St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-03-15
A GRATEFUL SPIRIT.
Should Be Cultivated by One and
All, Says DR.. Talmaee.

Should Be Cultivated by One and
All, Says DR.. Talmaee.
We should Rehearse All Our Bless
ing. and Give Praise to Goa
for Them-The Gospel q
Good Morals.
downright. 1909. by Louis Klopsch. N IL
Tn this discourse DR.. Tamage calls
attention to causes of Thanksgiving
that are seldom recognized ana SHOWS
how to cultivate cheerful spirit; text
Psalms 33:2: 'Sing unto Him Win
psaltery and an Instrument OF D
strings"
A musician as well as poet and con-
queror and king was David, the autnor
of NV text. He first composed the sa-
cred rhythm and then played II upon .
harp, striking and plucking the Strings
with his fingers and thumbs. Inc
harp is the Oldest of musical lnstru-
ments. Jubal invented it, and ne was
the seventh descendant from Adam.
Its music was suggested by the twang
of the bowstring. Homer refers 10 the
harp in the "Iliad." 1t is the most con
secrated of all instruments. The nute
is more mellow. the bugle more mar
tial. the cornet more incisive, the trun-
pet more resonant, the organ more
mighty, but the harp has tenderness
and sweetness belonging to no o.her
instrument that know OF. 1t enters
| into the richest symbolism OF the Holy
Scriptures. The captives in their sac
ness chung their harps upon the VII
lows" The raptures Of Heaven are
| represented under the figure OF ''harp-
ers harping on their harps." We learn
from coins and medals that in the mac
cabean age the harp had only three
strings. In other ages it had eight
strings. David's harp had ten strings
and when his great soul was aflre Win
the theme his sympathetic voice. &C.
companied by exquisite vibration OF
the chords, must have been overpower-
ing.
With as many things to complain
about as any man ever had DaV1d
wrote more anthems than any other
man ever wrote. He puts even the
frosts and hailstorms and tempests
and creeping things and flying fowl
and the mountains and the hills and
day and night into chorus. Absa-
Ions plotting and Ahithophel's treach-
ery and hosts of antagonists and sleep
less nights and running sore could
not hush his psalmody. Indeed, the
more his troubles the mightier his sa-
cred poems. The words praise and
"song" are SO often repeated in his
psalms that one would think the type
settlers case containing the letters
with. which these words are spelleo
would be exhausted.
In nv text David calls upon the peo-
pie to praise the Lord with an instru-
ment of ten strings, like that which he
was accustomed to finger. The simple
fact is that the most of us. it we praise
the Lord at all, play upon one string
or two strings or three strings when
we ought to take harp fully chordeo
! and with glad fingers sweep all the
strings. Instead of being grateful fol
. here and there q blessing We harper
!. to think of, we ought to rehearse al
our blessings so far as We can recall
!. them and obey the injunction OF my
. text to sing unto Him with an instru
nent of ten strings.
Have YOU ever thanked God for de
liphtsome food? What vast multitude
are a-hungered from day to day or ar'
obliged to take food not toothsom'
or pleasant to the taste! What mil
lions are in struggle for bread! A con
federate soldier went to the front, ans
his family were on the verge Of star
: walton, but they were kept up by thu
faith of child of that household, who
4 noticing that some supply was sure t
r come, exclaimed: "Mother. I thin]
!. God hears when we scrape the bottom
q of the barrel"
Have you appreciated the fact tina
= on most of your tables are luxurie
r that do not come to all? Have you real
: lied what varieties of flavor ofte,
t touch your tongue and how the sac
charm and the acid have been afforde
y your palate? What fruits, what nut:
y what meats regale your appetite, Will
8 many would be glad to get the crust
n and rinds and Feelings that fall fro1
u your table. For the fine fiavors an
i the luxurious viands you have enjoye
for lifetime perhaps you have neve
expressed to God word of thanksgi'
ing. That is one of the ten strings tina
| YOU ought to have thrummed in prais
to God, but you have never.yet put 1t
] oibration.
Have you thanked God for eyesigf
as originally given to you or. after
( was dimmed by age, for the glass tbs
brought the page of the book with
the compass of the vision? Have 20
realized the privation those suffer
whom the day is as black as the nigl
and who never see the face OF father {
mother or wife or child or frienc
Through what painful surgery man
Ihave gone to get one glimpse of IL
light! The eyes SO delicate and bea'
Itiful and useful that one of them
linvaluable! And most of us have tv
of these wonders of Divine mechanism
The man of millions of dollars who r
Gently went blind from atrophy of o
tic nerve would have been willing
give all his millions and become d;
laborer if he could have kept of Il
blindness that gradually crept over b
vision.
You may have noticed how Christ
sympathies were stirred for the bin
Ophthalmia has always been prevale
IN Palestine. the custom of sleeping
the housetops, exposed to the dew a.