St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-16


!. !: ! !:
"A c4A rious Gospel Of
LHn<sRllE ykGA Christ. He was ar
1@I. Gasta5nl enthusiastic, per.
SSAihK ae31 lIAN8 sistent, proficient
ytHIi El|ktN|1 consistent and in
,Yl ItIlRV 1Nt tensely sincere ex-
~ - ponent and pro-
- H. -. mulgator OF the
-R12S faith which haG
been committed I'm.
to him. Like the
energetic drummer who has superior
and greatly-needed article which he is
placing on the market, and which he
loses no opportunity of offering to the
tradesmen whom he is able to reach
SO Paul, conscious of the power OF his
message, and burdened with sense OF
the need everywhere for that message
lost no opportunity of preaching the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was instant
in season and out of season." 1t made
no difference to Paul where circum-
stance found him, his supreme purpose
was to tell the story of Christ. Wheth-
err in the synagogue or by the wayside,
whether on shipboard or on journey by
land, whether surrounded by the super
stitious ignorance of Asia Minor or the
culture and wisdom of the Greeks,
whether standing in the presence OF
kings and rulers or sitting on the river
bank with few women as his auditors,
whether in prison chained to his Ro-
man guard or dwelling in his own pri-
vate house, whether working hard day
after day at his trade OF tent making or
resting on the Sabbath day, he never
failed to count the situation in which
he found himself as an opportunity for
the preaching of the Gospel. 1t had
come to be to him 'the glorious Gospel
of Christ
DUT it had not always been such. He
- used to call it heresy, and took de-
light In witnessing the Imprisonment
and death of the disciples OF the de-
spised Gospel. While under the power
of the god Of this world" his mind was
darkened so that he was blind to the
beauties and glories of the Gospel, but
when the light of that Gospel had shat
tered the bars Of his will and flooded
his soul he was crushed to the ground
by a sense of his awful mistake. Surely
it was a glorious Gospel which could
take him, the "chiefest Of sinners" and
transform him into the humblest OF
saints, which could turn the bitterest
foe into the most loyal disciple, which
could mould proud, exclusive, bigoted
Pharisee into the great apostle to the
Gentiles. But this Is what the Christ OF
the Gospel which he preached had done
for him, and it was only part OF the story.
He had seen multitudes at the thriving,
busy city Of Antioch changed from
money-getting, pleasure-loying people
to generous-hearted, undetermined
Christians, who delighted to send re-
lief to the poor Jews at Jerusalem and
gave gladly and willingly their beloved
Paul and Barnabas to the heather
world. He had seen idol-worshiping
people, stepped in all the evil and Ii
centiousness Of their pagan religion,
freed from their bondage through Christ
and living pure, holy, self-sacrifcing
lives. He had seen men and women
snatched from the maelstrOm of vice
which surged through the city of Cor
NTH and made clean in their lives and
filled with zeal for God. He had seen
the wicked and cruel jailer at Philippi
into an humble, repentant
and tender man. And at Ephesus, prob
ably at the time he wrote his letters to
the Corinthians, he was witnessing the
power of the glorious Gospel, as the
people who had accepted the truth of the
Christ brought their books of black art
and sorcery and burned them in the
public square. It was the Glorious Cos
pei Of Christ, indeed Both from his own
personal experience, and what he had
seen wrought in the lives Of others, he
knew that the tidings of the Christ were
the most glorious tidings which the
world had ever heard. And it is still the
glorious Gospel.
IT is the glorious Gospel because of
l its origin. It bears the stamp of
Heaven. The love and mercy and justice
of God can be traced all through it. And
herein is the difference between the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ and the great
world religions. The latter are the in
ventions OF men; the former is the mar
velous working out OF Gods plans made
before the foundation OF the world. Man
in the imaginations of his own heart
can devise systems of religion, but in
variably man is left to the hopeless task
of attaining by his own efforts the higher
and better life of the hereafter. But the
Gospel of Christ is from above. 1t does
not set man to hopeless task, but in
vites him to the acceptance of saliva
ton and righteousness which are by
faith. Water will not rise higher than
it's source, and man cannot push himself
above his own level. But God can reach
down and lift man up until he stands
in His very presence and joins his song
With that of the angels over the glori-
Gus salvation in Christ Jesus. The tab
,rnacle was constructed after pattern
delivered to Moses by God, and in it's
many details iypified the Christ and
gave to the Jewish nation and the world
! foregleam of the Messiah and Re-
leemer. 1t was SO with the Temple
which Solomon built. The plans were
delivered to David by God and then
yiven in turn to Solomon to execute
The Temple, the plan of which was pre-
pared in Heaven, again typified the
Christ who was to come. The prophets
~