The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-12-03

to answer, and if gave you an oppoftuni-
ty in the midst of this assemblage, you
would speak out and say in regard to the
discoveries you have made of the mercy,
and the grace, and the goodness of God:
"The half-the half was not told meW
Well, we hear great deal about the good
time that is coming to this world, when it
is to be girded with salvation. Holiness
on the bells of the horses. The lions name
patted by the hand of a babe.
Ships of Tarshish bringing cargoes
for Jesus, and the hard, dry, barren,
winter bleached, storm scarred, thunder
split rock, breaking into floods OF
bright wa ter. Deserts into which drcme-
daries thrust their nostrils, because they
were Mfraid of the simoo IN; deserts bl oom-
ing into carnation roses and silver tipped
lilies. 1t is the old story. Everybody tells
it. Isaiah told it, John told it, Paul told
| it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it, Calvin
told it, John Milton told it, everybody tells
| it; and yet-and yet when the midnight
shall fly the hills, and Christ shall marshal
his great army, and China, flashing her
idols into the dust, shall hear the voice of
God and wheel into line; and India, de-
stroying her juggernaut and snatching up
her little children from the Ganges, shall
hear the voice of God and wheel into line;
and vine-covered Italy and wheat
crowned Russia, and all the nations of
the earth, shall hear the voice OF
God and fall into line; then the Church,
which has been toiling and strug-
Cling through the centuries, rebed and
| garlanded like a bride adorned for her
husband, shall put aside her veil and look
up into the face of her Lord and King and
| say: s'The half-the half was not told
mel"
| Well, there is coming greater surprise
| to every Christian-a greater surprise chan
| anything have predicted. Heaven is an
old story. Everybody talks about it.
There is hardly hymn in the hymn book
that does not refer to it. Children read
| about it in their Sabbath-school book.
| Aged men put on their spectacles to study
| it. We say it is a harbor from the storm.
We call it our home. We say it is the
| house of many mansions. We weave TO-
| gether all sweet, beautiful, delicate, e1
| hilarant words; we weave them into let
tiers, and then we spell it out in rose and
lily and amaranth. And yet that place
intelligent Christian Like the Queen Of
Sheha, the report has come to US from tie
| far country, and many of us have started
| 1t is desert march, but we urge on the
camels. What though our feet be blistered
with the way? We are fastening to the
palace. We take all our loves and hopes
and Christian ambitions, as frankincense
and myrrh and cassia, to the great King.
We must not rest. We must not halt. The
night is coming on, and it is not safe out
here in the desert. Urge on the camels.
| l see the domes against the sky, and the
houses of Lebanon, and the temples, and
the gardens. See the fountains dance in
the sun, and the gates flash as they open
to let in the poor pilgrims. Send
the word up to the palace that we are
coming and that we are weary of the
march of the desert. The King will come
out and say: "Welcome to the palace;
battle in these waters, recline on these
banks. Take this cinnamon and franklin
cense and myrrh, and put it upon censor
and swing it before the altar" And yet,
my friends, when Heaven bursts upon us
it will be a greater surprise than that-Je-
sus on the throne and we made like him
All our Christian friends surrounding us
in glory! All our sorrows and tears and
sins gone by forever! The thousands OF
thousands, the one hundred and forty and
four thousand, the great multitudes that
no man can number. will cry world with
out end: 'The half-the half was not told