The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-10-29

by any keen saber or sarcasm, by any
glittering lauces of rhetoric, by any sap-
ping and mining of profound disquisition,
by any gunpowdery explosions of indig-
nation, by sharp shootings of wit, by how
itzers of mental strength, made to swing
shell Ave miles, by cavalry horses gor-
geously caparisoned paving the air. In
vain all the attempts on the part Of these
ecclesiastical foot soldiers, light horsemen
and grenadiers.
My friends, I propose this morning q
different style of tactics. Let each one
go to the forest of Gods promise and in :
vitation and hew down a branch, and put
it on his shoulder, and let US all come
around these obstinate iniquities, and
then, with this pile, kindled by the fires
OF holy zoal and the flames Of a con
secrated life, we will burn them out.
What steel can not do, fire may. And /,
4his morning, announce myself in favor
any plan OF religious attack that sue
ceeds-any plan of religious attack, how
ever radical, however odd, however I'M
popular, however hostile to all the conven =
tionalities of Church and State. II one
style of prayer does not do the work, let
US try another style. II the church music
of to-day does not get the victory, then
let US make the assault with back woods
chorus. If q prayer meeting at 1880 in
the evening does not succeed, let US have
one as early in the morning as when the
angel found wrestling Jacob too much for
him. II a sermon with the three author
lied heads does not do the work, then let
let us have sermon with twenty heads,
or no head at all. We want more heart in
our song, more heart in our aims giving,
more heart in our prayers, more heart in
our preaching. Oh for less of Abimel ech's
sword and more of Abimelech's
contiagration! l have often heard
There is fountain filed with blood,
sung artistically by four birds perched on
their Sunday roost in the gallery, until
thought of Jenny Lind, and Nilsson, and
Sontag, and all the other warblers; but
there came not one tear to my
eye, nor one master emotion to my
heart. But one night went down to the
African Methodist Westinghouse in
Philadelphia, and at the close of the
service black woman in the midst of the
audience began to sing that hymn, aud
all the audience joined in, and we were
floated some three or four miles nearer
Heaven than 1 have ever been since. I
saw with my own eyes shat fountain
filed with blood"-red, agonizing, sacri-
fetal, redemptive, and heard the Grim
SON splash of the wave as we all went
down under it.
For sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Oh, nv friends, the gospel is not a syl-
logism; it is not chemistry; it is not po-
lemics, or the science of squabble. 1t is
blood-red fact; It is warm hearted invita-
tion; it is leaping, bounding, flying good
news; it is effiorescent with all light; it is
rubescent with NIL glow; it is arborescant
with all sweet shade. have seen the sun
rise on Mount Washin gton and from the
Tip-top House, but there was no beauty
in that compared with the day spring on
high when Christ gives light to a soul. /
have heard Parepa sing, but there was no
music in that compared with the voice OF
Christ when he said: ''Thy sins are for
given; go in peace" Good newsl Let
every one cut down a branch of this tres
of lie and wave 1t. Let him throw 1t
down and kindle it. Let all the way from
Mount Ealmon to Shechem be filled with
the tossing Joy.
Still further, l learn from this subject
the power of example. If Abimelech had
sat down on tho grass and told his men to
go and get the boughs, and go out to the
battle, they would never have gone at all,
or If they had, it would have been without
aYairit of off L,.L
Abimelech goes with his own axe and
hews down a branch, and with Abime-
lech's arm puts it On Abimelech's shoulder
and marches on, then my text says, all
the people did the same. How natural
that was. What made GaribaIdi and
Stonewall jackson the most magnetic
commanders of this century? Thew
always rode ahead. Oh, the overcoming
power of examplel Here is father on the
wrong road: all his boys go on the wrong
road. Here is a father who enlists for
Christ; his children enlist. saw in some
OF the picture galleries of Europe that be-
fore many of the great works of the mas
ters-the old masters-there would be
sometimes four or five artists taking cop
les OF the pictures. These copies thew
were going to carry with them, perhaps to
distant lands, and have thought that
your life and character are masterpiece,
and it is being copied, and long after you
are gone it will bloom or blast In the
homes of those who knew you, and be Cor
gon or Madonna. Look out what you say.
Look out what you do. Eternity viii hear
the echo. The best sermon ever preached
is holy life. The best music ever chant
ed is consistent walk. II you want 9TH
ers to serve God, serve him yourself.
l saw near the beach wrecker's ma
chine. Il was cylinder with some holes
at the side, made for the thrusting in of
some long poles with strong leverage; and
when there is a vessel in trouble or going
to pieces out in the offing, the wreckers
shoot rope out to the suffering men.
They grasp 1t, and the wreckers turn the
cylinder, and those who are shipwrecked
are saved. So. at your feet to day there
is an influence with tremendous lever
age. The rope attached to it swings far
out into the billowy future. Your chill
dren, your children's children, and all the
generations that are to follow, will grip
that influence and feel the long-rea ching
pull long after the figures on your tomb
stone are so near worn out that the visitor