The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-08-20


party, yet Christ taking the first step.
Do not, therefore, take a knotty and twist
ed scourge and go after your enemy; but
go up into the mount where the Radiant
One suffered for his enemies, and twist off
an olive branch, and, without stripping
away any of the soft, tender, COOL beauti-
| full leaves, put on your enemy that Gospel
switch. 1t will not hurt him, and it will
save you. Oh, for million olive branches
from the Mount of God, that we might
build them into an arbor for our souls. Go
up into the mount and pluck olive branch
es and make booths.
My text in the next place suggests that
| in this arbor for our soul on the way to-
ward glory we ought to have a good many
| pine branches. Now, pine, you know, is
healthful, aromatic and an evergreen. 1t
has often been the case that invalids have
been sent into the regions where the pine
| grows and they have come back thor
| oughly well. 1t is frequent prescription
on the part of physicians to say go for a
few weeks amid the pines, and you will be
better" Now, we want in this Gospel
arbor pine branches. We want something
that means health, aroma and evergreen.
| This is a very healthy religion. | have
known an old Christian with no capital of
| physical health and carrying about him
| all the respectable diseases that one can
| carry, and yet kept alive by nothing at all
| but his religion. He did not eat enough to
| sustain a child. He lived on beverage of
hosannas. He lived high, because every
| day he dined with the King. I could not
| viii
out that he lived in an arbor of pine
branches - Gospel pine branches. Oh,
| it is a healthy religion. 1t is healthy for
the head. 1t is healthy for the heart. 1t
| is healthy for the lungs. 1t is healthy for
| the liver. 1t is healthy for the whole man.
l mean if we get enough of it. Now, there
are some people who get just enough re-
Hgion to make them sick or to bother them;
but | mean full inhalation-a full draught
from the breath of the pine branches in
Gods mount. This is living, bounding,
exu5erant, undying immortal health.
But this Gospel is evergreen. | remark
still further, what does the pine forest care
for the snow on its brow? 1t merely con-
siders it crown of glory. You can not
freeze out the pine forest, and this grace
of God is just as good in the winter of
trouble as it is in the summer of prosper
ity. 1t is the religion you want-not
dependent upon weather or upon change.
There are some of you who feel that you
have had more than your share of trouble.
All the troubles seemed to come together
in your life, and you may be as bad off as
Muckelbacket, the fisherman who was
chided for mending his boat on the same
day that his boy was buried. They said:
ut is indecent for you to be working at
your boat when your child was just buried
this afternoon" And he looked up in the
mans face and said: "What am l to do?
Shall | allow the five to starve because
one of them is drowned? 1t is well enough
for you gentles, who can sit in your
houses with your handkerchiefs at your
eyes, to talk that way when you have
grief, but the like of US maun to our
work though our heart beat like this
hammer" Oh, yes. Your bereave-
ments and your poverties and
your distresses may all have come at once.
But want to tell you of Gospel that is
full of life, full of comfort, full of peace.
You have tried every thing else; you have
tried the world, you have tried human
sympathy, come now and try Holy Cos
pei. | have read of Cardinal who was
very fond of money, and during his sick
ness he used to ask that basin of gold be
brought to him, and then he would thrust
his equity hands in the gold and amuse
himself, and cool his hands by turning
over the gold in the basin. What vain
attempt There is nothing in all the sill
yer and the gold and the honors and the
emoluments of this world, however briskly
you may turn them over, to soothe a per-
turbed spirit. You can not be consoled in
that way. You want something mightier
than the worlds gains to appease your
sorrow. Come and get this consolation.
A young Prince refused to play with any
but Kings, and wish you would this day
throw aside all other solaces and try this
regal satisfaction. Come, my friends and
neighbors, and try a religion which is as
good in the winter of trouble as it is in the
summer of prosperity. 1t is glorious and
ever green. Go into the Mount of God, and
fetch pine branches and make booths.
1.-THE hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the Heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets"
Ny text suggests still further that this
arbor of Christian grace ought to have in
it good many palm branches. You know
that is favorite tree at the East. The
ancients used to make it into three hum
dred and sixty uses. The fruit is con-
served. The sap becomes beverage The
stones are ground up as food for camels
The base of the leaves is twisted into rope
Baskets and mats are made out of it, and
from the root to the tip-top of the palm it
is all usefulness. 1t grows eighty five feet
in height, is columuar, its fringed leaves
sometimes four or five yards long, and the
ancients used to carry it in professions as
symbol of victory. Oh for more palm
branches in our Gospel arbor! Usefulness
and victory! Head, heart, tongue, pen,
money, social position-all employed for
God. Counsel is often given on worldly
matters about investments - that YOU
must not put all the eggs in one basket;
but in this matter of religion 1 wish that
we might give all to God and get in our
selves.
"Oh," says some man, ''my business is
to sell silks and calicoeS0 Than call s;l,,s