St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-08-27

80 :; :: ' u: -. 's en-: :.' =; !:
call it. "The vaca-
ton Psalm" The
vacation is the
time for rest and
meditation. The time when we love
to get on into the heart Of Nature and
listen to the harmony Of her manifold
voices, to drink in the thousand and
one beauties Of the vaulted heavens
and the verdant earth, to feel the gem
tie influences stealing in upon our
souls as fair Nature comes and cheer.
fully and faithfully ministers to our
needs and smiles with indulgent grace
upon our whims and exactions. How
patient she is as we take all she has
to give us and never so much as voice
q thank you" with life or lips. AZ
we enjoy Gods Nature. our hearts
ought to turn in grateful thought to
Natures God. The words of our
mouth should speak some MESSAGE
back to Nature and to God; our hearts
should find their meditation in chan.
nels that lead Godward and that will
prove acceptable to Him. Nature is
not of herself sufhcient teacher and
revealer Of God. She bears her faith
ful testimony to the reality and the
personality Of God, but in the fullest
sense Of the word she Is not revealer
OF Him. She gives lavish evidence that
there is God. The heavens declare
His glory and the armament showeth
His handiwork. The voice of Nature
everywhere whispers of q great and
all-powerful and all-wise Creator and
ruler. The message has gone out into
all the earth, so that we find the con-
seriousness of a Supreme Being to
prevail among the most benighted peo-
pies. But this evidence and testimony
of Nature are not sufficient revelation
of God. II they were, why should not
the untutored savage, who has Nature
as a teacher, even as those of more
enlightened conditions. know as much
of God as the latter?
He Psalm before US places Nature
i in her right relations to God and
man. The full, lofty. graceful lines
OF its opening verses, with their po-
etc figure of the splendid sun riding
through the heavens in strength and
majesty and beauty, even as the care
fully-groomed bridegroom cometh
forth to seek his bride and rejoiceth
as he goes with strong, stately, grace
full tread tosher abode, give US q
rare picture Of Nature at her best, and
speak to us Of Gods glory. Of His
handiwork, of His wisdom and power.
But it does not stop there. 1t goes
on from the visible evidence OF God
to the revelation of God. The trouble
with so many people is that they never
get beyond the sixth verse of this
Psalm They see God In His created
universe, but they refuse to hear Him
out of His written Word They love
to walk abroad at night and trace the
stars in their course, but they refuse
to walk with the Psalmist as, he
traces the evidences Of God in His
Word. But It II not suffcient that
you should rejoice in Nature and Ma
lures God; your soul must receive His
revelation. and revelation brings OBJ
legation. The three divisions Of this
Psalm cover the ground Of. the souls
need. The evidence. Of God in Nature,
verses l to 6; the revelation OF
God in His Word, verses Z to IL,
and the obligation Of man to God,
verses IL to IA. This, then, is the
ideal Vacation Psalm. It lures on
into the heart of Nature and speaks
OF God there. 1t holds up the Word
Of God as perfect and sure, as RICH.
and pure, as clean and holy and true,
and then speaks of its converting pow
er, of it's gift Of wisdom, OF its fill
ing the heart with rejoicing and the
eve with a new and glorious light,
If its perpetuity, OF Its value above
gold and its sweetness above honey,
Of its. faithfulness in guarding from
harm and danger, and Of the great re.
ward which is to be realized from ODE
dience Yielded thereto. The Vacation
Psalm. Let us not be content with
the experience Of its opening verses,
Int may we get into deeper touch with
God Take the whole Psalm into the
woods and get its full message
s.ass,,ssv,sssssass. .s - sssstissazrs re- = re
rHic thought OF law and order runs
through the whole Psalm. Inc
law enyerhing nature and the law gov
erninr man. Nature obedient 70 the
nivine will. ana graceful and beautiful
harmony prevailing between the Cod
head And His created worlds. Man
eiyen the Divine law and revelation
which toeobey would produce mar.
monvythat would all earth with peace
an. . ioy and prosperity Of millennial
. ~. and Heaven with the music
- the glad angelic hosts, but man vlo-
l.tine that law, and despising that rev.
s1atiok As We walk abroad At nlgn.
and lilemppreciatiye gaze to the star-
enabled heavens, we are conscious OF
,sw which keeps them faithfully IN
..asr Mace and steadily upon tneir
Course Day after day we see the giori-
s,,s king Of the day enter the eastern
o 80. ~ the morning and ride IN spien-
a. sor through the heavens and then re-
.;,a ma iestically behind the rampai !.
I,. .na vestern horizon, while from its
S :. tie, there stream forth the golo
80 crimson signals Of the approacninss
..I and realize that that splenolo
nisl.. ahed,ently travelling the pathway
sun y s.w snring follows unfail-