St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-07-05

Jesus. I believe God holds contro-
versy with his children to-day and
will deal with us as He did then
Awake, my people, awake to Gods
demands and let us wrap this old
world around with the story of him
of whom to-day speak in his proto-
type, Jonah"
The Power of the Cross.
Text.-For determined not to know any
thing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucitied.-1 Corinthians, 20.
1T was hazardous thing for the
apostle to announce this to the Corin-
thians," declares Rev. S. Parkes Cad
man, D. D., in a sermon written for
the New York Witness. 'They were
people who rejoiced in a va
riety of gifts and were eager
to express themselves in mani
fold ways. Breadth of view and inclu-
sive sympathy seemed to be necessary
in order to succeed among them. They
| were prone to turn away from the
Christian system and were especially
| sensitive to 'tae offense of the Cross
est. Paul made this bold assertion
of the compelling theme of his minis
try among them, because he perfectly
| understood them and was determined
to bring their acts and habits and as
| pirations beneath the unifying power
| of a great principle, which was the
moral and spiritual dynamic of the uni
| verse, the solution of all mystery, and
the clarifying of all aim. People who
turn away from systematized religion
| to-day are the intellectual children OF
these proud Corinthians, inheriting
their weakness as well as their
| strength. Men and women are found
everywhere who possess capacity for
the right and its doing, and indigna-
| ton against any form of wrong. In
their various walks of life they follow
after an ideal; they know the nobility
of self-repression and of labor for the
social estate; they are kindly, honest
and gracious, but they tell us that the
| evangelical faith has poverty-stricken
aspects and neglects some things
which are all important to them. be-
cause apart from them they could not
live their lives"
DR.. Cadman claims that there are
several predomina ting features in this
announcement of St. Paul which will
help us to understand each other bet
| ter. For most of the differences which
vex our progress are due to the dim
ness of our earthly vision, and St. Paul
urges upon us his voluntary dedication
of all knowledge beneath the superior
knowledge of the power of the Cross,
| because
First, he says, nothing is discarded
which is legitimate, minor themes are
not lost but they are absorbed in the
major one. A second point he makes
is that "the power of the cross is the
power of a fact" The explanation of
that fact we may only attempt, but
the fact itself shines steadily on, I'M
hindered by warning statements.
! "But. further, the power of the cross
is happily expressed in the text, in the
combination Of the person of Jesus
with the principle Of sacrifice.
| And lastly, the power of the cross,
as we survey the future, is multiply
ing power. There are two classes OF
religious forces, those which absorb
| and those which are absorbed by them,
and the cross is the supreme absorb
ent, whose vitality, always recurring,
can never be impaired. Rest assured,
you cannot exaggerate this statement
and there is no need to qualify it. It
is the legitimate generalization OF
Christian manhood, Christian thought
and Christian effort. While dialectics
change and literary fashions decay,
the pledge of the permanence of the
cross is in the person who died there
on and in the need Of man for the bene-
fits of that passion and death.
| Let us dismiss our fears and weep
selves and for our unfaithfulness and
our lukewarmness. For did all
tongues fail and all prophecies cease,
the holy hill of Golgotha would send
| out afresh new light and truth. There
shall we keep our tryst with men and
with the Father of men. and if we
fail, God will raise up ministers and
peoples which appear dumb as the
stones of the streets, and they that
are far off He will bring nigh, until
the work has been completed, which
is pledged by the very manner of its
beginning to completion. Then shall
the High Priest of our profession prof
fer unto God the Father Himself the
Kingdom thus recreated, and having
delivered it up, God shall be all and in
all"