St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-04-19

might fall from grace and go at their
old business of theft or drunkenness
or cutthroatery. If your sins have
been forgiven and your life purified,
forget the waywardness of the past
and allow others to forget it.
Many years ago family consisting
of the husband and wife and little girl
of two years lived far out in cabin
on a western prairie. The husband
started his little child asked him to
buy for her doll, and he promised.
He could after the sale of the cattle
purchase household necessities and
certainly would not forget the doll he
had promised. In the village to which
he went he sold the cattle and OBJ
tanned the groceries for his household
and the doll for his little darling. He
started home along the dismal road at
nightfall. AS he went along on horse
back thunderstorm broke, and in the
most lonely part Of the road and in the
heaviest part of the storm he heard
child's cry. Robbers had been known
to do some bad work along that road,
and it was known that this herdsman
had money with him, the price of the
c1ttle sold. The herdsman first
thought it was stratagem to have
him halt and be despoiled Of his treas
ures, but the child's cry became more
keen and rending, and so he dismount-
ed and felt around in the darkness and
all in vain until he thought of a hollow
that he remembered near the road
where the child might be, and for that
he started and, sure enough, found a
little one tagged out and drenched Of
the storm and almost dead. He
wrapped it up as we'll as he could and
mounted his horse and resumed his
journey home. Coming in sight of his
cabin, he saw it all lighted up and sup
posed his wife had kindled all these
lights SO as to guide her husband
house was full Of excitement, and the
neighbors were gathered and stood
around the wife of the house, who was
insensible as from some great ca1am-
ity. On inquiry the returned husband
found that the little child of that cabin
was gone She had wandered out to
meet her father and get the present he
had promised, and the child was lost.
Then the father unrolled from the
blanket the child he had found in the
fields, and, 10, it was his own child and
the lost one of the prairie home, and
the cabin quaked with the shout over
the lost one found! How suggestive
of the fact that once we were lost in
the open fields or among the mountain
crags. Gods wandering children, and
He found us, dying in the tempest, and
wrapped us in the mantle of His love
and fetched us home, gladness and
congratulation bidding us welcome.
The fact is that the world does not
know God or they would all flock to
Him.
There are certain names so magnetic
that their pronunciation thrills all who
hear them. Such is the name of the
Italian soldier and iberator, Carl
baldi. Marching with his troops, he
met q shepherd who was in great dis
tress because he had lost lamb.
Garibaldi said to his troops: LET us
help this poor shepherd find his lamb. !"
And SO, with lanterns and torches, they
explored the mountains, but did not
find the lamb, and after an unsuccess-
full search late at night they went to
their encampment. The next morn
ing Garibaldi was found asleep far on
into the day, and they Weakened him
for some purpose and found that he
had not given up the search when the
soldiers did, but had kept on still fur
Their into the night and had found it,
and he pulled down the blankets from
his couch, and there lay the lamb,
which Garibaldi ordered Immediately
taken to it's owner. So the Commander
of all the hosts of heaven turned aside
from His glorious and victorious march
through the centuries of heaven and
said: II will go and recover that lost
world and that race OF whom Adam
the progenitor, and let all who will ac-
company me-" And through the night
they came, but I do not see that the
angelic escort came any farther than
the clouds, but their most illustrious
Leader came all the way down, and bE
the time His errand is done our little
world, our wandering and lost world,
our world fleecy with the light, will be
found in the bosom Of the Great Shep-
herd. and then all Heaven will take up
the cantata and sing: "The lost sheep
found!" @5s
So 1 set open the wide gate of my
text, inviting you all to come into the
mercy and pardon of God-yea, still
further, into the ruins of the place
where once was kept the knowledge OF
your iniquities. The place has been
torn down and the records destroyed.
and YOU will find the ruins more dilapi-
dated and broken and PROSTATE than
the ruins of Melrose or Kenilworth, for
from these last ruins you can pick up
some fragment of sculptured stone
or you can see the curve of some
broken arch, but after your repent
ance and your forgiveness you cannot
find in all the memory of God frag-
ment of your pardoned sins so large
as a needles point. 'Their sins and
their iniquities will remember no
more"
Six different kinds Of sounds were
heard On that night which was inter-
iected into the daylight of Christ's as
sassination. The neighing of the
warrior ses-for some of the soldiers
were in the saddle-was one sound,
the bang of the hammers was second
sound, the jeer of malgnants was a
third sound, the weeping of friends and
followers was fourth sound, the
plash of blood on the rocks was fifth
sound, and the groan of the expiring
Lord was a sixth sound. And they all
commingled into one sadness. Over a