The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-01-18
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NcTEC
DIVINE.
Subject: Now Is = Time For Rejoicing -
Peans of Praise For the Victories OF
Peace-Thv Triumphs Of Husbandry
-ConnueSts Of tho Pom

DIR. Taimage is a national congra tulation
over the achievements of brain and hand
during the past twelve months: The
texts arg: l Corinthians tx, 10, lie that
fplewsth Shall pow in hope" ISAIAH I'll;
N He that smootheth with the hammer;
sjudees '. II, They that handle the pen
of the writer"
There is table being spread across the
top of the two great ranges OF mountains
which ridge this continent, a table which
reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific
sea. 1t is the Thanksgiving table Of the
nation. They viii come from the East
and the West and the North and the
South and sit at it., On it are smoking
the products of all lands, birds of every
aviary, cattle from every pasture, fish
from every lake. feathered spoils from
every farm. The fruit baskets bend down
under the products plucked from the
peach fields of Maryland, the apple or
chards of Western New York. the orange
groves OF Florida, the vineyards Of Ohio
and the nuts thrashed from New Eng land
woods. The bread is white from the
wheat fields OF Illinois and Michigan, the
banlueters are adorned with California
gold, and the table is agleam with Nevada
silver, and the feast is warmed with the
fire CRATES heaped up with Pennsylvania
coal. The hall is spread with carpets
from Lowell mills, and at night the lights
will flash from bronzed brackets of Phila-
delpha manufacture.
Welcome, Thanksgiving Day! Whatever
we may think of New England theology,
we all like New England Thanksgiving
Day. What means the steady rush to the
depots and the long rail trains darting
their lanterns along the tracks OF the Bos-
ton and Lowell, the Georgia Central, the
Chicago Great Western, the st. Paul and
Duluth and the Southern railway? Ask
the happy group in the New England
farm house; ask the villagers whose song
Of praise in the morning will come over
the Berkshire hills; ask all the plantation
OF the South which have adopted the New
England custom of setting apart day Of
tional festivity! Clap your hands. We peo-
pie, and shout aloud for JOY! Through
the organ pipes let there come down the
thunder OF a nations rejoicing! Blow the
cornet! Wave the palm branches! oh,
that men would praise the Lord for His
goodness and for His wonderful works to
the children OF men,"
For two years and half this nation has
been celebrating the triumph Of sword aud
airs and cheered returning heroes and
sounded the requiem for the slain in bat.
tie. Methinks it will be healthiul change
if on this years Thanksgiving IN church
and homestead we celebrate the victories
of the plow. the hammer and the pen, for
nothing was done at Santiago or aanua
that was Of more Importance than that
which in the last year has been done IN
farmers field and mechanics shop and
authors study by those who never wore
an epauiet or shot Spaniard or went a
hundred miles from their own coorslll.
Come up, farmers and mechanics and liter
airy men and get your dues as tar as can
pay them.
Things have marvelousiy changed. Time
was when the stern edlct of governments
forbade religious assemblages. Those who
dared to be SO unloyal to their KING as to
acknowledge loyalty to the Head of the
universe were punished. Churches aw.
fully silent in worship suddenly heard
their doors swung open, and down upon
the church aisle score OF mussetss
thumped as the leaders babe them Ground
arms!" This custom of having the fathers,
the husbands, the sons and brothers at
the entRaAce of the pew is custom which
came down from o!den time, when 1t was
absolutely necessary that the father OF
brother should sit at the end OF the church
pew fully armed to defend the helpless
portion Of the family. But now how
changed! Severe penalties are threatened
against any one VINO shall interrupt reiiS-
ious services, and annually, at the com.
mand of the highest official in the United
States, We gather together for thanksgi,y.,
ing and holy worship. To-day j.! would
stir your souls. to joyful thanksgiving
while I speak Of the mercies Of God and IN
unconventional way recount the conquests
of the p!ow, the hammer and the pen.
Most OF the implements OF husbandry
have been superseded by modern inveii'
tons, but the plow has never lost It's
reign. 1t has furrowed its way through
all the ages. Its victories have been waved
by the barley OF Palestine, the wheat OF
Persia, the fax of Germany. the ricestaiEs
Of China, the rich grasses OF lta.y. 1t has
turned up the mammoth OF Siberia, the
mastadon of Egypt and the pine groves o.
Thessa,v. Its iron foot hath marched
| where Moses wrote and Homer sang ano
Aristotle taught and Alexander mounted
his war charger l. hath wrung its co-teI
on Norwegian wilds and ripped out the
stumps Of the American forest, pushing
| its way through the savannahs OF the Car
olinas and trembling in the grasp or the
New Hampshire yeomanry: American
civilization hath kept step with the rattie
; of its clevises, and on its beam hath rid
den thrift and national plenty.
do not wonder that the Japanese and
the Chinese and the Phoenicians SO par
ticularly extolled hus5andry or that On
cinnatus went from the consulship to The
plow or that Noah was farmer before
he became a shipbuilder or that Elisha was
in the field blowing with twelve yoke, o.
oxen when the mantle fell on him or that
The Egyptians in their paganism. wor
shipped the OK as tiller of their lands.
TO get an appreciation of what The
American plow has accomplished ! take
YOU into the western wilderness. Here II
the dense forest find collection OF In
dian wigwams. With belts of .wampuI
| the men elazily sit on the skins Of deer
| smoking their feathered calumets, or, driv
en- forth by hunger, I track their mecca
aims far away as they make the forest
echoes crazy with their wild halloo or fish
in the waters of the still lake. Now tribes
challenge and council fires blaze, and wal
whoops ring, and chiefs lift the toma
hawks for battle. After awhile wagons
from the Atlantic coast come to those
forests. By day trees are felled, and by
night bonfres keep off the wolves. Los
cabins rise, and the great trees begin te
throw their branches in the path OF tn:
conouering white man. Farms are cleared
St1naps. the monuments of slain forests
crumble and are burned. Villages appear
with smiths at the bellows, niasons on the
wall. carpenters on the housetop. Churches
rise in honor of the Great Spirit whom
the red men ignorantly worship. Steamers
on the lake convey merchandise to he,
wharf and carry east the uncounted bush
Els that have come to the market. Bring
hither wreaths of wheat and crowns OIL
rye. and let the mills and the machinery
OF barn and fed unite their voices to Gel
citrate the triumph, for the wilderness
hath retrcated and the plow hath con