Of Gen
Wheeler's daughters, who had been in
suited and mauled and slain by the Sc
poys. So great was the wrath against
these murderers that the Scotch regi-
ment sat down, and, cutting off the
hnir of this dead daughter of Gen
Wheeler, they divided it among them,
and each one counted the number OF
hairs given him, and each took an
oath, which was executed, that for
each hair OF the murdered daughter
they would dash out the life Of a
bestial sepoy. But as we look over the
story of those who in all ages have
suffered for the truth, while we leave
vengeance to the Lord, let us band to-
gether in one solemn vow, one tremen-
dous oath, after having counted the
host of the martyrs, that for each one
of those glorious men and women
who died for the truth an immortal
ever.
But, as already limited in the first
sentence Of this sermon, nothing can
be more beautiful than the figures of
smoke on q clear sky. You can see
what you will in the contour Of this
volatile vapor, now enchanted castles,
now troops Of horsemen, now ban
nered procession, now winged couriers,
now black angel of wrath under a
spear of the sunshine turned to an
angel of light, and now from horizon
to horizon the air is a picture gallery
filled with masterpieces of which God
is the artist, morning clouds of smoke
laid in the FURNISHED sepulchers of the
sunset.
Thebeauty of the transfigured smoke
is a Divine symbol of the beauty of
the church. The fairest of all the fair
is she. Do not call those prosecutors
Of whom I spoke the church. They
are the parasites of the church, not
the church itself. Her mission is to
cover the earth With a supernatural
gladness, to open all the prison doors,
to balsam all the wounds, to moss all
the graves, to burn up the night in the
fireplace of a great morning, to
change iron handouts into diamondcd
wristlets, to turn the whole race
around, and whereas it faced death
commanding it: Right about face
for Heaven!" Accordingto the number
of the spires of the churches in all our
cities, towns and neighborhoods, are
the good homes, the worldly prosperi-
ties, and the pure morals, and the
happy souls.
Meet me at any depot the world over,
and with my eyes closed take me by
the hand and lead me so that my feet
will not stumble, and without my once
looking down or looking on the level
take me to some high roof or tower and
let me see the tops of the churches, and
I will tell you the proportion of sur
cfdes, of arsons, of murders, of thefts.
According as the churches are numer-
Gus are the crimes few. According as
the churches are few the crimes are nu-
The most beautiful organiza-
ton the world ever saw or ever will see
is the much-maligned church, the friend
of all good, the foe of all evil, flair as
the moon and clear as the SUM-" Beau
tiful in her Author, beautiful in her
the heroine of the centuries,
the bride of Christ, the queen of the
Men may desecrate it, as Cromwell
when he stabbed his cavalry horses in
st. Paurs cathedral; or break off the
image of Christ, as did the iconoclasts
in York minister; or hurl against it au-
gust literary antipathies, as did Glib
bon; or plot its overthrow, as do some
in every community whose pride and
hate and debauchery are reproved by
the Ten Commandments which it thun-
ders and the sermon on the mount
which it breathes. But it will stand as
long as the earth stands, the same
unique and woodworking and
beatific and miraculous thing for which
God decreed it. Small wits tax their
brain to say things that will put her at
O0N AudAN Va NuCm WAAA
send for its coincidence when dying, and
their children will be gathered up un-
Ter its benedictions after the parental
curse has been removed. Through her
gates will march all the influences for
good that shall ever reach our world.
Take her membership as a mass, not
speaking of the acknowledged excep-
lions, they are the noblest, grandest,
best men and women of the
lges. But for them the earth would
ong ago have been a burned out vol
cano. They have been the salt that has
kept the human race from putrefaction
either to human or angelic
,lfactories.
The church Of God will yet become the
lrbiter of nations. If the world would
lllow it, it could to-day step in between
Germany and France and settle the
about Alsace and Lorraine, and
England and her antagonists,