St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-04-16

H$ESSHNSWaYEg. Gus and mighty
= : !: !: 3 ]
X work of God
~ through Christ
NIX Jesus, but the con-
49, dition and theprivi-
IT,! leges of the re-
= deemed sinner in
Christ Jesus are
even more marvel
vus' Inc unsearchable riches Of Christ"
ueiong to His followers, and are
Freely and fully placed at their dis
posal. Paul says: "All things are
yours" And then he goes on to emu
merate what those "all things" include.
:, raui was theirs to teach them the full
s.oerty In Christ Jesus. Apollos was
'neirs TO stir and animate them with his
eioquence Peter was theirs to nerve
ana nre them with his courage. In fact
every author was theirs to impart to them
some treasure of the Divine Kingdom.
Inc world was theirs to win and possess
LOT Christ. This life was theirs in all of
lts Iullness to live for Christ. Things
present and things to come were all to
Oe counted theirs because this present
state and the glory OF the next we're ali
planned OF God for the good of His saints,
and the salvation of the world. And
even death itself, which seems to come
like tyrant-death is theirs in Christ,
their minister to lead to higher life.
Great possessions, surely. Carnegie,
Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts, the Roths
childs, and others Of the world rich can
count their possessions in the hundreds
OF millions OF shining yellow gold dol
lars, and the burdens Of the rich in car
Ing for and keeping and handling these
vast riches are heavy upon them, but
the possessions of the Christian are in
fnitely greater. for ''all things" are his.
II 1t is true, as it certainly is, let US
prayerfully and earnestly seek to learn
In what way it is true, and what it should
mean to the Christian because it is true.
EIRST OF all we want to remind you
/ that the Christian cannot boast
that 1t is by his own thrift and en-
ergy and astuteness that he becomes
possessed of "all things" Carnegie
can point you back to time in his
career when he did not have dollar
which he could call his own. and then
he can lead you step by step from
spool boy in the factory through the
successive stages of engineer in the
factory, messenger boy, telegraph OPP
orator, railroad man, stakeholder In
the first sleeping car company, iron
master and then retired capitalist with
q gigantic steel corporation as mon
ument to his great energies and abiii-
ties. He can remind you of all this,
and proudly say: "See the vast prop
critics, and wealth which have by my
own energies. and thrift, and keen
financial and business foresight. ac-
CURED" But the Christian cannot
make any such claim as he points to
the declaration O; Scripture that "all
things" are his. His great possessions
are inherited. He has rich Father,
who bequeaths through the only begot-
ten Son to His adopted sons His pos
sessions. A rich Heavenly Father.
Yea, rich. for all things belong to Him.
The psalmist sings:
.The earth is the Lords and the full
ness thereof:
The world. they that dwell therein"
And Paul quotes that passage In this
very letter to the Corinthians from
which our text Is taken. A rich Heav-
emily Father. who has created all
things, and who, despite the seeming
contradiction of the claim in the world
to-day, possesses all things. And be-
cause the Heavenly Father possesses
all things, His true children have a
right to claim heirship, and share in
those riches. The daughter of Andrew
Carnegie, although she cannot claim
that q single dollar Of her fathers vast
wealth was acquired by any effort or
help OF her own, has right to claim a
share In those riches. because she is
his daughter. She has a right to an
as his child and the courts
of the world would sustain her claim.
And it is SO with the Christian. "All
things are his because they belong to
the Father.
A MOTHER thing to remember in
~ connection with this inheritance is
that God does not carelessly turn over
IN His children the free and unre-
strained possession Of "all things"
He gives to His children Of things
and things spiritual, as fully
and freely as is for their good. and
as will supply their need. But He
nAyer divides the patrimony and lets
the willful, and pleasure-seeking son
ro off into the far country to spend 1t
n riotous living. The son of many
rich father Is cursed instead of
Messed by the wealth which is placed
q his hands. But the "all things" Of
Odd are not thus given to the Chris
tian to be misused and abused. The
Esther maintains the active admins
tration of His possessions. but never
= demand is made on Him in faith
and the Holy Ghost by His children.
MT that it is honored. True it is that
there are those who are SO willful and
oanshty and selfish, that they take
,,casession Of this worlds goods, of
abilities and talents. and pervert them
to their own selfish uses and the graf
,ncation of their own pleasures. They
,..ve God out Of the reckoning and
esi, IA recognize his claims upon them
snd npon the things which they pos
csc ~. But because the Christian does
sn+ literally and actually possess all
- = t.