St. Tammany farmer., 1901-04-20

read decides their morals or In
morals, their prosperity or failure
their faith or their unbelief. their
purity or corruption, their heaven
or hell. Show me any mans library,
great or small, and after examining
the books, finding those with leaves
uncut, but displayed for sake OF the
binding, and those worn with fre-
quent perusal, and. without ever see
ing the man or knowing his name,
/ will tell you his likes and his dis
likes; his morals, good or bad or IN
different; his qualification for busi-
ness or artistic or professional or
mechanical life. The best index TO
any mans character il the book he
prefers shove all others. Oh. the
power of q book for good or evil!
Abraham Lincoln in early life read
Paine's "Age of Reason" and it 30
Influenced him that he wrote an e.
say against Christianity, but after
ward some Christian books came into
his hands and gloriously changed his
mind and made him . most ardent
friend of the Bible and q man OF
prayer. A letter in Mr.. Lincoln's own
handwriting is in my house. the let
ter in response to some resolutions
passed by q Methodist conference,
saying: 'In response to your sd-
dress, allow me to attest the &C.
curacy Of its historical statements.
indorse the sentiments it expresses
and thank you in the nations name
for the sure promise it gives. Nobiy
sustained as the government has
been by all the churches, would
utter nothing which might In the
least appear invidious against any.
Yet without this It may fairly be
said that the Methodist Episcopal
church, not less devoted than the
best, il by its great numbers the
most important of all. 1t is no fault
in others that the Methodist church
sends more soldiers to the field, more
nurses to the hospital and more
prayers to Heaven than any. God
bless the Methodist church-bless all
the churches-and blessed be God
who in this our great trial giveth Us
the churches.
What q great thing 1t was that the
Christian books which Mr.. Lincoln
read dobliterated from his mind the inf
del literature! William Carey became
missionary by reading "The Voyages
Of Captain Cook" John Wesley's
life was shaped by reading Jeremy
Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying.
There are books in your library or iy-
ing on your parlor table or secreted
in some place by your child that will
decide for two worlds, this and the
next. the character of its reader.
Through books we sit down and talk
with the mightiest spirits of all the
ages. We accompany Tennyson on his
spring-time walk as he falls upon his
knees in the meadows, crying to his
companions: "Violets, man, violets!
Smell them" Or we ride with Traja
| in his triumphal march, or stand with
Godfrey at the taking Of Jerusalem, or
with arctic explorer hear the crash
Of the icebergs, or are received with
fernando Cortes in the halls OF
Nontezuma,. or watch in the observa-
tory as Herschel with his telescope
captures another star, or the ink in
the inkhorn turns red as blood, and
we are at Marengo and Arbela and
Eylau and Borodino and Leipsic; or
we sail with Hamilcar from Carthage
to Palermo. or we see Calico fighting
for the solar system, and around US
gather for conversation Aristotle and
Plato and Robert South and Sydney
Smith and Locke and Samuel Rogers
and Chaucer and Paul Richter and
Swift and Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt and
Talleyrand and Burke and Edward
Irving, while to make music for us
Handel and Mozart and Mendelssohn
come in, and we watch Columbus land
ing and see John Harvard's legacy of
$500 paid over for the founding of
Harvard university. and Joshua Rey-
nolds and David Wilie and Rem
brandt tell us of their pictures. Oh,
the books! Thank God for the books,
and thanks be to all the authors!
May the inkhorn ever be under divine
inspiration!
A wrong theory is abroad that the
newspaper impression is ephemeral.
Because we read and cast it aside in
an hour and never see it again we are
not to judge that we are parted from
its influence. No volume Of 500 pages
makes such impression upon the peo-
pie AZ the daily newspaper. It is not
what we put away carefully upon the
shelf and once in awhile refer to that
has as close relation to our welfare
as the story Of what the world is
now doing or has recently done. Yes
terday has more to do with to-day
than something occurring . century
previous. The engineers who now
guide the rail trains, the sea captains
who now command the ships, the ar
chitects who now design the build
ings, the batons that now control the
orchestras, the legislators who Iow
make the laws, the generals who now
march the hosts, the rulers who now
govern the nations. the inkhorns that
now flood the world with intelligence
these are what we have most to do
with.
You have all seen what is called
indelible ink. which il q weak solu-
tion Of silver nitrate, and that ink
you cannot rub out or wash out.
Put II there, and it stays. Well, the
liquid Of the editorial and reportorial
inkstands is an indelible ink. It puts
upon the souls of the passing gener-
ations characters of light or dark
ness that time cannot wash out and
eternity cannot efface. Forever in
delible. Be careful how you use it.
The impression made with it will be
resplendent or repulsive on the day
for which all other days were made.
But how shall I speak Of the ink
horn of the worlds evangelization ?
Oh, how may loving and brilliant and
glorious pens have been dipped into
it! Thomas = Kempis dipped into II
and brought up his Limitation OF
Christ" Horace Bushnell dipped into
It and brought up Every Mans Life
= Plan Of God" Thomas Binney