St. Tammany farmer., 1901-08-31

groaned over as sung to. With the
you give them let there be an ac-
compartment of smiles and brisk en-
couragement. Do not stand and talk
to them about the wretchedness OF
their abode, and the hunger of their
looks, and the hardness of their lot.
All, they know it better than you can
tell them. Show them the bright side
of the thing, if there be any bright
side. Tell them good times will come.
Tell them that for the children Of
God there is immortal rescue. Wake
them up out Of their stolidity by an
inspiring laugh, and while you send
in help, like the queen of Sheba, also
send in the spices.
We need more spice and enlivenment
in our church music. Churches sit
discussing whether they shall have
choirs or precentors or organs or bass
viols or cornets. say take that which
will bring out the most inspiring mu-
sic. If we had half as much zeal and
spirit in our churches as we have in
the songs of our Sunday schools, it
would not be long before the whole
earth would quake with the coming
God. Why, nine-tenths Of the people
in church do not sing, or they sing so
feebly that the people at their elbows
do not know they are singing. People
mouth and humble the praises of
God, but there is not more than one
out of hundred who makes a joyful
noise unto the Rock of Our Salvation.
Sometimes, when the congregation
forgets itself and is all absorbed in
the goodness of God or the glories OF
Heaven, I get an intimation of what
church music will be hundred years
from now, when the coming genera
ton shall wake up to its duty.
Now, I want to impress you with
the fact that religion is sweetness
and perfume and spikenard and SAT-
from and cinnamon and cassia and
frankincense and all sweet spices to-
gether. "Oh," you say, II have not
looked at it as such. I thought It
was nuisance. It had for me re-
pulsion. held my breath as though
it were a malodor. have been APP
palled at it's advance. I have said
if have any religion at all I want
to have just as little of it as possi-
BILE to get through with" Oh, what
a mistake you make, my brother!
The religion of Christ is present
and everlasting redolescence. It coun-
teracts all trouble. just put it on the
stand beside the pillow of sickness.
It catches in the curtains and per-
fumes the sitting air. It sweetens
the cup of bitter medicine and throws
glow on the gloom of the turned
lattice. It is balm for the aching
side and soft bandage for the tenn
pie stung with pain. It lifted Samuel
Rutherford into revelry of spiritual
delight while he was in physical ag-
onies. It helped Richard Baxter un-
til, in the midst of such a complica-
ton of diseases as perhaps no other
man ever suffered, he wrote "The
Saints Everlasting Rest" and it
poured night upon John Bunyan's
dungeon-the light Of the shining
gate of the shining city.
Have you read of the Tai Mahal, in
India, in some respects the most ma
iestic building on earth? Twenty
thousand men were 20 years in build
ing it. It cost about $16,0O0,000. The
walls are of marble inlaid with car
nelian from Bagdad and turquoise
from Thibet and jasper from the Pun
lab and amethyst from Persia and
all manner of precious stones. A trav-
eler said that it seemed to him like
the shining of the enchanted castle
of FURNISHED silver. The walls are
245 feet high, and from the top OF
these springs a dome 80 more feet
high. that dome containing the most
wonderful echo the world has ever
known, so that ever and anon trav-
elers standing below with flutes and
drums and harps are testing that
echo. and the sounds from below
strike up, and then come down, as it
were, the voices of angels all around
about the building. There is around
it a garden of tamarind and banyan
and palm and all the floral glories OF
the ransacked earth. But that is only
a tomb of dead empress, and it is
tame compared with the grande,1rs
which God has builded for your living
and immortal spirit.
Oh, home of the blessed! Founda-
tions of gold! Arches of victory!
Capstones of praise! And dome in
which there are echoing and re-
echoing the halleluiahs of the ages!
And around about that mansion is a
garden, the garden of God, and all
the springing fountains are the bot
tied tears of the church in the wilder
ness and all the crimson OF the
flowers is the deep hue that was
caught up from the carnage OF earth
" martyrdoms and the fragrance is
the prayer of all the saints and the
aroma puts into utter forgetfulness
the cassia and the spikenard and the
frankincense and the world-renowped
spices which Queen Balkis of Abys-
sinia flung at the feet OF King Solo
mon.
When shall these eyes thy heaven built
walls
And pearly gates behold,