St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1910-01-15

IA &3esaz==zkze.I& Treachefy nad pFo
ken out in the dis
| ciple band. Judas had gone out bent
upon the malign purpose OF selling
the Lord. A mob was even now as
senbling to drag him to Judgment
and Calvary, and death. And it was
in conditions like these that the Mas
ter proclaimed his triumph!
And who was the conqueror? A
poor Galilean peasant, speaking
provincial accent, obscure and unin-
fuential, having no place to lay his
head! Let me say it again, he is
about to be betrayed, to be deserted,
to be put to the most contemptuous
and humiliating death! And yet this
man claims to be wearing the purple
of sovereignty, to be trailing mystic
clouds of glory even while he was
marching to the tomb! He had not
gone down before the world, he had
not shared it's tone, he had not been
| infected by it's contagion, he had not
bowed to it's compromises, he had not
been ensnared by its seductions, he
| had not sunk to it's degradations. He
had overcome the world" Let US
contemplate the prominent features
of the victory.
He had overcome the smiles of the
world. And that is ever the subtlest
and most paralyzing of all entice-
| ments. If we can make comparisons
between the different moments in
Christ life, one would say that the
peril was greater when they "took
than when "all men forsook him and
fed" Many man can keep his moral
| health in defeat who is overcome with
success. An illustration can be found
| on the public platform. Every pub
lie man knows that there is nothing
| SO insfdious as the snare of applause.
A man can walk the narrow way
when he is confronted by a hostile
audience, but he is In great jeopardy
when he is met by nothing but cheers.
| It is then he is liable to be carried
away" by the enthusiasm into grave
| imprudences. Ben Jonson used to say
| that "of all wild beasts, preserve me
lioAI IuC VI dll l6uiC
| beasts, flatterer." I suppose that
the eliminating point of tempta-
ton in the life of the apostle Paul
was not when he encountered the yio-
lence OF the mob at Lystra, but when
the people magnified his Importance
and declared that ''the gods are come
down" in the guise of men. Now, the
Lord met this seductive smile of the
world, and did not succumb to it. He
was not deluded into shining servi-
! tude.
Superior to Worlds Suspicious.
And Jesus had overcome the sus-
| picions of the world. There is some
thing very affrighting in the contem-
| plation of an untrue eye. Men are
frequently overcome by the malicious
the kind of TOOK" which was cease
| lessly fixed upon the Lord "And they
watched hint" 1t is the kind of sight
which misinterprets all it sees. It i'm
| putes ill motives and turns everything
! awry Before that kind of onslaught
many men succumb. They are driven
from the post of duty by malicious
tongues; they retire from the fight.
A man said in my hearing some little
| while ago that public life has become
| intolerable," and that he was deter
| mined to retire into privacy. And this
| man allowed the world to drive him
from the field of service. But that
| tho of In
would not turn back because men
| men fixed upon him an evil eye. He
would not turn aside from the ap-
pointed way because of the unfriendly
gaze of his enemies. He stood up,
and strobe on, unaffrighted and unde-
| tered by malice and frown.
And he overc2me the contempt of
| the world. Many man can bear a
wrong who cannot bear an insult. Our
Lord was "despised." "He hath a
devil and is mad" He was denied
/ common courtesy. He was refused
the ordinary amenities of hospitality.
| There was no water for him when he
| came in from the dusty way. There
was no kiss OF recognition and well
come. ''He was despised and rejected
of men," And yet he was not I'M
manned by the contempt. It did not
make him hard, unforgiving, resentful,
and revengeful. It did not turn him
sour. He was not overcome by the
| treatment. He went through it in
sovereign and unimpaired health and
holiness All these antagonisms, aris-
| ing from smiles. and frowns, and con-
tempts, and neglects, he faced and
conquered. Ard in what disposition
| ABIDING IN CHR|ST'S LOVE