The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-10-15

others. And I can not imagine any thing
more distressful for man who has no love
for pictures than to be shut up in the
Luxembourg gallery in Paris. Yes, can
| thinR of one thing worse than that, and
that will be for a man to enter Heaven
| without any taste for it. I sometimes
hear people talk as though all man had
to do was just to leave this world and go
into Heaven and sit down to its enjoy
ments. If a man can not stand Christian
| society here for one day, how would he
stand a million ages of it? 1 see an unre-
| generate soul entering Heaven. 1t enters
Heaven, looks around, and sees God there,
and angels there, and hears the cry:
"Holy, holy;" and the unregenerate soul
says: "This is no place for me-" and he
flies to the battlements, and he cries:
u can stand it here no longer" and he
leaps off into outer darkness. In other
words, the worst hell for a man would be
| Heaven, If he has no qualifications, no
/ preparations, for it. But Christ comes to
| take the discord out of our soul and string
1t with Heavenly attuning. He comes
to take out that from US which makes US
unlike Heaven, and substitute that which
assimilates US. Ten thousand times the
gate of Heaven has swung back and forth,
but it never swings back and forth save
| as Christ opens it, aud you will go in
| through Him or not at all. Christ wants
you there. How do I know it? Supposed
man lost diamond. and he looked for it
eight or ten days, would you not conclude
| from the fact that he looked for it so long
that he wanted the diamond? And when
find Christ seeking for your soul, seek
| ing for it ever since it has been a soul,
seeking for it by day and by night, seek
| Ing for it through heat and through cold,
seeking for it with tears in His eyes and
| blood upon His brow and scourges on His
back aud world of agony in His heart,
| know that it is because He wants to find
| you. Oh, He has prepared glorious
Heaven for you! It is all ready. Not
merely throne, but steps by which to
mount it. Nor only harp, but song to
| play on it: not only a banner procession,
but victory which it is to celebrate
God wants no vacant chairs at that
| banquet. He does not want those who
stand around Him in glory to wonder why
| you have not been solicited. He does not
want the book Of life to thunder shut till
your name is in it. What do 1 breathe?
1t is the fragrance of Him whose gar
ments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and
cassia, out of the ivory palaces What
do hear! 1t is the footstep of Him who
comes with worn sandal in the journey
from Bethlehem to Nazareth, and from
| Nazareth to Jerusalem, and from Jeru-
salem to Golgotha, and from Golgotha to
glory, and from glory here, seeking that
which is lost Oh, jostle Him not from
thy doorstep. Do not drive this Christ
away, as though He were an unworthy
beggar soliciting your aims. Hear His
voice. Trust His sacrifices. Respond to
| His love. Take His Heaven. Do you not
know, o mani o woman that you are the
lost one spoken of in my text? :" The Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lest" You may hide away
from Him, but there are some things
which will find you, whether Christ by
His grace finds you or not Trouble will
find you. Temptation will find you.
Sickness will find you. Death will find
you. Judgment will find you. Eternity
will find you. s
Soon you will be gone from all thest
scenes, and if a thou sand men should come
N"' "AeAA AseAAsSA 4io3 et1Iu boTCHoSs ana CG
Bernard dogs used to hunting up missing
travellers, and search for your soul YOU
could not be found by them. The grave
will have your body. Your heirs will have
your estate. Eternity will have yoursoul.
In the flash of a second your last oppor-
tunlty for Heaven may go out. Postpone
this question of the soul and you are post
poning getting into the last life-boat that
shall put out from the wreck for the beach
ere the hulk lurch over and go down. God
forbid that any of you should at the last
have the dismay of the woman of whom |
was reading. One night she could net
sleep because of her souls wandering FROM
Christ. She got up and wrotein her diary:
Zone year from now viii attend to the
matters of my soul.n She retired, but she
could not sleep. So she arose again and
wrote better promise in her diary: sOne
month from now I will attend to the mat
tiers of my SOUL" She retired again but
found no sleep, and arose again and wrote:
Next week will attend to the matters of
my SOUL" Then she slept soundly. The
next day she went into scenes of gayety.
The following day she was sick, and the
middle of next week she died. DeIirium
lifted from her mind just long enough for
her to say =, ST am week too late: / am
+ ost.p Oh, TO be a year too late, or
month too late, or an hour too lata--aye,
to be a second too late, is to be forever too
-
NH